Gaming Beyond the Iron Curtain: East Germany
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ต.ค. 2017
- Here's a brief tour of a retro game collection too rare to find this side of the Berlin wall.
Fun fact: because of confusion with the German abbreviation of the GDR (the "DDR,") Konami's "Dance Dance Revolution" was re-named "Dancing Stage" in European markets.
Music by the spirited Ace Waters: / acewatersthe3rd
The Computerspiel museum in Berlin. Highly recommended: www.computerspielemuseum.de/12...
Here's a link to an emulator where you can play the Poly Play: archive.org/details/arcade_po...
Here's a link to Andrew Weissflog's site, with select choices of his KC85 games emulated: www.flohofwoe.net/history.html
Here's GameStar's article, main source for the video, but you have to buy and Google translate: www.gamestar.de/artikel/comput...
Here's a free article, shortened version of above, but still all in German: www.spiegel.de/einestages/ddr-...
Wondering what was happening in Poland's PC gaming scene around the same time? • The Story of CD Projekt
What about what games were like in the brand-new Russian Federation? • Проклятие серого слонёнка
Last but not least, support the channel on Patreon! / superbunnyhop - เกม
After the GDR collapsed in 1989... the first thing my uncle did.... was driving 2 hours to the next bigger city in west germany. There he bought himself a NES. Never thought about that in the last 28Years... But that Video brought that memory up again. ^^ Great Work!
BTW. He is now 67 years old and.... hell plays the shit out of his PS4. One cant be to old to be a gamer i guess.
Schöne Grüße an deinen Onkel, er klingt ziemlich cool
awesome uncle
I wish my Uncle was half as cool as yours
Gamer has no age limit, it's just a hobby. Enjoy life while you can. I got my ps2 by working as a magazine seller.
First thing we did was buying a VCR. Should have got our priorities right.
I wish there was more content on TH-cam like this.
Right? Too many people making list videos
You might enjoy the channel RetroAhoy
well look who it is.
Rabbidluigi no way! Will what are you doing here?
Unlike your content.
*Nuclear tension intensifies*
I see your animation budget has gotten a substantial bump.
Aeolian that's patreon money being put to use
I lol'd.
I loved the part where the stick man moved but it was the actually the entire white page being moved across the screen, LMAO on that one!
Top quality Sakuga here.
Growing up in the Czech Republic, "videogames" meant something very different. Even in the late 90s it was a word used for any gaming console you hook up to the TV - "the video games". And the consoles were not the NES or SNES, they were almost exclusively knockoffs and bootlegs that played copied cartridges and casettes.
Far more people played games on computers - we had (borrowed for a while) the Didaktik - a Czechoslovakian (and somewhat improved) clone of the ZX Spectrum. Then as the markets opened up we got a PC, eventually even bought a Pentium computer.
But yeah, nobody I know from my generation owned a genuine Nintendo console and even years later, only some families could afford the PSX when it first came out.
In Poland, the term was "television game" (usually denoted the pirates of an NES bootleg) and when PCs became popular, suddenly _all_ games were "computer games", which persists in regards to even console exclusives, at least within the mainstream media.
Between the passing of the 1994 bill which practically made it impossible to manufacture pirated hardware in the open, and the seventh generation of consoles, very few people could afford one. Most kids were able to talk their parents into buying them a PC around the age of eight when they attended their first communion (which is when Polish kids tend to receive the gift equivalence of three years worth of birthdays and Christmas) because "of course I will need a computer for school"-plus, not only were PC games _massively_ cheaper than their Sony, Sega or Microsoft counterparts (it still boggles my mind to see a current Steam release costing just as much as the PS4 or XOne version when I remember PC games being often three to freaking _four times_ cheaper when I was a kid, and that's taking inflation into account), they were also leagues easier to pirate, especially after CDs became widely available. Me, who grew up in an arguably a pretty well-off household for the '90s Poland, could only expect to get hold of an official new release (in the shining box, the manual still smelling of freshness and so on) once or twice a year and every other time it was a good ole bootleg for me. There was absolutely _no_ way my parents would throw so much money (at the time of release in 1996, PSX cost the equivalent of a whopping 183% of an average monthly salary around here, PS2 doing not much better at around 140% in 2002) at a gizmo that would serve solely my entertainment, all while expecting a string of ridiculously expensive games they would need to buy me because I wouldn't be able to pirate them.
