A long time ago there was a state in which bus travel cost five kopecks, milk was distributed free of charge to employees at enterprises for being “harmful”, a glass of soda cost a penny (or swipe on the machine), and a personal video recorder was a pipe dream for every family. This controversial power was called the USSR, and even after its disappearance in 1991, disputes about the “powerful and most beloved” state have not subsided to this day. Today on the Pink Sofa is the amazingly priced board game “USSR”.
These are the mechanical scales that were installed in every store. The values they showed never coincided with the real weight, but at that time no one attached any importance to this - there was so little goods in the stores that the lucky ones, having wrapped their purchase in a sheet of gray paper, inspired by victory, rushed home. Scarcity was the favorite word of that era.
On the other hand, everyone had a roof over their heads, work, food, social security, calm reigned in the country and the concept of “financial crisis” was absent. People were kinder, everyone gave up their seats in transport to older people, and children walked calmly in the yard without parental supervision. Of course, in those years there were both a lot of good things and a lot of... excesses on the ground.
The nostalgic board game “USSR” can be used as an educational aid for a visual study of pricing and living standards in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The prices of that time, take my word for it, may shock contemporaries. Eh, I remember, you beg your parents for 55 kopecks, buy a can of condensed milk, punch two holes in it with a nail and feast on the “yummy”. Childhood…
The compact box contains 100 unique cards with heroes of “that time”. Many of the items shown in the pictures have long since disappeared from store shelves, many have taken on a new form, and some have not changed to this day.
On one side of the square cards are depicted the most famous things of that time...
...on the other hand, their cost is given and a humorous explanation is printed for those who have difficulty imagining the purpose of these items. For example, on the left is a slide projector that showed color film on a screen in a darkened room. Now a multimedia projector performs a similar function.
During the “eighties” in the “periphery” you could easily buy only bread and milk; for everything else you had to go to the “center”. Department stores in big cities resembled anthills with huge queues, many were ready to sell their souls to the foreign Devil for imported goods, and the happy owners of the Rubik's Cube proudly showed it off to others (you could find an assembly diagram in the Science and Life magazine).
So, before us are 100 famous goods of that time, let's try to guess their value (in modern realities this will be very difficult).
Shuffle the cards and deal seven items to your opponents with the picture with the cost facing down (viewing prices is prohibited). From the remaining cards, form a common pile (the number of items in it depends on the number of players).
The stack is arranged with prices down, the remaining cards are put away in the box. Place the top card from the common pile in the center of the table; the most economical player makes the first move.
On your turn, you must either place one card in the center of the table, or turn over certain squares and check the prices. The principle of laying out cards is simple: new squares must touch old ones, the price increases from left to right horizontally and from bottom to top vertically. It is prohibited to swap “closed” (without price) cards.
If the card you played touches two (or three) previously laid out items, then the next player either reveals the just laid out card and another adjacent one, or takes one item from the common pile into his hand.
If a violation is detected, the previous player takes three cards from the common pile. If the prices are correct, the current player must take two cards into his hand.
All errors among the revealed cards must be corrected - immediately swap the items. Sometimes a situation may arise that it is impossible to correct an error - in this case, incorrect cards are discarded (this is acceptable).
The goal of the opponents is to get rid of all the items on their hand, the winner buys for everyone tomato juice and a chocolate bar “Alyonka”.
Past and present
The game is nostalgic for those who lived at that time and a slight culture shock for those who have never traveled on the subway for five kopecks and have not seen self-service ticket offices on buses. Unusual Quiz, which will allow you to remember the “eighties”, smile and... think.
The rules of such a simple game are laid out quite intricately. The basis, of course, is the game “”, in which event cards are arranged in a series of dates according to a similar criterion. In this case, the cards on the table lie with the dates facing up, and the player immediately sees whether he made a mistake or guessed correctly.
In the extended version of the same “Timeline” there is a rule point stating that events can be arranged both horizontally and vertically. Why a similar principle is not applied in the “USSR” - one can only guess... On the other hand, nothing prevents you from using it.
