“Field of Miracles”, KGB and neural networks: Vadim Bashurov about game development, AI and moving to Serbia

Original author：Rukaveshka

Original source：https://www.youtube.com/embed/CD7t-OXCL_M

Documentary interview with a real legend of post-Soviet IT! In this video, we dive into the incredible story of Vadim Bashurov, the creator of that very cult computer game “Field of Miracles,” which, it seems, was played by absolutely the entire country in the 90s. This is real punk rock from the world of Soviet and post-Soviet IT. We met with Vadim in Serbia and walked around Belgrade, discussing the craziest and most interesting moments of his biography. Against the backdrop of the harsh lines of New Belgrade brutalism and the luxurious IT campus of Comtrade, the story of a man with an amazing destiny unfolds. You will learn how it was possible to manage to simultaneously calculate nuclear processes for a closed Soviet research institute and write 3D graphics for the American corporation Intel. Vadim told us what it was like to write the main game of the decade, being a senior researcher at the secret Arzamas-16, and flying on business trips to California in the company of KGB agents. In this issue you will find the absolute surrealism of game development of the 90s. We discussed how the face of Leonid Arkadyevich Yakubovich was meticulously copied pixel by pixel from the newspaper Spidinfo, and why the creators of the original TV show threatened to sue the independent developer. Vadim shared hilarious details: why he left his real phone number right in the game, how he communicated with fans, and what he answered to the bandits who, in all seriousness, called him and demanded to give them their honestly won Mercedes. In addition to memories of the first Soviet IBM XT computers with four colors on the screen and hard drives with a fantastic 20 megabytes, we also touched on pressing modern topics. Vadim expressed his expert opinion on the development of large language models: why modern neural networks are just a convenient tool, and not a real replacement for a living person, and how AI invents non-existent links for serious scientific articles. We also talked about life in exile. Why Vadim chose Serbia as an ideal country to live in, how he keeps fit by playing hockey with local Serbian veterans, and why the geography of the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers reminds him so much of Russian landscapes. And in the finale, we will discuss the dark corporate side of modern platforms - how Apple unfairly banned a developer’s account, forever removing the fruits of his many years of work from the App Store. Sit back, this is the story of an incredible era! Subscribe to the channel, like and write in the comments if you played that same “Field of Miracles” on MS-DOS! ___ Become a channel sponsor and you will get access to extended versions of videos and additional videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAmhbUXK1a_D4CrbcOwPfwA/join https://boosty.to/rukaveshka Subscribe to my telegram: https://t.me/rukaveshka My website: https://rukaveshka.video/ ___ Timecodes: 00:00:00 Introduction: Vadim Bashurov and the phenomenon of the game “Field of Miracles” 00:02:46 How games were created in the secret Arzamas-16 (Sarov) 00:05:23 Luxurious Comtrade IT campus in Belgrade 00:08:48 Artificial intelligence: revolution or just an illusion? 00:11:36 Drawing Yakubovich using pixels from the newspaper "Spidinfo" 00:13:54 The first IBM XT computers and five-block Tetris 00:30:40 Meeting with Yakubovich: why the creators of the TV show wanted to sue 00:33:18 Real phone number in the game: calls from bandits behind the Mercedes 00:37:05 Moving to Serbia, life in Novi Sad and Belgrade 00:44:36 Surrealism of the 90s: calculation of nuclear bombs and work at American Intel 01:02:26 Blocking in the Apple App Store and the fight against the corporate machine 01:08:33 Free era of the 90s: main lessons and conclusions