Something about seeing arcade games in another language/culture just seems way too foreign. Almost alien. When I was a kid, my father and my uncle had a side business buying arcade games and putting them in laundry mats, pizza parlors etc (yes, back then we called them pizza parlors). When the games were either without a home, broken or simply out-dated, they would end up in either our basement or my uncles. Here are some of the games that I grew up with having in our basement at one time or another: Mach 3: Dragons Lair: Charlies Angels Pac Man: and my personal favorite... Asteroids: We had a number of these games, a pool table and a ping pong table at one point. -This makes my upbringing sound way more privileged than it was, keep in mind that my dad was making less money when these things were in our house and more when they were in a retail location. One time I got in trouble because a neighborhood boy's mom called my parents all upset because she felt I had swindled him out of his allowance. I decided to start charging a $5 admission to my basement to play the games. -All access pass, with complimentary soft-drinks. I made over $20 that day as a 12 year old. -That was a lot of money back then. -My dad pretended to be upset with me, but really.... I could tell her was proud. Anyways, thanks for the walk down memory lane that your soviet arcade machines sparked.
It all started six years ago when two friends bought a broken-down Sea Battle game from a closing down acrade. The first exposition was set in the basement of Moscow State Technical University where Alexander Stakhanov, one of museum co-founders, studied. Stakhanov and his friends worked on finding precious machines and making them work again. Over the last years the museum has moved several times, until finding its current home in a airy industrial building that suits the idea perfectly.
-More on the Soviet Arcade Museum