Memories of slot machines Nikolay Amosov(Leningrad / St. Petersburg) A little clarification. In this article I refer to slot machines as any device on which you could play for money. Therefore, Atari computers were also included here. 1984-1987 My earliest memories of slot machines are trips with parents to the gym in a unique residential three-leaf house at the intersection of Northern and Civil prospectuses[https://goo.gl/maps/SWSdSGpB7ws]. There, on the ground floor, there were premises for shops. But specifically This house had a large slot machine hall. In a similar there was a thrift store in the house across the street, where during lunch break, my parents worked part-time cleaning and sometimes they took me with them. I really enjoyed riding during lunch around the store in a pedal-powered car [https://goo.gl/images/98S8TZ]. But let's return to slot machines. The entrance to the hall was in the middle of the house. Not far from the entrance there was a booth with an aunt who was doing exchanging money for coins of 15 kopecks, which everyone ate machine guns. If you go right from the entrance, thenyou find yourself in a hall with slot machines, and if you go to the left, then to the board games room. In addition to the standard set of Soviet slot machines (sea battle, towns, highway, sniper, all sorts of children's rocking chairs and etc.) there were also unique things that I had not seen in others halls For example, these were car rallies along a winding road and bowling alley However, both games were not slot machines. B rally cars drove along guides along a closed track and I had to press some button. For what? I don't remember. I'm like never even played this game. But the bowling alley was quite playable by me. From board games I definitely remember huge chess, indoor basketball and air hockey. There were also armchairs and sofas, and you could relax. My mother and I went to this hall, but not often. It's good if once every month. But one day, either on a birthday or on New Year’s, I was given a piggy bank in the shape of a large and beautiful mushroom boletus, made entirely of wood. At the top In the mushroom cap, a narrow hole was made to accept coins. At the same time, the cap acted as a lid and was quite strong glued to the base of the mushroom. Retrieve coins without breaking them piggy bank, it was quite difficult. It was necessary to shake long and hard mushroom, holding it upside down. And then maybe out of the hole a coin might have fallen out. My parents threw all sorts of things into the piggy bank small change from the store. When the fungusgot very heavy, I asked my father to open piggy bank, because I didn’t want to break it. I don't remember, I succeeded to do this or still had to break the mushroom, but one day Having taken money out of the piggy bank, I no longer saved anything. It is possible that due to the breaking of the piggy bank. I don't remember. In general, Having collected the accumulated coins, my mother and I went to the gaming room machine guns - and here I had a blast. In the game "Marine" battle" I became so skilled that I knocked out 100% of the ships in the main game and in the bonus. For some reason the second bonus game was not given. 1988-1991 One day, having played to my heart’s content, I stopped going to that hall. It’s just that everything has already been replayed many times and I’m tired of it. I spent the rest of the money on ice cream, chewing gum and on fountain pens. I had such a passion - to buy ballpoints and sometimes ink fountain pens. I then bit them during lessons and they quickly fell into disrepair. When the accumulated money is already ran out a long time ago someone told me that the store has Children's World On Nauki Avenue near the metro station you can play interesting games. Actually, it’s not a long way to the store - as many as six stops at bus. But I was quite independent and I didn’t need ask your parents for permission to go somewhere or go far from home. I traveled quite calmly area andeven outside of it. And my parents knew about it and didn't mind. If only he came back on time for dinner and didn’t forget do school homework. So I packed up and went see what kind of games there are. In one of the departments of the store on the counter there was a large colored Soviet TV and joystick. The joystick was connected to Atari computer. But then I didn’t know about any joysticks or about Atari. I just have an image of this stuck in my memory. computer and when I got older I recognized it on some photos on the Internet. And then it became clear what it was. Simple children's games like River were loaded onto the Atari Raid, Montezuma's Revenge, Ninja, International Karate and beyond You could play quite a lot of money for a few minutes. But there was no money and so I just stood nearby and watched how other children are playing. I think they were the salesmen's children store, as well as their friends. I went to Children's World to have a look maybe a couple of times, and in the spring of 1989 year we moved to live in the city center. But for now I continued go to the old school until the end of the school year and then again in the summer, before the new school year. One day, probably in the summer of 1989 year, right opposite the Akademicheskaya metro station, I saw sign BAR Slot machines. There was something in that place before type of glass-sausage. And I decided to come in and have a look. [https://pastvu.com/p/204996] It was a small one-story building about 10-12 meters wide