Thirty-five years ago in Moscow, working on what he says was "an ugly Russian" computer that was frankensteined together with spare parts, Alexey Pajitnov together with his friends Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov and ended up being the first computer game from Russia to be released in the West, in 1986. started a side project that has become the second-best-selling video game of all time: Tetris.
At the time, Pajitnov was a young developer and programmer whose other interests included a popular puzzle game consisting of twelve shapes that were made up of five square pieces. The object was to create pictures and images using the pentominoes, he explained. His fascination with it was obvious but inspiration for Pajitnov's own game came when he'd finished playing one day and returned the pieces to their box.
In 1984 Russia was still a communist republic within the U.S.S.R. and Pajitnov had little choice in relinquishing ownership of the game to what he described as a "shady" government.
"I [granted] the rights for the game for 10 years to my computer center. To my job place," he explained in a thick Russian accent.
Eventually, he regained the rights sometime in 1995 or 1996 after the Cold War had ended, and maintains them still.
When Game boy was released with Tetris, and the history was made, to date it has sold 170 million copies, second only to Minecraft.
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