Our Sputnik (1961)

This Russian board game was released in 1961 by the Moscow publishing house "Detsky Mir" ("Child World" in Russian) with a circulation of 50,000 copies. The outer box shows a satellite resembling the Russian Sputnik 3 in orbit around Earth. The game board consists of the Earth centrally located. A pin protrudes out of the Earth. On the pin sits a flat cardboard disk that has various sized holes punched through it. The disk represents outer space around Earth and is spun to play the game, producing a 3 dimensional playing board. The game includes a springboard (rocket base) and 2 balls (satellites). As the rotating disk spins players "launch satellites" one by one. They receive small chips if their "satellite" comes to rest in the punched out holes. Players receive 3 chips, if their satellite comes to rest in the smallest holes. 2 chips if they can land in a middle sized hole and 1 chip if a player lands their satellite in the largest holes. The winner is the player with the largest number of chips after a nominated time or first to a set number (i.e. 10). —user summary