Henk Rogers

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Henk Rogers
Henk Rogers face crop.png
Rogers in 2010
Born (1953-12-24) 24 December 1953 (age 70)[ citation needed ]
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Occupation(s)Video game designer, entrepreneur
Children Maya Rogers
Website henkrogers.com

Henk Brouwer Rogers (born 24 December 1953) is a Dutch video game designer and entrepreneur of partial Indonesian descent. [1] [2] He is known for producing Japan's first major turn-based role-playing video game The Black Onyx , securing the rights to distribute the Russian puzzle video game Tetris on video game consoles where the game found popularity, and as the founder of Bullet-Proof Software (later called Blue Planet Software) and The Tetris Company, which licenses the Tetris trademark. He was instrumental in resolving licensing disputes that brought Tetris to the Game Boy. Today, he is managing director of The Tetris Company. [3]

Contents

Career

Rogers is a class of 1972 alum of Stuyvesant High School. [4] He later relocated to Hawaii where he pursued studies in Computer Science at the University of Hawaii. [5]

During the 1980s, as the founder and CEO of Bullet-Proof Software, [5] Rogers developed an interest in Tetris, a game designed by Alexey Pajitnov that was gaining popularity in Europe. Rogers perceived the game as having enormous global market potential and decided to acquire its rights. To achieve this, he negotiated a deal with Nintendo to secure the rights for their upcoming Game Boy system, and then made a trip to the Soviet Union to deal with Elektronorgtechnica, a software development company. During his meeting with ELORG's management, he managed to convince them about Tetris' prospects in the global market, resulting in a successful deal. [6]

The deal with Elorg granted Rogers international rights to Tetris for home gaming systems. From there, he promoted the game, which ultimately became a global hit, primarily due to its release on Nintendo's handheld gaming system, the Game Boy. This success led to the establishment of The Tetris Company, co-founded by Rogers and Pajitnov. [6]

Beyond Tetris and other video game endeavors, Rogers has founded or cofounded several community and sustainability-oriented organizations and companies.

The first of these was Blue Planet Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity focused on activities of advocacy, which Rogers founded in 2007 to build awareness and fostering action for clean energy in Hawaii. [7] In 2015, the foundation led the campaign to make Hawaii the first state in the United States of America with a 100% renewable energy law. [8] [9] [10]

Following this, Rogers joined his daughter Maya Rogers and local angel investor Chenoa Farnsworth to launch Blue Startups, a Honolulu-based startup accelerator to mentor, invest in, and encourage the founding of technology startups, particularly ones servicing the cross-Pacific region and/or several targeted interest areas. [11]

In 2015, Rogers then founded Blue Planet Energy, one of the leading providers of energy storage systems (i.e., batteries) that power homes, businesses and critical infrastructure. Blue Planet Energy's lithium-ion batteries use a lithium ferrous phosphate (LFP) chemistry instead of nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) chemistry. Rogers believes LFP to be more environmentally friendly due to the fact that the batteries are noncombustible and do not require rare earth elements. [12]

Rogers is also chairman of the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) and founder of the International MoonBase Alliance, which developed the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS), a 1,200 square-foot Mars and moon analog habitat on Mauna Loa. [13] [14] PISCES' core mission is to develop and grow an aerospace industry in Hawaii through applied research, workforce development and economic development initiatives. [15]

In media

Rogers is portrayed by Welsh actor Taron Egerton in the 2023 film Tetris . [16]

Related Research Articles

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Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov is a Russian computer engineer and video game designer who is best known for creating, designing, and developing Tetris in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre under the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. After Tetris was released internationally in 1987, he released a sequel in 1989, entitled Welltris.

<i>Tetris</i> 1985 video game

Tetris is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appropriation of the rights in the late 1980s. After a significant period of publication by Nintendo, in 1996 the rights reverted to Pajitnov, who co-founded the Tetris Company with Henk Rogers to manage licensing.

<i>Tetris Attack</i> 1995 video game

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Blue Startups is a Hawaii-based accelerator company co-founded by Henk Rogers, Maya Rogers and Chenoa Farnsworth in 2012. They created it to help startup companies, and help make Hawaii more identifiable as a technological business hub. The company has a network of over 120 mentors from the Hawaii, Silicon Valley, and Asia areas. The company's stated goal - according to former Program Manager Meli James - is to get companies started in Hawaii and make them want to keep working in the state.

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References

  1. ↑ "The Story of Tetris: Henk Rogers". Sramana Mitra. 16 September 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  2. ↑ "Henk B. Rogers' Page". TechHui. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  3. ↑ "Tetris Press" . Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  4. ↑ "Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association | Henk Rogers '72". www.stuyalumni.org. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  5. 1 2 Kymber-Lee Char (18 October 2010). "Henk Rogers: From Tetris to clean energy". The magazine of the University of Hawai'i. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  6. 1 2 Welsh, Oli (31 March 2023). "The men who created Tetris reflect on their bromance". Polygon. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  7. ↑ "About". Blue Planet Foundation. 19 September 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  8. ↑ "100% Renewable Energy". Blue Planet Foundation. 29 September 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  9. ↑ Lincoln, Mileka (8 June 2015). "Gov. Ige signs bill setting 100 percent renewable energy goal for state". Hawaii News Now. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  10. ↑ "HISTORIC: Hawaii enacts nation's first 100% renewable energy requirement" (Press release). Honolulu, Hawaii: Blue Planet Foundation. 10 June 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  11. ↑ "About Blue Startups". Blue Startups. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  12. ↑ Munsell, Mike (17 February 2023). "Meet Henk Rogers, video game icon turned climate champion". Canary Media. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
  13. ↑ "HI-SEAS". HI-SEAS. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  14. ↑ "Henk Rogers". International MoonBase Alliance. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  15. ↑ "About". PISCES Hawaii. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  16. ↑ "Apple Original Films unveils trailer for 'Tetris,' new thriller starring Taron Egerton" (Press release). AppleTV. 16 February 2023. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
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