Alexey Pajitnov
Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov (Алексей Леонидович Пажитнов, regularly Aleksei Leonidovich Pazhitnov, born 1956) is a computer engineer from Russia now 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 centre.
Biography
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]. The Soviet bureaucracy licensed and managed Tetris, and advertised it 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. He 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[2].Pajitnov will be collaborating with them to release a new line of puzzle games.
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 |
| 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 |
| Pandora's Box | 1999 | Windows | Designer |
| Hexic HD | 2005 | Xbox 360 (Pre-loaded on every Xbox 360 hard drive) |
Designer |
| Dwice | 2006 | Windows | Designer |
| Hexic 2 | 2007 | Xbox 360 (Sold through Xbox Live Arcade) |
Designer |
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]
References
- Angela Gunn (December 9–15, 1999). "Game boy". Seattle Weekly.
Notes
External links
- Alexey Pajitnov profile at MobyGames
- Tetris - From Russia with Love, BBC documentary (website).
- Video Interview with Alexey Pajitnov at GameZombie.tv