Poly-Play

VEB Polytechnik Karl-Marx-Stadt – 1986

A arcade cabinet in front of a violet wall

»Poly-Play« was the only video game machine manufactured in East Germany (GDR.) It was developed in 1985 and around 2,000 machines were sold.

The machine cost 22,000 marks; a game cost 50 pfennigs. Today, around 20 of these machines survive. The game concepts were based on computer games that had already appeared in Japan, the USA, and Western Europe. »Hase und Wolf« [Rabbit and wolf], for example, which can be played on the »Poly-Play« machine, was based on the Namco game »Pac-Man« (1980/1981).

Material / Technique
arcade cabinet
Collection
ZKM | Center for Art and Media

Articles

 

zkm_gameplay. the next level
The ZKM gaming platform.