The quiz is quite emotional, especially with children - they sincerely do not believe that things could cost so much. An original game, unusual and educational - for all ages. I looked through the cards with pleasure - nostalgia...
Board games were popular in our country both under the kings and secretaries general. But if under the kings games were just games, a means to while away leisure time, then in Soviet times Games also began to carry an educational and propaganda load.
But let's look at the Soviet Board games more details...
"Flight Moscow-China." (1925)
In the 1910s and during the First World War, airplanes were built in our country, but our country was not included in the elite club of leading aviation powers. Why? Well, for example, here is one of the reasons - everyone knows that an airplane cannot fly without an engine, and engine building was in its infancy in Tsarist Russia. And the most important “part” for Russian aircraft had to be purchased abroad.
The new government decided to put an end to technological backwardness. The slogan “catch up and overtake” came into use towards the end of the twenties - during the era of industrialization. But the joint stock company "Dobrolet" (Russian Joint-Stock Company Voluntary air fleet) appeared already in 1923. 
The goal of the founders of the society was to promote the development of domestic civil aviation - passenger, postal, and cargo. The society existed for 7 years. During this time, Dobrolet aircraft flew almost 10 million kilometers, transported 47 thousand passengers and 408 tons of cargo (a very good result for an airline of the twenties).
Dobrolet also advertised its activities with the help of board games. The game “Flight Moscow-China” is extremely simple - by rolling dice, players must get to Beijing as quickly as possible, taking off from the Moscow airfield.
"Electrification" (1928)
“Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the entire country,” said V.I. Lenin. The words of the first head of the Country Council did not diverge from the deeds.
In February 1920, the GOELRO plan (State Plan for the Electrification of Russia) was adopted. The result of this plan was the widely publicized “Ilyich light bulbs,” which lit up even in the most remote villages of our vast country. Of course, “electrification of the entire country” could not help but be reflected in board games. 
Electrification could be played by two to four players. Players have access to large and small cards with pictures. There are only four big ones - village, city, aul, port. These cards are divided between players - these are objects that they must electrify.
Small cards are shuffled and dealt to the players. Players draw cards from their neighbors and put down paired pictures. In the end, they should be left with unpaired pictures of light bulbs.
According to the number of such cards on the playing field, fields closed with circles are opened - electrified objects. The one who electrified his part of the playing field first was the winner.
“Let's give raw materials to factories” (1930)
1930 - the First Five-Year Plan is in full swing, full swing Industrialization is underway, giant factories are being built in the country, and huge industrial areas are appearing literally out of nowhere. Of course, manufacturers of board games could not ignore the topic of industrialization. 
In the game “Let's Give Raw Materials to Factories,” players had to roll dice to move around the playing field and collect various recyclable materials that would be processed at the game factories. The winner, of course, was the one who gave the factories more raw materials.
"Lenin goes to Smolny" (1970)
And now, from the twenties and thirties, let's move forward to the era of “developed socialism”. In April 1970, our country celebrated the centenary of the birth of the leader of the world proletariat V.I. Lenin. I couldn’t stay away from this celebration and children's magazine"Funny pictures".
On the pages of the magazine in the “anniversary” April issue, the game “Lenin goes to Smolny” was published. The game was a classic “labyrinth” - the players had to guide Ilyich on the historical night of October 24-25, old style, from a safe house to Smolny. 
Petrograd at night was replete with dangers - patrols, horse-drawn cadets. However, many players found a walk through the nighttime pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg to be a boring activity, and almost immediately a “multiplayer version” of this game appeared. There were already several players and Lenins, and the player whose Lenin reached Smolny first won.
In the first decades of the existence of Soviet power, board games were both a means of propaganda and a kind of means of pre-conscription training. And there's nothing wrong with that. In the twenties, our country was preparing to repel a new intervention (severance of diplomatic relations with England, Curzon’s ultimatum, “war alarm”).
After January 30, 1933, you didn’t have to be a great seer or a brilliant analyst to guess that a new World War inevitable (it was enough to read tangentially two hundred pages of the text of the Treaty of Versailles or read its summary in newspapers). So, desktop military-patriotic propaganda, designed for future soldiers and commanders, was not at all out of place.
