AHC: an Soviet Union Company makes video games (Sorry if it sounds ASB-ish) in 1972.
- Thread starter President Sunflower
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They didn't have a real robust CRT industry
In 1965 there were 24 television sets per 100 families in the Soviet Union; by 1970, there was one set for every two families, or about 35 million sets total.
By 1975, there were over 55 million television sets in the Soviet Union with another 6.5 million being produced annually
In 1955, 77% of US Households had a TV set. In 1970, 60M households had TV, half of them Color, with also having older B&W sets. USSR CRT production was similar to what the US was doing in 1950
sorry if I was kinda late but... would it been okay if Soviet Union make propaganda video games that were pro-soviet but anti-american that would make Americans so mad.
You know that would require a large POD if there is one.
You know that would require a large POD if there is one.
I honestly kinda doubt it. That would be like how various terrorist groups like ISIS and Al-Queda make video games and mods to promote their agenda.
so Soviet Union were kept out from making propaganda video games... but as for an actual video games and it's console, let's just say that some unknown Soviet Union people would program a video game console and video game like Meganovox (or whoever it spelled right) Does.
1972 is a bit early for a full-fledged story driven game, however I recall early games like pong already being around and by 1977 our home had a cheap four-game tv game, no console, just a box with a slider on each side and four games hardwired into the system: Pong, foosball, squash and pelote, all with the option to play with large or small paddles. So 'video games' could be around in 1972, even in 1972's USSR. Only the games would be no more complicated then let's say the original Donkey Kong and they would certainly be only black and white because of processor capacity.
That however still leaves the biggest challenge: How would a system who's ideology seen private consumerism as the pinnacle of capitalist decadence find the resources and will power to build and promote a game system that is in itself the pinnacle of solo play?
That however still leaves the biggest challenge: How would a system who's ideology seen private consumerism as the pinnacle of capitalist decadence find the resources and will power to build and promote a game system that is in itself the pinnacle of solo play?
Promoting violence to children would be a real no-no. The Soviets had some strongly held ideas about the importance of a good childhood environment (which in due fairness to them, are mostly very good).
Also, even asteroid level graphics are waaaay outside even western capabilities in the 70s.
Here's the list of games from the first Western console - most of these were games of dots moving around on a screen or needed you to hang an overlay over your tv screen.
I can't see the Soviets making overt propaganda toys. Look at what they did for arcade games:
the-alternate-universe-of-soviet-arcade-games said:
This is a great article.
Some more quotes from it:
Of course, being that arcade machines were produced by military factories using rare electronics, there weren't too many arcade machines in the USSR. This is I think the big problem with getting a video game company going in the USSR in 1972.
But here's my stab at how this could come to pass:
Instead of emphasizing investment into the chemical industries, Khrushchev emphasizes investment into the electronics industries during the 50s and early 60s. This means that the Soviets import a little more in the way of food in the 60s (less fertilizer and pesticide), but it also means that there are more electronics components to support the Soviet computer industry, which at the time was producing some of the best designs in the world.
Late in the 60s, this leads to experiments to create standardized computer arcade machines (that is, arcade machines with a standard computer core that could be mated with different memory cores and external chassis to create different games, basically as a way to cut costs), and these work well enough that eventually some young engineer thinks "what if we made the memory core to the machine read/write instead of read only?" This leads to programmable arcade machines in the 70s. These don't do terribly well, since why would an arcade manager want to reprogram their machines? But when the Odyssey comes out in 1972, the enterprise manager thinks maybe he can score a propaganda win while also moving some obsolete stock... He has the "programmable arcade machines" re-built as consoles - these consoles take up a small cabinet, weigh as much as a fridge, cost 3 times what the Odessey in America costs and needs a TV to work (common in the US, but less so in the USSR) and are mostly sold to schools. But some better off families also buy them to "educate the kids". This results in a small community of young programmers who eagerly exploit the potential of this machine to create their own games, which are mostly swapped from friend to friend, the market not being important enough to really get any state oversight.
This "gaming underground" will continue until the success of Tetris abroad will get the state interested in fostering games as an export market, and games programming enterprises are organized.
(For bonus points, I could tie in Nikolay Brusentsov and his ternary computers to make it so the Soviets were producing gaming computers that used ternary computing in the 70s...)
fasquardon
iVC
Donor
I was thinking about possible soviet MUDs or text quests.
With the main purpose of these games to be social and collective educational games about surviving in the wild forest/prehistoric society/middle-ages village while acting as some kind of progressive Soviet Time Traveller. Noble savages, corrupt feudals and so on and so on, bring on the soviet social and economic way of explanating history.
I could see them doing MUDs like that with fairy tale and science fiction settings... Outright fantasy I don't think would get past the guardians of public morals...
fasquardon
Deleted member 14881
Didn't the Soviets do an animated version of the Hobbit? I don't understand this fantasyphobia from them?