All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Video Games Conquered Pop Culture
by Harold Goldberg · 5 Apr 2011 · 329pp · 106,831 words
royalties, the videogame world was still full of carpetbaggers and snake oil salesmen. These Bastards of the Universe were game developer manipulators extraordinaire. And young Alexey Pajitnov, the man responsible for the biggest game phenomenon since Miyamoto’s Super Mario Bros., was about to be ripped off. If this had happened to
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a US developer like Nolan Bushnell, he would have yelled and moaned about unscrupulous business practices that were akin to torture. But Alexey Pajitnov, born in Soviet era Moscow, to middle class parents who were writers, wasn’t like that. Pajitnov was steeped in popular art from an early
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anymore; he was talking games to anyone who would lend an ear. Everything looked brighter then. Just as Henk Rogers envisioned the unlimited potential in Alexey Pajitnov’s Tetris, Braun saw the potential in SimCity (the game’s new name). He and Wright went on to retrieve the rights from Broderbund and to
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_asks/vol1_page1.jsp 5. FALLING BLOCKS, RISING FORTUNES Based on long interviews I had with Henk Rogers, early Nintendo maven and spokesperson Howard Phillips, Alexey Pajitnov, and Minoru Arakawa, and conversations with Jason Kapulka and others who spoke on background. 1 Russia was not an easy place to live while Pajitnov
Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America
by Giles Slade · 14 Apr 2006 · 384pp · 89,250 words
. In a series of clever negotiations and subsequent lawsuits, Nintendo kept its American and European competitors from using the world’s most popular video game, Alexey Pajitnov’s Tetris. Nintendo then released a flas y, updated Game Boy version. David Sheff, author of a corporate history of Nintendo, wrote, “There is no way
Game Over Press Start to Continue
by David Sheff and Andy Eddy · 1 Jan 1993 · 500pp · 156,079 words
Van Horn. In Japan: Keisuke Ono, Yukio Miyazaki, Tsunekazu Ishihara, Yoshio Ito, Koh Shimizu (Sony), and Nishi Saimaru. Special appreciation goes to Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of “Tetris.” Also to many sources who spoke under the condition of anonymity. At Random House, I would like to acknowledge the contributions of Deborah Aiges
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s ownership of the rights appeared dubious. This led Arakawa to send an emissary to the Soviet Union to attempt to contact the inventor of “Tetris.” Alexey Pajitnov had the build of a medium-sized bear. His face was framed by auburn hair and a harshly clipped beard. He had grown up
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the computer to recognize the human voice. Inevitably, he also created games and puzzles. To most of us, puzzles are a diversion, but for Alexey Pajitnov they are metaphors and mirrors that reflect nature, emotion, and patterns of thought. The young mathematician had turned to computers with the belief that they
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had a revelation when he got his hands on a computer for the first time. “He saw the computer and forgot about the other world,” Alexey Pajitnov says. The wiry-haired Gerasimov, with enormous blue eyes behind thick-lensed glasses, was bean-thin and tall, with a slight stoop, and often
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Soviets agreed to this as well. They also noted that the deal was for the IBM-compatible version of “Tetris” only; they would consider non-IBM versions of “Tetris” in the future. Alexey Pajitnov now claims he indicated only that the deal sounded good. He did not mean to give Stein a firm
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of the room was a massive wooden slab, a table that could have seated fifty, across which Stein faced six Russians. One of them was Alexey Pajitnov, the chain-smoking creator of the game. Trying to ally himself with Pajitnov, Stein said, “Gentlemen, in our country the most important person is
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adversary in any negotiation. In late 1988 Belikov became the man to charm, outmaneuver, or otherwise win over in all future “Tetris” deals. It was easier said than done. As Alexey Pajitnov discovered, “He is an excellent actor.” Stein found him “instantly dislikable; a creep.” Rogers continued to try to push Stein
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to head to Moscow again. Unbeknownst to one another, the three men flew to the U.S.S.R. at exactly the same time. Alexey Pajitnov could tell instantly that Henk Rogers was a man after his own heart. Of all of those he had dealt with, from Stein to the
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were escorted into a conference room with high ceilings and shaded windows at Elorg’s office. There they were introduced to the game’s designer, Alexey Pajitnov, the Elorg chief, Nikolai Belikov, and some of his associates. Pajitnov attempted to size up Arakawa and Lincoln, but they were “like people from
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or trademark on the watch. Arakawa politely complimented the Soviets on the product. After the initial meeting, Arakawa and Lincoln took Huhs, Rogers, and Alexey Pajitnov out for dinner at the only Japanese restaurant in Moscow. It had no liquor license, so a waitress was dispatched to a store and returned
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to the highest legal and political levels. It was too late. That evening, Arakawa, Lincoln, Rogers, and Huhs celebrated at the Japanese restaurant with Alexey Pajitnov. Sitting at the Teppan Yaki bar, they asked the Japanese waitress if she would go to the liquor store for beer. “Finnish beer?” they heard
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copyright on the “audiovisual work, the underlying computer code and the soundtrack” for “Tetris” for the Nintendo system. Atari did not inform the Copyright Office that its version of “Tetris” was simply a spruced-up version of Alexey Pajitnov’s game, or that Nintendo had informed Atari that it held the exclusive rights
