Electronika IM-26

Electronika is the brand name used for many different electronic products built by factories belonging to the Soviet Ministry of Electronic Industry, including calculators, electronic watches, portable games, and radios. In 1984, Electronika started to release its first line of electronic games. Using the prefix IM (or in Russian ИМ, an acronym for Игра Микропроцессорная which means “microprocessor-based game”), the games were copies of the Nintendo Game & Watch. In 1988, Electronika decided to release their IM game series on a format reminiscent of the Digi Casse, basically incorporating the LCD display and logic in a cartridge that the player could switch between. Released under the name IM-26, the console initially came in 2 colors : white or red and had 3 games available: “Well, wait!” (Previously released as IM-02), Funny football players (Previously released as IM-22), Autoslam (Previously released as IM-23). All games were previously released as a stand-alone Game & Watch. In 1992, Electronika changed the its numeration using the prefix “I” instead of “IM” and re-released the IM-26 in a new color: Brown. Two new games were also released for the system as well as standalone title: Hockey (I-12 Hockey) – Post-1992, Cats-Fishers (I-04 Fisher Tom-Cat) – Post-1992. The games released by Electronika were never produced in mass quantity nor they were made available outside of the U.R.S.S. as they would have faced copyright infringement claims. The IM-26 games was especially not popular among the line of games produced by Electronika . This could be due to it’s awkward control when compared to the stand-alone version of the games. While Electronika produced at least 15 other games after 1992, only the two listed above were ported to the IM-26. Following poor sales, the system was just abandoned.