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Henk Rogers on Telling the Real Story of Tetris

Henk Rogers says he began writing The Perfect Game after reading the Tetris movie script. His book expands beyond the film and preserves differences between his and Alexey Pajitnov’s recollections.
Opened Runtime2 min Written byDocumentaryTube Team
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Henk Rogers says he started writing The Perfect Game after reading the screenplay for the Tetris movie and deciding it included too much Hollywood invention. What began as a response to the film grew into a broader account of his life in games—and of how he encountered Tetris and helped bring it to a wider audience.

Why Rogers wrote The Perfect Game

In an interview with The Verge published April 20, 2025, Rogers said the movie script prompted him to “set the record straight.” The book was his way of telling the story from his perspective, rather than limiting it to the dramatic events depicted on screen. Read the interview with Andrew Webster at The Verge.

The book reaches beyond the movie

Rogers says the book expanded from the period covered by the film into a wider account of his career. It begins with his early life and moves from the Netherlands to New York City and then Hawaii. From there, it follows his move to Japan, where he founded Bullet-Proof Software and released the role-playing game The Black Onyx.

The interview places Rogers’s discovery of Tetris at CES in 1988, when he was looking for a game to publish. His account then takes in negotiations involving travel between the Soviet Union and Japan, Nintendo executives, and Soviet trade organizations. That is the rights story as Rogers recounts it in the interview, not a comprehensive independent reconstruction of every agreement and participant.

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How Rogers handles conflicting memories

Rogers says he wrote the book primarily from memory, while checking some details with Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov. Pajitnov read the manuscript and marked places where he remembered events differently. Rogers chose to retain those differences in the book rather than present the two men’s recollections as if they matched.

That approach matters when reading a personal account of negotiations and events from decades earlier: the book presents Rogers’s memory, alongside points where Pajitnov’s differs. Rogers acknowledged that his recollection was not perfect, saying, “There’s times when my memory is a little shady, but it was such an exciting time that I pretty much remember.”

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What Rogers thinks the Tetris movie got wrong

Rogers’s response to the film was not simply that it failed as a story. He described it as “emotionally correct” while recognizing that some events were not factually accurate. He recalled, “The first time I saw it I cried about things that never actually happened.”

That distinction captures the tension behind the book: the film could move him while also prompting him to record a different version of events. Rogers’s account does not make the movie a documentary; it offers his recollection and preserves some disagreements with Pajitnov.

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Where to find the full account

The Perfect Game is the book Rogers wrote in response to the screenplay and then broadened into a story of his life and work in games. The Verge interview describes its scope and Rogers’s reasons for writing it. Rogers’s official media page lists the interview as published April 20, 2025: Henk Rogers’s media page.

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