One should not be surprised at the abundance of “wargames” (war games or simply tabletop strategies) that were released in our country in the twenties and thirties. We won’t dwell on the rules of these games for a long time - a “wargame” is a “wargame”. Let's take a better look at the scanned game boxes. 
Board games were popular in both Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. Many games turned out to be long-lived - after a change in power and political system, only the name and design changed, but the “gameplay” remained unchanged.
But in 1985 in our country Once again The government changed and the so-called “perestroika” began. Along with the policies of the party and government, board games have also changed. So, games from the era of perestroika.
"Enchanted Country"
In 1970, Americans Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson released the first board game in the endless Dungeon & Dragons series (or D&D for short).
Players found themselves in the world of heroic fantasy, and took on the roles of mighty warriors, wise magicians, immortal elves and other heroes of popular books at that time about worlds ruled by sword and magic. 
Map of the Coded Country
In the Soviet Union, such a historical event as the birth of D&D went unnoticed. Tabletop role-playing games were not popular in our country (from role playing games Only the field game “Zarnitsa” in pioneer camps was popular among us). The reason for this unpopularity is simple - complete absence tabletop role-playing games.
Citizens of our country were able to get acquainted with something similar to D&D only in 1990, when the Autumn cooperative published the board game “Enchanted Country” with a circulation of 40 thousand copies. The game was a free variation on the theme of the very first and simplest versions of Dungeons and Dragons. 
There is a playing field with locations, there is a leader's book with detailed description What awaits players in these locations, there are characters that players can roleplay, there are cards with monsters and their “tactical and technical characteristics,” and, finally, there are dice with the help of which the outcomes of game fights were decided.
The game instantly gained “cult” status - traveling through the “Enchanted Land” captivated many people. Like many other things in last years existence of the USSR, the game was classified as a “shortage” (at that time not only board games were in short supply, but also many food products).
But those who got acquainted with it literally made their own versions of the game “on their knees.” Largely thanks to The Enchanted Land, the role-playing movement was born in Russia.
Conversion
The famous "Monopoly", created in America at the height of Great Depression, instantly became a bestseller all over the world.
Of course, anyone could use this game to feel like a tycoon or an oligarch (this game was especially relevant in the early thirties, at the very height of the major crisis in the history of the world economy - in America, the richest country in the world, millions of people were left without a livelihood).
But our country had a socialist planned economy, the crises did not affect us in any way, but Monopoly did not in any way correspond to the “general line of the party.” The first Soviet desktop economic simulator was Conversion. 
In the last years of the Soviet Union, the word “conversion” was very popular. Translated from Latin, it means “conversion” or “transformation.”
First of all, at that time they talked about conversion in the military industry - the transformation of military factories into factories producing purely peaceful products. Because we have a lot of missiles, planes and tanks, and, for example, household appliances few.
Let's not talk about how this conversion was carried out - this is a topic for a separate, extremely politicized article, let's talk about the game.
When you first look at the game box, another meaning of the word “conversion” becomes clear. Yes, it is clear to everyone that we are talking about the convertibility of the ruble.
In the history of the Soviet Union there was a convertible currency - chervonets, backed by gold (and the rate of the chervonets on international currency exchanges sometimes almost caught up with the rate of the British pound sterling). But by the time “Conversion” was released, the country had one monetary unit - the ruble, which at that time was called “wooden”, because outside our country it was impossible to buy anything with rubles.
No, again, we will not talk about whether it is good or bad when the national currency is convertible and can be easily transferred abroad. Let's talk about the game. 
Playing field
This is not a Monopoly clone, but a completely independent game. Several people play. One of the players takes on the responsibilities of a banker and distributes starting capital to the rest of the players.
The banker's responsibility is called “voluntary and disinterested” in the rules of the game. But according to the same rules, the banker in the game is not completely disinterested - during any of the moves, he can give any player a loan at an extortionate interest rate - he took 100 thousand, return 150 thousand on the next move.
