Tetris (2023) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Go

"Tetris" opens in the year 1988 in Las Vegas. Henk Rogers is trying to promote the game "Go" to a western audience but no one is interested in playing. The game "Go" involves two players (white and black) that play against each other on a 19x19 board.

The object of the game is to occupy more space than one's opponent by closing off certain areas. Henk describes the "Go" as "like chess but infinitely more complicated".

Answer: True

Henk finds his assistant at a booth displaying the game of "Tetris". She tells him to try the game and he immediately falls in love with it. Being a programmer himself, Henk asks the agents working the "Tetris" booth what programming language the game is written in and other details. Henk later tells his wife that "Tetris" is magical and the falling pieces are appearing in his dreams.

Answer: Iron Curtain

Although Alexey Pajitnov designed the game of "Tetris" in 1985, its rights and distribution were owned by the Soviet Union. Not wanting their intellectual property to leave the country, the government of the Soviet Union was extremely wary of selling the international distribution rights for video games and other forms of entertainment. Eventually the rights to "Tetris" were sold to both Robert Stein with a company called Andromeda and Robert Maxwell with a company called Mirrorsoft.

However, the contract only specified the game's distribution rights for computers leaving the arcade, home console and handheld markets without a distributor.

In a conversation between Maxwell and Stein, Robert Maxwell calls "Tetris" the first computer game to leave the Iron Curtain.

The Iron Curtain was a term used to describe the portions of Eastern Europe that were controlled by the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1991.

Answer: Game Boy

Prior to traveling to Seattle, Henk had visited the corporate headquarters of Nintendo in Japan and spoken with the company's CEO, Hiroshi Yamauchi. He convinces Yamauchi to invest in "Tetris" for both the console and arcade market. Henk had no idea that Nintendo would soon be releasing a handheld console when he arrived in Seattle so he was amazed when he got to try out a Game Boy prototype.

The Nintendo of America engineers tell Henk that the system would be packaged with a "Super Mario" game but Henk convinces them that "Tetris" would be a much better choice.

The Game Boy was released in Japan and North America in 1989 and it was a huge success with more than 118 million units sold.

Answer: ELORG

As with many Soviet companies, ELORG is a government-owned business. Henk illegally enters the Soviet Union with a tourist visa when he is really there for business purposes. Henk eventually makes it into ELORG and speaks with the company's chairman about making a deal for distributing "Tetris". ELORG is a shortened version of Elektronorgtechnica, a company founded in 1971 that was eventually sold to the Tetris Company in 2005.

Answer: Sasha

As soon as Henk arrives in Moscow, the KGB starts tracking him. Henk asks taxi drivers and anyone that he comes in contact with if they know the way to the ELORG company. Eventually he connects with Sasha who poses as an interpreter and guide. Sasha tells Henk that foreigners are not allowed in government buildings without an appointment in the Soviet Union. Undeterred, Henk enters ELORG anyway to discuss business and Sasha comes along posing as his interpreter.

Answer: Allow multiple lines to be cleared at once

Henk is amazed that he is able to see "Tetris" on Alexey's computer and view the coding for the game. When Henk plays the game he tells Alexey that multiple lines should be able to be cleared with each piece. Alexey thinks it's an interesting idea and writes some code that allows this gameplay mechanic to take effect. Alexey then plays the game again and finds the multiple line clears to really enhance the gameplay.

Henk also recommends that the game provide more points at higher levels.

Answer: The Final Countdown

Not wanting to go to touristy places, Alexey takes Henk to an underground nightclub. Henk is amazed that he recognizes the songs playing and Alexey tells him that good music is good music wherever it is. When "The Final Countdown" plays, Henk goes nuts and encourages the whole club to sing loudly and dance to the song. "The Final Countdown" was the title song of an album released by the band Europe in 1986.

The song was a huge success as it topped the charts in several European countries and reached number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Answer: Bribery

At several points in the film Robert Maxwell brags that he is close friends with Mikhail Gorbachev, the political leader of the Soviet Union. Maxwell expects that when he visits Moscow, Gorbachev will pull some strings and make sure that Mirrorsoft will get the distribution rights for "Tetris".

However, Gorbachev tells Maxwell that times are changing and that he will not get involved. Further, Gorbachev suspects that Maxwell and a KGB agent, Valentin Trifonov, have struck a deal through bribery. It is eventually uncovered that Maxwell had offered a bribe to Valentin fir $400,000 if Mirrorsoft get the distribution rights for "Tetris". Both Valentin and Maxwell end up getting arrested by the film's end.

Answer: Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers

In the epilogue it is stated that Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers founded the Tetris Company in 1996 to license "Tetris" games worldwide on all formats. This is fitting as Pajitnov was the game's creator and Rogers was instrumental in getting the game out to a worldwide audience.

By the film's release in 2023, more than 500 million copies of "Tetris" games had been sold. I am an avid "Tetris" fan with my personal favorite game in the series being "Tetris 99" which was released on the Nintendo Switch in 2019.