Henk Rogers remembers lying in the back of an ambulance racing to Straub Clinic and Hospital as emergency personnel worried if he would survive a near-lethal heart attack.

He stared at the ambulance's ceiling and pondered his life. He was 53.

Rogers, a video game industry legend for his behind-the-scenes work on Tetris, father of four and successful entrepreneur, couldn't believe what was happening.

"I thought, 'I am not finished with what I have to do in this world,' " said Rogers, who probably ranks among Hawai'i's least-known, but most successful entrepreneurs.

"I made up my mind I was going to survive this."

During recovery from an angioplasty and stent implant, Rogers contemplated what he wanted to further accomplish.

He came up with four missions: getting the Earth off carbon-based fuel, stopping wars, making a back-up copy of Earth and figuring out how the universe ends.

Lofty and fanciful goals?

Possibly, but Rogers confesses to undertaking endeavors where the odds are stacked against him, or achieving the seemingly improbable through sheer will.

"You make up your mind and do it," Rogers said.

Like the time he flew to Russia to wrangle Tetris rights for handheld devices, trying to navigate Moscow without speaking Russian and bartering transportation with cartons of Marlboro cigarettes.

He showed up at a ministry in Moscow unannounced, alarming officials and potentially risking jail time with possible charges of conducting business while traveling on a tourist visa and as he discovered, possible software piracy.

Ten days later, he had the rights; a month later, he had traveled back and obtained rights for game consoles for partner Nintendo Co.

Or the time during his first big meeting with Nintendo, he promised to deliver a console version of the board game Go when he hadn't developed anything. Another time he flew from Japan to California, vowing not to return until he got game rights from a software company that had been unwilling to strike an agreement. He secured the rights.

'VERY PASSIONATE'

There's more to Rogers' capabilities than just moxie, including quick thinking and shrewd deal-making abilities learned while working for his stepfather, a gem dealer.

At age 55, Rogers' ability to see trends, a nerdy interest in computers as a teenager and hard work designing and developing games has paid off handsomely.

For 14 years, he's helped oversee Tetris' worldwide licensing efforts; started and sold a start-up company for $137 million; created three more start-ups; helped nurture fresh versions of Tetris; created an environmental foundation; and provided employment for more than 100 people here.

"Very passionate" is the way Alexey Pajitnov, the Russian computer programmer who created Tetris, describes Rogers' approach to pursuing goals.

"I was always impressed with his openness to people, very fine humor sense and sharpness of mind," Pajitnov said in an e-mail.

Jeff Mikulina, who works for Rogers' Blue Planet Foundation, calls his boss "scary smart." But there's little sign of arrogance that sometimes accompanies brain power.

"You cannot help but like the guy," Mikulina said. "He's always upbeat and has an incredibly positive outlook on life."

Rogers' background is unique, having been born the oldest of eight brothers to Dutch Indonesian parents. He speaks Dutch, Japanese and English, is the self-proclaimed smartest guy in his junior high school who won entrance into New York's prestigious Stuyvesant High School. It's the same public school that's produced four Nobel laureates. Among Stuyvesant's Class of 1972 was David Axelrod, now senior adviser to President Obama.

Rogers' first exposure to Hawai'i came in 1972 when his stepfather, who he considers one of his greatest mentors, decided to move the family to Japan. Rogers' mother and brothers turned what was to be a two-week stopover into a year's stay in La'ie, where the 18-year-old tuned into the North Shore lifestyle, cruising down to Pupukea and Gas Chambers to surf, or fishing along La'ie Point.

"I was surfing and diving every day," said Rogers, who decided to stay here and take classes at the University of Hawai'i after the rest of his family departed. His main interest in attending school was access to computers.

He stayed three years, taking whatever classes interested him and working as a Charlie's Taxi driver, restaurant kitchen cleaner and UPS driver.

"I had a great time," he said.

But after a girlfriend moved to Japan, Rogers soon followed, ignoring any ideas of getting a degree from UH.

"I just never thought I needed a paper to prove anything to anybody," Rogers said. That's been proven true with his remarkable run in the video gaming business.

THE BLACK ONYX

He started in 1983, and despite setbacks with business partners and missteps ("I was completely naive"), had opened up his first company, Bullet-Proof Software, and designed and developed the top-selling game in Japan in 1984, The Black Onyx.

He went on to more success with Bullet-Proof but soon decided designing and developing games was too brutal.

"I was zonked," Rogers said. "I was 32 years old and realized I didn't want to be writing games for the rest of my life."

Instead, he settled on the route of importing and translating games for the Japanese market. His company ballooned to 120 employees and he traveled the globe looking for the next big thing in gaming.

It was during one of those trips in 1988 that he spotted Tetris. The rest is history. When people talk about the prime movers behind Tetris, they speak of Pajitnov and Rogers.

Rogers' current office overlooks the striking blue water of Honolulu Harbor, offering him a view of ship movements and waves breaking off Sand Island. His companies and Blue Planet Foundation occupy an entire floor and parts of two others.

In the office next to Rogers sits Minoru Arakawa, the former head of Nintendo USA, who now helps steer one of the start-ups, Tetris Online. Mikulina, former Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter head, and Gary Gill, former Honolulu City Council chairman, occupy another part of the foundation's office.

HONOLULU DIGS

A poster commemorating Obama's inauguration leans against one wall of Rogers' office; along another stands a Tetris surfboard and a rack of baseball caps embroidered with the names of Rogers' many enterprises — Blue Planet Software, Tetris Online, Avatar Reality, Pu'u Wa'awa'a Ranch, Ilovephotos.com and Blue Planet Foundation.

On shelves behind Rogers' desk sit various awards and honors he's received, with all the documentation and manuals that are part of running licensing for Tetris out of Honolulu.

