 henk rogers (born december 24, 1953) is a video game designer and entrepreneur. he is known for producing japan's first major turn-based role-playing video game the black onyx, securing the rights to distribute tetris on video game consoles where the game found popularity, and as the founder of the tetris company which licenses the tetris trademark. ==life and career== henk b. rogers was born in the netherlands and is of dutch-indonesian (indo) descent.  he lived in new york city, united states, 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. he established his own publishing company bullet-proof software to bring the black onyx to the market, where it sold 150,000 copies. this game, inspired by lord of the rings and wizardry, was the first major turn-based rpg to hit stores in japan (where it was a departure from real-time rpgs such as bokosuka wars, dragon slayer and hydlide), predating the seminal dragon quest (1986). in 1986, rogers published his first nintendo game kyuroban igo on the japanese 8-bit famicom, called the nintendo entertainment system outside of japan. his second nintendo game was super black onyx for which he commissioned 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 consumer electronic show in las vegas in 1988. at the time, the game was being distributed in several countries under 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 di
1953_births Dutch_computer_programmers Dutch_emigrants_to_the_United_States Living_people People_from_Amsterdam University_of_Hawaii_alumni