By the beginning of the 1990s in the USSR and then in the CIS, at least a hundred models of home PC were produced. Most were western clones, like ZX Spectrum. But along with the collapse of the economy, almost all high-technological production ordered a long time to live. And most of the population had other concerns. Already in 1992, prices for many main products rose 10-12 times (by the end of the year-36). The consumption of meat and milk has reduced. There was a refusal of state from important traditional obligations and functions (in medicine, education, science, social sphere). If and paid, they often paid with grocery sets or products of enterprises (basins, irons, dishes, books, cigarettes, etc.D.). In the end, a strong blow was inflicted on the professions of intellectual work. People were clearly not up to entertainment. There were no prerequisites for building a full -fledged gaming industry. And yet people somehow got out.

The creation of only a few groups of developers was engaged in the creation of a relatively high -quality games by this time. Accordingly, the games could also be counted on the fingers. In 1991 n. Skripkin (creator of the Hita Perestroika) created one of the leading companies in the 1990s- Nikita, which also specialized in developing games "Wunderkind" (1992), "Birthday" (1995), "Anatomik" (1993), "Traveling in Europe" (1994), as well as arcade games "Road hunter" (1994), Twigger (1996), "Magic dream" (1995). In 1999, she entered the foreign market and switched since then to online games (and became 2007 Nikita Online). In 1991, the Russian company GAMOS released successful logical computer games "7 Colors" (1991) and "Color lines – Color Lines" (1992). Another well -known GAMOS development was Adventure based on the cartoon "The adventures of the pilots brothers – in the wake of the striped elephant" (1997).

One of the indirect competitors of that period was Buka (1993). In 1994-1995, she became a representative of the majority of the largest foreign gaming publishers in Russia, and in 1996 began to spread the consoles of Sega, Nintendo, Sony. In the same 1996, having made initial capital, she took up the release of her games in the minimum configuration (t. n. Jewel Case). This significantly expanded the coverage of the potential audience. Over time, as the game catalog is filled, as well as expanding their own sales network, the prices for licensed products gradually increased by publishers (approximately from $ 2-3 in 1999 to $ 20-30 in 2008). In 1998, Buka released a quest "Petka and Vasily Ivanovich save the galaxy", winning many awards and love of players.

Then the famous "Kremlin’s dungeons" (1995) from New Com. The game was a clone of Wolfenstein 3D, written from scratch in C ++, and had huge system requirements for that time. In 1997, the sequel was released – "Troubles: revived dead", And in 1999, the continuation of the game "Trouble" was published – the game "Raising Dead" , On the already outdated engine "Troubles" (by that time, games such as Half-Life, Unreal and Quake 3 Arena with much more advanced graphics managed to exit by that time). There were not very many more or less large projects.

But there were always enough creative personalities. For example "Field of miracles: capital show" (1993), where the person was the permanent Leonid Yakubovich, and the participants were included Carlson, the heel and other characters of the Soviet animation and all this against the background of textures from Wolfenstein 3D. Only a week has gone to develop a hit. The author was a resident of the closed city of Arzamas-16 Vadim Bashurov: “Everything that happened in the real world was reflected in verses and computer games. For the collapse of the country, I was indignant. Battle between Russia and Ukraine. Ships and the map were portrayed by himself." Pro "Sea battle" They even mentioned Vesti in the program, branding the author of the incarnator of the war between fraternal peoples.

And there were quite a lot of such games: Baby Type, Mower, Mortal Kombat 5: Vovan and t.D.

The games then spread on the disketts, rewriting them in artisanal conditions and passing them from hand to hand. There were simply no other options. “Three 1991 crafts of release visited half of the computers of the former Soviet Union. Sea battle, king and field of miracles. Their success was determined not by the design and not Gameplay. A combination of circumstances and desertedness in the Russian -speaking market of software ".

Games (self-packing and foreign) in the early 1990s were screwed on everything, even to the space simulator, and then sent abroad to different exhibitions.
You just do not need to think that these were masterpieces for all times or at least the level of the Western industry or Japanese. It was either the gender of the basement clones of Western projects entirely and completely or careful transfer of the proven mechanic to local flavor (read, replacement of textures). There are no miracles in the world. If there is a debugged many billionth industry with professional, organized and highly paid specialists working in the markets of the richest countries of the world, then everything was exactly the opposite. The chronic lack of resources could not be compensated by a centralized planned economy, which, among other equal factors, at one time, ensured the rapid development of Soviet cinema in conditions of devastation and isolation of the state. Chaos of production and the large number of economic agents (developers, publishers) did not allow at least somehow concentrating resources, including human ones, to solve specific problems. Old institutions collapsed, and no one was in a hurry to create new ones. This is not to mention the economic corkscrew, into which the country fell after 1991. The decline in production, unemployment and poverty clearly did not contribute to the formation of the consumer market. And if the cinema was tightly incorporated into the state machine, and so it remained there, then the video games developed in a complete separation from it.