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, Lincoln, together with Huhs, Kirby, and Gunther, continued to interrogate each of the principals involved in the “Tetris” negotiations, wanting to be certain their case was airtight. Before it was all over, Alexey Pajitnov would tell his story a few dozen times. When he was satisfied, Lincoln flew to Japan to confer
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the Soviets saw they could make a lot more money from Nintendo, so they found a loophole and pleaded ignorance. This was in spite of Alexey Pajitnov’s insistence that the deal never was meant to include more than PCs; Pajitnov, the Atari contingent charged, was Nintendo’s dupe, instructed on
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a modest level, Pajitnov’s dream that his game would be a bridge between cultures was realized. “Tetris” contest winners were awarded a ten-day tour of Kiev, Leningrad, and Moscow, “home of Alexey Pajitnov.” Nintendo Power ran features about his homeland, and kids who played the game saw that something wonderful
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the other part of his promise by staying home.) The journey of Alexey Pajitnov’s program from Moscow to most places on the globe—and to space and back—left a number of casualties in its wake. Robert Stein says, “ ‘Tetris’ made enemies out of friends and corrupted people left, right, and
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$80 million. Counting Game Boy, the figure is in the billions of dollars (in both 1991 and 1992, Game Boy earned nearly $2 billion). Alexey Pajitnov made very little money directly from “Tetris” royalties or advances. Elorg had made and then canceled a side deal that would have granted him the
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long before acknowledged to be the most important single asset of a video-game company: “one true genius.” It needed a Sigeru Miyamoto or an Alexey Pajitnov. While Sega hoped for a “genius” to emerge, it got an enormous boost from its first third-party licensee. Although its base of 1
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1989 as a way to fund new projects and help his friend, Alexey Pajitnov. Rogers’s joint venture worked with Russian companies such as Doka, the trading company that handled the rights to “Welltris,” Pajitnov’s quasi-three-dimensional version of “Tetris.” A New York Times reviewer of “Welltris” noted the circuitous
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in the past were not invented by engineers in the R&D labs of the big companies. “Tetris” was created by a mathematician, and “Super Mario Bros.” by an artist. Now the Alexey Pajitnovs and Sigeru Miyamotos of the future were more likely to be able to do business with 3DO rather
Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked
by Adam L. Alter · 15 Feb 2017 · 331pp · 96,989 words
to succeed. This sense of hardship is an ingredient in many addictive experiences, including one of the most addictive simple games of all time: Tetris. — In 1984, Alexey Pajitnov was working at a computer lab at the Russian Academy of Science in Moscow. Many of the lab’s scientists worked on side projects
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say, ‘good job’—you didn’t go and buy the new iPhone; you haven’t upgraded your computer.” — Not everyone avoids temptation so assiduously. Like Alexey Pajitnov thirty years earlier, an Irish game designer named Terry Cavanagh played one of his own games incessantly. Cavanagh is a prolific designer, but he’s
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, no. 6192 (July 2014): 75–77. In 1984, Alexey: On Pajitnov and Tetris: Jeffrey Goldsmith, “This Is Your Brain on Tetris,” Wired, May 1, 1994, archive.wired.com/wired/archive/2.05/tetris.html; Laurence Dodds, “The Healing Power of Tetris Has Its Dark Side,” Telegraph, July 7, 2015, www.telegraph.co.uk/technology
Fun Inc.
by Tom Chatfield · 13 Dec 2011 · 266pp · 67,272 words
achieved can be found in what would be many people’s nomination for the greatest single-player game of all time, Tetris. Devised in 1984 by the Russian computer scientist Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris features just seven pieces, each composed of four blocks (collectively known as ‘tetriminoes’). The player has to fit them together into
Marx at the Arcade: Consoles, Controllers, and Class Struggle
by Jamie Woodcock · 17 Jun 2019 · 236pp · 62,158 words
a total of just under 120 million units.63 The original Game Boy came bundled with Tetris, the most successful videogame to date with an estimated 170 million sales.64 The game was originally created by Alexey Pajitnov and was leaked out from the Soviet Union—an ironic success considering it came from
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You to Celebrate for Its 30th Anniversary,” Polygon, May 21, 2014, www.polygon.com/2014/5/21/5737488/tetris-turns-30-alexey-pajitnov. 65“Yearly Market Report,” Famitsu Weekly, June 21, 1996. 66Nintendo, “Historical Data.” 67“Video Game History Timeline.” 68Sony Computer Entertainment, “PlayStation Cumulative Production Shipments of
Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction
by Derek Thompson · 7 Feb 2017 · 416pp · 108,370 words
, too, are often puzzles whose interactivity offers the wondrous click of recognition or jolt of accomplishment. The most popular video game of all time is Tetris. Alexey Pajitnov was a twenty-eight-year-old computer scientist working at a Soviet R&D center in Moscow when, after buying a set of funny-shaped
Hacking Vim 7.2
by Kim Schulz · 29 Apr 2010 · 236pp · 67,823 words
am going to mention in this appendix is a real classic—Tetris, where blocks of different sizes and shapes fall down and need to be placed properly to produce complete rows. This game can be dated back to 1985; the Russian Alexey Pajitnov designed and created it. Since then, the game has been
Thinking Machines: The Inside Story of Artificial Intelligence and Our Race to Build the Future
by Luke Dormehl · 10 Aug 2016 · 252pp · 74,167 words
end goal in and of themselves. Not only were researchers’ skills in demand, but there was real money on offer too. One such beneficiary was Alexey Pajitnov, a 28-year-old AI researcher then working for the Soviet Academy of Sciences’ Computer Centre in Moscow. In June 1984, Pajitnov created a simple