and 8 meters deep. I don't remember there being windows there. There were actually slot machines inside. Not just any Soviet, but imported. It was like I was in a fairy tale. So much at once new games in one place. I don’t remember how many machine guns there were, but I’ll assume offhand that there were at least 12. What’s interesting most of the visitors were grown men. Children there was practically none at all. Cost of one token for a machine was 50 kopecks and I never played anything, due to excessive cost. I only remember a few games machine guns There was Pooyan about a family of pigs who fought off the wolves. There was a Punch Out box with a view from behind backs, and the main character was drawn in the form of a mesh so that the enemy could be seen through it. There was also a machine gun in the form motorcycle, only without wheels. You could turn the steering wheel and the motorcycle leaned over. And the last game I remembered was Gauntlet. Perhaps not the first, but the second part. At the time I thought it was a game about Bruce Lee, who walks through a maze and throws from his elbow hatchets against goblins in white and gray sheets. That's it I especially remember the pigs and Bruce. Many years later I was able play them for free using the MAME emulator. With the start of the new school year, I stopped going to the old one yard to his friends and gradually began to forget about them. Ume new friends and new slot machine halls appeared. About the first I learned from them, it seems, from advertising. It was a hall in the Winter Palace stadium on Manezhnaya Square.[https://goo.gl/maps/fwBYЧfЧi51B2] Behind the massive wooden doors, right up to the entrance stadium, there was a rather large "dressing room" with gaming automatic machines. There were even more of them there than in the trefoil plant. B Mostly the machines were all the same, but there were also new ones. So for example There was a Penalty game hanging on the wall, where you had to run a small rubber ball in a field studded with plastic with chopsticks. The ball hit the sticks and bounced off them chaotically in different directions and gradually rolled down towards the gate. He did not always hit the goal, but more often than not he fell wide. For one the coin could be used to spin the ball several times, and each once the ball, when the ball hit the goal, the score increased by electronic scoreboard. If at the end of the game you get a certain number of points (goals scored), then from a special hole a prize appeared below. One day I walked past this machine and for some reason he put his hand into the hole where the prize falls out. And, oh miracle, I felt something hard there and stuck across it. I I poked around there a little and a small one fell out into my hand pink plastic box. I opened the lid and there At the bottom was a piece of paper with the printed text “Get a prize atcheckout." I took the box to the cashier to the changer, and she gave out I need TipiTip chewing gum or something like that. So big-nosed the guy in the cap was drawn on the wrapper. I was happy. like this I had never seen chewing gum in a stall before. I did not keep the only, and therefore unique, insert. I quite often went to this hall to play and ask for money from grandmothers. She never refused me. The only problem was that the “shakers,” as I called them then, were operating in the hall. This a gang of teenagers about 12-14 years old who went most often in small groups of 2-3 people and engaged in petty robbery. Several times I fell into their clutches. They surrounded and took side, away from the machine guns, after that they began to extort money at risk of knocked out teeth. If the victim did not agree part with cash and claimed, as I did, that the money no, the punks asked me to jump on the spot. Sometimes they seem they patted their pockets in a friendly manner. And if somewhere a ringing sound was heard, then the victim almost voluntarily separated with a stash. I saw this happen once and that's why I started hide money in a sock. There was no money rattling around, and I several times so he “jumped on the spot” without parting with any a penny. Then I would quietly bend down and take a coin out of my sock. and played. But in general I didn’t like the trend itself, and I gradually stopped going tothat hall. I asked my mom where there were other arcades, and she I remembered that in the Tauride Garden, next to the Leningrad cinema center there is a small amusement town and there was a house with slot machines. I asked you to show me, and when we are once again we went for a walk in the garden, I taxied into this house, and Mom went for a walk around the garden. It was a small one-story building with non-permanent walls. It was quite cramped inside, and the set of slot machines was standard. One day I was playing Penalty and noticed that if you wave your hand in the area goal, then the counter counted the goal even if the ball did not hit gate. Some kind of photo sensor glitch that reacted to the shadow from hands from ordinary light in the room. I quickly realized why I'll spend money on games if I can play football hand the required number of heads. But I was deceived. I believe that it was not I who deceived, but I was deceived. I'm once again and for the last time threw a coin into the machine and waved the required amount with his hand points. But when the game ended, nothing came out of the treasured hole didn't fall out. And in vain I stuck my hand there. There's definitely nothing