10 replies to this topic

[Rob-Jo]

I just got off the phone with a girl who's from the Soviet Union. She started mentioned something offhand about arcade machines they in the USSR, and I pestered her into telling me everything she could remember about them.

She could only remember one game, which she remembered because she said when she came to the United States she got a VCS and had the exact same game on it (she also had some kind of Atari computer, so it's possible she's confusing the two). She said the game she had on the Atari looked exactly like the one she played in the arcade. I figured it was one of the old 70s Atari arcade games that got ported to the VCS. But she described the game to me, and the game she described was River Raid.

I asked some more questions. At first I figured maybe it was just a VCS that was hooked up for people to play, but she said you had to put money into it to play. I asked if the machine worked on a timer, she said she wasn't sure but she thinks it worked on how many lives you had. She said she saw this game around 86'-87'.

Anyone have any ideas of what this thing is? Did they have some way to rig a VCS into something like a Player's Choice? Or is there some sort of arcade game out there that is very very similar to River Raid where she may have been confused? Has anyone ever seen or heard about something like this?

[pboland]

Rob-Jo, on Mon Oct 25, 2010 5:09 AM, said:

I just got off the phone with a girl who's from the Soviet Union. She started mentioned something offhand about arcade machines they in the USSR, and I pestered her into telling me everything she could remember about them.

She could only remember one game, which she remembered because she said when she came to the United States she got a VCS and had the exact same game on it (she also had some kind of Atari computer, so it's possible she's confusing the two). She said the game she had on the Atari looked exactly like the one she played in the arcade. I figured it was one of the old 70s Atari arcade games that got ported to the VCS. But she described the game to me, and the game she described was River Raid.

I asked some more questions. At first I figured maybe it was just a VCS that was hooked up for people to play, but she said you had to put money into it to play. I asked if the machine worked on a timer, she said she wasn't sure but she thinks it worked on how many lives you had. She said she saw this game around 86'-87'.

Anyone have any ideas of what this thing is? Did they have some way to rig a VCS into something like a Player's Choice? Or is there some sort of arcade game out there that is very very similar to River Raid where she may have been confused? Has anyone ever seen or heard about something like this?

Interesting...I haven't heard of anything like that before, but it may not be that hard to make something like that. It has been a long time since I had my VCS out, but I seem to remember some games needed to have the reset hit before it would play again. Or in the case of an atari computer you sometimes had to hit the start button. I don't remember if River Raid is one of those games. If it is, I could see people in other countries making arcades game out of these units as they would have been easier to acquire than an actual arcade machine. All they would have to do is wire up a coin mech to the reset or start button. If the unit is inside an arcade like cabinet it would act just like any other arcade machine and no one would be the wiser. Just a thought.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

River Raid would have made an excellent arcade game and I wouldn't be surprised if they did something like that in Russia. In fact here is a link to a Russian arcade museum in Moscow.

http://adangerousbus...et-video-games/

They don't have an exact River Raid clone there but there is a plane shooter there. They also have a game that's like Grand Prix on the 2600 so it's plausible that whoever made that could have also done River Raid but this museum doesn't have it.

Other than that, I know of one game that used the Atari 2600 hardware called Tournament Table. The arcade hardware was actually enhanced over the home version with double the RAM *see the bottom of the linked page here)

http://system16.com/...ware.php?id=755

If someone could reproduce that hardware then we could have an Atari 2600 Multicade unit, that would be cool to see.

[Trekker_1138]

Thanks for the link to that Russian arcade museum. I love Russian stuff. Very cool.

[poker_plus]

Rob-Jo, on Mon Oct 25, 2010 5:09 AM, said:

I just got off the phone with a girl who's from the Soviet Union. She started mentioned something offhand about arcade machines they in the USSR, and I pestered her into telling me everything she could remember about them.

She could only remember one game, which she remembered because she said when she came to the United States she got a VCS and had the exact same game on it (she also had some kind of Atari computer, so it's possible she's confusing the two). She said the game she had on the Atari looked exactly like the one she played in the arcade. I figured it was one of the old 70s Atari arcade games that got ported to the VCS. But she described the game to me, and the game she described was River Raid.

I asked some more questions. At first I figured maybe it was just a VCS that was hooked up for people to play, but she said you had to put money into it to play. I asked if the machine worked on a timer, she said she wasn't sure but she thinks it worked on how many lives you had. She said she saw this game around 86'-87'.

Anyone have any ideas of what this thing is? Did they have some way to rig a VCS into something like a Player's Choice? Or is there some sort of arcade game out there that is very very similar to River Raid where she may have been confused? Has anyone ever seen or heard about something like this?

Could she be thinking of "Sky Raider"?

[amiman99]

My friend is from Turkey, just recently we were talking about games, and he described a game which looked like River Raid.
I showed him some screen shots of the River Raid and he told me that this is the game he played in 80s in Turkish arcades.
He found a flash based game that looked like 2600 version and he's 100% sure that this was the game.

[Crazy Climber]

amiman99, on Sun Nov 21, 2010 2:59 PM, said:

My friend is from Turkey, just recently we were talking about games, and he described a game which looked like River Raid.
I showed him some screen shots of the River Raid and he told me that this is the game he played in 80s in Turkish arcades.
He found a flash based game that looked like 2600 version and he's 100% sure that this was the game.

That would be cool if your friends name was Tom, then you could call him Tom Turkey
Seriously though, is it possible this River Raid arcade machine is one of those Exidy "Max-a-Flex" things?

[raskar42]

in soviet russia - raid rivers you!

[keilbaca]

River Raid required the player to press reset to play it. Because it was so arcade like, I wouldn't be surprised if they took a VCS, wired up some arcade controls, and wired the coin mech to be reset.

[pboland]

keilbaca, on Mon Dec 6, 2010 4:16 PM, said:

River Raid required the player to press reset to play it. Because it was so arcade like, I wouldn't be surprised if they took a VCS, wired up some arcade controls, and wired the coin mech to be reset.

Sounds plausible to me. (see post #2)

[keilbaca]

pboland, on Mon Dec 6, 2010 8:24 PM, said:

keilbaca, on Mon Dec 6, 2010 4:16 PM, said:

River Raid required the player to press reset to play it. Because it was so arcade like, I wouldn't be surprised if they took a VCS, wired up some arcade controls, and wired the coin mech to be reset.

Sounds plausible to me. (see post #2)

Doh.... x.x

I needs to read.