Personally, I got my first console, the PS3, in 2008 for my eighteenth birthday. I missed out on the next generation (and all the awesome exclusives that came with it) and even when PS5 finally comes out, I seriously doubt I will be able to afford it within the first year of its presence on the market. Those things are a *humongous* drain on one's wallet around here, considering that hardware is practically no cheaper in countries that earn like a quarter of an American or German salary.
I grew up in the DDR and remember playing some of these games as a 6 year old :D
What was it like for you if you don't mind me asking?
@@humansvd3269 I think the games where pretty cool - I dindt know the other stuff. I played the one with the bucket and water drops a lot.
What is this? ACTUAL gaming journalism?
Crimson Parrot "Is Cuphead too hard for East German Markets???!?!"
You are new to this channel, aren't you?
nah, actual ethical gaming journalism has to at some point either take a swing at someone with an unnatural hair color or bring up white genocide.
CitrusZero Cuphead is too hard for every market.
deus vult
"it was 3 whole years ago, move on"
jerks off to crusader memes
irony has died
We had those "game broadcasting radio stations" in commie Poland too. Was quite a trick to get a clear signal on those third hand radios tho and have absolutely clear game code recorded.
Western German here and I never knew or even really thought about the lack of video or computer games that people in East Germany had. Really interesting video and cool to see such a topic getting international coverage.
If you ever need help translating something from German into English again and don't want to use GoogleTranslate maybe I could help. Or maybe someone else from the German audience might be willing to help out, too.
Hier, hier, Freiwilliger!!!
Immer gern
I'll help. Just send me an email or somethin
Hey so do you emulate Grand Theft Auto games or do you buy them over there in Germany ?
Here's another volunteer.
Oh, and another thing: There's a new translation website by the name of of DeepL, from a German company. Uses machine learning and so far, it's far, far better than Google Translate and other large competitors. It doesn't support as many languages yet and you have to copy and paste text by hand, but the results are extremely impressive and almost indistinguishable from human translated texts. Unsurprisingly, it's particularly good at translating German to English and vice versa, but support for other languages is decent as well.
Mind blown. I live in Germany and this was hands down the best-researched piece I've seen about gaming in the DDR. Keep the curveballs coming, George!
It had some Problems, He didnt understood some of the inter german mechanics. sending stuff to eastern germany wasnt that hard and risk free as long as the person wasnt already under investigation.
Wessies smh
Uff, euer Schutzwall ist seit 30 Jahren wech und ihr habt in der Zeit anscheinend nur gelernt, noch neidischer zu sein. Moment, ich muss mal eben das Fenster schließen, da fliegen schon wieder so viele gebratene Tauben rein. RIP Adenauer, alter Goldesel.
Geh kacken, Fred Hampton.
I live in Berlin (The western side) and I loved that Hasselhoff joke.
Great video over all, I absolutely didn't know the Easterners had any video games at all, they had to wait about 15 years for their cars and about 5-10 for a home telephone.
That story of Andy is pretty amazing. Thanks for this interesting insight into the history of my favourite hobby in my own country!
Lets check out the museum
I have endless respect for the increasingly in-depth and investigative videoes you make. Where the most profitable move you could make would be to be covering recent topics and talking about the games, these talks and investigations into the industry is clearly done with a lot of passion for the subject, and with a high density of primary sources.
Hi George, as a German and growing up in the GDR I just wanted to thank you for recaping that part of history for a broader audience.
It’s always a good time when George uploads a new video
I love the animator you hired George. Great stick figure stuff.
Your videos are always worth the wait, George.
Jacob Irvine also being a Patreon
The noodles return.
The noodles never leave
Were they ever gone?
them fuckin noodles
Liked for noods
In the end we were the noodles all along ~
Fascinating stuff! Great video :-)
I am again in awe of the quality and depth of your content. You´re absolutely godlike in that regard, please never stop. Bless your investigative little soul.
Eastern European countries actually were making imitations of zx spectrum (commodore) and we had them all over the USSR in the 80s. We had all the games on pirated cassette tapes sold all over the street markets.