there stuck. I was offended and went to complain to the change desk. He said that he had collected as much as he needed, but nothing fell out. on me They answered that this could not be and if I really scored the required number of points, then a prize would be required fell out. I askedcome up and see for yourself, but the cashier gently She sent me to play other games and not interfere with her work. Here So I wanted to deceive the system, but I myself was deceived. More me I didn’t go to that hall to play. Around 1991, my friend Slavka showed me a slot machine The Little Humpbacked Horse in one of the grocery stores opposite the circus [https://goo.gl/maps/GFTiRzdcju92]. What’s strange, this machine it stood alone and there were no other games. Slavka by that time I’ve already gotten the hang of playing and even mastered some kind of cheating maneuver. On one of the game screens during the battle with the enemy Slavka started to pull the joystick very hard and quickly towards the edge screen. He said that in this way one can defeat the enemy. But a store employee caught us doing this and drove us away. us from the store, since she was convinced that we were breaking slot machine The machine gun later disappeared from the store. Apparently not was in demand. 1992-1993 Once, while walking along Nevsky Prospekt in search of a popsicle, I I saw an interesting establishment. At the underground passage to intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and Sadovaya Street, from the side puppet theater of puppets, you could play for money. This Of course it wasn't an arcade. But I liked it right away.[https://goo.gl/maps/jRkXK1pprQn] This was the playground in front of the theater entrance. The entrance to the theater was somewhat recessed into the depths of the building, and this provided a canopy over playground. At that time I did not yet know what I was like represent these slot machines, and later it turned out that this There were game consoles like NES. I don't know if it's original or Steepler's Dandy knockoffs. At that time I somehow didn't I saw them on sale in city department stores and therefore didn’t could judge. Behind the glass display case were several large Soviet color televisions (four or five), to which these Dandies were connected. The games were controlled using using oak industrial joysticks, where instead of Start buttons and Select buttons of industrial starters were used - black and red, tightly screwed to the window sill. Nearby, a little to the side, sat a man with an electronic alarm clock and a notebook in which he carefully wrote down the TV number and the time until which the game was paid for. The cost of the game was quite high, but quite affordable. I even several times allowed myself to play. But more often I just watched them play others, and ate ice cream, which he bought right there from the underground transition. Ice cream was my priority. After payment, it was no longer possible to change the game, and I had to play until the end of the paid amounttime. Therefore, to the choice of game it was necessary to approach it thoughtfully. And I had to choose approximately from the following games: - Super Mario Brothers - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Something about karate The games themselves on consoles changed periodically, but Mario seemed to be always. Later, inside the theater, behind the window, a shop opened sale of cartridges with games for Dandy. It was possible there exchange your games for their games with some additional payment. You could also play at the Vitebsk railway station. There were two types of slot machines - foreign arcade and scam with turtles. First I'll tell you about the scam automatic Essentially it was an ordinary Spectrum, hidden in plastic box along with the power supply. There was on the box just one single button designed to start games. And the game, apparently, started directly from the ROM at turning on the power. This box was connected to a small color TV. A barker stood in front of the TV, which used a megaphone to invite everyone to participate in instant lottery. The essence of the game was simple. Left screen six turtles crawled to the right at the same speed, each your path. On the right side of the screen from top to bottom with different a flag indicating the winning amount from 5 to 25 rubles. Crawling to the bottom of the screen, the checkbox appears again every time appeared on top and could change both the winning amount and speedof its movement. When the turtles crawled to the right part of the screen, then the turtle whose track was in This time there was a flag. Moreover, the player received the amount which was indicated on the checkbox on the screen. After paying five rubles (or more), the player chose his lane (turtle) and took from the table a plastic flag with a number turtles. It was possible to buy several flags at once. When everything the flags were sold out, the barker pressed the button and the game started. It is easy to calculate that for any amount of winnings the barker always ended up winning, because in one game she collected 30 rubles, and the maximum win was only 25 rubles. Yes and even then rarely fell out. But still this scam was widely used popular among departing passengers. I also remember that before the start of the races there was music in the game, stolen from the Wham 48K music editor. This scam was located behind the doors in front of the exit to the platforms long distance trains. And the arcade hall was