Vladimir Pokhilko
Владимир Похилько
Born
Vladimir Ivanovich Pokhilko

(1954-04-07)April 7, 1954
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia)
DiedSeptember 21, 1998(1998-09-21) (aged 44)
Palo Alto, California, USA
NationalitySoviet Russian, American
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, game designer, psychologist
Years active1982-1998

Vladimir Ivanovich Pokhilko (Russian: Владимир Иванович Похилько[1]) (7 April 1954 – 21 September 1998) was a Soviet-Russian entrepreneur. He was an academic who specialized in human–computer interaction.

Early life

Born in Moscow on April 7, 1954, he graduated from the Faculty of Psychology at Moscow State University in 1982. He was a junior researcher at the I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University.

Psychological experiments using Tetris

A friend of Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov, he was the first clinical psychologist to conduct experiments using the game.[2] He played an important role in the subsequent development and marketing of the game, and a 1999 article in the Forbes magazine credited him for "co-inventing the seminal videogame Tetris".[3]

Technology company AnimaTek

In 1989, he and Pajitnov founded the 3D software technology company AnimaTek in Moscow.[4] While attempting to create software for INTEC (a company that they started) that would be made for "people's souls", they developed the idea for El-Fish.

Murder-suicide

After suffering financial difficulties at his software company, AnimaTek, Pokhilko allegedly murdered his wife Elena Fedotova (38) and their son Peter (12), by bludgeoning and stabbing them both to death. He then committed suicide by slitting his own throat.[5] Shortly before his death, Pokhilko penned a note. The police initially did not release the content of the note, saying that it was not a suicide note, and they didn't know who authored it.[6] They later determined it was a purported suicide note and published the content of the note in 1999; it read:[7]

"I've been eaten alive. Vladimir. Just remember that I am exist. The davil. [sic]"

References

  1. ↑ "Трагедия в Пало-Альто".
  2. ↑ Mark J. P. Wolf (31 August 2012). Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming. ABC-CLIO. p. 642. ISBN 978-0-313-37936-9. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  3. ↑ When startups become blowups by Jon Swartz. Forbes, 10 June 1999.
  4. ↑ Marc Saltzman, ed. (1 May 2002). Game Programming 5.0 Starter Kit. Pearson Education. p. 431. ISBN 978-1-57595-555-1. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  5. ↑ Stein, Loren (27 January 1999). "Police: Detail of Russian entrepreneur's note reveals a tormented man". Palo Alto Weekly. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  6. ↑ Pushed past the brink by Matt Beer and Jacob. San Francisco Chronicle, 24 September 1998.
  7. ↑ Report names father as killer P.A. Police show revealing note. San Jose Mercury News (CA) – 22 January 1999 – 1B Local.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.