Back to homepage
At the beginning of the 80es, fun fairs and trade fairs were the first places in the East European countries where computer gaming technologies could be found. A game there cost about 50 Pfennige, that was approximately the cost of ten rolls, 500 grams of margarine, or going to the cinema two times.
Most gamers in East Germany saw a computer for the first time in the middle of the 80es. Usually, that was at some relative’s place – a typical story of that time would be that of the young guy who suddenly enjoys visiting his uncle’s home, because his uncle owns a computer. From a legal point of view, these computers were owned by public businesses (businesses that were in the ’people’s possession’, as they were called in East Germany – Kerstin). However, it often happened that old or discarded computers were taken home by employees. Those youths who had relatives owning a computer were counted among the ‘elite’ on the schoolyards – many did not know that computers in West Germany already were much better and faster.
The Polyplay automat was a legend among young gamers. It was coin-operated and offered a variety of eight games. One of them was the popular ‘Hirschjagd’ (stag-hunting), further there was the ‘Schießbude’ (hunting gallery), and also an eastern clone of ‘Pac-Man”. The Polyplay was the only arcade automat ever produced in East Germany. It cost about 35000 East Mark. It was only put up on exposed places, such as the Palast der Republik (East German Parliament Buildings), and in the biggest hotels. But also recreational centres and youth centres had Polyplays. This way, gaming became part of the youth culture in East Germany. A big problem of the Polyplay was, however, its bad recognition of coins: As the East German money was made out of aluminium, the coins rapidly lost their shape, and often the automat would not accept the 50 Pfennig coins that were put into it. Further, the graphics of the Polyplay were on a 70es level, compared to those of western technologies. And the speakers had an awful quality – headaches were not seldomly a consequence of too long playing. However, not being able to compare eastern and western arcade automats, youths in East Germany did not care much about these disatvantages and became passionate Polyplay players.
One Country, two Systems
Soon, the political circles of East Germany noticed that many young people were fascinated by the gaming automats. Computer gaming was made a matter of the State – and computer gaming was officially labelled “Computersport”, which means “computer sports”. Connecting computer gaming to politics had a huge impact on the future development of computing in East Germany – especially, as in the issue of computer gaming East German politics pursued an entirely different line than it was pursued in West Germany. In West Germany, in 1984 a new youth protection law prohibited gaming computers at public places. The new technologies were denounced to have a bad influence on young people, who from then had to go to bars if they wanted to play. In East Germany, the government had realised that computers were to become an important economic means in the future. And video games were seen as a useful means by the government to get young people’s interest for computers. This liberal attitude soon payed off: Inspired by the Polyplay, or by visits at relative’s places, many youths started putting together their own computers, or to program their own games. And some of them quickly became specialists.
The first production of gaming consoles in East Germany, however, had already started in 1980, six years before Polyplay and the wider introduction of computers. The consoles were produced by a public business in Frankfurt/Oder. However, there were made so few of them, that not many East Germans ever saw one.
In the youth centre of the Berlin district Lichtenberg, such a computer was installed (the text indicates, that it is one of these early models, however, I am not completely sure – Kerstin). It is now on display in the Computerspielemuseum. This device, called ‘Bildschirmspielegerät 01’ (BSS01), which translates to ‘screen playing console 01’, was built into the wall. Its cabinet/chassis had different colours, probably due to a lack of plastics at that time. The graphics were extremely bad and the range of games was very limited. In fact, BSS01 was merely a copy of the “Pong”-console – however, it was made eight years after the original. The production of the BSS01 was stopped before a successor could be developed, because the production capacities were needed to produce clock radios instead. Though its performance was so bad, in the late eighties often a crowd of people gathered in front of the rare console (I do not know why the text speaks of the late and not of the early eighties here- Kerstin).
The introduction of computers that were programmable finally brought satisfaction to those, who wanted to do more than just kicking a ball across the screen. The “Lerncomputer 8O”– which translates to “learning computer 80”, in short LC80, was nothing than a calculator that was programmable. However, it was much bigger than a calculator.
The ‘Robotrons’, introduced in the middle of the eighties, and belonging to the type series KC-85, finally became the ‘cream’ of computers in East Germany. They had two Megahertz and 64 Kilobyte RAM – not much when compared to Western standards, but it was enough to do some programming (This is stated in the article by Andre Weissflog, who developed ‘Project Nomad’. Andre made his first programming experiences on the Robotron.- Kerstin) The “IBM of the East” were delivered to companies and schools, but not to private households. When, in 1985, the first computer laboratories were opened at schools, thousands of pupils were impatient to learn how to write programmes and games on them.
Western games on the Robotron
This way, many fascinated youths in East Germany became computer specialists at the age of 12 or 13. They regularly met at a certain day of the week and wrote their first programmes with Basic. The computer classes at school were an important location to learn how to program one’s own games – and to present them to one’s classmates. But soon, the programmers got to know the boundaries of Basic, or just had no ideas left of what they could program. Copying Polyplay games or adapting ‘Pong’ for the school computer soon became boring. Therefore, fun fairs became an important site of inspiration, because fairground rides were the only places where Western gaming automats were allowed. Many youths played for hours, and after playing went home and wrote Basic codes for adaptations of the games they just had played. At the computer classes, they then could make their ideas come ‘alive’. Therefore, the strategy pursued by the East German government – ‘from player to programmer’, had worked.
Illegal copying, tolerated by the State
The computer sport even got an own newspaper rubric. In the “Funkamateur” – in English “radio amateur” – the last four pages were dedicated to video games. Censorship, of course, was also common here, and anti-imperialist propaganda was distributed through the Funkamateur, as well. Still, the Funkamateur quickly became the central platform for programmers. It contained programming instructions, helpful hints for Basic and machine language, and reported about programming competitions in the whole Republic. Out of the scene around the Funkamateur, the inner core of Robotron programmers evolved. They developed perfect clones of classic automat games and also invented games that were so genial, that even the government took notice of that: It commissioned the development of a Robotron cassette-reading device in Frankfurt/Oder. Four games cost about 38 East Mark.
However, in the meantime, a complex mailing-network between gamers and programmes had evolved. It worked so perfectly, that soon on every Robotron in East Germany games made by one of the young programmers could be found. ‘Jungle’, a clone of ‘Pitfall’ was played in ministries as fervently as in schools. But the decline of the Robotron scene came with the decline of the Republic of East Germany. Even before the borders were opened, and in spite of an import prohibition, advertisings in the Funkamateur offered C64 computers for 5000 East Mark, a horrendous price. But nevertheless, the commodore took over in the Berlin scene.
From 1987, East Berlin became an important centre for copying games and distributing them to the other East European countries. The ‘House of the Young Talents’ in Berlin Mitte was the centre of all that. However, programming was less important here than cracking and copying C64 games. As retired people had the right of travel in East Berlin, many young computer specialists sent their grandparents over the border to West Berlin to buy new games. Then these games were copied, sold, or exchanged. Who was able to crack a classic game, such as ‘Defender of the Crown’, was able to make a lot of money out of that. Still, paying twenty or fourty Marks for a disk with the original game was much money, taking into consideration that a household earned around 500 Marks monthly (not sure if average – Kerstin). Illegal copying, however, went so far, that the East German Police worked together with the West Berlin police to stop the massive breaches of intellectual property rights. When the wall came down, the introduction of social market economy also brought stricter intellectual property laws.
Today, the Polyplay, with around ten exemplars remaining, is one of the rarest collection pieces for collectors of coin automats.
Back to homepage
Published with Backpack. This page is subject to the terms of service.