with on the opposite side of these doors. There were four or five machines fenced off from spectators with stands with tension between them with a rope. Of the games I can only remember Rampage about giant beast-like robots that for some reason destroyed city, and classic Pac-Man. I don't remember how much it cost play, but I remember that these machines were not very popular and it was almost never therequeues of people wanting to play. I I never played there myself and just came to watch probably until the end of 1992. And after that I abandoned everything for a long time slot machine halls known to me. 1998-1999 Somewhere in 1998, opposite the Akademicheskaya metro station big arcade arcade in indiana. No advertisements I have not seen or heard about the opening. I found out about this hall from my friend Denis. He told me this news and suggested go have a look.[https://goo.gl/maps/YKptiiQ243U2] The hall was large. And only foreign machines. The room was there were no windows and it was dark inside. The lighting was in the form of colored LED strips on the walls - well, and from the machine screens. It was very atmospheric, but too loud. From all sides, from all music, some shots, explosions, voices and things like that. I can’t imagine how it was possible to work there all day? Some machine guns were clustered in groups and were clearly connected to the network so that you can play with a live opponent. This was done in OutRun car racing and in tank racing. games. There were a lot of machines. I would say offhand that it is more thirty. But there was still a second floor, no longer with video games. But There were still no people. We played with some of our own tokens, andthe cost of the token was equal to the cost of travel on the metro, which was not budget at all. I went to this hall several times alone, or with Denis, and we seemed to only play once - we hit him in the face pear in a game of hitting power. And the following year the hall closed, and it was converted first into a billiard club, and then into strip club. It still exists with the same purpose and in the same form, only with a restaurant. Around the same time, I accidentally wandered into that same Children's World with Atari, but of course there were no Ataris there anymore. But in the foyer In front of the store entrance there was a small hall with four machines. There was some Mortal Kombat and Bad Dudes there. 2008-2010 In the fall of 2008, I was at Anton Popov’s house and asked buy it for me on ebay adapter for connecting CompactFlash cards into my newly purchased Amiga 1200. Anton doesn’t have there was money on the card, and we went with him to the nearest branch bank to deposit money into the card account, but got caught lunch break. To avoid going back home, we went to shopping and entertainment center Atmosfera on Komendantskaya area.[https://goo.gl/maps/XcoJZCAUЧKK2] There was a large slot machine hall. The machines worked from electronic money, which was read from magnetic cards. Money to the mapYou could drop it off at the hall's cash register. I don't remember how long we spent that day, but Anton paid for everything, so I especially didn't look closely. Also, at the end of the game, Machines were given out a tape with tickets, which could then be exchanged for some prizes. We played OutRun together against each other on slot machines with a chair, pedals and steering wheel. Anton beat me and that's great I was happy. We also played House Of The Dead (I don’t remember which one) part), where they shot at zombies with very heavy shotguns. Well, after the game we went to the bank. In 2009, I bought a dance mat for games of the Dance Dance Revolution series. He was on sale with a good discount, however, the delivery was very dear. Jumping on the carpet at home for a while environment, I got into the spirit of this game and decided to look in Internet of like-minded people. I found information on some forum about the open DDR tournament planned in our city and decided go watch the professionals dance. The tournament was held in one of the shopping centers near the Ozerki metro station. When I arrived at the place and found where these slot machines were located, Several people were already warming up and changing clothes there. People changed clothes right in the corridor in front of a small foyer with one (sort of) automatically. There was a sofa nearby, and I sat down on it. Apart from me, no one came just to take a look. Everyone else was tournament participants. Played bytwo people at the same time, but against each other. What they did during the game was amazing. I got the feeling that the participants they knew where to step on the dance platform by heart. Well, at least when they turned their backs to the screen, then they didn’t miss the arrows crawling across the screen. I realized that I You will need to train for a long time to do the same. I didn’t see the end of the tournament that day and I don’t know who became winner. I went home much earlier. And at home I was jumping around mat and tried to repeat what he saw during the competition. Nothing worked for me. And then I got seriously ill knee and dance mat was abandoned for a couple of months, and then it was completely put away in a box. I never bothered him again for the game. And for the last time in my life I visited the slot machine hall in the lobby film center Mirage Cinema in the shopping center closest to the house. The day before, my father found it on the street and gave me a plastic card, which