Alexey Pajitnov

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Alexey Pajitnov
Алексей Пажитнов
Alexey Pajitnov GDC 2024 (cropped).jpg
Pajitnov in 2024
Born
Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov

(1955-04-16) April 16, 1955 (age 68)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Citizenship
  • Soviet Union (until 1991)
  • Russia
  • United States
Alma mater Moscow Aviation Institute
Occupations
Employer(s) Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre
The Tetris Company
Microsoft
Known forCreator of Tetris
Awards

Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov [lower-alpha 1] (born March 14, 1956) [1] 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 (now the Russian Academy of Sciences). [2] After Tetris was released internationally in 1987, he released a sequel in 1989, entitled Welltris .

Contents

In 1991, he moved to the United States and later became a U.S. citizen. [3] In 1996, Pajitnov founded The Tetris Company alongside Dutch video game designer Henk Rogers. Pajitnov did not receive royalties from Tetris prior to this time, despite the game's high popularity. [4]

Early life

Pajitnov was born to Russian parents, who were both writers, his father was an art critic, his mother was a journalist who wrote for both newspapers and a film magazine. It was through his parents that Pajitnov gained exposure to the arts, eventually developing a passion for cinema. He accompanied his mother to many film screenings, including the Moscow Film Festival. [5] : 296  [6] : 75  Pajitnov was also mathematically inclined, enjoying puzzles and problem solving.

In 1967, when he was 11 years old, Pajitnov's parents divorced. For several years, he lived with his mother in a one-bedroom apartment owned by the state. The two were eventually able to move into a private apartment at 49 Gertsen Street, when Pajitnov was 17. [5] : 296  [7] He later went on to study applied mathematics at the Moscow Aviation Institute. [8] [9]

Career

In 1977, Pajitnov worked as a summer intern at the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Once he graduated in 1979, he accepted a job there working on speech recognition at the Academy's Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre. [10] : 86  When the Computing Centre received new equipment, its researchers would write a small program for it in order to test its computing capabilities. According to Pajitnov, this "became [his] excuse for making games". [11] Computer games were fascinating to him because they offered a way to bridge the gap between logic and emotion, and Pajitnov held interests in both mathematics and puzzles, as well as the psychology of computing. [6] : 76 

Searching for inspiration, Pajitnov recalled his childhood memories of playing pentominoes, a game in which the user creates pictures using its shapes. Remembering the difficulty he had in putting the pieces back into their box, Pajitnov felt inspired to create a game based on that concept. [12] [13] Using an Electronika 60 in the Computing Centre, he began working on what would become the first version of Tetris. Building the first prototype in two weeks, [13] Pajitnov spent longer playtesting and adding to the game, completing it on June 6, 1985. [14] [15] This primitive version did not have levels or a scoring system, but Pajitnov knew he had a potentially great game, since he could not stop playing it at work. [12] [16]

The game attracted the interest of coworkers like fellow programmer Dmitri Pevlovsky, who helped Pajitnov connect with Vadim Gerasimov, a 16-year-old intern at the Soviet Academy. Pajitnov wanted to make a color version of Tetris for the IBM Personal Computer, and enlisted the intern to help. Gerasimov created the PC version in less than three weeks, and with contributions from Pevlovsky, spent an additional month adding new features like scorekeeping and sound effects. [5] : 300  [6] : 78  The game, first available in the Soviet Union, received international releases through Mirrorsoft and Spectrum Holobyte in 1988. [17]

Pajitnov created a sequel to Tetris, entitled Welltris , which has the same principle, but in a three-dimensional environment where the player sees the playing area from above. [18] [19] [20]

Tetris was licensed and managed by Soviet company ELORG, which had a monopoly on the import and export of computer hardware and software in the Soviet Union, [21] and advertised with the slogan "From Russia with Love"[ citation needed ] (on NES: "From Russia with Fun!"). [22] [23] Because he was employed by the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pajitnov did not receive royalties.

