Alexey Pajitnov

Template:Infobox engineer

**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 Center of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, a Soviet government-founded R&D center.

Despite being the developer of Tetris, Pajitnov did not profit from his creation; in accordance with USSR copyright law at the time of the game's publication, rights were owned by the government and it was thus distributed freely throughout the USSR and Eastern Bloc countries. He only started profiting from his creation by 1996 when he and Henk Rogers formed The Tetris Company.

## 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. *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.

## 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.
* On June 24, 2009, Alexey Pajitnov received the honorary award at the LARA - Der Deutsche Games Award in Cologne, Germany.

## References

1. ↑ 4 maart 2009. "Tetris 1985 History of Games part 07". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zidxG-ah3y8. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
2. ↑ "Screenshots from Welltris, retrieved 31-10-2007". Mds.mdh.se. http://www.mds.mdh.se/~frv95pen/game/tetris/welltris/. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
3. ↑ "WildSnake newsletter august 18 2005, retrieved 31-10-2007". Wildsnake.com. 2005-08-18. http://www.wildsnake.com/newsletter/2005-08-18/. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
4. ↑ "2007 Game Developers Choice Awards To Honor Miyamoto, Pajitnov". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news\_index.php?story=12732. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
5. ↑ "News report on Deutsche Games Award 2009". Heise.de. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Games-Award-ehrt-Tetris-Erfinder-Paschitnow--/meldung/141061. Retrieved 2009-06-25.

## Notes

* Angela Gunn (December 9–15, 1999). "Game boy". *Seattle Weekly*.

## 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.

 Alternative names
 Short description

Template:Tetris

ar:أليكسي باجيتنوف
bg:Алексей Пажитнов
ca:Alexey Pajitnov
cs:Alexej Pažitnov
de:Alexei Leonidowitsch Paschitnow
es:Alekséi Pázhitnov
fa:الکسی پاژیتنوف
fi:Aleksei Pažitnov
fr:Alexei Pajitnov
he:אלכסיי פז'יטנוב
hr:Aleksej Pažitnov
it:Aleksej Leonidovič Pažitnov
ja:アレクセイ・パジトノフ
ko:알렉세이 파지트노프
nl:Alexey Pajitnov
no:Aleksej Pazjitnov
pl:Aleksiej Pażytnow
pt:Alexey Pajitnov
ro:Alexei Pajitnov
ru:Пажитнов, Алексей Леонидович
sh:Aleksej Pažitnov
sl:Aleksej Pažitnov
sr:Aleksej Pažitnov
sv:Aleksej Pazjitnov
tr:Aleksey Pajitnov
zh:阿列克谢·帕基特诺夫