The Tetris Effect

February 21, 1989. A self-made software magnate with a street hustler's flair, the privileged son of a hard-charging media mogul and a globe-trotting game programmer land in Moscow within hours of each other. Their goal? To undercut one another and strike a deal with the Soviets for the most lucrative piece of intellectual property to ever escape from behind the Iron Curtain - the rights to the game Tetris. Technology reporter Dan Ackerman brings us the gripping tale behind a game so addictive that scientists termed it the world's first 'pharmatronic'.

Combining elements of a fast-paced cold war thriller with corporate espionage, courtroom drama and international conspiracies, The Tetris Effect is also the story of a one-in-a-million software startup, a unique example of an idea, a product, and an era coming together at exactly the right moment. Tetris was perfectly (if accidentally) crafted to hit primal triggers of human experience and in Ackerman's hands it becomes unputdownable once again.