Today Hank looks at Rogers’ memory post, Perfect Games – Tatters: From Russia with Love. Rogers has had a long and storey carrier in the sports industry, but he will undoubtedly be always famous for his commitment to Tatters, and in particular it is a key role in removing him from the Soviet bureaucracy and the creator of the game, Alexe Pujatnov, his leading role in receiving credit and money.
This book is a Rolling Red, which was enrolled in the area of ​​John Lee Kerry at the points with Soviet parts in the 1980s, and I will soon write some views on it. But the public also gave the PCG an opportunity to sit with Rogers and talk about his career, many gaming brights, about which he is known and, of course, Tee Tetress.
One of the amazing aspects of the book is that the game we know was actually completely different. Almost all the elements explaining this are there, but the combination of Rogers and Nintendo has made increased and changes that are basic enough for the game that we all know and love. I told Rogers that for me, the Tetress will always be a game boy version, and told him that we know the name of Tetress, talk a little among him.
Rogers says, “So the real tetress was a game of survival.” It is so, how long can you survive? And so was not really about scoring it in Electronica 60 (version). How long can it last before you go up? And you got bonus points to fall hard. You push a button and fall down the piece.
Electronica was 60 a Soviet computer and a type of botelle PDP-11, which was widely used from the late 1970s to the late 90s and beyond. This is the hardware for which Pajitnov actually programmed the tetress but, because the machine could not graphics, these blocks were made from letters.
“It was the real game,” Rogers continue. “There was no scoring to clarify the line: it came later. I was tested in Japan of PAC Main or Space Enloders such as Arcade Games, you play games for a while and then there is a moment where they just describe the score.
“The original version of Tatters, once again, when you are playing, you can’t play and see the score at the same time.
So Rogers’ first major contribution to Tatters was the scoring system, but it will find even more grains on how to work in harmony with the nature of the game.
“Then I invented single (line clearance), double, triple and titters, which invented maximum points, especially at the bottom, slowly, which I should say, as a way to make more points. Because those who have become expert in it, they have to get high scores to get higher scores.
“Then the players will understand where the score came from. So I broke it like this. And so the game boy worked and so did the NES version. And it is different from the original, which is primarily endless, you know, and there is no break.”
Obviously these days the concept of the game of survival is his own gender, and Rogers are certainly not comparing the tetress with Walim. But it feels like an accurate explanation of how the game actually works and one, whether you neglect the scoring system and other additions, is still true: to see how long you can last before you fail.
Alexei Pajitnov will always be the creator of Tetress. But the Hank Rogers was very important for the game because we now know it than just the licenses.
