Alexey Pazhitnov

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:Pazhitnov alexey.jpg Alexey Pazhitnov (Алексей Пажитнов, born 1956, Russia), whose last name is sometimes transliterated Pajitnov, is a Russian computer engineer, who developed the popular game Tetris while working for the Computer Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, a Soviet government-founded R&D centre.

1 Biography
2 Works
3 References
4 External links

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Biography

Pazhitnov 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. Pazhitnov also created the lesser known sequel to Tetris, entitled Welltris, which has the same principle but in a three dimensional environment were you see the "board" from above. Screen shots are available here The Soviet bureaucracy licensed and managed Tetris, and advertised it with the slogan "From Russia with Love". Because he was employed by the Soviet government, Pazhitnov did not receive royalties. Pazhitnov, together with Vladimir Pokhilko, moved to USA 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 Collection Puzzle Pack and MSN Mind Aerobics. As of 2004, he is part of the Microsoft's Zone Group, which creates games for MSN.

On August 18 2005 WildSnake Software announced[1] Pajitnov will be collaborating with them and releasing a new line up of puzzle games.

Most recently, Pazhitnov's new, enhanced version of Hexic, "Hexic HD," was included with every new Xbox 360 Premium package.

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Works

Game Name	First Released	System Name(s)	Pazhitnov's Role(s)
Tetris	1985	Electronica 60, IBM-PC	Original Concept (with Vadim Gerasimov & Dmitry Pavlovsky)</br>
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	PC, Arcade, Game Boy & NES	Original Concept
El-Fish	1993	DOS	Original Concept (with Vladimir Pokhilko)</br>
Breakthru!	1994	DOS, SNES & Windows 3.x	Designer
Knight Moves	1995	Microsoft Windows	Idealist
Pandora's Box	1999	Windows	Designer
Microsoft Puzzle Collection Entertainment Pack	2000	Windows & Game Boy Color	Designer
Hexic HD	2005	Xbox 360 (Pre-loaded on every Xbox 360 hard drive)	Designer
Dwice	2006	Windows	Designer