How the battle for Tetris became a Cold War thriller

Nikita Yefremov pulls shapes as game designer Alexey Pajitnov in Tetris, which makes its debut on Apple TV+ on March 31

Everything you need to know about Apple TV+’s Tetris is in a single scene, roughly 20 minutes in. Bullet-Proof Software boss and Tetris licence holder Henk Rogers (played by Taron Egerton) is welcomed into the “inner sanctum” of Nintendo Of America’s Seattle headquarters by then- NOA president Minoru Arakawa (Ken Yamamura) and VP and company lawyer Howard Lincoln (Ben Miles). Rogers is presented with an NDA, and told: “Only ten other people in the world have seen what you’re about to see, and to be honest we don’t trust you.” As a veil lifts, the garrulous salesman is for once struck dumb. Then we see what he’s reacting to, the camera slowly zooming in on Super Mario Land’s title screen. “It’s called,” Lincoln says, pausing for effect, “the Game Boy.”

As Robert Stein, Toby Jones is clearly enjoying himself. “Actors like Toby create an atmosphere on set,” Baird says. “When you have them, there’s an element of fun – even though they’re playing these cynical characters.”

Togo Igawa makes for a fine Hiroshi Yamauchi – the Nintendo president playtests Tetris on a PC using a Famicom controller, before offering his thoughts to Rogers in English. His verdict? “Not bad”

As Rogers tackles World 1-1 of the game that’s set to be bundled with the hardware, you can almost see the dollar signs in Egerton’s eyes. Pulling a floppy disk from his briefcase, he spends a few seconds tapping away at a nearby PC, at which point the camera returns to that iconic dot-matrix display, and Tetris promptly appears onscreen. Arakawa starts playing and is immediately impressed. Shifting into salesman mode, Rogers outlines the most important pitch of his life: “Gentlemen, if you want to sell a couple of hundred thousand Game Boys to little kids, package them with Mario. But if you want to sell millions of Game Boys, to absolutely everyone, young and old, around the world, package it with Tetris.” Arakawa pauses. “Can you get us the rights?”