sf78 wrote:Seeing the first picture made me check my current Rus CD collection and I found these. I presume the first one is part of that "famous" collection?
rus1.jpg
Vol. 2, actually (you can see number 2 on the bottom). I believe the first 4 or so volumes had the exact same cover.
BTW, here are probably the most famous Russian pirates — Fargus (Фаргус). Their disks looked like this:
Basically they took all popular releases that weren't published legally in Russia (so that no one could sue them), translated them and sold them for cheap. Here are just a few highlights from their glory days:
- they basically created the Russian voiceover industry. Quite a few translators/voiceover actors that worked for Fargus still work on games to this day;
- their quality was really incredible. They sold the games in their original form (without cutting any cutscenes or audio tracks) and you could choose between English and Russian. The translation was fairly accurate and the voiceover was pretty great. They even published patches for their games online! Other Russian pirates often published ripped games with computer-translated texts and no voiceover.
- at one point they decided they should fight other pirates who... pirate their disks. Basically they employed secret buyers, found a shop that sold "counterfeit" Fargus disks and... sued the owner. A month later their lawsuit was dismissed. But not because it's bizzare to think that pirates can sue other pirates for violation of their intellectual property, mind you! Basically, Fargus could not prove the guy owned the shop.
- Fargus was a relatively big company, but it is not really known what happened to them. Some believe they became a legitimate games publisher called Akella. Others think that Fargus and Akella were the same company all along: one published games legally (when they could get a proper deal with the original published) and the other published them illegaly.
- earlies this year GOG decided to start selling Fargus translations for some of the games. They wouldn't tell who they got the rights from, though 🤣
Russian piracy was really incredible, and in many ways, still is.