Starting capital can be spent on the purchase of raw materials, factories, and vehicles. And in the future engage in the production of goods, the extraction of raw materials or the transportation of raw materials or goods. Everything produced or extracted from the earth can be sold either on the domestic market for rubles, or on the external market for dollars (it was also possible to exchange rubles for dollars at the in-game rate).
During each of the moves, the player must perform one of the actions - buy, sell, send cargo to the customer, take out a loan. It is not known for certain whether Russian oligarchs, who regularly appear on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires, played Conversion. 
This is what the USSR domestic market looks like in the game 
And this is what the American market looks like in the game, where you can come with your goods
"Publicity"
Perhaps this is the first time a “licensed” and “localized” game has been published in our country. Let it not be a computer yet, but a desktop one (the very idea that computer games there are some copyright holders who want some money, which would have seemed simply ridiculous to the citizens of our country in the late eighties). 
The board game Glasnost was released in America in 1989. At that time, everything connected with the Soviet Union was popular in America.
It cannot be said that the “Soviet” theme has not previously surfaced in American board games, films, cartoons, and comics. But during the Cold War, from the American point of view, Soviet Russians were brutal villains, ruthless, bloodthirsty aggressors, dreaming of world domination and mass unjustified repression.
During the years of “perestroika”, for a short time the image of Russians in the American popular culture changed the “polarity”. If in 1984 Red Dawn, a film about brave American teenagers who organized partisan detachment, in the territory occupied by the Soviet invaders, then in 1988 “Red Heat” became a hit movie - a film in which Arnold Schwarzenegger himself embodied a purely positive image of a Soviet policeman on the screen. 
The game Glasnost was dedicated to establishing peaceful political and economic relations between the two superpowers.
The players had to get used to the roles of the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States, conduct political debates, and conclude economic deals. The political and economic aspects of the game were influenced by cards with news about what was happening in the world, in the Soviet Union and in America.
The players had the opportunity to truly establish equal partnerships between America and our country, without giving up one position after another, as the “non-player” Gorbachev did.
The game was promptly translated into Russian and published in our country in large quantities. Now this game has long been forgotten on both sides of the Atlantic - Soviet Union ceased to exist, and board games about it became irrelevant.
And lastly: A selection of photographs of Soviet board games and construction sets from different years 
Sometimes I really want to remember how we grew up, what we played, what toys we had. Especially now that we have our own children.
Unfortunately, I myself have practically nothing preserved from the games of my childhood, but I still have memories. And, after walking around the Internet a little, they materialized into pictures.))
In my personal toy library, there were probably the most mosaics. As many as 3 pieces!
I found a couple of them on the Internet.
Mosaics
Here is exactly the same one, in a yellow box, with carnation elements.
The box was closed very tightly and when opening some of the chips would certainly fall apart. And by the way, they stung disgustingly if you scattered them on the floor... And having collected the pattern on the field, it was impossible to leave it in the box and put it away. I had to take it apart because the box wouldn’t close ((And I remember I was tormented by the thought: why are there eight compartments for elements, but only six colors? Sometimes I thought that this was a defect in my box))
There was also this geometric mosaic, with elements of different shapes.
My favorite was the box with puzzles from the GDR. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of the exact same box, but I did find a similar one.
The box contained 4 pictures from different fairy tales. In mine there were: The Bremen Town Musicians, Rosochka and Belyanochka, Ganz and the Goose and another one... I don’t remember.
Puzzles
I really loved puzzles. Maybe because they could be played alone?
The most famous and beloved puzzles by many.
I remember that I saved up some money and bought myself this game.
In a small box that easily fits in your pocket, there are 15 square chips with serial numbers from 1 to 15. The chips are placed in the box in random order. There remains one free field, using which you need to arrange all the chips in ascending order.
Pythagoras
This is an absolute analogue of the now well-known tangram. But in the USSR, for the purpose of conspiracy, apparently, many games were given different names)) I did not have instructions for the game, I did not know that various figures should be put together from the elements, so I simply put all the elements in a box for speed.
4X4
Another favorite puzzle, also bought on my own.
There are 16 chips in the box, 4 of each color. The chips are placed randomly in the box. Then you need to collect chips of the same color in each corner, moving the chips to temporary places between the corners. To complicate the process, there was a special partition stick that blocked one of the 4 passages between the squares. It was almost impossible to assemble the chips with the partition.))
