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Kristin Winet

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August 2, 2018 By Kristin Leave a Comment

The Alternate Universe of Soviet Arcade Games

Featured in Atlas Obscura – Fall 2015

For this investigative piece, I went to Russia to investigate the underground world of restoring Soviet Arcade Games for Atlas Obscura.

Entrance to the Soviet Arcade Museum in St. Petersburg

WHEN YOU WALK INTO THE Museum of Soviet Arcade Games in St. Petersburg, the first thing you’ll see is a series of gray, hard-edged soda machines from the early 1980s. If you choose the one in the middle, it will dispense a tarragon-flavored and slightly fermented soda whose recipe relies on a syrup that has not been mass produced since the fall of the Soviet Union. It tastes not unlike a mix of molasses and breath mints.

All around us are beeps, pings, and shot blasts coming from rickety old machines that seem like they’ve time-traveled from the golden era of American arcade games. And yet, everything’s in Russian, we’re using kopecks as currency, and there is no Donkey Kong here.

This is not your typical museum. For one thing, everything is not only touchable, but playable. Designed to look like a 1980s USSR video game arcade, the museum is filled with restored games carefully modeled after those in Japan and the West and manufactured to the approval of the Cold War-era Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev.

Now, 24 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russian families spend their afternoons here playing the propaganda arcade games of their youth, drinking increasingly hard-to-find sparkling beer from 1980s soda machines, and popping Soviet coins into strength-training and eye-coordination games that were approved by the Soviet government in the 1970s and 1980s as having “real” value to today’s Russian children.

The museum has recovered nearly 60 games, many of which are the last remaining ones in the world. The project began three years ago when four college students in St. Petersburg decided to rescue the bulky relics from obscurity, and teach the country about the USSR’s improbable arcade gaming history.

“The fact that some of these products are in danger of disappearing is why they are beloved,” says Dr. Stephen Norris, a Professor of History at Miami University of Ohio who specializes in Russian and post-Soviet studies. “Nostalgia for the video games of the 1970s and 1980s is part of a larger nostalgia for Soviet consumer products of late socialism,” a period when Russians were introduced to many popular items, from wall-mounted radios to beveled drinking glasses to vacuum cleaners.

Read the full story in Atlas Obscura.

Filed Under: CNF, Featured, Travel Writing Tagged With: arcade, culture, games, investigative, reporting, Russia, St. Petersburg, Viking River Cruises

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Meet Kristin

I'm a writer, teacher, traveler, and a new mom living in the sunny Sonoran Desert! I write to share stories about our complex, beautiful world, and I teach to help others think more deeply about their words and their stories. Read More…

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Here’s the scoop: having a baby changes a lot of Here’s the scoop: having a baby changes a lot of things. It changes your daily rhythm, your space to think, your ability to throw stuff in a backpack and just go somewhere, the solitude of a writing life. I’ve been working on figuring out who I am in this new life, so I decided to take a baby step this weekend and hop back - slowly! - into my travel writing self 🙌 So tonight, I’m out exploring Cat Mountain Lodge, a super-cute boutique hotel right at the foot of the Tucson mountains 🏔 This pic is from the entrance ☀️ Ryan and Riley came for dinner and toured the property with me - and they’ll be back in the morning for a sunrise breakfast ☕️ Everything still feels weird and unknown, but it also feels messy and new. I’m glad for baby steps...I’m glad to be here❤️ Gladly taking advice from mamas who are also travelers!
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Hi world, I’m Riley! Nice to meet you 🙂 My mom Hi world, I’m Riley! Nice to meet you 🙂 My mom’s been a little busy lately, but she’s back (and promises not to post a million baby photos). **Happy one month birthday to our newest adventure!**
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Our next day started off with a stroll down 2,000 Our next day started off with a stroll down 2,000 year old tile in the ancient ruins of Caesarea....I have to say, it's looking pretty good! 🤣😍 @viasabra
I love texture 😉😀😁 We don't get enough of I love texture 😉😀😁 We don't get enough of it here in the states...we always want to cover up every ding, dent, peel, or crack. I like this. Walking the streets of Tel Aviv 😍
Yummy vegetables! 🥑🍆🥔🥕🍄 Yummy vegetables! 🥑🍆🥔🥕🍄
On our #foodtour through the illustrious #Carmelma On our #foodtour through the illustrious #Carmelmarket with our first guide, Anat from @viasabra! Tel Aviv seriously has some of the best street markets you could ever imagine 😍 I'll try not to inundate you with food pics 😉
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One of my FAVORITE things ever came at the end of One of my FAVORITE things ever came at the end of Day 1, and guess what? It starts with a pita!! 😂 This is an Iraqi Jewish food called #sabich. It's fabulous. And I love the chef who makes it - he told us he was an architect because everything is layered precisely inside the pita (namely fried eggplant and hard boiled eggs, among other things) 🥙🥙🥙
Yes, this is a carbonated water with plants in it. Yes, this is a carbonated water with plants in it. And we got to drink it (eat it?) while sitting in an old pickup truck in Levinsky Market (They have no seating in the market, so the owner drives his truck around and keeps parking it in different spots!) @visit_israel #levinskymarket
Starting our first morning off right - with a food Starting our first morning off right - with a food tour of Carmel Market, which is one of the best street food #markets I've ever been to. Here, we got to taste this thing called #burika, which is a Lebanese street food. Basically, it's a fresh #pita stuffed with mashed potatoes and fried egg and smothered in this spicy harissa red sauce. Never have I ever had something like this!! @viasabra @deliciousisrael @visit_israel
I didn't mention this in my first pic, but we are I didn't mention this in my first pic, but we are here with @rollinscollege as part of an #RIG grant to explore a question: Is there such a thing as an Israeli cuisine? 🌿🌱 We are working with @viasabra on our journey!

