The Bildschirmspiel 01 (BSS01 or BSS 1 for short, also “RFT TV-Spiel”) is the only game console ever built in East Germany (GDR). Since presumably fewer than 1000 units were made, each identifiable by its sequential serial number (Einlagenummer), this site is building a catalogue of all surviving BSS01. Currently 238 validated units are recorded in the archive.
Do you own a BSS01? Register it with its serial number and photos and help reconstruct how many units were built and which variants existed.
The game console of the GDR
The BSS01 was built from late 1979 by VEB Halbleiterwerk Frankfurt (Oder) under the RFT brand, just in time for Christmas. At its heart is General Instrument’s AY-3-8500 chip, which also powered many Western Pong consoles. It plays in black and white on a TV set, with two controllers and four games: tennis, football, squash and pelota.
At 550 marks the console cost more than half an average monthly wage, so it was bought mainly by Pioneer houses and youth clubs. Because production cost more than planned and the device sold poorly, it ended in 1981.
More on the history, video reports, a master’s thesis and the user and service manuals can be found under Knowledge.
How to identify a BSS01
The housing is black or white/light grey, and the two controllers sit in wells in the housing. The colours of the buttons and controllers and the sticker vary from unit to unit. Which combinations exist and how common they are is shown under Variants and Statistics.
Every unit has a serial number. It is located inside the device and visible under the right controller well. It lets you find a unit in the archive. Some numbers occur more than once; the background is explained under Duplicates.