7 ms·
The Alternate Universe of Soviet Arcade Games (2015)
- beebeepka 5y agoOne of the very few advantages of growing up on the east side of the iron curtain was access to the entirely electronic Japanese arcades and the Russian mechanical games. The volleyball wasn't half bad. There was also a space fighter with a periscope like divece and an array of mirrors. Some of these games were most fine, especially for their time
- squarefoot 5y agoI recall in the 70s electro-mechanical games were pretty common here (Italy), just a few years before Pong, Asteroids and later Space Invaders and Pacman changed it all. There was that shooting game with the base projecting beams shaped as flying birds on a big screen and real size rifles with photocells that would score a point when hitting a bird, or the bear hunting game, probably using IR as I don't recall any visible beams, then F1 racing games, naval warfare ones, and many others I don't recall atm. And of course pinball, the king of all mechanical games. If I invested 10% of what I spent there I would have some serious money by now:). Those games were mostly electro-mechanical, built to perform one function and of course not programmable, they likely had just the minimum electronics necessary to play sounds or drive actuators. Taking one apart would have an enormous instructional factor.
- atemerev 5y agoYes, I was growing up with these, and spent a lot of 15-kopeck coins in these devices. The graphics was awful, but the games were... playable. The shooting games worked flawlessly. The "sea battle" torpedo launcher simulator was awesome, with realistic ship silhouettes. The games were not unlike Tetris: simple, but ingenious and addictive.
- AussieWog93 5y ago>15-kopeck coins Honestly, that is the strangest thing about this whole article. Why would the Soviets mint a coin that can't be combined with other coins of the same type to make a full ruble? It just seems really unnatural.
- IgorPartola 5y agoWhy do American stores charge you $1.99 instead of $2.00? The 15 kopeck coin was used to make change when you were charged 0.85 rubles.
- gus_massa 5y agoSome images: https://www.google.com/search?q=15-kopek+coins&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=15-kopek+coins&tbm=isch
- IgorPartola 5y agoThe sad thing is that my grandfather gave me a collection of “rare” coins when I lived in Ukraine. When I moved to the US I couldn’t take them with me. Would be worth some money today and more memories.
- dylan604 5y agobecause $1.99 is less than $2. it's a marketing thing. $19.99 => "For less than twenty dollars, you too can have a ShamWow". whenever you see something that makes you think "why" like this, 99/100 you can blame it on PR/marketing.
- century19 5y agoI've also heard that this wasn't the case, but that it was to force the cashier to "ring" the transaction through to get the cent to return and not just pocket the $2. And that the custom just stuck.
- pavlov 5y ago
- xook 5y agotitle needs (2015)
- eukgoekoko 5y agoI remember how Konyok-Gorbunok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpWkJuXGQic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpWkJuXGQic was just driving me nuts, I was just 6 y. o. and couldn't handle the frustration from losing on the 3rd screen. This game was just inhumane, I've only seen 20-year olds being good at it.
- question002 5y agoKinda weird this quality article has 6 comments, but there hundreds about Medium being a bad website. This is ridiculous. Is this just bots at this point?
- xattt 5y agoThe tarragon drink mentioned in the article is widely available in Russia, and even in “exclaves” such as Russian grocery stores in Toronto (Yummy Market).
- wly_cdgr 5y agoYes, you can also get it around New York at restaurants on Brighton Beach, stores like NetCost, etc It's wonderful. The best soda flavor
- decebalus1 5y agoOn a tangent, this reminded me of `Nu, pogodi!` which I used to play religiously as a kid back in Eastern Europe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BnKowc7ssM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BnKowc7ssM
- romanhn 5y agoThe originals are, by the way, available on eBay. I got a couple (Nu Pogodi and Avtoslalom) for nostalgia's sake. Work with modern batteries too.
- Koshkin 5y agoThis appears to be made after the animated series with the same title: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well,_Just_You_Wait https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well,_Just_You_Wait!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- FpUser 5y agoSo many sweet memories of my childhood. And loads of coins drained ;)
- amelius 5y agoHow does the business side of this work in a communist country? Did the state order these companies to build these games?
- igorlev 5y agoThere were no companies, as that would require private ownership of factories and other means of production. As the article says these were built in state owned factories. There were no other kinds. There were no other factories and even small business was mostly nonexistent until the late 80s and in some cases punishable under the law as “speculation”.
- atemerev 5y agoThe Central Planning Committee decided that Soviet people need arcade machines (there were some lobbying, of course, and the idea was probably suggested by an official who visited Western countries and have seen them before). After the idea was approved in principle, the task was given to engineers to develop them: some were copied from Western devices, others developed from scratch. Then, factories were upgraded to mass produce these machines. Then, they were everywhere: in every large (government-managed) store, looking exactly the same. Soviet economy was strange and surreal.
- R0b0t1 5y agoAny pics/docs of internal workings? I'll give it a look later but don't expect much success as I don't speak Russian.
- praptak 5y agoTFA states that the docs were classified and later probably destroyed. This was a side result of the games being manufactured in military factories
- spongeb00b 5y agoYeah I’d love to see the internal construction. Also enjoying the Nixie tubes for the score on “Winter Hunt"
- wly_cdgr 5y agoHeh, I also happened to visit and write about this place around this time. If you want more pics / details: https://medium.com/@wlycdgr/soviet-arcade-museum-part-4-serious-games-part-2-extremely-serious-edition-now-its-really-fe89b10e054e https://medium.com/@wlycdgr/soviet-arcade-museum-part-4-seri... (There are more parts on my Medium and I think Vice ran a condensed version)
- bserge 5y agoThose vending machines are so nostalgic. Wish I could find some of them or build a lookalike :D
- zxcvbn4038 5y agoThe “radish” game makes me think of Sonic Blast Man where you have to punch a paddle as hard as you can to win the game. I was working part time at an arcade that received one of those - very popular but we had to pull it after three weeks by which time six people had fractured their wrists and sued the arcade for damages. The radish game sounds like it would avoid the issues Sonic Blast Man had, but if a game like that were released in the US I could see overzealous people throwing their backs out, pulling the cabinet over on themselves, or wanting to use trucks and construction equipment to try and get unnaturally high scores. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Blast_Man https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Blast_Man
- dottedmag 5y agoGood thing that "Radish" was also quite heavy. Good luck moving around 200kg device. Also, no scores, so no reason to pull harder once you've reached the "granddad" force level. P.S: Author didn't mention that the name comes straight from the Russian fairy tale where only the whole family could pick up a recalcitrant radish out of the ground.
- dottedmag 5y agoUgh, I take back "no scores". There were.
- CTOSian 5y ago"basketball" game logo looks like the Atari ;-}
- atemerev 5y agoSome of the devices were copied from the Western analogues (and some junior GRU officer probably smuggled these into USSR at some point).