Alexey Pajitnov
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Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov (Алексей Леонидович Пажитнов, transliterated as Aleksei Leonidovich Pazhitnov, born 1956) is a computer engineer from Russia now[update] living in the United States, who developed the popular game Tetris while working for the Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, a Soviet government-founded R&D center.
Despite being the developer of Tetris, Pajitnov himself made almost no money out of it, because due to the nature of Communism and the Soviet system, everything he made was owned by the community. Thus his work was distributed for free all over the USSR, and the Eastern block countries.
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[edit] Biography
Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris with the help of Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov in 1985. The game, first available in the Soviet Union, appeared in the West in 1986. Pajitnov also created the lesser known sequel to Tetris, entitled Welltris, which has the same principle but in a three dimensional environment where you see the "board" from above[1]. Tetris was licensed and managed by Soviet company Elorg which had been founded specially for this purpose, and advertised with the slogan "From Russia with Love" (on NES: "From Russia With Fun!"). Because he was employed by the Soviet government, Pajitnov did not receive royalties. Pajitnov, together with Vladimir Pokhilko, moved to the United States in 1991 and founded the Tetris Company with Henk Rogers.
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.
He began working for Microsoft in October 1996. Pajitnov worked for 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. He left Microsoft in 2005.
On August 18, 2005 WildSnake Software announced Pajitnov will be collaborating with them to release a new line of puzzle games.[2]
[edit] Works
| Game Name | First Released | System Name(s) | Pajitnov's Role(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tetris | 1985 | Electronica 60, IBM-PC | Original Concept (with Vadim Gerasimov & Dmitry Pavlovsky) |
| Welltris | 1989 | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Macintosh & ZX Spectrum | Designer (with Andrei Sgenov) |
| Faces | 1990 | 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 |
| El-Fish | 1993 | DOS | Original Concept (with Vladimir Pokhilko) |
| Wild Snake | 1994 | Game Boy & Super NES | Designer |
| BreakThru! | 1994 | PC & Super NES | Designer |
| Knight Moves | 1995 | Microsoft Windows | Idealist |
| Ice & Fire | 1995 | Windows, Macintosh & PlayStation | Original Concept (with Vladimir Pokhilko) |
| Clockwerx | 1995 | Microsoft Windows | Original Concept |
| 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 HD | 2005 | Xbox 360 (Pre-loaded on every Xbox 360 hard drive) |
Original Concept and design |
| Dwice | 2006 | Windows | Designer |
| Hexic 2 | 2007 | Xbox 360 (Sold through Xbox Live Arcade) |
Designer |
[edit] Awards and recognition
- On March 7, 2007, Alexey Pajitnov received the Game Developers Choice Awards First Penguin Award. The award was given for pioneering the casual games market.[3]
- On June 24, 2009, Alexey Pajitnov received the honorary award at the LARA - Der Deutsche Games Award in Cologne, Germany.[4]
[edit] References
- Angela Gunn (December 9–15, 1999). "Game boy". Seattle Weekly.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Screenshots from Welltris, retrieved 31-10-2007
- ^ WildSnake newsletter august 18 2005, retrieved 31-10-2007
- ^ "2007 Game Developers Choice Awards To Honor Miyamoto, Pajitnov". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=12732. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.
- ^ "News report on Deutsche Games Award 2009". Heise.de. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Games-Award-ehrt-Tetris-Erfinder-Paschitnow--/meldung/141061. Retrieved on 2009-06-25.
[edit] External links
- Alexey Pajitnov profile at MobyGames
- Tetris - From Russia with Love, BBC documentary (website).
- Video Interview with Alexey Pajitnov at GameZombie.tv
- Tetris Creator Claims Free and Open Source Software Destroys the Market.
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