Step into This Soviet Arcade Time Machine

While American teens in the '80s were obsessing over Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, their Soviet counterparts were playing arcade games meant to prepare them for war. At the time, video games weren't easily accessible in the Soviet Union. So the government fashioned them from refrigerators and calculators with the goal of training young Soviets for combat. St. Petersburg resident Alexander Stakhanov remembers those games fondly. So he did what any nostalgic gamer would do—he opened the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines.

This story is a part of our Frontiers series, where we bring you front and center to the dreamers, pioneers, and innovators leading society at the cutting edge. Let us take you along for a trip to the oft-imagined but rarely accomplished.

Great Big Story is a video network dedicated to the untold, overlooked & flat-out amazing. Humans are capable of incredible things & we're here to tell their stories. When a rocket lands in your backyard, you get in.

[matthewk.]

America: Lets play Pacman, it seems fun.
Russia: I want to join the army, lets go to the arcade.

[maxridinsky]

They were literaly filming this documentary while I was in the museum while on a student exchange.

[chirp]

I would love to play these soviet Russia games.

[TheTwitchkid]

I wanna play that weird shooting hoops game with all those holes and numbers, looks different and interesting~!

[ComboMon-]

Some of these games look more fun than the games we have today. Arcade games Mostly consists of screens and nothing physical

[paulmathew]

Knock knock....
Who is it?
The KGB
KGB who?




WE ASK THE QUESTIONS!

[OmgTurtlezWasHere]

pull the turnip. this is really russia.

[chengyong]

In America, you play Game of war
In soviet Russia, You play war games

[blinthepannkek]

Western arcades: just for fun

Eastern arcades: for fun and physical strength and precision




*I LOVE THE EASTERN ONES*

[videosforpeople]

OH BOY, what could be funner than a nice game of PULL THE TURNIP?

[giovannicervantes]

From what i learned from the soviets was they had the exact SCIENCE down of making a lot out of a little with tecnology

[stentor]

0:55 that game actually looks really fun

[cyberyogicowindler]

1:25 Wow. That pixel face looks like a parody on Sega's Space Fury! Likely this one could not speak (unless by a built-in cassette recorder), but the big pixel art of this racing game is really stylish.

[evgenipetkov]

I used to like the game with the submarine, the hunting game, but the most fun was the basketball game. Those machines used to coexist with western arcades for awhile in Bulgarian seaside resorts, but towards the end of the 80's they just couldn't compete anymore.

[evilpandakillabzonattkoccu]

from those arcade games to World of Tanks.... interesting progression.

[llLorenzoll]

The AESTHETICS game of the soviets was on point. Vaporware remix of USSR arcade music when?

[Nells-]

this caught my eye, I like how they made games out of scratch wow!

[iuliancorun]

I played these things 20 years ago, all of them are war related, and that's not even strange.

[kylemiles]

I absolutely love Soviet Era design!❤️👍🏻

[Omegajunior]

Wow I've never seen any Soviet Russian arcade machines before in my entire life. They sure look very interesting.

Greetings from Ireland 🇮🇪