![]() |
Alexey Pajitnov | |
---|---|
Алексей Пажитнов | |
![]() Pajitnov in 2024 | |
Born | Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov April 16, 1955 Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
Citizenship |
|
Alma mater | Moscow Aviation Institute |
Occupations | |
Employer(s) | Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre The Tetris Company Microsoft |
Known for | Creator of Tetris |
Awards |
Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov [lower-alpha 1] (born April 16, 1955) [1] is a Soviet (now Russian)computer engineer and video game designer who lives in the United States. [2] He 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). [3] After Tetris was released internationally in 1987, he released a sequel in 1989, entitled Welltris .
In 1991, he moved to the United States and later became a U.S. citizen. [2] In 1996, Pajitnov founded The Tetris Company alongside Dutch video game designer Henk Rogers. Despite the game's high popularity, Pajitnov did not receive royalties from Tetris prior to this time, with the Soviet government being the only Russians who had made money from it. [4]
Pajitnov was born to Soviet 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]
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 Soviet 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]
Pajitnov moved to the United States in 1991, was naturalized as a U.S. citizen and now lives in Clyde Hill, Washington. [2] [30] He has a wife, Nina, with whom he had two sons named Peter and Dmitri. [7] [31]
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]
Title | Year | Platform(s) | Role(s) |
---|---|---|---|
Tetris | 1985 | Electronika 60, IBM-PC | Original concept (with Vadim Gerasimov & Dmitry Pavlovsky) |
Muddle | 1989 | Electronika 60, IBM-PC | Designer (Published by JV Dialogue) [33] |
Welltris | 1989 | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Macintosh & ZX Spectrum | Designer (with Andrei Sgenov) |
Faces | 1990 | Amiga, DOS, Macintosh | Original concept (with Vladimir Pokhilko) |
Hatris | 1990 | TurboGrafx-16, Arcade, Game Boy & NES | Original 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 | 1993 | DOS | Original concept (with Vladimir Pokhilko) |
Knight Moves | 1995 | Windows | Idealist |
Ice & Fire | 1995 | Windows, Macintosh | Original concept (with Vladimir Pokhilko) |
Tetrisphere | 1997 | Nintendo 64 | Contributor |
Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection | 1997 | Windows & Game Boy Color | Designer |
Microsoft Pandora's Box | 1999 | Windows | Designer |
Microsoft A.I. Puzzler | 2001 | Windows | Designer |
Hexic | 2003 | Windows | Original concept and design |
Hexic HD | 2005 | Xbox 360 | Original concept and design |
Dwice | 2006 | Windows | Designer |
Hexic 2 | 2007 | Xbox 360 | Designer |
Marbly | 2013 | iOS | Original concept and design |
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]
Tetris is a Soviet puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. It has been published by several companies on more than 65 platforms, setting a Guinness world record for the most ported game. 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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
The Tetris Company, Inc. (TTC) is the manager and licensor for the Tetris brand to third parties. It is an American company based in Nevada and 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.
Hatris is a puzzle video game developed by Alexey Pajitnov and Vladimir Pokhilko of ParaGraph for Bullet-Proof Software. An arcade version was manufactured by Video System.
Vladimir Ivanovich Pokhilko was a Soviet-Russian entrepreneur. He was an academic who specialized in human–computer interaction.
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.
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.
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.
Pandora's Box is a 1999 video game created by Alexey Pajitnov for Microsoft.
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.
Tetris Classic is a 1992 puzzle video game developed and published by Spectrum HoloByte for DOS systems. It is an adaptation of the 1985 Soviet video game Tetris, which was first released in North America in 1988. Spectrum HoloByte subsequently developed a series of annual spin-off titles for Tetris, and intended to take advantage of improvements in computer technology since the original game's release; for Tetris Classic, they showcased the Video Graphics Array (VGA) standard via illustrations depicting scenes from Alexander Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Ludmila, as well as a soundtrack consisting of selections from Mikhail Glinka's opera adaptation of the poem. The game additionally includes competitive and cooperative two-player modes and an option to set a time limit on games. The game received mixed critical commentary; while reviewers appreciated the enhanced presentation and new multiplayer modes, they noted that the gameplay was unchanged from the original version.
BreakThru! is a tile-matching puzzle video game released for Windows and MS-DOS in 1994. It was created by Steve Fry for the Japanese company ZOO Corporation and published by Spectrum HoloByte for the North American market.
Tetris 99 is a 2019 puzzle video game developed by Arika and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch, and is an online multiplayer adaptation of Tetris. Players move and drop puzzle pieces called tetrominoes onto a playing board, and must clear rows by filling them completely with pieces. Players lose if tetrominoes overflow off the top of the board or their next piece is not able to spawn because it overlaps an existing block on the playfield. Matches contain 99 players, who send additional rows to other players' boards by clearing a row on their own board; whoever is the last man standing without an overflowed board wins the match.
Tetris, also known as classic Tetris, is a puzzle video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) released in 1989, based on Tetris (1985) by Alexey Pajitnov. It was published after a legal battle between Nintendo and Atari Games, who had already released a Tetris NES port under a license that was found to be invalid. Bullet-Proof Software had previously published Tetris for the Family Computer in December 1988, while Nintendo had published Tetris for the Game Boy earlier in 1989.
Tetris is a 2023 biographical thriller film based on true events around the race to license and patent the video game Tetris from Russia in the late 1980s during the Cold War. It was directed by Jon S. Baird and written by Noah Pink. The film stars Taron Egerton, Nikita Efremov, Sofia Lebedeva, and Anthony Boyle.
Tetris Holding, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc., 863 F.Supp.2d 394, was a 2012 American legal case related to copyright of video games, confirming that a game's look and feel can be protected under copyright law. Tetris Holding is a company that holds the copyright to the original Tetris game from 1985 and licenses those rights to game developers. Xio Interactive is a game developer that released Mino in 2009, a mobile game based on the gameplay of Tetris. Mino was downloaded millions of times, and Tetris Holding filed a DMCA notice and eventually a lawsuit against Xio for copyright infringement.
Ice & Fire is a 1995 first-person shooter puzzle video game from Zombie Studios.
He received his Master's degree in Applied Mathematics from the Moscow Institute of Aviation