you need to pay for games and I decided to check it out. Of course, there was no money on it, but I found out what Are there machines near the house and how much does one gaming credit cost? The loan cost 25 rubles, but, as a rule, all games required 2 credits at once. I put 500 rubles on the card and received a gift of another 200 rubles, then he went after Denis and dragged him to hall to play with me. We lost the following games: OutRun,House Of The Dead 3, Dance Dance Revolution, air hockey, Tekken 3. We spent the most money on the game HOTDZ, since Denis was regularly killed, and so that he would not be thrown out of the game, I still paid for and paid for sequels for it. We're pretty fast They spent all the money on the card and I threw it away. After that I I never visited any slot machine halls again. Hippiman(Rostov-on-Don): As long as I can remember in Rostov, well, at least in that part In Rostov, where I visited, arcade machines were a little tight. I first encountered machine guns in the late 80s. I'm like a grandson helicopter factory worker, was sent to the Rostvertol cultural center for New Year tree. And they were in the foyer of this cultural center. Really tight I didn’t manage to get acquainted with slot machines then because a huge number of children leaving the performance. We took a ride on "rocket" or "boat", and they took me home. I was 4 years old then maybe 5. I went there every year on New Year's Eve and every time with approximately the same results. Later, after the collapse of the USSR (in 1993 - 1994), I became visit there more often. I periodically persuaded my parents take me there to play (this recreation center was 3 stops from mine at home). I already have more complete memories of this time. In the recreation center there were typical Soviet slot machines and there were quite a lot. They occupiedabout half the foyer. There were also rocking nurses, which can now be found in every shopping center. There were 3 of them: a boat, a rocket and chicken Of course, they were intended for kids. There was also a strength meter "Turnip" - a kind of miracle design, from which A black handle stuck out diagonally from the floor. I needed this pen pull, imitating pulling a turnip. This thing was terribly tight. I No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t pull out the “mouse” anymore. But he left proud that I was able to lift more than my weight :) I was 7 at the time years old, and I weighed 27 kilograms (memorized), and lifted 30 s something. There was a grabber crane (well, like the ones that are now on every corner), only it either didn’t work, or there were some toys inside interesting, and I haven't played it at all. There was a coolly designed “Virazh” machine gun. It was more real about him chair, steering wheel with dashboard and pedals. Just like in the present car, but instead of some kind of screen there was something like the home game "Driving" (which I had and got bored quickly). There was a large disk with roads, glued bridges and cars. When you cast coin, then the light inside the machine comes on, and on the field the silhouette of the car is projected (yes, it was necessary to control a speck of light, not a toy car). You press the pedal the drum starts spinning (I don’t remember if the speed changed rotation by forcepressing or not), and the steering wheel, respectively, move your spot. The machine could somehow still determine whether I crashed somewhere or not. Maybe there are photo sensors there there were some, I don’t know. And what else do I remember is not to crash it was very difficult there. The cars were glued so that sometimes blocked almost the entire space of the road. There was also a mechanical machine gun with tanks, but it’s in my memory never worked. In addition to mechanical and semi-mechanical machines, there were also electronic. Right in the middle of the hall there was a table with two steering wheels. It was a machine gun "Rally". The screen in it looked not to the side, as usual, but upward. Those. I had to look down. This machine was in demand although playing alone was not at all interesting, since The goal of the game was to collect on rough terrain within a certain flag time is greater than the opponent, and if you play alone, then the second machine just stands there and does nothing. Essentially lost the very goal of the game. There was also the progenitor of all virtual shooting galleries - “winter hunting”. This machine was a hefty “type” screen a picture with a winter landscape and a stand with a a gun that strongly resembled an air gun. The machine ate properly coins, notified that the game had started, and the screen began light bulbs light up, illuminating the silhouettes of animals. That's just no matter how you aim, even point-to-point, and no matter how much you shoot, I still have notI never managed to hit it. Most likely the gun was faulty. But the main highlight of this gaming hall were two slot machines with fully electronic games "The Little Humpbacked Horse" and "Snow queen." I clearly remember that one game on them cost more than one a coin, but two. But even for twice the price it was necessary You also have to stand in line before playing. What they looked like I didn’t remember it at all, but I remembered it completely unclear instructions and terrible, unbearable complexity. Beyond the 4th or 5th screen in Skate and the second level I never managed to get through in Korolev, although I had coins for them "leaked" quite a lot. I completed “The Little