Arcades are hard to find nowadays, but they have a tendency to appear in the most unlikely places: Basements in Brooklyn, run-down shacks in Afghanistan, and now, tourist traps in the former Soviet Union.Armenia’s northwest capital city of Gyumri was called Leninakan during the height of Soviet power. It was during that time that this Soviet game room, the only one of its kind known in the country, was built.This is no museum exhibit or curated gallery. The arcade and its contents, having survived a deadly earthquake that destroyed many Brezhnev-era monuments and buildings and the turmoil following the collapse of the Soviet Union, remains intact as it originally was, a living time capsule from the odd culture of video games that existed under Communist rule.The games waiting within this odd vestige, which stands in a corner of Gyumri’s Central Park courtesy of its 70-year-old caretaker Laura Sahakian, show obvious influence from the Japanese designs that once led the market. But not everything is what it seems. Many of these cabinets show clear signs of being assembled by hand, so as not to hold up production lines for the Communist war efforts. Others are themed around Russian and Armenian folklore.One of the games, “Sea War,” features a mock telescope that scans a background of hand-painted cardboard for targets. This same unit was placed in a student-run Russian arcade museum, suggesting that despite its DIY construction, it was perhaps one of more common Soviet arcade machines.Sahakian says that in days past, the arcade had been a bustling center of activity.At one time, the arcade was so popular, that many didn't get a chance to try their luck at games, that according to one military manual were created "for the purposes of "entertainment and active leisure, as well as the development of visual-estimation abilities."
"You couldn't even come in here to play," says Sahakian. "There was no room."
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"You couldn't even come in here to play," says Sahakian. "There was no room."
