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There even was an East German gaming machine called Poly Play (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly_Play https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly_Play). You can actuall

by jansan 8y ago

There even was an East German gaming machine called Poly Play (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly_Play https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly_Play). You can actually play on one of these in the Computer Games Museum in Berlin (really worth a visit). But of all East Germans that I asked, nobody had ever heard about this before, so probably was something produced in very low quantities.

flohofwoe 8y ago
The only place I discovered Poly-Plays (a whole wall full though) was at the hotel "Red October" in Zinnowitz on Usedom island (popular vacation place back then and today). We spent our holidays in Zinnowitz for a few years, and I sneaked through a backdoor into the hotel in the early evenings to play a few rounds as often as I could. The games were quite crappy though compared to Western arcade machines.
- stormking 8y ago
  Hey, I was there too, during the winter holidays in 1988, so I can confirm that ;-)
wolfgke 8y ago
> There even was an East German gaming machine called Poly Play (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly_Play https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly_Play). You can actually play on one of these in the Computer Games Museum in Berlin (really worth a visit). But of all East Germans that I asked, nobody had ever heard about this before, so probably was something produced in very low quantities. An interesting trivium for arcade nerds: A common theory concerning the "conspiracy-surrounded" arcade machine Polybius > https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polybius_(urban_legend)&oldid=868914964 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polybius_(urban_l... is that its name was actually some misunderstanding/derivation of "Poly Play". Indeed, according to the German news article > https://de.sputniknews.com/panorama/20180113319038539-psychische-kontrolle-computerspiele/ https://de.sputniknews.com/panorama/20180113319038539-psychi... in 1985, about one thousand instances of the Poly Play machine were confiscated in Portland for copyright reasons (which fits the "men in black who took the machines away after a few months" part of the Polybius conspiracy theory). This theory is also mentioned on > https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/polybius https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/polybius "The best answer if it's fake (IF), is that it was based off an obscure, and rare German arcade cabinet called "Poly-Play" which was a collection of eight games including a puzzler and space shooter."
- bitwize 8y ago
  It's since been discovered that Polybius is a hoax perpetrated by the maintainer of coinop.org, an arcade-machine info site, in 2000 or so in order to drive traffic to his site. Poly Play may have indeed been an influence in the creation of the hoax.
mxfh 8y ago
The only home grown gaming device I remember seeing in the wild was this pong clone: BSS 01 (Bildschirmspiel 01) http://www.pongmuseum.com/collection/rft-tvspiel-ddr-gdr.php http://www.pongmuseum.com/collection/rft-tvspiel-ddr-gdr.php https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSS_01 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSS_01
stormking 8y ago
I encountered a couple of these machines in a hotel in Zinnowitz where I spent the winter holidays with my parents in 1988. I was 7 years old and it was the first video game I ever played. One still needed coins, though.

by jansan 8y ago

flohofwoe 8y ago

The only place I discovered Poly-Plays (a whole wall full though) was at the hotel "Red October" in Zinnowitz on Usedom island (popular vacation place back then and today). We spent our holidays in Zinnowitz for a few years, and I sneaked through a backdoor into the hotel in the early evenings to play a few rounds as often as I could. The games were quite crappy though compared to Western arcade machines.

stormking 8y ago
Hey, I was there too, during the winter holidays in 1988, so I can confirm that ;-)

wolfgke 8y ago

> There even was an East German gaming machine called Poly Play (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly_Play https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly_Play). You can actually play on one of these in the Computer Games Museum in Berlin (really worth a visit). But of all East Germans that I asked, nobody had ever heard about this before, so probably was something produced in very low quantities. An interesting trivium for arcade nerds: A common theory concerning the "conspiracy-surrounded" arcade machine Polybius > https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polybius_(urban_legend)&oldid=868914964 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polybius_(urban_l... is that its name was actually some misunderstanding/derivation of "Poly Play". Indeed, according to the German news article > https://de.sputniknews.com/panorama/20180113319038539-psychische-kontrolle-computerspiele/ https://de.sputniknews.com/panorama/20180113319038539-psychi... in 1985, about one thousand instances of the Poly Play machine were confiscated in Portland for copyright reasons (which fits the "men in black who took the machines away after a few months" part of the Polybius conspiracy theory). This theory is also mentioned on > https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/polybius https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/polybius "The best answer if it's fake (IF), is that it was based off an obscure, and rare German arcade cabinet called "Poly-Play" which was a collection of eight games including a puzzler and space shooter."

bitwize 8y ago
It's since been discovered that Polybius is a hoax perpetrated by the maintainer of coinop.org, an arcade-machine info site, in 2000 or so in order to drive traffic to his site. Poly Play may have indeed been an influence in the creation of the hoax.

mxfh 8y ago

The only home grown gaming device I remember seeing in the wild was this pong clone: BSS 01 (Bildschirmspiel 01) http://www.pongmuseum.com/collection/rft-tvspiel-ddr-gdr.php http://www.pongmuseum.com/collection/rft-tvspiel-ddr-gdr.php https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSS_01 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSS_01

stormking 8y ago

I encountered a couple of these machines in a hotel in Zinnowitz where I spent the winter holidays with my parents in 1988. I was 7 years old and it was the first video game I ever played. One still needed coins, though.