Velikiy Drakon

[3] Aimed at young gamers,[5] and characterized by its raw and artless coverage of illegal pirate games alongside legitimate (or at least legally grey) import games,[3] Video-Ace Dendy covered all console systems that had penetrated into the Russian market until mid-1995, when the magazine split to form Velikiy Drakon which would cover only 16-bit and more advanced consoles.

[3] As Velikiy Drakon, the magazine improved production quality greatly by outsourcing printing to Finland, and it survived until 2004 when the parent company folded under pressure from competitors including Strana Igr.

Several former writers for Velikiy Drakon took up work with Strana Igr,[3] and a small number of them helped found a fan-based production, GDD: Great Dragon's Dale, which produced a handful of issues before going defunct in late 2010.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent raise of capitalism, Chinese manufacturers brought the Dendy home console (an unlicensed Nintendo Entertainment System hardware clone) to Russian gamers and before long sales were reaching 100,000 units per month.

Between the 13th and the 18th issues, writing staff struggled with which direction to take the magazine, simultaneously releasing both a shorter version of Video-Ace Dendy and a lengthier Velikiy Drakon.

Former Velikiy Drakon staff writers went their various ways with a number taking up work with competitor magazine, Strana Igr,[3] and a small group helping to found the fan-based production of GDD: Great Dragon's Dale, a spiritual successor of sorts.

The Dendy logo designed by Ivan Maximov [ 3 ] was used for Video-Ace Dendy and later Velikiy Drakon despite Steepler pulling its funding in 1995. [ 6 ] [ 7 ]