Many have shown surprise over the fact that there are currently two different Tetris movies in the works (one of them a historical drama/Cold War thriller/courtroom procedural about the making of the game, the other one an action-adventure flick), and now, we have the third point in the Tetris trifecta: a graphic novel all about the popular puzzle video game first released in Russia in 1984.
Set to be published by Macmillan in October 2016, the novel is authored by comics writer and illustrator Box Brown, who is best known for his graphic novel biography about Andre the Giant. Titled The Games People Play, the book, like the untitled movie set to be produced by X-Men director Brent Ratner, will also be about the history of the polygonal tetronimoes-filled game.
So, what's so intriguing about the story behind the making of Tetris? A lot of political intrigue, actually: developed by artificial intelligence researcher Alexey Pajitnov in 1980, the puzzle game was shared by the designer with his colleagues and was then released underground in his native Moscow. After it spread — becoming the de facto first viral game ever — issues and dilemmas concerning Tetris' publishing rights surfaced, which resulted in Pajitnov facing the frightening prospect of punitive measures executed by the then-communist Soviet regime.
Here's the official synopsis of The Games People Play:
"Gaming is one of the world's most popular and vital art forms. Via the lens of Tetris, the ubiquitous puzzle game, this book asks where games come from. What is the mind of the creator? When powerful billionaires and government officials come looking for Alexey Pajitnov, creator of Tetris, he finds out how far they're all willing to go just to get a piece of his Tetris puzzle."
Preview a sample page of Box's graphic novel below, courtesy of the Nerdist.
Via: The Beat
Photo: Conor Lawless | Flickr
