Alexey Pajitnov
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Engadget Podcast: 'Tetris' creator chats about the 'Tetris' movie
We chat with Tetris's creator, Alexey Pajitnov, and Henk Rogers, the man who helped bring it out of the Soviet Union.
Apple’s 'Tetris' movie trades real-life drama for spy fantasies
Apple's 'Tetris' movie is a fun romp, but it could have been so much more.
Tetris celebrates 30 years as the world's favorite puzzle game
After three decades, billions of points and far too many of those useless Z-shaped monstrosities that always arrive at the worst possible moment, the universally-beloved puzzle game Tetris is now celebrating its thirtieth birthday. Originally conceived by Alexey Pajitnov during the final years of the Cold War, Tetris did what so many other Soviet creations could never manage: It escaped the Iron Curtain and proved an even bigger hit in the international market, reportedly selling more than 150 million copies since it debuted in 1984. Nintendo owes much of the success of the original GameBoy - and its success as a company - to Pajitnov's puzzler, as it was the handheld's "must own" game from its debut all the way up until 1996, when that title was usurped by a certain fuzzy, electric rat. "I never imagined Tetris was going to be this successful, but the simple, yet addicting nature of Tetris still has me playing it a few times every week," said Pajitnov. "I meet fans from around the world who are also as passionate about Tetris as me, and there is no doubt in my mind Tetris will continue to expand and bring its classic appeal to new players in new ways and on new devices, whatever they may be." To officially celebrate this milestone, Ubisoft plans to debut Tetris Ultimate on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC later this year. [Image: Nintendo]
Happy 30th birthday, Tetris
It's been 30 years since Alexey Pajitnov crafted the world's most popular game of all time, while as an employee of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Tetris spent the next 10 years bouncing onto every computer and arcade machine, including selling 33 million copies on the Game Boy alone. Pajitnov, however, saw almost none of the success of his creation, since the rights to his game wouldn't revert back to him until 1996. But by that point, Tetris' place in world history was secure, and the title has since gone on to sell 100 million copies, not to mention popping up in some rather unexpected places. Hop on over to the forums to share your favorite Tetris memories.
Tetris creator debuts iOS puzzler Marbly
This week brings the App Store release of Marbly, an iOS puzzle game designed by famed Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov. Marbly is a match-three puzzler in which the object is to remove all marbles from the game board in as few moves as possible. The game includes over 180 puzzles across three gameplay modes, and offers Game Center achievements and leaderboards. Marbly is developed by WildSnake Software, itself named after another Pajitnov creation. WildSnake notes that Marbly is the first game in a series of planned mobile app collaborations with Pajitnov.
Pajitnov has worked to perfect multiplayer Tetris for a decade
Here's a logistical dilemma for the ages: What's the best way to incorporate multiplayer into the fast-paced puzzle action of Tetris? It's a question that's been answered in plenty of the game's incarnations -- but series creator Alexey Pajitnov seems to think that there's still a better way yet to be offered. In a recent interview with Gamasutra, he revealed that he's been tinkering with multiplayer versions of Tetris for "more than 10 years." Pajitnov explained that, due to the game's frantic speed, players "have no brain resources to observe what the other people are doing." His ideal multiplayer solution would be one in which players "could really see what the other people do and take their gameplay and their achievement and their status in the game really [into] account." We'll solve your decade-long predicament right now, Mr. Pajitnov: Bullet time. Yeah, you just sit and think about that one for a while.
Interview: Alexey Pajitnov, creator of Tetris
Alexey Pajitnov (right) with Dutch games publisher Henk Rogers, who helped place the game on every Game Boy. With Project Natal, Uncharted 2, Metroid: Other M, Scribblenauts, and everything else going on at E3, the 25th anniversary of Tetris almost went unnoticed this past week, which is a real shame. We met up with Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of the game, and sat down with him to mark the occasion. Tetris may very well be the "remember when?" dividing line among video game generations, and it was quite an honor to meet the man behind the game that's become one of the cornerstones of the industry. You can listen to the full audio of the interview below, and head beyond the break for probably the world's shortest documentary, entitled "The Tetris Effect." Seriously, it's only three minutes long. How you can sum up the impact of a game that's still fun to play and appears on every major and minor platform around is beyond us. Maybe one of you readers will feel inspired to do an in-depth Ken Burns style documentary on it someday. He's one of the sweetest people we've met in the industry, and despite having invented one of the most prolific games in the world, he's very humble and down to earth. Give it a listen and try to imagine a world without Tetris. %Gallery-65424%
Interspecies gaming hits GDC
Sure, playing games against other people is fun, but three developers at this year's Game Developer's Conference were challenged to create games for humans and other species to play -- and the results were just as wild as you'd expect. Alexey Pajitnov, the inventor of Tetris, unveiled a concept called Dolphin Ride that features paintball-armed dolphins racing (and attacking) each other to hit as many targets as possible, while Wizardry developer Brenda Brathwaite showed off an actual game called OneHundredDogs.com, due to launch on February 29th. The social-network-based game pits 50 dogs and their owners against each other in various challenges to become the "alpha dog" of their communities -- who will then lead the quest to find 50 hidden virtual dogs by way of other challenges and dog-based activities. The winner, however, was Steve Meretzky, developer of Zoo Tycoon, whose concept game Bac Attack pits players armed with light and radiation against a bacterial colony in a petri dish -- when the player is inevitably overwhelmed by the bacteria, Steve suggests calling the government to arrange a sale. Cheery -- but we'll stick to the heavily-armed dolphins, thanks.
Playing Dirty: We fit together!
Every other week, Bonnie Ruberg contributes Playing Dirty, a column on sex and gender in video games: Watching Alexey Pajitnov receive the First Penquin award at this year's Game Developer's Choice Awards, it occurred to me I'd never really thought about the face behind Tetris. Sure, I'd heard Pajitnov's name plenty of times, but the man himself, and that lovable, Santa-bought-hair-dye beard, those were off the radar. Who knows what I expected of the infamous Russian: someone stiffer, more stand-off ish, a gaming visage for the Cold War itself. Not that Tetris has much to do with politics. In fact, for me, the game has always represented something totally different. I associate Tetris with sex. At first, the idea sounds absurd. Colored blocks remind you of sex? Deprived gamer alert! But think about it: the point of Tetris is to make things fit together. Blocks float down to fit in the spaces left open by other blocks. When things fit together right, they make a solid line, a happy, unified whole. When they don't fit right, blocks leave ugly, open patches, the gaping black bane of Tetris existence. To win the game, you need to make sure every block finds its hole.
Pajitnov, with needle and thread, wins Game Design Challenge
The game design challenge is an honored tradition four years in the running at the Game Developers Conference, pushing creativity in a competitive, humorous environment. This year's winner was Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov who managed to create a viable action-puzzler using needle, thread and cloth. He bested both David Jaffe (Calling All Cars, God of War) and last year's winner Harvey Smith. The following is a pseudo-live blog of the event from earlier this afternoon. Read on for a full description of each game proposed.