So, naturally, we start by exploring hummus. And when the famous #Abuhasan hummus spot in Jaffa is packed to the brim for lunch, you get the hummus as takeout and sit in the street 😉😉
Welcome to our Tel Aviv food tour!! I don't always Welcome to our Tel Aviv food tour!! I don't always post #food pics, but this trip kind of necessitates it 😄 Here we are, Tel Aviv, and first up? Falafel, of course 😁
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Mardi Gras wouldn't be complete without a visit to Mardi Gras wouldn't be complete without a visit to Church St Graveyard. Joe Cain, the man responsible for reviving carnival after the civil war, is buried here.  Plus? It's full of cherry blossoms! 🌱🌿 @tweethomeal @inbirmingham @city_of_mobile @visitalbeaches #alabamaroadtrip #mardigras #mardigras2018 #mobile #kwalabama
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I'm a writer, teacher, traveler, and a new mom living in the sunny Sonoran Desert! I write to share stories about our complex, beautiful world, and I teach to help others think more deeply about their words and their stories. Read More…

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kristinwinet

Here’s the scoop: having a baby changes a lot of Here’s the scoop: having a baby changes a lot of things. It changes your daily rhythm, your space to think, your ability to throw stuff in a backpack and just go somewhere, the solitude of a writing life. I’ve been working on figuring out who I am in this new life, so I decided to take a baby step this weekend and hop back - slowly! - into my travel writing self 🙌 So tonight, I’m out exploring Cat Mountain Lodge, a super-cute boutique hotel right at the foot of the Tucson mountains 🏔 This pic is from the entrance ☀️ Ryan and Riley came for dinner and toured the property with me - and they’ll be back in the morning for a sunrise breakfast ☕️ Everything still feels weird and unknown, but it also feels messy and new. I’m glad for baby steps...I’m glad to be here❤️ Gladly taking advice from mamas who are also travelers!
.
.
.
#whyilovewhereilive #tucson #mountains #catmountainstation #travelwriter #travelmom #visitarizona #catmountainlodge #arizona #southernaz @catmountainstation5520 @visittucson
I know that babywearing has been a custom around t I know that babywearing has been a custom around the world for centuries (probably millenia?). Today, I see why ❤️ I finally figured out how to put on the Moby wrap and snuggle little Riley into it! When we’re feeling a little more brave, I might even take him out of the house and walk with him around the neighborhood 🥰 What a wild ride...so far, we’ve made it six weeks together!
.
.
.
#babywinet #mobywrap #babywearing #travelmom #newmom #newmomlife
My morning view, a little different than what I’ My morning view, a little different than what I’m used to! ❤️ Our little Riley James, seeing the world for what always feels like the first time 🥰
.
.
.
#momtraveler #babywinet #newmom
Hi world, I’m Riley! Nice to meet you 🙂 My mom Hi world, I’m Riley! Nice to meet you 🙂 My mom’s been a little busy lately, but she’s back (and promises not to post a million baby photos). **Happy one month birthday to our newest adventure!**
.
.
.
#babywinet #newbaby #baby #newmom
A man, his fish, and four hungry travelers 😂 An A man, his fish, and four hungry travelers 😂 And, omg, his fresh ceviche!!! *swoon* @abedhabush @viasabra
Our next day started off with a stroll down 2,000 Our next day started off with a stroll down 2,000 year old tile in the ancient ruins of Caesarea....I have to say, it's looking pretty good! 🤣😍 @viasabra
I love texture 😉😀😁 We don't get enough of I love texture 😉😀😁 We don't get enough of it here in the states...we always want to cover up every ding, dent, peel, or crack. I like this. Walking the streets of Tel Aviv 😍
Yummy vegetables! 🥑🍆🥔🥕🍄 Yummy vegetables! 🥑🍆🥔🥕🍄
On our #foodtour through the illustrious #Carmelma On our #foodtour through the illustrious #Carmelmarket with our first guide, Anat from @viasabra! Tel Aviv seriously has some of the best street markets you could ever imagine 😍 I'll try not to inundate you with food pics 😉
One of Israel's biggest controversies: whose hummu One of Israel's biggest controversies: whose hummus is the **best** hummus? If it's from #Abuhasan, then it's chunky and topped with fava beans. Ryan adored it...me...? Well, it did have beans on top, and they kind of looked like Mexican refried beans. I think I'll keep looking for my favorite hummus 🤣@viasabra
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