Humpbacked Horse” only this year on an emulator with endless lives, getting stuck a couple of times and draining the general life count is 50-60. I don't know what the developers were thinking and why didn’t they feel sorry for Soviet children when they made this crooked. No matter how much I studied the MAME romset, I never saw so that Western developers can afford something similar. But we didn’t have the famous “Sea Battle”. About existence I only discovered such a machine in the Internet era. (Site about Soviet slot machines http://morskoy-boy.1Skop.ru/ - there You can play the flash version.) And, to be honest, Soviet slot machines were not very good interesting. They were not inclined to throw in more and more coins. I played each game once - and that was fine. And the peoplereally crowded only the two that I talked about earlier. A few words about the hall itself. After the collapse of the USSR and the transition to new no one altered the money, the machines. They continued like this demand old-style 15-kopeck coins. But on the counter grandmother-watchwoman (or whoever she was) was proudly hoisted a sign “coin exchange” with some completely wild exchange rate. But Meanwhile, no one forbade people to come with their coins, and these the most spots remained in pockets, corners and just on the street there's a lot more. As a result, I only used the services of a money changer a couple of times. Unfortunately, the condition of the machines was monitored either very poorly, or they didn’t follow at all. They wore out, broke, and were working There were fewer and fewer machines in the hall. As a result, in 1995 year they were all taken somewhere, and in their place they put tables with TVs and game consoles. And the place of the grandmother-changer occupied by an admin aunty who accepted money and looked after time and installed the ordered games. But in 96 (or 95, my memory fails me here, and it’s not so important) year, not only consoles appeared in the foyer, but also something cooler. It was a real imported slot machine "Operation Wolf"! Oh, how cool he was. This screensaver with a soldier being equipped a la Schwarzenegger in the movie Commando. This machine that looks like a real Israeli UZI (the controller was an iron machine, whichwas attached to the cabinet with a metal rod. It was necessary to aim by moving this machine gun like a joystick). These rich sounds of gunshots and explosions. And the picture, the picture made not like the old, poor Soviet machine guns. She fucked mine a brand new Sega, the picture on which was almost as good as cartoon And the machine gun came out, by the way, in 1987. This is when we considered the height of perfection "The Little Humpbacked Horse" and "Sea fight." They just played it very little. And all because of the price of the session. It was unrealistic and was equal to about an hour of playing Sega in hall next door. Naturally, the choice was most often not in favor machine, but when someone finally started playing "Operation Wolf", onlookers gathered around with the third space speed. And then they removed him too. Most likely due to unprofitability. By the way, in 1991 or 1992, next to the Rostvertol cultural center, in the hotel "Tourist" operated a gaming room consisting entirely of Spectrums and some other computers. Probably Yamaha and Atari. The joysticks are there All computers had mechanical sticks with one button. I was there only once and played a game where there were two submarines: black and blue, floating at the bottom of the screen at different depths, competed in shooting at ships and planes. I'm on speck I never found it, although I searched through the entire WOS. And from mid-late 96 to 99 slot machines was not in my field of vision. Wereonly various gaming clubs different sizes, from a couple of consoles near the cartridge tray to healthy hall. And that club, as I already said, was developing. There first the PS1s appeared, then a couple of N64s, and then the PCs arrived, he I moved around the building a couple of times, but that's another story. And in 1999, opposite the famous Rostov hotel "Anchor", which stands on the embankment, a slot machine hall has opened. And this was already serious. The hall consisted entirely of machines from the company Sega, and they simply blew the roof away, even after a dense getting to know PlayStation. Although the machines themselves were not so a lot, but what games they were! Virtua Cop (shoot at just a fairy tale for bandits together), House of the Dead, Daytona USA (6 cabinets stood in a row and were connected to each other. You can was to sit in adjacent offices and compete with each other, push, cut, etc.). And the apogee of all this chic was huge Desert Tank. This office simulated a pilot's seat tank. There was a steering wheel, pedals, a throttle handle and a huge plasma in screen quality. The player seemed to be in the present tank. Needless to say, when shooting and moving, all this the splendor trembled and swayed. By the way, payment in these machines was not in coins or tokens, but cards. Like bank cards with a magnetic stripe, only those were cardboard. Now in the halls there is approximately the same scheme, only the cards are narrower plastic and you need thembuy rubles for 100, and then use them put money. They gave cardboard ones for free, but you also needed money for them put. I would now like to dwell in more detail on that gaming hall, which replaced the arcades. In the year 1996, my younger sister started dancing in still