Alex Randolph

Alexander Randolph was born on 4th May 1922 in Czechoslovakia where his parents spent four years coming from the USA. He was the son of self-described "rich parents". His father Samuel Alexander was an artist painter born in Odessa, Russian Empire (1878-1944) and his mother Mary (1882-1955) was an American sculptor. Alex and his half-brother Christopher Craig spent their childhood and teenage in Venice, Italy. They both attended a private school in Switzerland.^[4] The Randolph family owned the Palazzetto Stern along the Grand Canal in Dorsoduro in Venice from 1924 to ~1946-47. Randolf spent his early years in various occupations, including military intelligence and as an advertising copy editor in Boston.^{[citation needed]}

In 1961, Randolph moved to Japan and became a professional game developer, performing initial work on TwixT. During this time, he became a dan player in shogi.

In 1962, Randolph (along with Sid Sackson) was commissioned to start a new game division for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (also known as 3M). Through 3M, Randolph created and published such games as Breakthru, Evade, Oh-Wah-Ree, and TwixT.^[5]

Randolph moved back to Venice, Italy in 1968, continuing his career as a game developer with the company Venice Connection established with Dario De Toffoli and Leo Colovini.^[6]

Randolph was married to Gertrude Eisenstadt (1921-2008), an American.

Randolph died aged 82 in Venice on 27 April 2004 and was buried in San Michele Cemetery in Venice.^[1]

Randolf wrote 3 books. Also, two biographies were written about Randolf: Die Sonnenseite by Philippe Evrard and Alex Randolph : Artista e autore di giochi by Cosimo Cardellicchio.

In 2016, as a testimony to his career, Fabulous Games published ADDX – the first ever digital game from Alex Randolph.^{[citation needed]}

Following Randolph's death, the Nuremberg Museum set up a special permanent collection of Randolph's games titled the Alexander Randolph Viewing Collection.^[7]