Rubik's Cube
Perhaps the most popular puzzle of that time. I’ll admit right away that I didn’t know how to assemble it. The whole collection ended with re-gluing the stickers to obtain one-color edges)) But many of my friends acquired plump notebooks in which diagrams and formulas for assembling the cube were written. And the cube was assembled in a few minutes!
Rubik's Snake
This is my favorite.)) I even bought one for my daughter now and she sat with pleasure and collected figurines, remembering her childhood.
Tower
This is a cylindrical tower with rotating levels, filled with multi-colored balls with one empty cell. The idea is to use an empty cell to collect balls of the same color vertically.
We took turns playing in the yard, sitting on a bench. And then I got this tower in the form of a keychain.
Labyrinths
There were many different ones. The point is to drive the ball into the center of the maze. Some mazes had several balls. The height of skill was to drive all the balls into the center.
Classic Games
This, of course, is lotto, dominoes, checkers and chess.
For some reason now lotto-dominoes-checkers sounds boring... But before these were the most favorite family games. Precisely family ones.
We played lotto when we were going to grandma's big company or at the dacha, under the light of a kerosene stove or candles. And we all played together: we, our parents, and our grandparents.
We played checkers in the evenings with dad.
In the corners - with grandfather.
And my brother and I played Chapaev.
Oh yes! More cards! But cards are a different story; there are a lot of games with them, including for children.
Constructors
Architect
There were plastic construction sets from which “model houses” could be built. The set included ceilings, panels with window blocks and doorways. In general, whatever houses there were in the USSR, these could be built with the help of a constructor.))
Cars
My brother and I had a construction set in which we could assemble various cars. There were several wheelbases, blocks of various lengths and widths, transparent blocks - windows, doors for cars. It was a hit.))
Metal constructor
Probably everyone had one of these! What could be assembled from it seemed simply unrealistic... They say that there were similar sets with various gears and motors, and from them it was possible to assemble full-fledged mechanisms. This is where the boys have fun!
Game "Driving"
One of the most popular games. It is still being released. And many, I know, dream of getting it for their children))
The game is a rotating disk depicting a looped road along which a car with a magnet on its belly is moving.
The goal of the game is to keep the car strictly on the roadway, taking turns and driving under bridges. The outer ring of the road is easier to master, the inner ring is much more difficult.
It was considered the height of skill to drive through a fenced area in the corner of the road at full speed without hitting the barrier.
But the game’s ignition keys were easily lost (back then you had to connect the wires directly), or the car itself (back then they used various other metal objects such as paper clips or coins), or the motor broke down (then someone had to turn the road alone)... But, nevertheless , many children dreamed about her.
Sports board games
Hockey
Table hockey was very popular among boys, most likely because hockey in general was very popular in the USSR.))
On the playing field there are figures of hockey players, which are controlled by the players. Two players, two hockey teams. One small rubber washer.
The matches were arranged almost like real ones. Many craftsmen knew some tricks of the game: they swapped players, bent the sticks for better control of the puck, and especially cunning ones changed the springs of hockey players to tighter ones so that the blow was stronger.
There was also table football.
Basketball
In basketball there were no players on the field. And the field itself was covered with a plastic dome to prevent the ball from flying off the field. During the game, children often got so carried away that they hit all the buttons in a row, not paying attention to where exactly the ball fell.
Merry carousel
This is nothing more than a real roulette. The set included a playing field, chips, and a roulette ball. Everything is for real. It was from this game that I learned the basic rules of how bets are placed in a casino.))
Currently, there is an active fight against gambling, and in our childhood we played this game with friends.
Microprocessor games
Without them - nowhere! It seems to me that there is not a single child whose childhood was in the 80s and 90s who would not spend hours playing with one of these toys.
The well-known “Well, wait a minute!”: a black and white liquid crystal screen on which a wolf catches eggs. The first game was released around the end of 1984. Electronic toys of Soviet times were not a cheap pleasure; such a game cost 25 rubles. For comparison, a loaf of bread cost 20 kopecks, and 1 kg of meat 2-4 rubles.
