One hundred and twenty old computers and consoles and over five hundred technological exhibits have been lost, “thanks” to the Russian invasion of Ukraine…

The privately-owned collection was in Mariupol, one of the hardest-hit cities of the war. The exhibition ran under the name Mariupol Computer Museum. The destruction was highlighted by Mark Howlett on Twitter and confirmed by the Ukrainian Software and Computer Museum, which runs museums in Kyiv and Kharkiv. The owner of the Mariupol collection, Dmitry Cherepanov, is said to be unharmed, but for the nearly fifty years of hardware history, there are only two words to say: Game Over…

On his Facebook page, Cherepanov wrote that it8bit.club, that next to the museum, all that remains of his house is a pile of rubble. However, he has thoroughly documented his collection, so at least in this form, you can see everything he has accumulated over the years. Even machines considered rare in the ex-Soviet territories can be seen in the collection, which no longer exists. Pictures, information, everything can be found on the website.

Cherepanov was no business person, though, as he also runs a web radio, RetroBit Radio. You can listen to it here. (For example, if you want to hear some of the music from 1989’s Shadow of the Beast, which was pretty revolutionary at the time, you might as well check it out; David Whittaker has created a lasting legacy, and it’s no coincidence that a PlayStation 4 remake was made in 2016.)

Anyone who might like to donate financially to Cherepanov should visit his Facebook page, where he has also posted his Paypal contact details. Who knows, with the demo scene and the veterans, he might even be able to build up an even more extensive collection than the one he’s been slowly building up. That would be the best ending to the story because he didn’t do anything to harm the Russian invaders (especially since Tetris, for example, was created by a Russian genius, Alexey Pajitnov… and almost everyone in the world knows that!).

Source: PCGamer