10:30 Those wanting to know what kind of weird secret police would invest time and money into anonymously authoring arcade games should look up the Stasi, especially their practice of 'decomposition' - those guys were fucking terrifying.
East Germany in general was a fascinating, if miserable, time in history. Really cool surprise to see George do a video on that era.
Luv u George.
Plenty of folk from DDR here that seemed totally ok with East Germany. The notion that any and all socialist countries were miserable, poor hell holes is a misconception and propaganda at best. I find it especially ironic coming from America and seeing how my country is rotting from the inside out while fascists and white nationalists tell people to 'suck it up'. Wealth disparity, racism, sexism, a borderline police state and lack of civil rights leads to 'suck it up' from suburban basement dwellers.
DDR stood for "Deutschland done right"
eluxsus0195684
"Not everything was wrong in East Germany". Nice Meme buddy. I suggest looking into the history of the Stasi more. If it was truly so great there, they wouldn't have to built a wall where they shot you on sight just to keep you in.
And don't try to justify this dictatorship by saying that they treated the farmers better. It's the same thing as NatSocs justifying Hitler by saying "Well he build the Autobahn".
East Germany was SU showoff, as pointed in video still influenced by the west.
In the actual SU countries at the time money would be close to toilet paper, so even these grassroot movements mentioned in the video wouldn't happen.
eluxsus0195684 'borderline' the police in the US can literally kidnap you and put you in a blacksite without trial if they define you as a terrorist or 'combatant'
It is 100% a police state
Wow, I visited that museum like 8 hours ago
I didn't even know I wanted this information until I saw the beginning of this video. Yet another amazing and incredibly informative video. Thank you very much!
It's really nice to see this type of content. Thank you very much!
Still waiting on that MGS 4 retrospect. (Although keep up the great work. love this channel)
Macaco Macabra I'm less gracious - SBH get on this or I'll smash ya.
'retrospect'
lol
*checking the release date*
*doing some calculations*
9 fucking years , holy shit.
I'm afraid it's been...
9 years
WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Poland was in a very simillar situation. I still have a cheap copy of NES called a Pegasus in my attic somewhere.
Cool
Most interesting piece of gaming journalism I've seen for months. Made me really appreciate the place I grew up!
this was a really well done and interesting video article. Good Job George, and thank you for the content you put out.
Sehr gutes Video . Hätte nicht gedacht das so ein Thema hier angesprochen wird .
Lovely documentary
Oh hi Iron
Your work is so good and very appreciated.
Immensely interesting and well made. Deserving of an entire documentary
I've seen suggestion that Polyplay's display logo font and name might've inspired the Polybius legend. The secret police connection would work, too.
shinobody Right? The first thing that came to my mind when George mentioned the Secret Police connection was Polybius!
That makes an enormous amount of sense.
I think Ahoy was one of the ones saying that in his video.
I noticed that as soon as I saw that logo...
Ahoy isn't the first to make that claim. In fact he didn't make any claims really in his video. It was mostly just a documentary. He mainly just got that claim from else where.
Boy, I love
your Videos but this one was very special to me.
I’m east german and I was born in the GDR but I have no memorys of this
country. The thought: “How was gaming in the GDR” never came to me. This was
really enlightened.
Holy Moly really well made Video Thief, would also love to see more of this topic.
Thank you for making a video about this topic. I legitimately had no idea about this, and I find this utterly fascinating. I'm so glad that you still make amazing videos after all this time being subscribed to you. Cheers!
Good content to Hasselhoff ratio. Am of approvings.
This is one of my favorite videos from you
same tbh
This has probably been one of your best videos, George. Thank you for shining light on this little section of history!
for thanksgiving i am thankful for this channel.
The German Gamestar did an in depth special on this topic, obviously in german:
www.gamestar.de/artikel/computerspiele_in_der_ddr,3313887.html
Mr. Bunny sources it too in the video, so someone on his side knows my language.
