Geekery

Geek God – Alexey Pajitnov

Posted on 29. Sep, 2009 by Jake in Geek God

While discussions on gaming can get heated, all gaming fanatics can agree on one thing – there is a test of every gamer’s basic skills which has nothing to do with how much RAM your machine has or how high res your screen is. Any gamer worth his salt should be able to pwn when it comes to the most legendarily simple-yet-complicated game of all time – Tetris – the ultimate puzzle game. So Alexey Pajitnov, the inventor of Tetris, deserves a special place in the pantheon of geek gods.

Initially, his story had tragic overtones, making it all the more interesting. Pajitnov invented Tetris in 1985 in Russia, while working at a government organisation called the Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Because Russia was still under Communism, Pajitnov didn’t earn a cent for his invention, as everything he made was owned by the state. He distributed Tetris all around the USSR and other Eastern bloc countries for free.

So, Pajitnov ended up an alcoholic living in extreme poverty. Well, not really. Actually, he got co-opted by the Yanks, who brought him over to America in the early 90’s, where he started the Tetris Company and began earning royalties from his creation. By 1996 he was employed by Microsoft and making millions. So much for the tragedy.

But while Pajitnov didn’t achieve technological martyrdom, he did invent possibly the most successful game of all time. It has sold more than 70 million copies. Electronic Gaming Monthly’s 100th issue named Tetris the ‘Greatest Game of All Time’. And Tetris has a way of getting people to think about the big questions. In 1988 a thesis by John Brzustowski asked ‘Is it possible to play Tetris forever?’ (the thesis deduced that no, it isn’t). And, recently, research by neurologists Dr. Michael Crane and Dr. Richard Haier showed that playing Tetris improves your brain function, boosting one’s “critical thinking, reasoning, language and processing”.

That’s that then. Tetris makes you clever. So logic dictates that its inventor must be uber-clever. All hail the brilliance of Alexey Pajitnov.

Tags: Alexey Pajitnov, game, Geek God, geekery, puzzle, tetris