SM: What rights did you actually secure for Nintendo for Tetris? HR: The contract I helped them negotiate was for worldwide rights for the console, and they then licensed the Japanese rights to me to continue publishing the game.
SM: What kind of revenue did it generate for you? HR: On the Nintendo we sold at 4,800 yen and we sold 2 million copies.
SM: Where did you find Tetris? HR: I found it at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
SM: Can you summarize the game for me? HR: The name was The Black Onyx. The objective of the game was to reach the end and become a very powerful warrior. During the game if you attacked people or monsters weaker than you, your karma would drop. The only way to get your karma back
Henk Rogers is an entrepreneurial video game designer who began with The Black Onyx, which he published through Bullet-Proof Software in Japan in 1983. In 1988, he successfully led the effort to secure Tetris rights for the Nintendo. Since then he has founded Blue Planet Software and Blue Lava Wireless. SM: Henk, let’s go back
SM: In your eyes, what is special about Silicon Valley? RK: Silicon Valley is unique in the US and the world. The reason is that this community has taken 70 years to build. It started with Terman at Stanford. It was an experiment that he ran effectively that became the innovation industry.
SM: I think there are opportunities in both developing economies and in Western economies. I am working on a forward-looking book about India right now. RK: Perhaps. I see energy as a good example. If India can resolve their unique energy issues in a way that only India can do it, then they would have
SM: What about clean tech or green? How important is that for you? RK: Green is a different sort of investment. It is capital intensive and it is not an order of magnitude investing like other areas. In other investment areas, you are looking for order of magnitude decrease in cost, order of magnitude increase