Oka + Volga = IT. Journey to Nizhny Novgorod

. There is no point in reprinting it in its entirety, so I will briefly and to the point.

I think many gamers of my generation have a lot of memories, pleasant and not so, about computer clubs in the early 2000s. Dark halls lit only by monitors. Mice that always had a ball stuck. “Fire in the hole!” and “counter-terrorists win”, “leave five minutes to finish the game” and other, less censored expressions. Several gamers from Nizhny Novgorod decided to revive these memories – but in an ideal form, as it was not, but I would very much like to. We bought a garage, sheathed it with wooden panels, poured underfloor heating. And then they dragged a dozen retro computers there, installed Windows XP, “contra”, “wak” – and the party began.

Nizhny Novgorod went to the arrow even before it became mainstream ©

There is a pleasant twilight in the garage. On the tables along the walls are massive CRT monitors, already unusual, but still so familiar. True, the mice on the rugs next to them are modern, gaming. “Playing shooting games with a ball mouse is masochism,” Ilya comments. Ilya is one of the founding fathers of Retro LAN Party. It was he who collected this entire retro technopark.

By prior reservation in the “Garage” you can fit in for the whole night

However, ball mice are also here – they stand on a shelf in unpacked boxes, like a rarity. There are also other rarities: cartridges for Dendy and Sega, discs with games for PC in the Fargus localization, again unpacked Tetris, which is Brick Game. On the opposite wall is a collection of ancient brick mobile phones.

By the way, not just anyone brought me to the garages, but even the whole Igor Pozumentov, director of the branch of JSC Neoflex Consulting and Person of the Year in IT in Nizhny Novgorod in 2022, according to the Delovoy Kvartal publication. Igor is the creator of the project itgorky.ruuniting the Nizhny Novgorod IT community. This time he decided to unite me with the Nizhny Novgorod IT community.

Igor Pozumentov prepares to fight in Unreal Tournament 2004

Ilya and his friend Vladimir, better known at the Retro LAN Party as Uncle Vova, seated me in a bean bag and told me about the customs of this place. Custom one: no commerce. Many retro gaming clubs opened and went bankrupt. Monetizing a hobby is the best way to ruin it. Ilya and uncle Vova are doing Retro LAN Party for the soul, investing their own funds and not expecting any return, except for a pleasant time.

Ilya and uncle Vova, hereditary fifth-generation IT specialists, in their natural habitat

Custom two: no random people. Those wishing to join the Retro LAN party go through a rigorous selection process. Well, actually not very strict. All you need to do is share the values of the founders. Love retro gaming, love to communicate with fellow souls, behave appropriately.

While we were talking, Igor and two other guys sat down at retro computers and launched Unreal Tournament 2004. I thought about joining, but then I decided not to embarrass myself – I myself played it for a long time and only with bots of low complexity.

Frags in UT 2004 won't kill themselves — Frags in UT 2004 won’t kill themselves

Custom third: no women. No, it’s not about male chauvinism, rather the opposite. Historically, the garage is a place where you can hide from your spouse and retire with friends over a bottle. Here the same principle, but instead of sorting out rusty Zhiguli – ice rink in the first Half-Life. In addition, in a purely male team, you can safely joke below the belt and generally behave more liberated.

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There is no need to extend the time in the Garage - the admin distributes it without restrictions — There is no need to extend the time in the Garage – the admin distributes it without restrictions

By the way, the story of my IT wanderings has one more hero who has not yet been mentioned in the text. More precisely, the heroine is the photographer Anastasia Makarycheva, who followed me all day like a shadow. In order not to disturb men’s privacy, at the end of the evening she went to another place – a children’s technopark “Quantorium Nizhny Novgorod”, which I personally did not have time to visit. For this reason, I won’t be able to tell about it, but I can attach a photo sent by Nastya. Looks like they’re doing something cool.

In Quantorium, schoolchildren from 12 to 17 years old make projects for real companies and already in the 10th or 11th grade they can earn money by creating websites and applications. Among the developments: a VR-simulator for driving a lunar rover, an application for teaching astronomy, websites written from scratch for buying tickets for corporate events.

In Quantorium, schoolchildren from 12 to 17 years old create projects for real companies and already in the 10th-11th grade they can earn money by creating websites and applications. Among the developments of children: a VR simulator for learning to drive a lunar rover, an application for teaching astronomy, sites written from scratch for buying tickets for corporate events.

Of course, retrogaming is not the same as IT, and yet these hangouts overlap. Retro LAN Party is an informal center of attraction for Nizhny Novgorod IT people. Between skating rinks in StarCraft, they discuss work tasks and share their impressions of technology. Sometimes they even find work.

At the end of the evening, I nevertheless got bolder and offered to play Quake 3 – of all multiplayer shooters, I (once) had more experience in this one. I lost, of course, but not as shamefully as I feared – in the match up to 20 frags, I scored my legal 7.

Of all the places visited that day, the last thing I wanted to do was leave the garage. However, time is relentless. Ahead of me was waiting for 8 hours on the road, hungry cats, hot showers, good afternoon sleep and finally – writing this article.

If I were a clumsily portraying delight as a copywriter, the title of the article would have been something like “Nizhny Novgorod is the IT capital of the Volga region.” However, the slogan “To be, not to seem” still sounds in my head. Therefore, I wrote only about what I myself saw and heard, and tried not to embellish anything.

Nizhny Novgorod is a memorable city. It has life, IT and not only. I don’t know if it’s the capital of something or not, but I know for sure that one day I want to return to it. For a longer period, to see everything that I did not have time to see. Or maybe – what the hell is not joking – and stay forever.