Nu, pogodi! (Elektronika IM-02)

If you grew up behind the Iron Curtain, this little box with a grey-green display may have been the very first video game in your life. The Elektronika IM-02 „Ну, погоди!“ (Nu, pogodi! — loosely „Just you wait!“) is a Soviet handheld LCD game from 1984 and to this day it is one of the strongest nostalgic symbols of the entire Eastern gaming culture.

The wolf, the eggs and the four chutes

The principle is ingeniously simple. Eggs roll down chutes from four henhouses and, in the role of the wolf — known from the popular animated series Ну, погоди! — you run between them with a basket and try to catch each egg before it falls and breaks. The pace gradually speeds up, so you have to keep track of all four sides at once. After a few mistakes (broken eggs) it is over. Addictive reflex training that can absorb you for hours on end.

A clone, but a legendary one

Technically speaking, it is not an original: the game is practically a copy of the Nintendo Game & Watch titles „Egg“ and „Mickey Mouse“ (1981), which were produced in the USSR without a license in the Elektronika series. But that takes nothing away from its cult status — quite the opposite. While in the West Game & Watch were one of many toys, in the Eastern Bloc the IM-02 represented a rare and coveted window into the world of electronic entertainment.

A famous legend also circulates about the game: that after reaching 1000 points a short animated scene supposedly appears. In reality the game plays no video — the counter simply resets to zero after overflowing. But the myth has survived to this day and beautifully illustrates the kind of aura surrounding this little box.

A related game from the same series is the underwater Tajny okeana — the Soviet answer to Nintendo's „Octopus“.