The game was copied from foreign analogues, only the heroes were replaced with more familiar ones. In fact, there were more than a dozen varieties of such games, exactly: “ Cheerful chef", "Autoslalom", "Secrets of the Ocean". I had “Space Bridge”, like this.
We often exchanged them with friends.
Here you can read and see in detail different variants"Electronics". And find the one you had.
Walkers
Of course, there were many adventure games, with chips and dice. Such games were often printed as spreads in children's magazines such as "Funny Pictures". And now many children's magazines have resumed this tradition.
Here you can download and print some walkers from that time.
My brother and I had a hit game called “Kondeika”. Dad brought it to us from work. More precisely, he brought the rules. We drew the field on album sheet and for reliability they glued it into a box from the “Merry Carousel”. And they played, a lot and for a long time.)))
And at the end of our excursion into childhood, I would like to show you a few more toys that were found on the Internet and in my memory:
Children's movie camera
The set included several microfilms. You load the film, turn the knob and watch the cartoon.
Embroidery kit
The kit included a cardboard book with embroidery patterns and colored threads.
I had one like this. I embroidered almost all the pictures.
Loom
When I was a kid it was bigger. This is where you could clearly understand how to weave fabric, and what kind of work it costs. As a result, I only managed to make one small rug for the dollhouse. Pulling the main threads was an extremely difficult task...
Today's episode will be dedicated to board games. It was these games that replaced the lack of computer entertainment for us during the Soviet era. Now, looking at them from the height of one’s age, it becomes completely incomprehensible how such a technical primitive could immerse players with enormous force in the very process of the game.
Every Soviet child had at least 3-4 board games, in a wide variety of formats. But even this was enough to get excited for a long time and entire courtyards compete for the title of main champion in this topic.
It’s hard for me to convey all the intensity of passion that occurs around such games. While playing games we yelled, argued, fought, made friends, quarreled, laughed and all this at the same time.
Typically, games involved the participation of two or more players, which contributed to the development of collective communication. Let’s say that in kindergarten, you still had to earn the respect of your peers, but as soon as someone brought in a board game from the unusual category, the whole group immediately became stuck for a long time.
An excellent example of such a game was “Hippos”. The game was mercilessly ripped off from America by our industry. The fact is that many years later I was surprised to find this game in one of the films where American schoolchildren were enthusiastically playing it.
The very meaning of the game is very simple.
The game involves 4 people, a bunch of balls are poured into the middle of the field, and for the hippos to start eating the balls, all they have to do is press the lever on their back. The more balls you eat, the better it is.
In general, in the kindergarten that day it began mass hysteria, every single one of them wanted to play it, and serious battles arose for the right to turn. Mainly, of course, among boys, since girls could correctly pull their braids, thus eliminating competition. The result of the first day was a bunch of abrasions and broken noses. And yet everyone was completely happy. Believe it or not, but before summer holidays There was only a week left, which dragged on for sooooo long before playing hippos. After the game appeared, from kindergarten no one wanted to leave.
Then, by some miracle, I discovered this game on the shelves of the “children's world”, after several massive brain attacks, my grandfather gave in and bought it.
I solemnly took the box with the game into the yard, for which the parents of my friends had to thank me, we almost spent the night in the yard - we played so hard.
Here are the actual photos of this Soviet-made miracle:
One of the epic and undoubtedly legendary games of our childhood was the battery-powered electronic game “Behind the Wheel.”
It was an interactive car simulator. In fact, a prototype of modern computer racing only in a super real 3-version.
It was a platform with a circular motion imitating part of a highway, which is separated by barriers in the form of bridges. The front panel of the game imitated the controls of a car. Almost real steering wheel, dashboard and key start! The small plastic car was controlled using a magnet connected to the steering wheel, and the speed was increased using a lever simulating a gearbox. The goal of the game was to skillfully control the car in order to squeeze into the narrow passages of bridges.