Pajitnov, together with Vladimir Pokhilko, moved to the United States following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and in 1996 founded The Tetris Company with Henk Rogers, which, in combination with the rights reverting to him in 1995 [24] [25] or 1996, [26] [27] finally allowed him to collect royalties from his game. He helped design the puzzles in the Super NES versions of Yoshi's Cookie and designed the game Pandora's Box , which incorporates more traditional jigsaw-style puzzles. Pajitnov and Pokhilko founded the 3D software technology company AnimaTek, which developed the game / screensaver El-Fish. [28]

He was employed by Microsoft from October 1996 until 2005. While there, he worked on the Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection , MSN Mind Aerobics and MSN Games groups. Pajitnov's new, enhanced version of Hexic , Hexic HD, was included with every new Xbox 360 Premium package.[ citation needed ]

In August 2005, WildSnake Software announced that Pajitnov would be collaborating with them to release a new line of puzzle games. [29]

Personal life

Pajitnov moved to the United States in 1991, was naturalized as a U.S. citizen and now lives in Clyde Hill, Washington. [3] [30] He has a wife, Nina, with whom he had two sons named Peter and Dmitri. [7] [31]

Political views

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Pajitnov issued a statement condemning the war and stating that he was "sure that Putin and his hateful regime will fall down and the normal peaceful way of living will be restored in Ukraine and, hopefully, in Russia." [32]

Games

TitleYearPlatform(s)Role(s)
Tetris 1985 Electronika 60, IBM-PC Original concept
(with Vadim Gerasimov & Dmitry Pavlovsky)
Muddle1989 Electronika 60, IBM-PC Designer (Published by JV Dialogue) [33]
Welltris 1989Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Macintosh & ZX SpectrumDesigner
(with Andrei Sgenov)
Faces 1990Amiga, DOS, MacintoshOriginal concept
(with Vladimir Pokhilko)
Hatris 1990TurboGrafx-16, Arcade, Game Boy & NESOriginal concept
Knight Move 1990 Famicom Disk System (Japan)Idealist
Wordtris 1991 DOS, Game Boy, Classic Mac OS, SNES Designer
Yoshi's Cookie 1992 NES, Game Boy, SNES Puzzle Designer
El-Fish 1993DOSOriginal concept
(with Vladimir Pokhilko)
Knight Moves 1995 Windows Idealist
Ice & Fire 1995Windows, MacintoshOriginal concept
(with Vladimir Pokhilko)
Tetrisphere 1997 Nintendo 64 Contributor
Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection 1997Windows & Game Boy Color Designer
Microsoft Pandora's Box 1999WindowsDesigner
Microsoft A.I. Puzzler2001WindowsDesigner
Hexic 2003WindowsOriginal concept and design
Hexic HD 2005 Xbox 360 Original concept and design
Dwice 2006WindowsDesigner
Hexic 2 2007 Xbox 360 Designer
Marbly2013 iOS Original concept and design

Awards and recognition

In 1996, GameSpot named him as the fourth most influential computer game developer of all time. [34]

In March 2007, he received the Game Developers Choice Awards First Penguin Award. The award was given for pioneering the casual games market. [35]

In June 2009, he received the honorary award at the LARA - Der Deutsche Games Award in Cologne, Germany. [36]

In 2012, IGN included Pajitnov on their list of 5 Memorable Video Game Industry One-Hit Wonders, calling him "the ultimate video game one-hit wonder." [37]

In 2015, Pajitnov won the Bizkaia Award at the Fun & Serious Game Festival. [38] [39]

Pajitnov was portrayed by Russian actor Nikita Yefremov in the 2023 movie Tetris , a dramatised retelling of the licensing bidding war for Tetris in the late 1980s. [40]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Russian:Алексе́й Леони́дович Па́житнов, IPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsʲejlʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕˈpaʐɨtnəf]

Related Research Articles

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puzzle video game</span> Video game genre

Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion. Many puzzle games involve a real-time element and require quick thinking, such as Tetris (1985) and Lemmings (1991).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronika 60</span> Soviet micro-computer

The Electronika 60 is a computer made in the Soviet Union by Elektronika in Voronezh from 1978 until 1991. It is a rack-mounted system with no built-in display or storage devices. It was usually paired with a 15IE-00-013 terminal and I/O devices. The main logic unit is located on the M2 CPU board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henk Rogers</span> Dutch computer programmer (born 1953)

Henk Brouwer Rogers is a Dutch video game designer and entrepreneur of partial Indonesian descent. 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 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.

