OldPAL Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 My artistic ambition and old duplicate cartridges had these babies. Old Soviet propaganda posters with added lines like "not for sale" "for the motherland!" . Game names are in Cyrillisch. I also want to see what other fun labels out there. 10 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 A fan of soviet stuff myself - I ran the Museum of Soviet Calculators for about 20 years - I think the direct letter-by-letter transcription from English to Cyrillic as you have done here is a bit ... cheating. You could, perhaps, find the equivalent Russian words and use those. My point being - no Russian is going to look at these and think they're Soviet. I think what you've done is a fun idea - I'd just like to see it taken the extra mile and make it as "authentic" as possible. Thumbs up, though, for the effort. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldPAL Posted June 27, 2021 Author Share Posted June 27, 2021 3 minutes ago, Andrew Davie said: A fan of soviet stuff myself - I ran the Museum of Soviet Calculators for about 20 years - I think the direct letter-by-letter transcription from English to Cyrillic as you have done here is a bit ... cheating. You could, perhaps, find the equivalent Russian words and use those. My point being - no Russian is going to look at these and think they're Soviet. I think what you've done is a fun idea - I'd just like to see it taken the extra mile and make it as "authentic" as possible. Thumbs up, though, for the effort. Thank you. I wasn't sure if Soviets would have kept the original title and write in Cyrillisch, or translate to something else. That is why I kept it that way. From your comment it sounds like it would have been a translation. For other texts I tried to be as accurate as possible eg. The copyright line, taglines etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classicgamesnut Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 Hilarious! I love the Soviet military equipment on the Combat cartridge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 In Soviet Russia, the Atari plays YOU! 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BONEMAN Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 Looks like Combat and Missile Command. What are the other 2 games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted June 27, 2021 Share Posted June 27, 2021 40 minutes ago, BONEMAN said: Looks like Combat and Missile Command. What are the other 2 games? Defender, Asteroids. The titles are a one-for-one letter replacement of cyrillic <-- english Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zonie Posted June 29, 2021 Share Posted June 29, 2021 On 6/27/2021 at 4:07 AM, Karl G said: In Soviet Russia, the Atari plays YOU! Beat me to it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldPAL Posted July 2, 2021 Author Share Posted July 2, 2021 I added two more - Berzerk and Dodge'em 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christo930 Posted July 3, 2021 Share Posted July 3, 2021 Did the Soviets have some kind of unlicensed Atari clone? Their arcade games were way behind ours. Most of the ones I've seen (on the Internet, never been there) are electromechanical type stuff. Did most people have TVs in the late 70s? I saw a Soviet propaganda film cartoon that was making a huge deal out rural electrification. I think IIRC, that it was from around 1970. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldPAL Posted July 23, 2021 Author Share Posted July 23, 2021 Ok last 2. Pac-Man and Centipede. I can now shamelessly put them on Etsy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 One minor detail: if they were actually Soviet-era and published in the USSR, they wouldn't display any copyright notices as copyright basically didn't exist in the Soviet Union. The closest I've seen is year of release and attribution to the company that released the item in question, at least on cassette tapes and records. Not sure how it would have worked with software, but I'd imagine it would be fairly similar. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classicgamesnut Posted August 17, 2021 Share Posted August 17, 2021 The "serious" pictures on the labels are just...perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatPix Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 On 7/23/2021 at 9:15 AM, x=usr(1536) said: One minor detail: if they were actually Soviet-era and published in the USSR, they wouldn't display any copyright notices as copyright basically didn't exist in the Soviet Union. The closest I've seen is year of release and attribution to the company that released the item in question, at least on cassette tapes and records. Not sure how it would have worked with software, but I'd imagine it would be fairly similar. It would have been bearing copyright, but not before the 1980's. There would have been a year release or production somewhere, but mostly for the actual assembly or printing. A copyright notice appears for the first time in the 1980's Olympic episode of Nu Pogodi (I can't recommand enough for anyone here to look for the episodes on Youtube. They containe barely more than 2 lines of spoken Russian per episode so their don't really need any translation or subtitles) This Soviet-made record doesn't bear the famous © logo, but still mention a year of licencing: (the production year of the vinyl is on the right, under the Stereo logo) Those titles are very amusing! I like the Atari transliteration. For titles, they would have been translated for "word titles" like Combat or Defenders : Бой (Boy ) and Защитник (Zashtitnik ) A game with a specific word like Bersek would use a sound transliteration : Берсерк (which also happen to be a letter to letter transcription, so I'll name the Beatles, which is rendered as Битлз (bitlè). For software copyright, the only example I can think of is Tetris. The thing is that in the Soviet Union, most games were on computers and all were made by individuals (that include Tetris, which was copyrighted by Elorg to get the cash fomr international sales). So you wouldn't have real copyright as individuals producing those games wouldn't be able to fill claims for stolen property. Some would still create a bogus company name ? So, would Atari 2600-like Soviet games would bear copyrights? Not as early as 1978, and possibly not after, unless the carts were made for export. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 1 hour ago, CatPix said: It would have been bearing copyright, but not before the 1980's. This might be something you could clarify for me; if I'm off-base, correction would be appreciated. I have seen copyright on Soviet films, books, records, etc., but generally only on works that were either a) produced outside of the Soviet Union for sale and/or distribution outside of the USSR, or b) that were produced in the USSR then exported to distributors in foreign countries who added the copyright notices on their end. Agreed that this becomes increasingly more pronounced from about 1980 onwards. I suspect that the Moscow Olympics had a lot to do with that, as well as the general opening up of the USSR. One thing I do recall being surprised by when I got my 1987 Lada Niva was that the owner's manual had no copyright on it, despite it being a UK model. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatPix Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 (edited) I should have been writing "could" instead of would, indeed. It's hard to say how that would have been done. AFAIK Nu Pogodi wasn't widely distributed outside of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries before 1991 yet the episodes bear a copyright from 1980 to 1986. As I noted in the end, copyright notice would have appeared on products meant to be exported by then, but some would be copyrighted even if sold within the USSR. As with most things regarding the USSR, we can suppose that the massive bureaucracy took so long to react that nobody but the largest industries like Soyuzmultfilm, which would have been familiar with exporting movies and cartoons outside of the USSR, could apply for a Soviet Copyright as early as 1980, where other domains and factories would be unprepared, not caring (who's gonna copy the owner 's manual of a Lada?*) or too small to apply before 1991 happened. *We can note that Soviet electronics were (always?) delivered with schematics; I have the schematics of an Euromatic 405 TV and even of a Soviet G&W clone! Copyrighting such documents would make no sense since they were given with the product, there was no point protecting them from unauthorized reproduction. In another odd example, a television advert (they existed) from 1986 for the Elektronika BK also bears a copyright. The Elektronika BK was never sold, as far as we know, outside of the USSR, not even in Warsaw Pact countries. Once again we can assume that either Elektronika or the ad maker had enough weight to obtain a copyright? It probably doesn't help that the concept of copyright and branding was unclear to Soviet people. Even today, you can find Russian websites referring to the Lada conceived and sold Lada 1111 Oka as the Kamaz Oka, since the car was indeed made in the Kamaz factory (whch amuse me to no end, imagining the tiny Oka rolling from Kamaz lines next to trucks fitted with wheels bigger than the whole car:D ). Edited August 22, 2021 by CatPix 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatPix Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 The ad in question (yeah we're getting off-topic a bit, but this ad is an amazing piece of history) : Copyrighted by "Sverdloskaya Studios" (Sverdlovsk Film Studio) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 1 hour ago, CatPix said: I should have been writing "could" instead of would, indeed. It's hard to say how that would have been done. AFAIK Nu Pogodi wasn't widely distributed outside of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries before 1991 yet the episodes bear a copyright from 1980 to 1986. That would actually make sense if it was being sold into smaller TV markets. Most exported Soviet and Eastern-Bloc programming was sold into foreign markets very cheaply, with only a few notable exceptions, so it would make sense to add copyright during production if export was a consideration (as you point out). 1 hour ago, CatPix said: As I noted in the end, copyright notice would have appeared on products meant to be exported by then, but some would be copyrighted even if sold within the USSR. As with most things regarding the USSR, we can suppose that the massive bureaucracy took so long to react that nobody but the largest industries like Soyuzmultfilm, which would have been familiar with exporting movies and cartoons outside of the USSR, could apply for a Soviet Copyright as early as 1980, where other domains and factories would be unprepared, not caring (who's gonna copy the owner 's manual of a Lada?*) or too small to apply before 1991 happened. Yup, agreed. My understanding of how Soviet copyright worked isn't the deepest, but from what I understand it was essentially managed from a central bureaucracy of lawyers who had no firm understanding of how it actually worked outside of the Soviet Union. Slow to respond in acknowledging copyright, and slow to respond in cases of abuse. (And agreed re: the Lada owner's manual. The FSM would be so much more helpful anyway ) 1 hour ago, CatPix said: *We can note that Soviet electronics were (always?) delivered with schematics; I have the schematics of an Euromatic 405 TV and even of a Soviet G&W clone! Copyrighting such documents would make no sense since they were given with the product, there was no point protecting them from unauthorized reproduction. This is something that I noticed with the calculators, etc. that we got in discount shops and the like. It always amazed me how well-documented the devices were, particularly for things that might be considered disposable or semi-disposable like a school-level scientific calculator. 1 hour ago, CatPix said: It probably doesn't help that the concept of copyright and branding was unclear to Soviet people. Even today, you can find Russian websites referring to the Lada conceived and sold Lada 1111 Oka as the Kamaz Oka, since the car was indeed made in the Kamaz factory (whch amuse me to no end, imagining the tiny Oka rolling from Kamaz lines next to trucks fitted with wheels bigger than the whole car:D ). About two months after I moved to Los Angeles in 1998, I spotted an Oka in a parking lot. Spoke to the driver; he was importing them and trying to get people to buy them as sort of a follow-on to the Yugo. He's still at it, but has branched out into Fiat X1/9 and Yugo parts; website is here. I'm not terribly surprised that they weren't exactly a sales success, but maybe his electric versions will take off (uh, sure... ). Anyway, thanks for sharing what you know, apologies for derailing the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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