This is Rogers' third turn in Hawai'i, the first coming after high school, the second in 1995 when he decided he wanted to move from Japan, and the current stint coming in 2002 after several years in San Francisco trying to develop new games.

He moved back to take advantage of the state's Act 221 technology tax credits as he embarked on Blue Lava Wireless, a company that develops mobile gaming software. He sold that in 2005 for $137 million.

His heart attack came shortly after the big Blue Lava Wireless payoff. He had little chance to enjoy the money.

The Blue Planet Foundation is an outgrowth of that experience and Rogers' mission list. The plan is to help get Hawai'i off its petroleum and other carbon-based fuel addiction and then to expand the foundation's work elsewhere.

As such, Rogers has sponsored a large environmental conference here and lobbies at the Legislature for a sustainable energy future. He drives a Tesla electric roadster, in keeping with his no-fossil fuels stance.

"I'd like it to happen before we completely destroy the environment," Rogers said.

His other missionary work is not as far along, though some of his start-up ventures dovetail with them. Tetris Online, for example, includes Tetris Friends Online, a free site where people can play with others.

That promotes communication across borders, something that could lessen international misunderstandings. Rogers plans to roll out a Tetris competition to further get people reaching across borders.

As Mikulina puts it, "He takes on big things and he thinks big."

Rogers' Avatar Reality is developing another online multiplayer game, Blue Mars, that allows people to terraform Mars, or create an Earth-like environment on the Red Planet.

That goes to Rogers' desire to see a back-up copy of Earth created on Mars. Rogers isn't unusual among technology executives; tech entrepreneur Elon Musk (also head of Tesla Motors, maker of the roadster that Rogers owns) and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also have designs on space travel.

Rogers can't really explain the genesis of his fourth mission, that of finding out how the universe ends. He said the idea just came upon him and stuck.

But he notes with his characteristic humor that it is in keeping with everything else he does:

"If the universe ends, then all the other missions are a waste of time."

It wasn't love at first sight when Henk Rogers, then a Japanese game developer and distributor, saw Tetris.

"The first impression was 'this is nothing,' " said Rogers of his initial reaction at a Las Vegas electronics show in 1988. "It didn't have any of the bells and whistles that other games had."

Rogers went and investigated other booths and then came back to play Tetris. Again and again and again.

"The fifth or sixth time, I realized I was thoroughly hooked and addicted to this game."

Rogers went on to become a distributor of the game and played a key role in clearing up a thicket of licensing problems connected to the game created in Russia. Rogers was instrumental in securing rights to the game for Nintendo Co.'s GameBoy, propelling popularity of the handheld device.

Along the way Rogers became friends with Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris' creator, and when rights to the game reverted to Pajitnov in 1995, helped create a licensing structure to manage the intellectual property rights. Today, the rights for Tetris are administrated out of Rogers' Blue Planet Software offices in Honolulu.

The simple but addictive video game in which players try to arrange blocks that scroll down screens has been wildly popular. The game is played in more than 50 languages, and more than 125 million Tetris products have been sold since the game's creation.

More than 1 million games are played daily on Tetris Friends Online Games.

— Greg Wiles

SIMPLE VIDEO GAME LOVED WORLDWIDE

It wasn't love at first sight when Henk Rogers, then a Japanese game developer and distributor, saw Tetris.

"The first impression was 'this is nothing,' " said Rogers of his initial reaction at a Las Vegas electronics show in 1988. "It didn't have any of the bells and whistles that other games had."

Rogers went and investigated other booths and then came back to play Tetris. Again and again and again.

"The fifth or sixth time, I realized I was thoroughly hooked and addicted to this game."

Rogers went on to become a distributor of the game and played a key role in clearing up a thicket of licensing problems connected to the game created in Russia. Rogers was instrumental in securing rights to the game for Nintendo Co.'s GameBoy, propelling popularity of the handheld device.

Along the way Rogers became friends with Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris' creator, and when rights to the game reverted to Pajitnov in 1995, helped create a licensing structure to manage the intellectual property rights. Today, the rights for Tetris are administrated out of Rogers' Blue Planet Software offices in Honolulu.

The simple but addictive video game in which players try to arrange blocks that scroll down screens has been wildly popular. The game is played in more than 50 languages, and more than 125 million Tetris products have been sold since the game's creation.

More than 1 million games are played daily on Tetris Friends Online Games.

— Greg Wiles

THE LURE OF HAWAI'I WAS HARD TO RESIST

Henk Rogers says he could live anywhere, but chose Hawai'i when he left Japan 14 years ago in part because of his college days in Manoa and his desire to see his children raised here.

The state isn't without drawbacks for someone in high technology such as plenty of venture capital and technology infrastructure, but Rogers said the state could have a bright future if it gets its act together.

"I could go anywhere and I chose Hawai'i," said Rogers, who when not traveling divides his time between Honolulu and a ranch on the Big Island.

Rogers, who is a video game industry legend for his role with the game Tetris, already has built up a successful business here, selling it in 2005 for $137 million. Currently he employs more than 100 people in three start-up companies and the Blue Planet Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates use of renewable energy.

Rogers' advice for the state includes wiring it for high-speed broadband Internet to foster high technology work. It's an idea also championed by Gov. Linda Lingle, who earlier this year proposed a broadband task force to look at high-speed Internet connections.

Leading the nation in broadband speeds, prices, accessibility and usage would lead to advancements in education, science, technology, and business.

"The future of Hawai'i is in creating intellectual property," Rogers said.

"We have an opportunity to get the best minds here if we create the right environment."

Rogers also advocates keeping the Act 221 technology tax credits intact.

— Greg Wiles