I was 10 or so years old. My parents traveled to friends in the GDR once or twice a year, to that half of Berlin. And I always had a walkman knockoff with me, and my music audio tapes. The car was always searched thoroughly, but these were never taken. Not once. My dad was on a special watch-list as well, as he was as high ranking police officer at that time. Way above detective or anything like that. I was used to feeling watched, even as a kid, it was spooky, but I didn't understand the half of it back then. For me, that was an exciting ride into a totally different planet, each and every time. And oh-god did Berlin look run-down in many places. Shabby storefronts, and much of it was half ruins, half living space for people. I once found a hint book in a book store on adventures for the Schneider/Anstrad CPC. Back then I was amazed. How do people in the GDR play these games in the first place? Well, that's when I found out that they did, on a somewhat compatible computer system called the "KC Kompakt". This thing was basically a sort of re-branded Schneider CPC, and I think you had to assemble it with your own hands, and aquiring one would get you on some sort of watch-list as well.
A very good and surprisingly neutral video! As someone currently living in the east of germany (culturally the two sides are still somewhat different) I appreciated this video a lot.
this was extraordinarily informative and you sir are very well spoken
Those high quality animations of yours are why I am still subscribed George.
As an eastern german: waht is a "Videogame?" is it similar to bananas?
It's like a turnip you can look at and touch but not eat, comrade.
NosTeraFuTV
Oh my god it's crazy when my subscriptions talk to my other subscriptions
I see what you did there ;)
NosTeraFuTV Oh hey, I watch your stuff.
As a fellow eastern german: What is a banana?
"its not actually a joystick , but actually a stick mashing on 4 buttons" you know how 4 or 8 axis joys work right? EXACTLY like that , take apart a competition pro or any arcade joystick and you will see the same thing
This is a really intriguing video! Thank you so much for your hard work on it!
I loved the music choices in this vid. And this was a very interesting topic.
I love you
WE! love you.
In east germany we share
The Dendy is actually a Taiwanese clone console,its just sold in Russia.
Your content is so fantastic, George. Every time you post a video it's about a topic completely unique from any other video-game-essayists on TH-cam that I've often never even thought about, but even so I'm always interested. I've never given a single thought as to what video games are like in East Germany but goddamn was I instantly excited to learn about it from you. You're the man, man!
Thank you George! Very interesting and informative, and one of those things you never know you wanted to know until you find out about it
As a russian I'm very proud that you notice the Dendy and Kinamania's Documentary FIlm about that. Can you make a video about Soviet and Russian Gaming, please?
cyka blyat rush B
*looks at title*
This is such a Super Bunnyhop video
George, this is super rad stuff. Thanks for another great upload!
Man, I love this kind of content. Keep up the great work George.
What an amazing piece. My wife was born in the GDR. Her father, my father in law, was a border guard. Believe it or not, they miss communism. They aren't interested in visiting the museums that have been made out of the former secret police prisons throughout the former country.
I too would probably miss any kind of fundamentally awful government if my meal ticket was to just make sure it stayed as shitty as possible.
When you're high up in the food chain and the wild wave of early 90s capitalism sweeps you away... yeah, you're going to be nostalgic about "the good old times".
that is called "Ostalgie". A combination of the word for nostalgia(nostalgie) and east (ost)
Communism was certainly no angel but it did have it's vantages. Ostalgy is pretty common and I think it's preposterous of you to assume they wouldn't miss It.
dot Kiarika Shhhhhh, he thinks he is educated in politics and actually knows what it was like.
Great video 👍 and by the way: Although I lived only a ten minutes walk away from the Computerspielemuseum I never visited it. Yeah, shame on me. 😅
And guess what one of the first things was that my parents bought me after the wall came down? A NES. Thanks mom. 👍
Wow, this is really fascinating! Thanks for making this.
I love this video. I live in Berlin, have been to the museum but didn't get the full story until you told it.
I was 10 or so years old. My parents traveled to friends in the GDR once or twice a year, to that half of Berlin. And I always had a walkman knockoff with me, and my music audio tapes. The car was always searched thoroughly, but these were never taken. Not once. My dad was on a special watch-list as well, as he was as high ranking police officer at that time. Way above detective or anything like that. I was used to feeling watched, even as a kid, it was spooky, but I didn't understand the half of it back then. For me, that was an exciting ride into a totally different planet, each and every time. And oh-god did Berlin look run-down in many places. Shabby storefronts, and much of it was half ruins, half living space for people. I once found a hint book in a book store on adventures for the Schneider/Anstrad CPC. Back then I was amazed. How do people in the GDR play these games in the first place? Well, that's when I found out that they did, on a somewhat compatible computer system called the "KC Kompakt". This thing was basically a sort of re-branded Schneider CPC, and I think you had to assemble it with your own hands, and aquiring one would get you on some sort of watch-list as well.
