What happened?
In August 2022, when a collector was recording his newly acquired screen game with serial number 255 in the archive, he realised that the corresponding serial number had already been assigned to another device. However, there were no photos or other documents for this device. However, the owner was able to provide these promptly, thank you very much!
The photos revealed that a previous assumption regarding the manufacturing process of the screen games was obviously wrong. The serial numbers were assigned several times!
Why is there a duplication?
There are several possible reasons for the duplication. Is it perhaps a printing error? The stickers belonging to the devices were probably pre-printed. The printed image suggests that the numbers were produced with a stamp in which the digits could be adjusted. If this was done manually, human error could have been the cause. However, an automatically counting printing unit could also have caused the doubling due to a mechanical error.
Errors in the manufacturing process could also have caused the doubling. Perhaps a screen game was not destroyed correctly after a failed quality control or was removed privately and the number was reissued anyway?
What happens next?
There will probably never be any certainty as to why such a duplication has occurred. Only people involved in the production process will be able to clarify this. If it is an unintentional circumstance, even these contemporary witnesses will probably not be able to clarify the facts after such a long time.
The only possibility that collectors and other interested parties have for further clarification is to collect further data on the remaining screen games. If the proportion of known devices increases, such anomalies can be found and better assessed. All owners of screen games are therefore urgently called upon to record or complete their devices in the BSS01 archive!
The technical possibility of recording several devices with the same serial number in the archive and displaying duplicate devices has now been implemented.
Another duplicate found (3.9.2022)
Immediately after the publication of this text, it was announced in a video that two duplicate consoles were also found with the number 102.
Seven duplications now (15 March 2024)
Seven verified duplications have now been identified. The issue therefore appears to have occurred much more frequently than originally suspected.