Alexey Pajitnov
| Alexey Pajitnov | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Alexey Pajitnov in Barcelona, Spain, 14 June 2008 | |
| Born |
Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov March 14, 1956 Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Residence | USA |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Occupation |
Video game designer Computer engineer |
| Known for | Developer of Tetris |
| Awards |
Game Developers Choice Awards First Penguin Award LARA - Der Deutsche Games Award |
Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov (Russian: Алексе́й Леони́дович Па́житнов, [ɐlʲɪˈksʲej lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ ˈpaʐɨtnəf]; Alekséi Leonídovich Pázhitnov; born 14 March 1956) is a Russian video game designer and computer engineer who developed the popular game Tetris while working for the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, a Soviet government-founded R&D center.
He only started to get royalties from his creation in 1996 when he and Henk Rogers formed The Tetris Company.[1]
Biography
Pajitnov was born on March 14, 1956 in Moscow. As a child, he was a fan of puzzles and played with pentomino toys.[2] In creating Tetris, he drew inspiration from these toys.[2]
Pajitnov created Tetris with the help of Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov in 1984. 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 the player sees the playing area from above.[3] Tetris was licensed and managed by Soviet company ELORG which had been founded especially 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 later, in 1996, 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 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.
On August 18, 2005, WildSnake Software announced Pajitnov will be collaborating with them to release a new line of puzzle games.[4]
Works
| Game Name | First Released | System Name(s) | Pajitnov's Role(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tetris | 1984 | Electronika 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 | 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 |
| El-Fish | 1993 | DOS | Original concept (with Vladimir Pokhilko) |
| Wild Snake / Super Snakey | 1994 | Game Boy, Super Nintendo | Original concept |
| Knight Moves | 1995 | Microsoft Windows | Idealist |
| Ice & Fire | 1995 | Windows, Macintosh & PlayStation | 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 (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 |
| Marbly | 2013 | iOS (Sold through Appstore) | Original concept and design |
Awards and recognition
- In 1996, GameSpot named him as the fourth most influential computer game developer of all time.[5]
- On March 7, 2007, he received the Game Developers Choice Awards First Penguin Award. The award was given for pioneering the casual games market.[6]
- On June 24, 2009, he received the honorary award at the LARA - Der Deutsche Games Award in Cologne, Germany.[7]
- 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."[8]
See also
- BreakThru!, video game endorsed by Pajitnov
- ClockWerx, video game endorsed by Pajitnov
References
- ↑ "Tetris: a history". Atarihq.com. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
- 1 2 "Meet the men who built the only perfect video game: Tetris". Digital Trends. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
- ↑ "Screenshots from Welltris, retrieved 31-10-2007". Mds.mdh.se. Archived from the original on 2006-04-22. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
- ↑ "WildSnake newsletter August 18 2005, retrieved 31-10-2007". Wildsnake.com. 2005-08-18. Archived from the original on 12 November 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
- ↑ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2005-02-21. Archived from the original on February 21, 2005. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
- ↑ "2007 Game Developers Choice Awards To Honor Miyamoto, Pajitnov". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 7 March 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
- ↑ "News report on Deutsche Games Award 2009". Heise.de. Archived from the original on 26 June 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
- ↑ Reilly, Luke. "5 Memorable Video Game Industry One-Hit Wonders - Games Feature at IGN". IGN. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alexey Pajitnov. |
- 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.