From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <2baced53060e42881369bc1fadee8a97@davidashen.net>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] Re: alef on sources
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 08:47:13 +0500
From: dvd@davidashen.net
In-Reply-To: <79229eec9e390b1d89c92a5a5d8ba92a@granite.cias.osakafu-u.ac.jp>
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> I told them "Do you know who wrote tetris?"
> One replied "someone American?".
> I said "No, Russian" (Is it right?)

Yes, Alexey Pazhitnov from the Russian Academy of Sciences (then the Soviet Union)
> Then, he said he must be a most talented genius!
> I replied I think so, too.

He is a smart guy. He works for Microsoft since late nineties and has led
the developement of Pandora's Box.

> Then, he asked me "Did he get plenty of money?"
> I replied, "Probably he must be cheated by someone bad from Western,
> and someone else might have got lots of memony"

>>From Tetris, nothing. A british businessman Robert Stein had cheated
him and sold right to Tetris to Robert Maxwell (that one) without any
participation of Pazhitnov in the deal. Then another company (one
that makes (made?) Nintendo game boxes) acquired rights for all
but PC platforms of Tetris and made huge money too.
Also without Pazhitnov.

>
> Am I biased wrong direction?

Strictly speaking, it is not because Pazhitnov could not defend his rights
but because he did not quiet understand he had any rights. It was a different
mentality at the time of USSR.

David