Check Out The Museum Of Soviet Arcade Machines

In the former Soviet Union, arcade machines from the West were forbidden. However, the Soviet government actually sanctioned the manufacture of Russian-made arcade machines that now live on in an exhibit in Moscow.

The Museum of Russian Arcade Machines is an open-to-the-public display in the basement of an engineering school in Moscow. The curators run it to show off some of these little-known artifacts of the Soviet era. The game pictures above, Morskoi Boy (translation: Sea Battle), was actually made with the periscopes manufactured for real Russian submarines. Judging by the site, most of the machines were a mix of mechanical parts and primitive light or video display technology. The video below shows a brief clip of Morskoi Boy in the wild, and the Museum of Russian Arcade Machines official site has created a flash simulation of the game that you can play. There are also pictures of other classic and not-so-classic Soviet arcade games. It's an interesting and overlooked little slice of arcade history.

Source: Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines via Dangerous Minds