The game was so popular that people lined up huge queues of those who want to ride this way. I remember that my grandmother bought me the same game, but while we were going on vacation to the village with her, the machine was mercilessly lost.. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to describe the full scale of this drama. I had to adapt a weak imitation of everything that could resemble a faint semblance of a typewriter. But a week later a miracle happened: the same regular bus driver drove up to the house and handed over the car. It turns out he found her among the passenger seats, asked the locals where her grandmother lived and brought her. And it’s true, to be honest, I had a hard time believing in the reality of what was happening, and firmly believed in the victory of communism throughout the entire earth.
The only drawback of the game was the batteries; they ran out terribly quickly with pedantic cruelty that traumatized the child’s psyche. But the children's enthusiasm did not end there. The boys were immediately divided into those who turned the circle manually and those who operated the machine.
Another of the most legendary battery games of that time was a game called “MOTOTRACK”. It was quite expensive (about 25 rubles), and was used exclusively at home.
It was a winding track, assembled in parts, the main component of which was a moving lift. Four plastic motorcyclists on roller skates were launched along the track and, thanks to the inertia and special slope of the track, they rolled down to the lift, which, like an escalator, lifted them up new round tracks. After completing the lap, a counter was triggered to measure the number of final laps. Naturally, whoever goes faster wins. The game delivered amazing automation of the process and exciting assembly of the track itself.
The track could be further expanded with the presence of a second motorcycle track.
The game itself made a lasting impression on the participants gameplay, and aroused genuine envy among those who were lucky enough to be the owner of this miracle. I had 3 of these games, of course not in a row, but as spare parts for the road and the lift itself remained, because when the batteries ran out and the game got boring, the lift was disassembled for spare parts. Naturally, although he was going back, for some reason he no longer worked. Unfortunately, in the vast expanses of the Internet, I found only one photo of this miracle.
A game " Sea battle»
When I was about 5 years old, at that time we lived with my mother on Mechnikov Street. Next to me lived a neighbor boy who was much older than me, he was 12. At that time, I often visited him to see what interesting toys he had. At that time, there was a fashion for beer caps with designs from imported bottles, and he had a fairly large collection of rarities won during battles. In addition, on the wall he had black and white photographs from albums of such groups as Iron Mayden, Manowar, Kriid, Keys, etc. To be honest, due to my small age, I didn’t really understand what was good about the photos depicting skulls and dead people, but under the strong authority of an older comrade I immediately realized that it was very cool.
Most of all I was interested in his soldiers depicting Neanderthals and Vikings, as well as the technology for making soldiers from colored wire. And then one day, to his misfortune, when he got tired of listening to my endless speech, he carelessly took out a dusty box with a game from the closet and showed it to me.
That's when I got stuck. The game seemed incredibly cool to me, cooler than anything I’d seen before.
The game was a platform simulating a sea territory, with towers of naval military weapons located opposite each other, similar to those that stood on ships.
Along the edges of the platform, mock-ups of ships were installed, which had to be shot down with steel balls loaded into cannons. A cunning periscope made of small mirrors was built into the cannon, so aiming was carried out precisely along it. The winner was the one who knocked out the enemy squadron faster. The more accurate the blow, the more good things will happen. In general, after what I saw, I slept very poorly, I dreamed of the game and ships. From the next day I stuck to him like a knife to his throat, asking him to give me a game.
A week later he finally gave up and my happiness knew no bounds.
Board game "Basketball"
In my opinion only Soviet engineers It might have occurred to you to create such a simulator of a basketball game. It was brutal like all Soviet toys, and besides, such a game could easily kill you on the spot. Apparently it was developed with the expectation of successful use during hostilities, as an alternative weapon.
The main memory associated with this game is calluses on my fingers, no matter how funny it sounds.
The meaning of the game was simple, like everything in the USSR. The ball used was a plastic ping pong ball. Using levers on springs, the ball was struck. The main goal was to throw the ball into the basket.
I remember how they drew tournament tables for yard competitions. In the finals, as a rule, it was the most difficult to play, since the fingers ached from pain and they no longer obeyed their own hands. There was a lot of excitement!
The main disadvantages were calluses, a broken ball and springs that weakened over time.
