Tetris The Games People Play

Brian "Box" Brown — 2016

It is, perhaps, the perfect video game. Simple yet addictive, Tetris delivers an irresistible, unending puzzle that has players hooked. Play it long enough and you’ll see those brightly colored geometric shapes everywhere. You’ll see them in your dreams. Alexey Pajitnov had big ideas about games. In 1984, he created Tetris in his spare time while developing software for the Soviet government. Once Tetris emerged from behind the Iron Curtain, it was an instant hit. Nintendo, Atari, Sega—game developers big and small all wanted Tetris. A bidding war was sparked, followed by clandestine trips to Moscow, backroom deals, innumerable miscommunications, and outright theft. In this graphic novel,New York Times–bestselling author Box Brown untangles this complex history and delves deep into the role games play in art, culture, and commerce. For the first time and in unparalleled detail, Tetris: The Games People Play tells the true story of the world’s most popular video game.

Reviews

Enrique Bernardou@ebernardou

Dec 20, 2023

Un recuento emocionante de lo que se puede considerar una de las odiseas más enquilombadas de la historia de los videojuegos. Litigios legales, incidentes internacionales, la KGB, Gorbachev... En fin, hay de todo. Super recomendado!

Lynette Pedersen@bonbonvivant

Feb 3, 2023

I'm on the fence about how much I liked this graphic novel. While it does provide a lot of information about the legal battles between electronic gaming giants like Atari and Nintendo over the game, I was hoping it would dig a little deeper into the psychology and the cultural phenomenon that is the game Tetris. It touched on the idea of gaming, but only gives you the tiniest taste of game theory before whisking you off and dumping you deep, deep into the well of rights battles. Also, I would really have loved to know more about Alexey's experiences since he is painted as kind of a happy-go-lucky, law abiding Soviet citizen, but then there is a hint of him having some animosity toward the state for taking all the money for the game near the end of the book. Ultimately, I think the book should have been titled _Tetris: Corporate Assholes vs. Soviet Bureaucracy_.

Maggie Gordon@maggieg

Aug 13, 2022

Tetris was an impulse grab at the library. I love playing the game (who doesn't?), but what exactly could a book tell me about the game? Turns out the history of Tetris is more complicated than I thought! While I am not sure the story needed a graphic format, I also don't think I would have read an entire book on the subject so... maybe it did need the graphic format to draw readers in. It gives some interesting (though unnecessary) history of Nintendo, and then it gets into the odd background of Tetris, made by a Russian mad and fought over for years by a variety of people around the world. Worth a read at the very least to improve upon one's useless trivia knowledge :)

b.andherbooks@bandherbooks

Oct 9, 2021

Who knew Tetris was created by a Russian scientist who barely received any payout for his creation until he immigrated to America in the late 90s? Who knew Tetris was involved in a series of legal battles between Russian bureaucrats and tech giants like Atari and Nintendo? I sure didn't! A highly enjoyable graphic novel detailing the creation and subsequent world domination of the highly addictive game we all know and love. A bonus are the highly readable and deceptively simple panels colored in only black, white, and yellow. Would make a great gift for a gaming geek.