In 1984, Russian software engineer Alexey Pajitnov invented a block-based puzzle game called Tetris. You may have heard of it. Working for the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Pajitnov's ambition was to find ways to make people happy using computer technology. In pursuit of this noble goal he developed a series of puzzle games for the Electronika 60, a chunky Soviet computer with a whopping 4kb of memory, until he finally struck gold with Tetris. The rest is history.
Pajitnov was an early example of a gaming celebrity. After moving to the United States in 1990, and founding The Tetris Company in 1996, he would often appear on television talking passionately about the game. Since its launch for the Game Boy in 1989, a lot of people have played Tetris—over 35 million copies are reported to have been sold—and Pajitnov's name (and his permanently smiling, bearded face) are both closely associated with its wild success.
Pajitnov developed or contributed to the development of a number of other games, including a bizarre fish tank simulator called El-Fish, and a number of Tetris variants such as Hatris, Welltris, and Wordtris. He also worked for Microsoft in the late '90s, designing a Windows 95 CD-ROM called Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection. But it's safe to say that Tetris is not only his best game, but the one he'll always be remembered for.
But something strange happened in 1994. A dramatic one-page advert appeared in a number of gaming magazines with Pajitnov's face featured prominently on it—as smiley and hirsute as ever, eyes sparkling with pride, beckoning the reader to play a video game called BreakThru. "Just when you thought you were over Tetris," it read. "Alexey Pajitnov dares you to BreakThru!" Was this a new game from the legendary creator of Tetris? It certainly looked like it.
It wasn't. BreakThru was a tile-matching puzzle game developed by Spectrum HoloByte— the first company to publish Tetris outside of the Soviet Union—but Pajitnov wasn't involved in it at all, besides a very brief endorsement on the back of the box. "BreakThru carries on the challenging and addictive tradition of Tetris," the blurb reads next to Pajitnov's grinning face. "I am proud to endorse this product and I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I do."
Pajitnov might have sincerely liked BreakThru. I'm not doubting that—although the game was poorly received, with critics describing it as derivative and overly complicated. But the use of the Tetris creator's face on the box and marketing is so brazenly misleading that I can't believe Spectrum HoloByte got away with it. The magazine advert is bad enough, but the front of the box was even more shameless, and must have fooled a fair few people in stores.
Above the logo, next to another picture of a beaming Pajitnov, it reads"Alexey Pajitnov, creator of Tetris, introduces…" The artwork below depicts a snow-covered St. Basil's Cathedral, an obvious attempt to make people think of Tetris, and the blocks scattered over it are even similar colours. It's glaringly obvious that this packaging was intentionally designed to make you think this is the next big puzzle game from the genius dev who created Tetris.
But hey, that's marketing for you. I'm not surprised a video games company pulled something like this. It's just amusing looking back at something so comically bold. Before the days of the internet, when players weren't as clued up about game development, they'd see that advert in their favourite gaming magazine and assume this was an exciting new project from that jovial, bearded Russian dude who made Tetris—and who could blame them.