Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov is a Russian and American computer engineer and video game designer. 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. After Tetris was released internationally in 1987, he released a sequel in 1989, entitled Welltris.
Tetris is a 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.
Henk Rogers is a Dutch Indonesian 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 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.
In video game parlance, a famiclone is a hardware clone of the Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System. They are designed to replicate the workings of, and play games designed for, the Famicom and NES. Hundreds of unauthorized clones and unlicensed game copies have been made available since the height of the NES popularity in the late 1980s. The technology employed in such clones has evolved over the years: while the earliest clones feature a printed circuit board containing custom or third party integrated circuits (ICs), more recent (post-1996) clones utilize single-chip designs, with a custom ASIC which simulates the functionality of the original hardware, and often includes one or more on-board games. Most devices originate in China and Taiwan, and less commonly South Korea. Outside China and Taiwan, they are mostly widespread across emerging markets of developing countries.
"Korobeiniki" is a nineteenth-century Russian folk song that tells the story of a meeting between a korobeinik (peddler) and a girl, describing their haggling over goods in a metaphor for seduction.
Dendy is a series of home video game consoles that were unofficial hardware clones of Nintendo's third-generation Famicom system. Produced from late 1992, Dendy consoles were manufactured in Taiwan using Chinese components on behalf of the Russian company Steepler. These consoles were primarily sold in Russia. Over time, production expanded to include assembly at the Chinese Subor factory and the Russian Tensor factory in Dubna, Moscow Oblast. The Dendy consoles were based on Japanese hardware designs and cartridge formats, which differed slightly from their American counterparts.
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 Dubna 48K is a Soviet clone of the ZX Spectrum home computer launched in 1991. It was based on an analogue of the Zilog Z80 microprocessor. Its name comes from Dubna, a town near Moscow, where it was produced on the "TENSOR" instrument factory, and "48K" stands for 48 KBs of RAM.
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.
A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game, which is targeted at hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They generally involve simpler rules, shorter sessions, and require less learned skill. They do not expect familiarity with a standard set of mechanics, controls, and tropes.
Arika is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It was formed in 1995 by former Capcom employees. It was originally known as ARMtech K.K, but was later named Arika. The name of the company is the reverse of the name of the company's founder, Akira Nishitani, who along with Akira Yasuda, created Street Fighter II. Arika's first game was Street Fighter EX. It was successful and was followed up with two updates, and its two sequels Street Fighter EX2 and Street Fighter EX3. In 2018, they released a spiritual successor to both Street Fighter EX and Fighting Layer, titled Fighting EX Layer. From 2019 to 2021, Arika collaborated with Nintendo to create the battle royale games Tetris 99, Super Mario Bros. 35, and with Bandai Namco for Pac-Man 99. Arika is also known for the Tetris: The Grand Master series, the Dr. Mario series, starting with Dr. Mario Online Rx, and the Endless Ocean series.
Tetris is a 1989 puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. 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. It was released for the Nintendo 3DS' Virtual Console in December 2011 without multiplayer functionality. The game was released on the Nintendo Switch Online service in February 2023.
Micro Genius is a brand name used for Famicom clone consoles marketed in several countries around the world, particularly in areas where Nintendo consoles were not readily available, including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South America, Eastern Europe, South Africa and East Asian countries excluding Japan and South Korea. The name was initially and most famously used by TXC Corporation for its range of Taiwanese-made Famicom clones, software and accessories, but later passed to other companies and remains in use today on rebranded Chinese Famicom clones and LCD games.
Tetris Online, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher. The company was the exclusive online licensee of Tetris in North America and Europe. It was founded in January 2006 by Nintendo of America founder and former president Minoru Arakawa, video game designer and publisher Henk Rogers and Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov. Tetris Online, Inc. is the developer of social games Tetris Battle and Tetris Friends. In March 2013, Tetris Online, Inc. laid off 40% of its staff.
Pegasus is a clone of the Nintendo Famicom that was sold in the Czech Republic, Poland, Indonesia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the early to mid 1990s.
Tetris Ultimate is a puzzle video game developed by American studio SoMa Play and published by Ubisoft. Ubisoft partnered with The Tetris Company to develop the game to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Tetris franchise.
Tetris 2, known in Japan as Tetris Flash, is a puzzle video game developed by Tose and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was ported to the Game Boy in 1993 and Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994 by Bullet Proof Software.
Tetris, also known as classic Tetris, is a puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Based on Tetris (1985) by Alexey Pajitnov, it was released after a legal battle between Nintendo and Atari Games, who had previously released a Tetris port under an invalid license. Bullet-Proof Software had previously released Tetris for the Family Computer in December 1988, while Nintendo had released 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. The plot follows Henk Rogers of Bullet-Proof Software, who becomes interested in a game during an electronics show. Desperate to obtain handheld console rights for Nintendo, he takes trips between Japan, the United States, and Russia to win legal battles over the game's ownership.