Again, the KC computers were Amstrad CPC "knockoffs", hence the Zilog Z80 and all that.
12:48 Erich Honecker is a honest man who cared for German people's good since his young age, not a brutal dictator.
Go home, Stalin. You're drunk.
@@yarpen26 Honecker is not any where near close to Stalin at all. Also, interesting you never substantially addressed Laborer's claim.
Great video! I never knew i wanted to know what gaming was like in East Germany, but when i saw your title i just had to know.
I had never thought of, or even thought to think of, gaming in the Eastern Bloc.
Excellent topic choice, and as usual, excellent video.
Thank you for this!
This is very similar to the first part of the noclip series on The Witcher
I had this very same feeling, not that this is a bad thing, it's interesting to see how these countries managed to still game in their own way regardless of their political and economical situations.
He actually put a link to the Noclip's video in the description: "Wondering what was happening in Poland's PC gaming scene around the same time? th-cam.com/video/uNZkTk5gLuo/w-d-xo.html "
Whining Ylthin nice, I know they are both fans of each other's work and even met up a few months ago in Tokyo.
To be fair, it wold be realy intresting to see what sort of video games would we get after a decade or two of a ban on violence.
tsch and no western sanctions on exporting tecnology to soviet allies
we can only imagine what could have been made
It would be nice to have more non violent mechanics. The vast majority of video games rely on violence which is not bad but like I think we all want some more diversity.
hedgehog3180 How is it bad
This story is a jewel. I have researched the history of computing in the Warsaw Pact countries and it is wonderful to see the quality of this work. I am grateful. Thank you very much.
Excellent work! I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about this topic before.
*R A M E N*
I wonder what are the videogames in North Korea...
According to defectors and visitors, they play a lot of famiclones and really old arcade games. They used to sell really old games online that play like an old Flash game or a very simple iOS game, but don't know if they still sell those.
Nurpus maybe those shithead at the top completely rip off one of the top FPS games and put "Kill US dogs" into it
They have history of rip off movie clips or musics to put in their over the top "true korea" stuff
Lil kim is the player the population is the npcs
this channel is just on a whole nother lever 👍👍 this isnt a topic i would have even thought of
This is the most interesting video I've ever seen about a subject I've never had a shred of interest in.
Fantastic work, Georgy-boy.
Man the MGS3 intro sure sounds much less epic voiced by you
You've got to wonder sometimes.
Part of the Soviet Block's problems were just a severe lack of industrial capacity.
Around the time Communism took hold, if you compare Russia to the United states, one has massive amounts of industrial infrastructure, the other is still dominated by rural farmland and relatively little industry to speak of.
You might think it sad that all they managed is inferior knock-offs of western computer technology, but when you really stop and think about it, the fact that they could build semi-decent clones of this stuff at all was a major accomplishment in it's own right.
Computer technology requires a LOT of resources to do effectively.
So much so that the most critical components are the product of maybe a half dozen factories at most.
An earthquake in a single country a decade or so ago, which crippled only one or two factories was enough to cut the global supply of RAM chips by 30%
East German computers huh.
I guess given those restrictions, if you had the connections and wealth to get a machine imported in the late 80's it seems pretty clear to me you'd want an Amiga;
Since you weren't allowed to have software... Yeah, that seems like the most impressive thing you could get if you had to make all your own software and tools for it...
It was more like poor application of existing industrial capacity.
Command economies suck. The alternative to top-down command economy is a form of capitalism. Simple, really.
Good work George. This was very interesting.
The paint skills are insane! Also - was waiting for the Papers Please theme, seemed like the perfect video for some dark chiptunes
Real video games hasn't been tried
This comment is amazing!
".. .and so the Ouya was born."
You have no idea how fun was to play "Raid over Moscow" in late 80'ies Poland... ;)
Fantastic video as always George! Thanks :)
Gosh, I love you George. This is just... incredible.
