The above is a 2004 BBC documentary on Tetris and the struggles by several to distribute the game. Long but very well done. Via Kottke: “Alexey Pazhitnov, a computer programmer from Moscow, created Tetris in 1985 but as the Soviet Union was Communist and all, the state owned the game and any rights to it. Who procured the rights from whom on the other side of the Iron Curtain became the basis of legal wranglings and lawsuits; the Atari/Nintendo battle over Tetris wasn’t settled until 1993.”
Where would Nintendo be if it weren’t for Tetris?
I saw something like this on G4's show Idols or something like that. It was really interesting when they went into the whole Tetris battle.
I think the real question is where would Tetris be without Nintendo? World domination.. that's where.
What a great documentary. There's a crazy quote in there from Nintendo exec Howard Lincoln: "The people at Mirrorsoft and Atari Games were simply incompetent… It was simply competent people taking advantage of some incompetent businessmen." Nintendo was hardcore!