Interesting fact: Until 1996, all discs went out in boxing and expensive publications. Buka decided to release economical publications that cost almost like pirate discs. Pirates dictated prices in the market and licensed publishers and distributors had to accept their call.

But as for the Western Games, the main profit from their sale in the 90s was a share of pirate firms, the number of which was rapidly in proportion to the growth of the Iron market. At the same time, sellers of pirate copies of games tried to give a “serious” type of their products – disits from the software were packed in plastic cases with a fairly decent printing.

Games manufacturers (primarily Western) sought to protect their products from illegal distribution. For example, one of the common ways to protect was the question arising when installing the game or directly in the process of passing. It was possible to continue installation or game only when entering the correct answer, but the domestic "craftsmen" easily hacked the protection systems.

And this concerned not https://golden-panda-casino.co.uk/bonus/ only games. With the advent of personal computers to Russia, the pirates began to actively copy any software and software in general; Most often, the “master”, which collected computers, simultaneously installed all the necessary programs and, of course, the operating system. The question of where they come from, no one asked: for a long time the idea that the software should be paid at all was completely absent in the heads of people. The services of the pirates were not disdained even companies that saved on software and installed pirate operating systems on computers in the office – it turned out much cheaper.

One of the pioneers in the publishing market was the famous Akella (1993). She was named after the leader of the flock of wolves Akela from the Redyard Kipling Tales of Redyard Kipling’s Stories "The Jungle Book".

We give a word Peter Gennets: “Fargus stood shothyrs who used to take things from China from China. At some point, they just saw that the production of discs in China is cheaper, and decided to try themselves in the field of localization. Moreover, the first localizations were just amazing. The reason is that when the disk costs retail $ 5, and the cost of production is less than $ 1, you could afford expensive localization of the Full Throttle level. This translation was made in Ostankino, with actors and a large budget – all localization cost $ 20 thousand. or so – I don’t know the exact amount, but this very serious figure was at that time. ".
For a long time Akella worked under the brand "Fargus", By publishing, without appropriate licensing agreements and contracts, computer games (t.e. Being a "pirate" publisher). In 1997, Akella was divided into the legal publishing house "Akella" and completely pirate "Fargus", But the connection between the offices was still the closest. In fact, the game "Corsara" was made with the money that was earned by Fargus, selling pirate discs. It is noteworthy that the games of the publishers since 1996 have been presented at all major international exhibitions, including E3, ECTS, Milia and many others.
Everything that Fargus earned did not go to the construction of palaces and other things. Even the bosses were fans of the Games, because the earned was spent on the same Corsaras: the curse of the distant seas "(2000). And if one another had not fed, there would be no good domestic development at that moment.

Initially, the Corsarers were going to become almost two -dimensional Warcraft, and ended with all three -dimensional battles and the open world.

Even when the era of official localizations began, the pirates continued to exist with them on the market for a long time. And sometimes the pirate version made on the knee turned out to be better than the official. This forced publishers to raise the quality of their publications. It was on localizations in the 1990s that the initial capital was chopped, which Akella and other companies outside the Russian Federation was able to invest in the development of her games in the more well-fed 2000s.

The era of the elephant dandy

It’s time to talk about consoles. The console market was formed in our 90s and the first "giants" were Dendy And Dendy Junior, which, as everyone knows, was copied with NES. True, these consoles were already outdated against the backdrop of the same Nintendo that Snes had already shown, but we rejoiced at this, because it was better than anything than nothing. Of course, Nintendo consoles were also, but they were terribly expensive, and besides, they were not officially sold with us, so Dendy became quite popular.

We give a word Vyacheslav Uledeev, Creator of the brand "Dandy": “We did not have things to do with games to Dandy, but were engaged in distribution of computer technology. Skripler was the largest distributor of the company NR in Eastern Europe. The idea of ​​game business brought from the USA Rustem Akhiyarov, One of the co -founders of the "scholarship". He said that everyone in America then played on television prefixes, and we decided that making them in Russia was a good idea. The fact that we took up the video permits is the case of the case, so the stars came together. In 1992, I opened the scholarship office in Taiwan and through this office we made all the purchases ". The original name was "Dundi", something consonant with the crocodile of Dundie. But the trademark was busy, changed to "dandy". The famous elephant was invented by designers. There were many options in general, but they chose an elephant. The creators did not even try to contact Nintendo and release the original NES or Famicom prefix, they immediately had the idea to make their clone. Our clone was somewhere 4-5 times cheaper than the original Famicom. There were plans for production in Russia and Belarus, but the Chinese did everything much cheaper. “The cartridges were the biggest problem. It was they who fell under the laws on copyright protection. In Taiwan, they could not be bought in large quantities. Our Chinese agents bought all possible drains in China. Sold almost everything they could buy. I myself did not play Dandy, but the children played – and they were our experts ".

