15 KOPEKS AMAZING: A VIRTUAL LOOK INSIDE MOSCOW’S SOVIET ARCADE GAMES MUSEUM
This started to make the rounds a few weeks back, but hasn’t gathered nearly as much attention as it should, for as outstandingly wicked as it is: you may have originally heard of Moscow State Technical University ‘Soviet Arcade Games Museum‘ from an April 2009 Edge article that told the story quite well, but was accompanied by painfully tiny images.
But now, of all people, Art Lebedev‘s design studio — the same creators as the OLED-driven Optimus Maximus keyboard [the same as was featured on, of all things, a 2007 cover of Edge] — has given the museum a full website makeover, complete with a growing collection of its games recreated and playable online.
Of the collection, the most playable is Sea Battle (above, dig the fantastically ambient faint whirr of its machinery as you play, and its rustically smudged viewfinder), but there’s also the Street Racer-esque game Magistral (right), Rally, another competitive racer, and finally Gorodki, a digital adaptation of a traditional sport that, even now having read about, I still don’t quite understand.
In addition to the recreated versions (look around for the ‘play’ link on each page), the site’s collected PDF versions of the machine’s manuals, close-up money shots of its coin slots, and more gorgeous photography of each machine than you could ever want.
The only thing it currently lacks is a full English translation (I’ve somewhat annoyingly linked to Google translations of each of the pages above), but presumably they’re being added over time, as the museum itself continues to restore and collect more historical information on each game.
If you only visit one site today, make it this one.
See more posts about: Arcade, Offworld Originals
