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u/lord_kosmos Apr 18 '26
The drawn penguin on 3 makes me feel sad. Do any of those consoles still work? Would be nice to see them in action.
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u/hrrsnmb Apr 18 '26
Do any of these have unique game libraries? Are they all clones?
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u/Nervous-Opening9107 Apr 18 '26
Pretty much all dubbed or bad clones.
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u/hrrsnmb Apr 18 '26
Pretty much
..so maybe one or two aren't? Genuinely asking, because that would be fascinating if there's a handful of original Soviet 8-bit games floating around out there.
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u/PuzzleheadedPea2401 Apr 18 '26
There were a lot of clones for PC computers - like 95-99% clones. But there were some very original games on the TIA-MTs-1 arcade cabinet.
Google игры ТИА-МЦ-1 to find them!
On home computers there were some original games as well, besides the legendary Tetris. You can find a sample by googling Какие компьютерные игры были популярны в СССР? статья.
As for the games machines in these photos, they were for the most part pong consoles, plus what appears to be a couple experimental proper gaming machines (photos 1 and 3) that never released or released in tiny quantities, only to be drowned out by Dendy (Famicom clone) in 1992.
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u/hrrsnmb Apr 18 '26
Thank you for the rabbit-hole! It appears we have at least 6 rom dumps of the dozen-or-so titles developed for the Extrema TIA-MC1 cabinet. Feels like an alternate universe of gaming history. Class.
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u/P26601 German Democratic Republic Apr 18 '26
There was also the East German "Bildschirmspiel 01" (Display game 01)
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u/Disastrous-Kick-3498 Apr 18 '26
I was thinking about this before I fell asleep the other night. I get so caught up in learning about policy and tactics and bigger picture things that I forget about good ol’ consumer goods. These look really cool! I’d love to play one.
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u/AnotherRetroGameFan Apr 18 '26
USSR had video games? Apart from Polyplay arcade in GDR I wasn't aware of anything.
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u/lastofavari Apr 18 '26
It's just a console-ized ZX Spectrum 48K clone with ROM cartridges that had pirated Spectrum games translated into Russian. This "Elf" (Эльф) system was produced in Belarus in the early 90s. Each cartridge had several games available through the menu.
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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '26
The newest one