Another one of the rarest games at that time was the “Young Chemist” set. I remember how caring relatives gave it to me in the 5th grade.
This set was the object of fierce envy of absolutely everyone, as it contained chemicals that were quite valuable for that time. If I’m not mistaken, the producers of this time bomb were Czechoslovakia.
Perhaps in this way our state wanted to instill a love of chemistry among schoolchildren.
But it seems to me that this only spurred interest in explosive activities.
At first, I honestly tried to carry out the simplest experiments, described in the carefully enclosed booklet, until the boy from the neighboring house found out about my treasure. His parents were chemists, and naturally he was well versed in all reagents.
I'm still surprised how we didn't burn the house down, but surrounding houses We have suffered more than enough from our joint experiments.
A particular triumph was the planting of slow-acting explosives in one of the basements of a nearby high-rise building. When it exploded, I sinfully thought that the house had lived out its last hours. But instead of destroyed walls, glass simply flew out along with the cats living there. Hiding like partisans on the roof of our unofficial observation post, it was only in the evening that we decided to go out into the yard and, with an honest look, tried to make surprised faces about what had happened.
And the set, by the way, was really awesome, a bunch of flasks, a spirit lamp with dry alcohol, various tubes, etc.
alternative to CHEMIST-Junior Electrician
Board game "Football". During the Soviet era, people were much more fond of football than in our time, apparently mainly due to the fact that in those days our football players still won something. That’s why we were especially fond of the board game of the same name. The meaning of the game is very simple; instead of a ball, a metal ball was used, which was passed between the players and then scored into the goal.
Each side controls almost all players in turn. The game was released in two versions, the first with spring controls and push-button controls. The push-button version was more convenient, as it allowed you to play remotely.
Particular battles took place during the World Cup. Passions flared up in earnest, and high school students did not hesitate to play the game.
The actual spring-controlled toy:
With push button control:
Here's another type of battery-powered football. To be honest, I have never seen one like this, so I don’t know the principle of control.
Another one of the most popular games of that time was the game “Helicopter”.
Using the control panel, the flight of a toy helicopter model with a mandatory landing was simulated. The skill lay in the precise landing of the helicopter.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have such a game, and I only enviously played it at one of my buddies’ house. The impressions were cosmic.
Cool toy
Here are some of the girls' favorite games:
, And . Well, today let’s remember (or find outJ) what was the situation with board games from 80 to 90 in the Soviet Union.
A separate caste in board games were chess and checkers (the public approved), dominoes (the public hardly tolerated) and cards (the public fought hard). Domino it is separate topic- this is excitement, shouting, swearing, knocking knuckles on the table. Real brutal men's game that time…
Tabletop ones also stand apart sport games. These are football (footballers wholesale on an iron rod or separately on an individual spring), hockey (with an almost real small puck) and basketball (for particularly advanced boys, airbasketball - as in slot machines for 15 kopecks. Only in miniature). If there were any championships on television, these sports games were often reproduced in miniature on the playing field.
Well, we smoothly move on to classic board games. Chips, cubes, playing fields. According to the tradition of that time (and rightly so), these games are considered entertainment for children and teenagers. This is now a huge variety of “board games” that are interesting (and often damn difficult!) even for very sophisticated players of any age and taste. But let's go back to the 80s of the last century of the Soviet Union.
Yes, after the collapse of the USSR a lot of things poured into former republics Union. Including board games. But some are sure that interesting “board games” appeared at that time, but this is not so. As an example, I’ll give you a classic clone, no less than a classic game "Monopoly", called "Manager" (1988).
And also “Scrabble” (aka “Erudite”, aka “Krestoslovitsa”) - all the way back to the end of the 60s of the last century! And of course, the board game, which was the first sign of my passion for board games - “Enchanted Country”. There is a lot that can be said about this game; one day I will dedicate a separate note to it.
Just as often, companies engaged in sea adventures in the margins of the Pioneer magazine called “Capture of Colonies” and “Pirates.” Boardings, battles, sails (c). By the way, the artist of this “magnificent couple” was the real Prince Vladimir Golitsyn (1904-1941). It's amazing that these games have survived to this day!
