Henk Rogers and Nintendo have a long history. After cooking up the influential Black Onyx, Rogers worked with Nintendo to release titles on the Famicom in the '80s before helping to secure the home console rights to Tetris, a puzzler which helped turn the Game Boy into a multi-million-selling success.
Rogers was also close to Nintendo's boss, Hiroshi Yamauchi, but that doesn't mean the pair didn't occasionally have run-ins with one another, as is evidenced by a story recounted in Rogers' new book, The Perfect Game—Tetris: From Russia With Love.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Rogers talks about the appearance of Dr. Mario, a game which he views as a clear attempt to copy the success of Tetris. "I met [Game Boy creator and Nintendo staffer] Gunpei Yokoi a number of times," he says. "And ultimately we were good friends because I helped him launch Game Boy and he helped me launch Tetris. So that was a mutual thing. But I was a little bit miffed when Nintendo tried to come up with a game to beat Tetris."
Released on both Game Boy and NES, Dr. Mario arrived in 1990, a year after Tetris launched on Nintendo's consoles. While it's not an exact match to Tetris, it does feature similar block-clearing gameplay.
"That instruction must have come because Mr. Yamauchi tried to buy Tetris from me," continues Rogers. "I said no, like 'OK I'll trade Mario for Tetris'. Meaning, sort of over my dead body. And then Mr Yamauchi gave instructions [to his team], 'you go make a game that's as good as Tetris' and, you know, blah blah blah. Dr Mario is sort of a blatant attempt at making another Tetris. And it's not as good."
Dr. Mario might not be as famous as Tetris, but it was relatively well-received at the time of release and has even inspired sequels over the years. For Rogers, however, the game clearly left a mark. "I was pissed off," he says. "And I can't really blame Yokoi for that! I mean I don't know whether it's under him or under another team, whatever, but yeah: that's business."