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 each unit is largely identifiable by its serial number (Einlagenummer), this site is building a catalogue of all surviving BSS01. Currently 239 validated units are recorded in the archive. What their data reveals is shown under Findings.
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, which rules they follow under Rules and near-rules.
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 (see Duplicates); what that reveals about production is explained under The serial number.
What the data reveals
We analysed the properties of all 239 validated units statistically and found patterns that chance cannot explain:
- The three families: of 24 possible combinations of sticker and colours, only 8 occur.
- Rules and near-rules: so far every white chassis has an RFT sticker, and black buttons only appear on RFT devices.
- The serial number: numbers repeat about as often as they would if they were assigned at random.
All results at a glance: Findings.