Reagan teared down the wall? lol ;D
Yeah, personally.
Bunny-Bae
Impressive work George, well done!
Amazing work George.
Lots of comments from people who just can't wait to drag their version of communism into this for no reason. Great video, George, thanks.
Meh, being triggered is fine and it's an interesting debate, especially through this game-centric lens. It's just the misinformation that I'm having trouble with.
I'm constantly seeing the right-wing giving me numbers between 60 to 100 some even 200 million.
YEA BOIO
That was a fantastic video! Thank you!
Awesome video, as always.
Yeah I'm from Eastern Germany. Yes I'm a gamer.
Not the only one, Genosse.
North Korea is showing us all how oppression is done right
gaurd3 And if you're extra good maybe in a year or two we can be just like them :D
EXACTLY! If anybody knows how to do insane tyrannical dictatorship, it's North Korea. To tell the truth I'm glad they're the way they are, this world needs a new World War enemy we can all (most of the sane community of countries) can all rally behind as the thing we all hate and need to destroy. Kinda gives me a warm feeling in my tummy to know we as a world can still work together on some thing big.
There is no such thing as oppression done right. Sooner or later the desire for freedom will win. If North Korea continues down this path for a hundred more years it'll look like a medieval country compared to the surrounding countries.
D Sandoval That sounds a big psychopathic. You do know you're cheering for a war with a nation that has nuclear weapons right? That's not something to look forward to. Plus the North Korean people aren't at fault here. They're trapped in a system not of their choosing. This is not like WWII where Germany was definitely evil and the Germans actually had a choice and knew about the outside world.
They're essentially China's failed abortion, and literally only exist to be a buffer between China and South Korea (America).
This is really spectacular. Thank you so much for reporting this.
Great video as always. Thanks, buddy.
The Soviet economy did not supply "basic necessities at very cheap prices"
it actually did
Well People didnt starve, and they had some Rum and cigars in higher quality than the west.
Standing in line for basic stuff was very common, that wouldnt be such a problem, if they didnt blocked gameboys...
>people didn't starve
H O L O D O M O R
The really shitty living conditions in the DDR even fostered some good inventions that are still used to this day. Like the modern german kindergarten-service.
Holodomor, exactly this term is a modern neo-nazi propaganda. It says that starvation before WW2 was presented only in Ukraine, which is false. Starvation didn't take modern borders in account and many other territories were under a strike.
Now if we are talking about those mass starvation cases, soviets indeed fucked up good there. But those event took place in the first half of 20th century. It's not very correct to extrapolate this event on a full time scale.
Venture capitalists :D Good call!
Was just reading a comment on Stuart Brown's video on the cold war and games wondering about coverage for lesser known games east of the Iron Curtain. Quite the nice coincidence to find this!
Excellent content, George!
>Capitalist Luxury
And here's a comment section full of 14-year olds that grew up in a suburban neighbourhood in a 1st world country telling you why communism is a great idea.
Most people I know who are communists are grown workers who have lived in the lower class.. but sure, keep living in a bubble.
eluxsus0195684 I grew up in an ex communist country and my family was prosecuted during commie rule. Please tell me how great Stalinism was.
Communism is pretty simple: I dont make as much money as that guy over there so he should give me some of his. Nevermind the fact that "that guy over there" probably worked hard and took risks in order to get into the position that he's in and that the only reason I have my current job at all is because of risk takers and intovators like him who employee me. No. he should give me money simply because I make less than him.
Communism is not the same thing as Stalinism. The Soviet Union post the revolution degenerated into a brutal authoritarian regime that, instead of promoting communist ideals of communal fellowship and mutualism, ruled through a brutally centralized, top down form of rule which erroneously believed in a high-modernist folly that the entire nation could be run from the safety of a bureaucratic office in the capital city. This is why many communists from the very inception of the Bolshevik revolution broke ties with the second international and why just as many of the exiles from said authoritarian countries were not just capitalists but also communists with a decidingly ex-soviet ideology. But yeah, all communist ideology is the same, right?
Here comes a comment section full of 14-year old gamers who grew up in a first world suburb, playing games made by slave-labor, telling you why capitalism is a great idea
This was extremely my jam, thank you.
That museum was very cool. Really liked seeing the old games and tech.