What is the 'game situation of East Germany' under the mysterious cold war?
So-calledEast side countriesMany people in the socialist national East Germany that belonged toTries to escape to Western countriesAlthough it is often thought that it was not a situation where you can play games etc. freely, in fact, such a gaming culture also existed in such East Germany. A movie that explains about such a mysterious "game situation of East Germany that was in Communist area" is published on YouTube.
Gaming Beyond the Iron Curtain: East Germany
After the Second World War, the world was divided into the east camp and the western camp, and the cold war began.
During the Cold War, in Berlin, Germany, "Berlin Wall"Was built, the interior of the Berlin Wall is West Berlin, the outside of the wall is separated Eastern Berlin. East German official name is German Democratic Republic (GDR), about 16 million people lived.
East Germany is geographically close to the west side,AtariAnd the people of East Germany who witnessed the prosperity of Nintendo seemed to ask for video games as Americans searched for Cuban cigars even in the Cold War.
In the 1980s, eastern side camps countries such as East Germany, video game demand is rising very much, copies of the western countries games are prevalent.
However, it seems that few Germans know the fact that Eastern Germany had developed its own video game.
In 1949, advocated by the United StatesCOCOM (Community Sphere Export Control Committee)Was launched and Western countries prohibited exporting products using advanced technology to the East side countries. Electronic devices such as computers are included in COCOM's export prohibited items, and East Germany will be lagging behind Western countries with computer-related technology.
In the East Germany, the government set policies so as not to exercise the principle of free competition in the market, so in East Germany there was a limit on the number of computers produced by companies. Also, although the price of daily necessities was cheap, the production of luxury goods such as video games was postponed.
People who live close to the border of the East Germany said they knew about the existence of video games and computer games based on those information, although laws had banned watching television in Western countries and listening to radio.
As a result, the people of East Germany have increased their admiration for Western countries full of entertainment, and the East German policy has resulted in many exiles.
In the 1980s, the sense of crisis that the East Germany will finally have to catch up with the technologies of Western countries will increase.
In 1986, NintendoNES (Nintendo Entertainment System)We began selling it in West Germany, but export to the East Germany is prohibited by Western countries.
Due to the appeal of cassette disc and cartridge technology, eastern countries wanted NES, but playing could not be allowed as it would lead to Western propaganda.
However, residents of the East Germany got permission and went on a trip to the Western countries, and it was legally that there was no problem in returning the purchased video game there. It seems that wealthy residents have asked parents and grandparents to buy video games, as people of a higher age gained permission to travel abroad.
As another loophole, there was one that utilized a system that allows people in West Germany to send things to relatives in the East. However, because censorship of the East Germans confiscated under extremely strict criteria, the sender of the West had to pay extra attention to the East Germany.
Through these means, ultimately, more than 200,000 video games were imported into East Germany by private means.
However, video games of Western countries are too expensive for the general population of East Germany, and many residents were satisfied with the East German computer game that imitated Western products, but even that even a few months He said that he was comparable to his salary.
In the area where former Berlin was onceComputer · Game · MuseumThere is a building called. In computer games and museums, many computer games produced at that time in East Germany were exhibited, but these computer games saw traces of struggling to imitate the West and signs of trying to breach the supply shortage in some way I will.
"Vinyl cassette" which recorded game data on vinyl is one such example. Two factors, lack of goods and banning technology export by COCOM, have determined the game situation in East Germany.
It is a game developer from East GermanyAndré WeisfroukWas born and brought up in East Germany and was obtaining money as a few game programmers in East Germany.
Andre made a game for the first time in 1987, but at that time he created the gameKC 85/3It is an 8-bit computer made by East Germany that the copy of what was produced in the United States in 1976 was used for the microchip of KC 85/3. It seems he did not have half of the processing speed of the same type computer used in the west in the same era.
Originally in the early 1980s when Mr Andre was a teenager there was no computer at home, Andr was a member of a neighborhood computer club and played computer games.
The game that Andre was able to play in his teens was a 32 × 32 pixel artwork and a black and white screen, and the appearance of KC 85/3 was also a big event for the East German game.
However, KC 85/3 is the same price as the low price car, and more expensive than ordinary citizens, and there is no permission for purchase for ordinary citizens, purchasing was permitted only for those who need it at work .
Fortunately André's parents were self-employed and were able to purchase KC 85/3. And it seems that you played computer games by connecting TV to KC 85/3 placed in the office.
At the same time as purchasing KC 85/3, in the town where Mr. Andre lived, we had an arcade game center that we could import and modify the arcade game on the west side and make it possible to play in the currency of East Germany.
I was able to play "PacmanAlthough it was an old-fashioned arcade game on the west side, André continued playing the game for half a day, tried to reproduce the game's actions in the head and reproduced with KC 85/3.
The copy game made by André is stillEmulator on the browser and KC seriesYou can play with.
East German game programmers were unable to record data on expensive floppy disks and were recording and sending source code directly to cassette tapes, paper, mail, etc. It seems that there was also the case where the source code was exchanged on the mail, and mutual debugging was done.
East germany was a very harsh environment for game enthusiasts, but the original arcade game machine that was made there is "Poly Play"is. In this game machine housed in a wooden chassis, he said he was able to play and play any game out of eight games.
Poly Play is a graphic that reminds me of early PC games, it was a thing that was outdated as compared with the arcade game that was being played in Western countries of the same era, but playing in East Germany including with a joystick It was state-of-the-art as a possible game.
However, unfortunately the joystick seems to have just pressed the four buttons inside.
The content of the game also reflects the Communist intent of East Germany strongly, violent elements are avoided as much as possible.
Erich HorneckerUnder the administration, there were cases where programmers who secretly made games at home were censured.
The game "Revolution" made by Raimo Bansen was a game in which the Soviet Union bombed the United States, but just after Mr. Bansen released this game, Bansen's father was called to the secret police and his son's game production He told me to stop. Mr. Bansen said that he was only twelve years old when making this game.
In 1989 the Berlin Wall collapsed and games of Western countries suddenly flowed into East Germany.
Poly Play was collected and scrapped and the KC series disappeared from the market. In the past, Poly Play which had been played in the East German pool, game center, etc., only three existing ones are confirmed in the world.
Although it is only a few years in time, it was a gaming culture of East Germany which produced a lot of gamers in the East Germany, and disappeared at once by the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
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