in the same cultural center, and I began to visit there about once a week - first just chat and fool around with friends (sisters some of my classmates also studied there), and then play on consoles. The gaming club consisted of two rows of indestructible tables made of thick sheets of chipboard installed on steel frames. On There were medium-sized color televisions on the tables. In one row there were 6 of them, and in the other - 8. The players were sitting on the same indestructible wooden benches (completely sit your ass on such a shop for an hour of play was a piece of cake!). First you can there were most of them to play on segas - and on days. Their there were 4 pieces. At that time I played only once, since I didn’t it made sense. The exact same console was waiting for me at home. By the way, There were not branded shogis, but clones called Bitman Super. I remember this for sure, because I had Bitman Turbo and with it There was a booklet with images of the line of all consoles from this company. Behind the desk of the former watchwoman there was a control center for this club. An aunty was sitting there with a thick magazine and several for hours. In this magazine sheentered the console number and time games. Well, she accepted money, of course. And behind her on the wall hung stand Similar stands could be seen at any stop. On These were the cassettes they sold. It was a sheet of plywood with narrow horizontal shelves. There were only boxes on it from cartridges. Those waiting in line could pass the time by looking boxes and choose what to play accordingly. At the end of 97 or the beginning of 98, the fleet was updated consoles. PS1 appeared in the club. At first they were equipped one row, and then they supplanted all the consoles and became single-handed control the minds of the players. The game selection stand has also been redesigned. The shelves are gone. Now it has been horizontally striped rubber bands that held the covers from the discs. Since this period the club has flourished. People began to crowd there a lot, even on weekdays during school hours. Their regulars appeared, the guys who hung out in the club, sensations all the time. I remember one little kid named "Bacillus" He was the youngest among the regulars, he played very rarely (probably there was no money), but he knew everything about everything popular and not so popular games. Need Fatality for some Shinnok in MKCh - please. Or you need to play for Dominion in Twisted Metal 2 - no problem. In a word - a walking book with codes and secrets. There was also another contingent. I called them"Tips." These guys sat down next to you and started itching above your ear and giving you all sorts of tips on how to play correctly, periodically trying to beg you for a gamepad to “show you how to do it.” A This should not have been done under any circumstances. Good gameplay it was almost impossible to get back. In response it was possible hear all sorts of excuses starting with “I haven’t shown it yet” and ending with “well, you’re sorry, or something.” These guys were needed immediately put you down harshly, saying, “if you want to look, look, but keep quiet or get out of here." Of course, there were also their own punks who were on duty in flocks. entrance. But I somehow got lucky with them. They have never succeeded with me take the money. The most popular games in the club were those that did not require long passage. These were all kinds of fighting games: First Mortal Kombat 4, and then Tekken3. We played various races, the most popular of which were Twisted Metal 2 and Vigilante 8. Another very popular game was Red Alert. And they played it most often in multiplayer. This is when two consoles stand next to each other, connect with a special cable, and you play the same way as now via the Internet. Although we played everything else. Many Games back then allowed you to save your progress with a password. For others games you could come with your own memory card or for a separate one fee to rent several blocks on the club's official map. For quite a long time this clubexisted unchanged, and then moved first to the central part of the foyer, and then to a separate room in the far wing. Number of attachments when moving decreased, but 2 N64s and as many as 4 computers appeared, connected to the network. On PS1 they played the same thing, but on N64 they played mostly 007 Golden Eye. Four of us played deathmatch on one console. Yes it was cheaper. The club had such prices that the first player paid full price, and the rest of the players were on the same console half. The games most often played on computers were HOMM2, Dungeon Keeper and some kind of online shooter (Maybe Half-life deathmatch, or maybe and some modification to Quake2). It was very difficult and very long to get through both on the N64 and on the PC. The waiting time could reach up to an hour and a half, especially if take into account that playing time could be extended. Room, in which the club moved was narrow and long, and while away the time, sitting next to someone and watching him play became there was no more difficult space. The club existed in this form until the early 2000s. I'm not there appeared for a while. They bought me my own computer, and there was no time for that. And when I was in those parts again and decided to stop by, then the club was no longer there. It was 2002. Probably not withstood the onslaught of cheaper home PCs, and consoles have become much more accessible than in the late 90s. Now, in modern times, things are going wrong with arcades.We are in two ways. They seem to be in almost every shopping center, but mostly air hockey and something childish like “put the balls in your mouth” hippopotamus" and "knock on a mole". Something more serious racing, fighting games, virtual shooting ranges or dance dance revolution need to look. Although once I had a chance to play in a shooting gallery based on Silent Hill. The same sensational one that fans the original game was poured with slop. And the shooting gallery, I will say, turned out to be interesting. Together we practically mastered it from the first coin. We fell asleep on the last level. But where things have always gone poorly is with pinball. For I've only played on two pinball tables my entire life. Couple time at sea in "Gilligan's Island" (even took a prize place) and once at the Rostov cinema (which is now closed) in Pinball based on "Star Trek". I don't know why so The game, which is popular in the USA, is not taking root here at all. Alone Coder: One Tula resident just wrote: In the late 80s, when I was 6-7 years old, I played all sorts of electronic-mechanical machines: Battleship, Highway (racing), Interceptor (air battles), Sniper (shooting targets), as well as pins :) The whole thing stood in the Kosogorets recreation center (in the village of Kosaya Gora, Tula region - now part of the Station district of Tula) Then we had a club "Arsenalets" - in the Zarechesky district of Tula. There were rows of computers - presumably Agats(colored), or BK. I don't remember the names of the games. At one time there was a guy in the Children's Department Store who tried download games from the Spectrum, but it still doesn’t have anything it worked. A crowd of onlookers stood around him, apparently not at all understanding what is happening, but very eager to play something)) But I’ve had spec class since the second, so it’s of no interest to me had no idea)) PalYurich (Pink) was fighting somewhere in the park (all sorts of battletoads and other double dragons). Fyrex, in my opinion, also liked to play in the park, but this is not certain. Then I was engaged in setting up gaming (money) machines for years in 20-23. There was also the so-called "children's equipment" that we exported to holiday season in the south, and the rest of the time we cut ourselves... games of the 90s: racing, shooting games (a la "Operation Wolf"), Fights... for children were mostly Atari, but not only. More there was a huge casino machine - I pulled a couple of AYkobs from there, because it still didn't work))) But I haven’t seen “Battleship” or other famous machine guns live. With a gun I only remember some kind of target in the Municipal Cultural center, but no one played it in front of me. In those Soviet times, in the park, apparently near the stadium "Lokomotiv", there was a gaming hall, but I remember only one game there, because I played it myself - it was a race on a light beam. Then there is no screen, just a beam and the car drove along it. In 1998 I saw two playgrounds in the Burevestnik poolmachine gun NeoGeo, but the games there were just fights, no one played them either played. I don’t even know how I had to pay for them. Then I saw a machine with games for Radio-8bRK ("Treasure" and "Labyrinth"). All games were 15 kopecks. I still have 15-kopeck coins there are, but the anniversary 20-kopeck notes somehow all disappeared into nowhere :) Roma Borisov (Ryazan) recalls: He lived in Kanishchev when it was just being built up. Around the village gangs rode on horses and with chains. The time was harsh, and rarely who could walk through other people's areas (and it was scary in their own). Therefore, he remembers mainly only the local cinema "Cosmos" and something else. There were slot machines there, first of the "Target" type (very old and indestructible - I saw one like this back in the Municipal cultural center), then "Battleship" appeared (as in cartoon "The Magnificent Gosha - 2nd episode) and "Hunting" (where the avid players memorized the moments of appearanceall animals). Who made these automatic machines? Essentially these are simulators for the military. Perhaps it was several enterprises, because there were automatic machines, significantly differed by systems. And the most popular was "Basketball" - mechanical, where buttons were pressed to throw the ball into the desired hole. In the Central Park of Culture and Culture there was a pavilion with probably 20 machine guns. Light race Roma doesn’t remember. But he remembers a unique machine with toy tanks, which they looked at with their mouths open (also mechanics, too we had to get somewhere, but the tanks were from the store behind one and a half rubles - with 10 kopecks for a school breakfast you can get one of these was only a dream). Apparently, Roma also remembers the legendary game "The Little Humpbacked Horse". More of the colored oneselectronic there was some kind of race (apparently "Highway" - Hippiman found its prototype on the Atari 2600 under title "Night Racer"). He says that in Moscow there is even a museum of Soviet slot machines, where they are restored and working. I then found it on YouTube. Louisa (she also danced in the late 90s) from gaming I only remembered pinball and hockey machines, but she also plays pinball Only played once. I personally have not seen either one or the other. She also showed tokens from slot machines, which won some competition around 2000...
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