From Tetris to Atomic Heart. 8 facts about the development of the gaming industry in Russia
Miscellaneous / / September 08, 2023
We remember how the most popular portable electronic game appeared and why gaming was twice recognized as an official sport.
1. The game "Wolf and Eggs" had a different name
The game EG‑26 Egg was first released by the Japanese company Nintendo. In 1984, a Soviet analogue appeared under the Elektronika brand, which underwent minimal changes. The wolf from the original version turned into a character from “Well, wait a minute!” The game received the same name. The mechanics were as simple as possible: catch eggs in a basket and get points. There was legendthat if you score 1,000 points, a cartoon will be shown on the screen. In fact, the game was simply reset.
Others were released later varieties "The Wolf and the Eggs." For example, in “The Cheerful Cook” you had to catch falling food in a frying pan. The passion for Electronics did not last long: in the 1990s, the console was replaced by more modern games.
2. Tetris was created by a Soviet programmer
In the 1980s, Alexey Pajitnov worked at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was also fond of puzzles like pentominoes. In this game there are 12 elements of five squares, from which you need to assemble various figures. The programmer decided to transfer the puzzle to a computer, but realized that it was too complex for this. As a result, he used elements of four squares and reduced the variations of the figures to seven. It turned out that with the correct actions of the player, it will be possible to fill the field without voids in 20 seconds. Then Pajitnov decided that the lower rows should disappear. So the game became almost endless.
In 1985, a color version appeared, which added sound and scoring. The game went beyond the Computing Center and quickly spread throughout the USSR: users simply copied it from floppy disk to floppy disk.
Later, the Hungarian entrepreneur Robert Stein drew attention to Tetris. He tried to negotiate with Pajitnov about the transfer of copyrights, but even before he agreed, Stein resold them. In 1988 the game published American company Spectrum Holobyte. The Japanese have also caught up: Nintendo packed "Tetris" on the Game Boy portable console. Return rights were achieved only in 1996. Interest in Tetris continues to this day: a film was released this year that tells the story of the creation of the famous puzzle.
3. The Dendy console was invented as an alternative to Nintendo
Victor Savyuk worked at the ParaGraph company. Then he heard about the Japanese game console Nintendo and offered to supply it to Russia, but the head of ParaGraph Stepan Pachikov reacted coolly to the idea. Then Savyuk moved to the Stipler company, where he created the Dendy brand and began producing his own console.
The name was typed in a simple Cooper font, and the corporate color was red. baby elephant drew animator Ivan Maksimov. A trial batch of consoles was ordered from a factory in Taiwan. Sales were not going well - the consoles were of an outdated design and were expensive, while cheaper analogues were already being brought to Russia. Then Savyuk released the Dendy Junior console and set a minimum wholesale price for it. It worked. In 1993 the company earned 16 million dollars, and two years later - already 100. Stipler created a separate company, Dandy, which employed 150 people. Over the entire period of sales in Russia and the CIS, we managed to sell about 6 million set-top boxes. But after the 1998 crisis, the company closed.
4. "Brothers Pilots" traces its history back to children's books
The story of two detectives, Chief and Colleague, investigating the disappearance of an elephant from a zoo, was written by Eduard Uspensky. Later, comics appeared, and in 1987 a cartoon was released, in which the characters had already acquired a recognizable appearance. They became the Pilot brothers thanks to the name of the studio “Pilot”. After 10 years appeared computer quest from the Gamos company. The plot of the game “Pilot Brothers: In the Footsteps of the Striped Elephant” was almost unchanged. They also retained the authentic panache that the audience loved. A year later, a sequel appeared - “The Pilot Brothers: The Case of a Serial Maniac.” The last game in the catch-up genre was released in 2007.
The Pilot Brothers were a bright novelty of the time, but not the only one. For example, in 1998, the K-D LAB company presented the racing role-playing game “Vangers”. According to the plot, the planet was inhabited by mutants. They lived in cities, the connection between which was maintained by vangers - wanderers driving combat vehicles. Game author Andrey Kuzmin turned on into the “Hall of Fame” of legends of the domestic game industry. It also included the creators of Tetris and Dendy.
5. In the mid-1990s, almost no one bought licensed games
In 1997, their share accounted for only 2%, and the rest of the market was occupied by counterfeit products. That's because pirated versions cost much cheaper - 4-5 dollars versus 18. Licensed copies sold in cardboard boxes, where, in addition to the disk, they put a manual, advertising booklets and gifts, such as a T-shirt.
The Russian company Buka tried to solve this problem. Their games were released in minimalist plastic boxes. They cost almost the same as pirated ones. The first to be published was the quest “Petka and Vasily Ivanovich save the galaxy.” He brought the company 150% of the invested money. A card was added to the package asking what else users would like to play. Heroes of Might and Magic 3 won the poll; in 1999, Buka translated and released the game.
The company, of course, was unable to completely overcome piracy in the gaming industry. But if in the 1990s its level was 98%, then Now — 70%.
6. Russia is the first in the world to recognize eSports as an official sport.
This happened in 2001. But five years later he was excluded from the All-Russian Register of Sports because he did not meet the new criteria. For example, e-sportsmen did not have a registered all-Russian association. Re-recognition took place in 2016.
Russian athletes perform well at international competitions. Let's say in 2021 they are for the first time won Dota 2 World Championship. And in 2022 become leaders at the CS: GO World Championship.
7. Disney bought the game "Corsairs II" during the development stage
First part released in 2000 by the companies 1C and Akella. The action took place in the 17th century in the fictional region "Archipelago", located in the Caribbean Sea. The game received not only good graphics, but also many interesting features for its time: here you could freely travel and fight battles not only on water, but also on land.
The sequel appeared three years later. The game, which was originally developed as Corsairs II, was bought by Disney and renamed Pirates of the Caribbean to promote the film of the same name. They are not connected by plot; they are united only by the theme and the presence of the Black Pearl ship. The main character is Captain Nathaniel Hawk, who enters the service of the governor of an island in the Caribbean. And then the user himself decided how the character’s fate would develop: he could become either a pirate or a noble merchant.
The last game in the series was released in 2012, but due to outdated graphics and complex gameplay, reviews for it were cool.
8. Atomic Heart became the leader in sales on Steam immediately after release
The shooter, developed by the Russian-Cypriot studio Mundfish, tells an alternative history of the USSR in the 1950s. The country launched mass production of robots, but at some point the machines got out of control and attacked people. The main character, intelligence officer Sergei Nechaev, will have to find out what happened. The game was released on February 21 this year, and it immediately came out to first place on Steam in sales, surprising even foreigners. Players were captivated by the attention to detail and colorful characters. And Russian users also appreciated the nostalgic soundtrack - from “Komarovo” to “Pink Flamingo” by Alena Sviridova.