Museum of Soviet Arcade Games, or Музей Советских Игровых Автоматов

The Soviet Museum of Arcade Games

During my current travels I went to visit my girlfriend Saerom ( a rabid Pokemon Addict) in Moscow for a few weeks, and we managed to make our way to the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines. For old school gamers this is like finding a bunch of great old relics, that can teach you a bit of the history of games that you never really knew about in the first place, I mean… the Soviet Union had Arcades??? Lets see how they play…

Getting there

The rocking Soviet promo car

So to make your way to the Museum you as of now have to make your way to Tretyakovskaya Metro station, in the center of the city (about a few kilometres south of the Kremlin) and you should be greeted by a cool Soviet Car painted with an add for the museum. This type of car called a “Moskvitch” i.e. Moscovite was a famous Soviet car, so it works with the decor. You then make your way to the right down a street called Little Ordinka or “малая Ордынка” in Russian, you’ll be looking for number 23, which is on the left side, it’s quite a walk, probably around a thousand feet on the left side, and addressed in Russia are a little tricky to deal with, so keep yourself vigilant.

You’ll see a little courtyard behind a closed metal gate, in there you’ll see the entrance to the Museum, you’ll have to swallow your instincts here and open up the gate on the right hand side, and you’ll see the game machines in door to the left.

Warning! They are soon to by changing their address to right beside the Baumanskaya Metro, Baumanskaya 11 is the new address.

Prices and Staff

Sweet Soviet Money!

There was only one person on Staff when I was there, and they were friendly and helpful, and they speak both Russian and English, so if you’re not a Russian Speaker you can still enjoy this games. You pay 300 Rubles, (which is about 10 dollars or 7.50 in Euros) and you get 15 tokens to play the games with. These are no cheap arcade tokens you see in North America though, because these games are all Soviet, the still run on Soviet Money, they hand you a cup full of Soviet 15 Kopek pieces, and then you can get to gaming.

300 Rubles isn’t that bad of a price, but it would end up being about 50 cents a play, which is comparable to modern arcades today, especially when you’re playing history. These machines must have had a lot of up-keep to get them working again so I’m more than happy to pay, and if you want to, you can just buy 15 pieces and play with two people, they don’t really mind.

The Games

Sniper-2 или Снайпер-2

Sniper-2 / ”Снайпер – 2″

The first game game I played was Sniper-2 a standard shooting game that you would think to see in in the 1970s. Really a simple game and you line up your shots and take a shot. Oddly enough though you’d expect the targets to go down when you take a shot, but they don’t you just get a rumble in your gun. Well done Sniper-2, you predated the N64 Rumble feature by 40 years.

Other than the rumble feature there’s no way to know whether you hit the target or not, unless you look up at the score board. So really this is a relic and really not the most fun game you can play at the museum.

I’m assuming it’s a total departure in story and gameplay from the original, what a disgrace!

Sea Battle / Морской Бой

Sea Battle and Torpedo attack

This one was actually the most fun, and it comes in a two player version called “Torpedo attack”. In this title you play against attacking ships in the distance, you’re face is propped up to a submarine scope, and you aim by turning the periscope and pressing a button to take your shot. These shots go on pre-defined paths, and unless you’ve played this game a lot it’s pretty touch to master. But once again the sound was great and there was a rumble feature on this one as well, which made those rare “you sunk my battleship” moments all the more satisfying, as you can see in the gameplay video we shot below.

Here’s a link to play the game on the Museum’s Website!

http://morskoy-boy.15kop.ru/en/game/

Hunt / Охота

Saerom the Killer

This one was another simple shooting game, but this time instead of shooting boring targets like in Sniper, you get to shoot moving targets like Moose or Bears. It has the same problem as the Sniper game though that when you shoot things you’re not really given a message that you’ve scored unless you stop playing and take a look at the score board. This one at least had some moving parts though. It seemed like my girlfriend liked this one as well, as you can see the smile on her face after she killed things. Kinda creepy…

So, is it worth going to the Soviet Museum of Arcade Games?

Robot Souvenir

It’s for sure a lot of fun to go, and there are some really cool games that you can take a look at, I didn’t review all of them of course, there are another 10 or so that I played that  should leave to you when you visit. But the staff was nice, it wasn’t that expensive, and it’s a museum where you can actually touch the works of art. The only criticism I would have for the Museum is that it doesn’t give that much history about the games, and who made them, or how they were made. A few pictures of the Soviet Bureau of Video games (if it actually existed) would go a long way, despite how backwards it sounds.

There are also some cool souvenirs you can grab as well like little robots that look like they were made 30 years ago, and posters you can take home for not a big price.

It was a fun trip, and I’m sure their new address will make it even cooler than it was here, when I saw it they were only a month or so away from moving so I assume their new location will be even more welcoming than this one.

8.5/10 A good time for all, and interesting to see what people were playing on the other side of the iron curtain.

If you’re interested in seeing the Museum, or play some of the games mentioned in my reviews you can visit their official website here Soviet Museum of Arcade games

Psone Classics at the Soviet Museum of Arcade Games