The Story of Tetris

Gaming Historian · 4.9M views · 2018-02-02 · 59:31

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

Gaming Historian recounts how Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris in the Soviet Union and how a fight over publishing rights spanned the West, Mirrorsoft, Nintendo and the Cold War. It runs about an hour with chaptered parts.

On Hacker News

HN recommends it as an excellent documentary on Tetris and its tangled licensing history.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2022–2023

Topics

Game history & retro gaming Tech company stories & documentaries

What people said

jmyeet · 2023-08 · Recommendation
This is what capitalism is: intermediation, rent-seeking and creating a regulatory moat around a monopoly. Some time ago I watched this excellent video on the history of Tetris [1]. The only "innovation" of capitalism in this entire story are layers of licensing agreements. Again: intermediation, rent-seeking and regulatory moats (through intellectual property). A domain is nothing more than a digital record. The cost of providing that service is essentially zero. The cost should be pretty much zero. You'd have to do something about squatting but, hey, that's already an unaddressed problem. [1]: [VIDEO]
Read the original HN comment ↗

mafuyu · 2022-12 · Recommendation
The creator, Alexey Pajitnov, was eventually able to see some money from his creation after emigrating to the US and cofounding The Tetris Company. The Gaming Historian channel has a great documentary video on it here: [VIDEO]
Read the original HN comment ↗

joe__f · 2022-12 · Recommendation
[1] is an excellent and fascinating documentary on the history of Tetris, how it came about and the different business struggles in the West to license the game, which was challenging given that it originated in the USSR [1] [VIDEO]
Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Gaming Historian, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks

SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources