Tajny okeana / Secrets of the Ocean (Elektronika IM-19)

The sibling of the famous „Nu, pogodi!“ from the same Soviet Elektronika series takes you below the surface. „Тайны океана“ (Tajny okeana — Secrets of the Ocean), model IM-19, is another of the handheld LCD games that in the Eastern Bloc substituted for unavailable Western consoles.

The diver against the tentacles

You play as a diver who collects treasures from the sea floor and returns with them to the surface. In his way stands an octopus whose tentacles flit back and forth — a touch means a mistake. As with all these games, it is a pure reflex game about one long attempt: to last as long as possible and gather as many points as possible while the pace relentlessly increases.

Nintendo's little Soviet brother

The model was the Nintendo Game & Watch game „Octopus“ (1981) — which in its original form we also have in the catalog. Soviet engineers, as with the entire Game & Watch line, adopted it and produced it under the Elektronika brand. For a retro fan, comparing the two versions — the Japanese original and its Eastern twin — is a small excursion into how the Cold War divided even the world of video games. The same ideas, two completely different routes by which they reached players.