<i>Tetris</i> (Atari Games) 1988 video game

Tetris is a puzzle game developed by Atari Games and originally released for arcades in 1988. Based on Alexey Pajitnov's Tetris, Atari Games' version features the same gameplay as the computer editions of the game, as players must stack differently shaped falling blocks to form and eliminate horizontal lines from the playing field. The game features several difficulty levels and two-player simultaneous play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Tetris Company</span> American video game company

The Tetris Company, Inc. (TTC) is the manager and licensor for the Tetris brand to third parties. It is based in Nevada and is owned by Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers. The company is the exclusive licensee of Tetris Holding LLC, the company that owns Tetris rights worldwide.

<i>Hatris</i> 1990 video game

Hatris is a puzzle video game developed by Alexey Pajitnov and Vladimir Pokhilko of ParaGraph Intl. for Bullet-Proof Software. An arcade version was manufactured by Video System.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elektronorgtechnica</span> Defunct Soviet state-owned trading company

Elektronorgtechnica, better known abbreviated as ELORG (Элорг), was a state-owned organization with a monopoly on the import and export of computer support and hardware and software in the Soviet Union. It was controlled by the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR from 1971 to 1989.

<i>Tetris</i> (Game Boy video game) 1989 video game

Tetris is a puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy in 1989. It is a portable version of Alexey Pajitnov's original Tetris and it was bundled with the North American and European releases of the Game Boy itself. It is the first game to have been compatible with the Game Link Cable, a pack-in accessory that allows two Game Boy consoles to link for multiplayer purposes. A remaster, Tetris DX, was released on the Game Boy Color in 1998. A Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console version of Tetris was released in December 2011, lacking multiplayer functionality. The game was released on the Nintendo Switch Online service in February 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre</span> Russian computer science school

Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre, known as the Computing Centre of the Academy of Sciences until 2015, is a research institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. It was established in 1955.

<i>Pandoras Box</i> (1999 video game) 1999 video game

Pandora's Box is a 1999 video game created by Alexey Pajitnov for Microsoft.

<i>Welltris</i> 1989 video game

Welltris is a puzzle video game, developed by Doca and licensed to Bullet-Proof Software. It is an official game in the Tetris series. Adaptations were made by Sphere, Inc., for Spectrum HoloByte, and by Infogrames. It was released for MS-DOS compatible operating systems in 1989. Ports for Macintosh, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, and Atari ST followed 1990, then ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 1991.

<i>Tetris Classic</i> 1992 video game

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<i>BreakThru!</i> 1994 video game

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<i>Tetris 99</i> 2019 Tetris battle royale video game

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<i>Tetris</i> (NES video game) 1989 video game

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References

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  3. 1 2 Sapieha, Chad (March 23, 2006). "Tetris' Alexey Pajitnov". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Tetris: a history". Atarihq.com. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
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  15. ↑ shmuplations (January 11, 2022). "Tetris – 1993 Developer Interview - shmuplations.com" . Retrieved April 19, 2023.
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  18. ↑ "Screenshots from Welltris, retrieved 31-10-2007". Mds.mdh.se. Archived from the original on April 22, 2006. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  19. ↑ "WELLTRIS GAME A SEQUEL THAT`S JUST AS ADDICTIVE AS ORIGINAL". Chicago Tribune. November 17, 1989. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
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  32. ↑ "Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov condemns Russian invasion of Ukraine". VentureBeat. March 23, 2022. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
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  35. ↑ "2007 Game Developers Choice Awards To Honor Miyamoto, Pajitnov". Gamasutra . Archived from the original on March 7, 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2007.
  36. ↑ "News report on Deutsche Games Award 2009". Heise.de. June 24, 2009. Archived from the original on June 26, 2009. Retrieved June 25, 2009.
  37. ↑ Reilly, Luke (April 29, 2012). "5 Memorable Video Game Industry One-Hit Wonders - Games Feature at IGN". IGN. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
  38. ↑ "F&S 2015 BIZKAIA AWARD". April 26, 2022.
  39. ↑ "El inventor del Tetris desvela su exito". Elmundo. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  40. ↑ "Apple Original Films unveils trailer for "Tetris" new thriller starring Taron Egerton". Tetris. April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
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