Henk Rogers

Henk Rogers

Infobox_Celebrity
name = Henk Rogers


imagesize = 150px
occupation = Computer Gaming Specialist
website = [http://www.blueplanetsoftware.com]

Henk Rogers is a video game designer and entrepreneur, best known for winning a license for Nintendo's handheld and console versions of the computer game "Tetris" from the Soviet Government organisation ELORG, beating Robert Maxwell's empire in the process.

Rogers was born in the Netherlands and lived in New York City from the age of eleven. He attended Stuyvesant High School where he got his first taste of computer programming. He then studied Computer Science and Role Playing Games at the University of Hawaii.

During the late 1970s, he moved to Japan. In 1983 he designed and developed the first Role Playing Game in Japan. He also established his own publishing company Bullet-Proof Software to bring The Black Onyx to market. In 1986, Rogers published his first Nintendo game kyuroban Igo on the Japanese 8-bit Famicom, called the Nintendo Entertainment System in the US. His second Nintendo game was Super Black Onyx for which he commissioned world famous graphic artist Roger Dean to do the cover art. It would be the first of many joint projects for Henk Rogers and Roger Dean.

Rogers discovered "Tetris" during a game show in Las Vegas in 1988. At the time, the game was being distributed in several countries under the color of a master license agreement which the original licensee had not honored. Rogers went to Moscow (without an invitation) to see if he could obtain rights to distribute the game. Two other companies were simultaneously bidding for the same rights. Rogers brought Nintendo on board and secured the exclusive rights to market "Tetris" on video game consoles. Nintendo successfully used this grant to squeeze its rival Atari out of the market, as Atari had sought to market "Tetris" based on the original (invalid) license.

During the negotiations in Moscow, Rogers also became friends with the game's Russian author Alexey Pajitnov. In 1990, he helped Pajitnov move to the United States and set up a new company, AnimaTek, to develop new computer graphic technologies.

In 1996, the rights for "Tetris" reverted to Pajitnov. Rogers moved from Japan to Hawaii, where he founded Blue Planet Software to manage the intellectual property rights to "Tetris" and The Tetris Company, a Delaware company that exclusively licenses Tetris.

Rogers founded Blue Lava Wireless in 2002 to develop mobile gaming software. The company was sold to Jamdat in 2005, along with a license to the mobile game rights to "Tetris". He is now "Mastermind" and on the advisory board of Avatar Reality.

External links

* [http://www.blueplanetsoftware.com/biography_henk_rogers.html Biography at Blue Planet Software]
* [http://www.planetgamecube.com/specialArt.cfm?artid=11267 Interview with Planet Gamecube]
* [http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/04/20/news_6122661.html GameSpot news report on Blue Lava Wireless sale]
* [http://www.avatar-reality.com/ Avatar Reality]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Henk Rogers — (* 1953 in den Niederlanden) ist ein niederländischer Computerspiele Entwickler und Unternehmer. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Lebe …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Henk — ist eine vorwiegend in den Niederlanden gebräuchliche Kurzform des Vornamens Hendrik, welche wiederum eine Variante des Vornamens Heinrich ist. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Bekannte Namensträger 1.1 Vorname 1.2 Familienname …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Rogers (Familienname) — Rogers ist ein englischer Familienname. Herkunft und Bedeutung Der patronymische Name bedeutet „Sohn des Roger“. Varianten Rodgers, besonders in Schottland Bekannte Namensträger Inhaltsverzeichnis A B C D E F G …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Rogers (surname) — Family name name = Rogers imagesize= caption= pronunciation = Rogers meaning = region = England origin = Norman related names = Rodgers, Rogerson footnotes = [ [http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/names files.html 1990 Census Name Files] ]… …   Wikipedia

  • Dr. Mario — Die Tetris Bausteine I, J, L, O, S, T und Z Tetris (russisch: Тетрис) ist ein Computerspiel, bei dem man nacheinander einzeln von oben herunterfallende, stets aus vier Quadraten zusammengesetzte Formen in einem rechteckigen Spielfeld in 90 Grad… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Liste der Biografien/Rog — Biografien: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Tetris — Die Tetris Bausteine I, J, L, O, S, T und Z Tetris (russisch: Тетрис) ist ein Computerspiel des russischen Programmierers Alexei Paschitnow, der die erste spielbare Version im Juni 1984[1] auf einem Elektronika 60 Rechner …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Tetris (Game Boy) — Tetris Éditeur Nintendo Développeur Nintendo R D1[1] Bullet Proof Software[2] Date de sortie …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Tetris — Tetяis redirects here. For the Tengen produced game, see TETЯIS: The Soviet Mind Game. Tetris The box of the Nintendo version of Tetris for the NES. Developer(s) Alexey Pajitnov (E60 prototype), Vadim Ge …   Wikipedia

  • Alexei Leonidowitsch Paschitnow — Alexei Paschitnow, Barcelona 2008. Alexei Leonidowitsch Paschitnow (russisch Алексей Леонидович Пажитнов, oft in der englischen Schreibweise Alexey Pajitnov, * 1956) ist ein russischer Programmierer, der zurzeit in den USA lebt …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”