Vadim Gerasimov

The teenage co-developer who brought Tetris to the IBM PC.

Вадим Савицкий · CC BY 4.0

Vadim Gerasimov is an engineer at Google. From 1994 to 2003, he worked and studied at the MIT Media Lab. He earned a BS/MS in applied mathematics from Moscow State University in 1992 and a Ph.D. from MIT in 2003. At age 16, he was one of the original co-developers of the famous video game Tetris: he ported Alexey Pajitnov's original game to the IBM PC architecture, and the two later added features to the game.

Reader's Guide

After the initial port, Gerasimov and Pajitnov collaborated to add features to the game. This version was not an official commercial release but a freeware program that circulated via floppy disks among Soviet computer enthusiasts. The port's reception was positive among those who encountered it, and it played a key role in Tetris's spread. Gerasimov's work at age 16 made him one of the original co-developers of Tetris, a game that would become a global phenomenon.