Word: pajitnov
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Soviet-designed Tetris remains one of the most popular and ubiquitous video games ever created. It has sold over 125 million copies, been released for nearly every video-game platform of the past two decades and even been played on the side of a skyscraper. Yet creator Alexey Pajitnov almost never saw a ruble for his creation...
...While studying at the Soviet Union's Academy of Science in 1984, the 29-year-old Pajitnov designed a bare-bones version of the game in his free time for the Elektronika 60, a Soviet terminal computer. The original version, launched on June 6, 1984, was only 10 levels long because that was all the Elektronika's memory could handle. Inspired by the classic riddles and puzzles Pajitnov loved as a child, the game was so addictive he couldn't even stop playing long enough to finish programming it. "The program wasn't complicated," he told the Guardian. "There...
...original packaging). The handheld game system and its variations sold more than 118 million units; Tetris, generally believed to have played a large role in the pioneering portable's success, sold a staggering 35 million units for the Game Boy alone. But despite his creation's record-breaking popularity, Pajitnov continued to receive his normal salary while the Kremlin claimed millions in royalties...
...Pajitnov moved to the U.S. in 1991 and finally began earning money from his creation after the rights reverted back to him in 1996. He and Rogers, who had befriended Pajitnov on his trips to Russia, formed the straightforwardly titled Tetris Company to manage and license the Tetris brand, an entity that now spans more than 50 countries. The company maintains the "Tetris guidelines"-a set of basic standards to which all officially branded games must adhere. These rules stipulate everything from the colors of the blocks to a mandatory inclusion of the game's now famous theme song...
...Pajitnov continues to design games today-his similarly colorful puzzler Hexic was packaged with Microsoft's Xbox 360 Premium Bundle at the console's launch. But Tetris remains his magnum opus. As prices for video-game development run into the tens of millions of dollars, Tetris' simple formula still beats them all. "It's awesome when you look at the industry and everyone spending millions on graphics and music and more and here we are with Tetris just kicking ass," Rogers told the AFP. "It is an enviable position...