WildSnake (USA)
Alexéy Leonídovich Pájitnov (Russian: Алексе́й Леони́дович Па́житнов, Alekséi Leonídovich Pázhitnov; born 14 March 1956) is a Russian computer engineer, currently residing in the United States. Pajitnov 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.
Despite being the developer of Tetris, Pajitnov did not receive royalties from his creation, as rights were owned by his employer, the Soviet government, which distributed it throughout the USSR and Eastern Europe. He only started to get royalties from his creation in 1996 when he and Henk Rogers formed The Tetris Company.
Despite being the developer of Tetris, Pajitnov did not receive royalties from his creation, as rights were owned by his employer, the Soviet government, which distributed it throughout the USSR and Eastern Europe. He only started to get royalties from his creation in 1996 when he and Henk Rogers formed The Tetris Company.
WildSnake (USA)
Technical
CPU
- maincpu 5A22 (@ 21 Mhz)
- soundcpu SPC700 (@ 1 Mhz)
Chipset
- SNES Custom DSP (SPC700)
Display
- Orientation Yoko
- Resolution 255 x 225
- Frequency 60.098476 Hz
Controlers
- Number of players 2
- Number of buttons 6
- Kind of controler
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
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WildSnake (USA) Screenshots
Clones of WildSnake (USA)
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 the player sees the playing area 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 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 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.
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.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 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 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.
Works
| Game Name | First Released | System Name(s) | Pajitnov's Role(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tetris | 1984 | 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 |
| Wordtris | 1991 | DOS, Game Boy, Mac OS, SNES | Designer |
| El-Fish | 1993 | DOS | Original concept (with Vladimir Pokhilko) |
| Wild Snake | 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 |
Awards and recognition
- In 1996, GameSpot named him as the fourth most influential computer game developer of all time.
- On March 7, 2007, he received the Game Developers Choice Awards First Penguin Award. The award was given for pioneering the casual games market.
- On June 24, 2009, he received the honorary award at the LARA - Der Deutsche Games Award in Cologne, Germany.
- 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."
See also
- Breakthru!, video game endorsed by Pajitnov
- ClockWerx, video game endorsed by Pajitnov