After the fantastic success of the console, competitors stirred – other pirates. These were mainly small companies that carried unknown clones. But then the Chinese began to fake the "dandy". Did even cheaper than we, and they broke the whole business. Many cheap, low-quality "dandies" appeared on the market, and this all happened against the backdrop of the appearance of the 16-bit SEGA consoles and their clones. On the market in Luzhniki in any tent, fakes of Dandy were sold, but it was useless to sue – they were all imported smuggled.

The company understood that it was worth gradually leaving the pirate field, as this spoiled the image and reputation of a successful IT company. The main profit has already been brought by prefixes, but automation services, IT consulting and cooperation with oil and gas companies.

By 1994, the Skipler was divided into several companies. Uledeev With two partners, they took a share in the form of School Trade, which was renamed Lamport and was sold in 1995 to an American company Chs Electronics. CHS was at that time the second in the world in terms of distribution of computer technology. Steepler knew that they were selling a counterfeit copy of the Nintendo console, so they cultivated the image of the highest quality licensed products around the brand. And on cartridges even sculpted labels with copyrights.

Determining the rapid appearance of competitors, Steepler also actively advertised the reliability of its electronics. This primarily concerns powerful warranty and information support. Catalogs with games were published quarterly, dealer networks appeared throughout Russia, where consoles were sold and their warranty service was carried out.

Chapter Steepler, Andrey Cheglakov I recalled in the article for Forbes publication, what an indelible impression was made by the company’s office in the mid-90s: “It was forced by boxes – in some there were Dendy game consoles, and in others – cash. In the mid-1990s, Steepler revenue from both directions reached $ 140 million. We sold, if I am not mistaken, about five million prefixes and 15–20 million cartridges for them. Maybe even more ".

In the nineties, the market was divided into three price segments: Budget Dendy and Clones, Midnetnennaya SEGA (Genesis or Megadrive) and expensive Super Nintendo (SNES). Players have 32-bit consoles, which can be attributed to a conditional Luxury segment. The most famous representative of this category was Panasonic 3DO, using the CD as a carrier.

Everything changed in 1997, when we had the first chipped PlayStation (1994), which had a huge library of games. To play the pirate discs, it was necessary to perform the “chipping” console, for this, a special controller was soldered on the console’s motherboard, which gave the PlayStation a persistent long illusion that a cheap blade in its bowels is a license disc. Finding an unexplored console in the CIS was hardly possible. In the West, the same problem was solved more legally – for this, a trick with the substitution of the disk was used: during the BIOS loading, a licensed disk was inserted, and immediately after it a blank with a game that needed to be launched, which needed to be launched. The significance of PlayStation is also that its discs could be read on any computer and recorded on it. This gave rise to an unprecedented piracy wave for the rest of the consoles. Perhaps the fact that the translation of these games required such a little gave rise to such a bad quality of the first translations.

At the output, a translation of so abundantly flavored with jargon and obscenities was that the plot of the game was a little lost.

The other side of the relative ease of modification of the program code of the games was the opportunity to collect several games per disc, for the joy of the restaurant in the funds. Trainers were sewn for the most popular games.

At that moment, some consoles disappeared from the market, for example, Sega Dreamcast, in view of a small number of games and a high price. PlayStation became a real folk favorite and remained her even at the time of PlayStation 2.

Sergey Klischo, PR-manager PlayStation in an interview said: “We are very, very pussy country, and the consoles were just starting to be sold. Then [in the late 1990s] there were even no longer pussy gamers who switched to the console, but people who first got acquainted with games on consoles ”.

In general, the popularity of the Consol in the CIS largely depended on the quantity and quality of pirate content. In addition to PlayStation, Sega Mega Drive succeeded in this. The Russian market received prefixes such as 3DO and CD-I, but, as in foreign worlds, they had small popularity and soon disappeared from the market.

Starting from the mid-90s, the domestic pirate gaming market received a growth source due to a strong drop in the cost of multimedia equipment-a set from CD-ROM and a sound card. Like mushrooms after the rain, numerous points of sales of pirate discs (from large markets to single trays located in lively places) grew throughout the post -Soviet space. In addition, ordinary users could not just as freely replicate pirate games, as in the time of disks: in the era of optical drives, appropriate equipment and consumables (writing CD drive and blanks) were required, which were fabulously expensive in those days.

In the same, restless, game magazines have arisen.

By the summer of 1993, Steepler and Video-Ass Publishing House are creating a joint magazine Video Ass Dendy. It was a monthly publication, which allowed to actively advertise their own products, and of course, to establish contact with customers through letters and communication in the format of a magazine fan club.