MeanwhileOnGrad
"Oh, this is calamity! Calamity! Oh no, he's on the floor!"
Welcome to MoG!
Meanwhile On Grad
Documenting hate speech, conspiracy theories, apologia/revisionism, and general tankie behaviour across the fediverse. Memes are welcome!
What is a Tankie?
Alternatively, a detailed blog post about Tankies.
(caution of biased source)
Basic Rules:
Sh.itjust.works Instance rules apply! If you are from other instances, please be mindful of the rules. — Basically, don't be a dick.
Hate-Speech — You should be familiar with this one already; practically all instances have the same rules on hate speech.
Apologia — (Using the Modern terminology for Apologia) No Defending, Denying, Justifying, Bolstering, or Differentiating authoritarian acts or endeavours, whether be a Pro-CCP viewpoint, Stalinism, Islamic Terrorism or any variation of Tankie Ideology.
Revisionism — No downplaying or denying atrocities past and present. Calling Tankies shills, foreign/federal agents, or bots also falls under this rule. Extremists exist. They are real. Do not call them shills or fake users as it handwaves their extremism.
Tankies can explain their views but may be criticised or attacked for them. Any slight infraction on the rules above will immediately earn a warning and possibly a ban.
Off-topic Discussion — Do not discuss unrelated topics to the point of derailing the thread. Stay focused on the direct content of the post as opposed to arguing.
You'll be warned if you're violating the instance and community rules. Continuing poor behaviour after being warned will result in a ban or removal of your comments. Bans typically only last 24 hours, but each subsequent infraction will double the amount. Depending on the content, the ban time may be increased. You may request an unban at any time.
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This was not a common item in 1996 Russia, I think. In the 1990s, TV-based games weren't catching on in the East nearly as much because it was too difficult to create SECAM color video as opposed to NTSC or PAL. (This is part of why most of the East calls them "computer games", along with the rarity of non-computer consoles à la Pong or Magnavox Odyssey. The only ones I know to have been called "video games" were imported arcade cabinets in trailers that would travel from town to town. Known as "videoherna" (video game room) in Czech, they were rare and loved by "weirdos". I imagine they were quite lucrative for the handful of people skilled at smuggling and repairing monitors without original parts.) Lucky kids would play on IBM-compatible PCs or Game Boys, less lucky ones on Atari 8-bit computers, ZX Spectrum clones or this:
This game is Nu pogodi from the Elektronika IM series, a legendary toy in the Eastern Bloc. Manufactured in 1986-1993, it used a chip design stolen from the 1981 Game & Watch Egg game. They didn't even update the clock to 24 hours, the preferred format in Eastern countries.
In the US, the state will find you for illegally copying Nintendo games.
In Soviet Russia, you'll find that the state has been illegally copying Nintendo games all along!
I had the original one!! Everyone dreamed of the Donkey Kong foldable one...
Super boring BTW.
My father had the Soviet clone, and it's still in the attic in a beat-up original box. It no longer works, the chip was killed presumably by static electricity when someone touched the battery contacts... Early CMOS was super fragile, even low-frequency circuits like this.
This was probably the best affordable electronic toy in the USSR. They could have beaten this if they released a Tetris handheld but they didn't have enough R&D time before the regime crumbled; it would likely never get approved either.