Using an Electronika 60 in the Computing Centre, he began working on what would become the first version of Tetris. Remembering the difficulty he had in putting the pieces back into their box, Pajitnov felt inspired to create a game based on that concept. Searching for inspiration, Pajitnov recalled his childhood memories of playing pentominoes, a game in which the user creates pictures using its shapes. Computer games were fascinating to him because they offered a way to bridge the gap between logic and emotion, and Pajitnov held interests in both mathematics and puzzles, as well as the psychology of computing. According to Pajitnov, this 'became excuse for making games'. : 86 When the Computing Centre received new equipment, its researchers would write a small program for it in order to test its computing capabilities. Once he graduated in 1979, he accepted a job there working on speech recognition at the Academy's Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre. In 1977, Pajitnov worked as a summer intern at the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

: 296 He later went on to study applied mathematics at the Moscow Aviation Institute.

The two were eventually able to move into a private apartment at 49 Gertsen Street, when Pajitnov was 17. For several years, he lived with his mother in a one-bedroom apartment owned by the state. In 1967, when he was 11 years old, Pajitnov's parents divorced. : 296 : 75 Pajitnov was also mathematically inclined, enjoying puzzles and problem solving. He accompanied his mother to many film screenings, including the Moscow Film Festival. It was through his parents that Pajitnov gained exposure to the arts, eventually developing a passion for cinema. His mother was a journalist who wrote for both newspapers and a film magazine. Pajitnov was born to parents who were both writers. Pajitnov did not receive royalties from Tetris prior to this time, despite the game's high popularity. In 1996, Pajitnov founded The Tetris Company alongside Dutch video game designer Henk Rogers. In 1991, he moved to the United States and later became a U.S. LARA – Der Deutsche Games Award (2009)Īlexey Leonidovich Pajitnov (born April 16, 1955) is a Russian computer engineer and video game designer who is best known for creating, designing, and developing Tetris in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre under the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (now the Russian Academy of Sciences).First Penguin Award – Game Developers Choice Awards (2006).

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