The decision to produce the GDR\u2019s only games console was probably taken in 1976\/1977 and was made by the government of the time, represented by State Secretary Karl Nendel. At the start of the project, the use of TTL chips \u2013 which were also manufacturable \u2013 was considered, but the idea was quickly abandoned due to the high number of 40\u201350 chips required per console. Similarly, replicating the existing chips (AY-3-8500-7) from General Instruments (USA) was ruled out. Ultimately, it was decided to import the necessary chips from the West.
The procurement of the chips has its own legendary history. One such legend claims that chips were brought from the USA to West Germany and hidden in concrete blocks, which were then imported into the GDR to conceal them from border guards and Western intelligence services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"BSS01](\"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/BSS01-seitlich-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"BSS01](\"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/BSS01-Unterseite-Aufkleber-1024x768.jpg\")
When the device was finally produced between 1980 and 1984, with an estimated production run of around 1,000 units, it was too expensive for private households \u2013 550 East German marks was equivalent to half a month\u2019s salary. As a result, it was more commonly found in youth clubs and public institutions. According to estimates, around 500 units of the various variants still exist today. These variants arose due to the shortage of materials at the time, and whatever was available was used \u2013 here are a few examples of the possible combinations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- black, with coloured buttons and black controller<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- black, with coloured buttons and white controller<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- wei\u00df, mit farbigen Kn\u00f6pfen und schwarzem Controller<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- white, with coloured buttons and white controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
There are estimates of the number of consoles still in existence, and it appears that the almost completely white consoles (with white casing and white controllers) are the rarest. Each console was given a \"serial number\" (also known as an insert number), which was located under the right-hand controller. Unfortunately, my white console has \"lost\" this number. There are reports that devices with identical numbers have turned up, which may be due to these numbers being \"lost\" during production and the subsequent number being skipped. For example, if there are two number 523s, there is no number 524. There is also a rumour that 3,000 chips were imported instead of 1,000, but what happened to these chips remains a mystery. Production of the BSS01 was discontinued in favour of manufacturing more radio alarm clocks, although rumours suggest that a successor, the BSS02, was in the works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The BSS01 was quite simple to operate: two control pads equipped with rotary knobs allowed players to move the \"rackets\" vertically on the screen to hit the ball. The ball could be put into play automatically or manually. The game ended after 15 points had been scored.
The following games were available and could be selected using the buttons on the right-hand side
\u2013 Tennis: classic Pong
\u2013 Football: each player has two rackets \u2013 one on each wall
\u2013 Squash: both players play against the same wall
\u2013 Pelota: squash for one player
If no button is pressed, football with handicap starts: The left player has two rackets, the right player has three. The other two games on the chip are not used, as they are designed for use with a light gun. In 1982, instructions were published on how to modify the console to use the two games, as well as instructions for building a light gun. It was also possible to modify the console so that you could play against it on your own.
Apart from the circuit board imported from the West, there was not much technology to be found inside \u2013 the power supply, HF modulator and loudspeaker were the rest.
The interesting thing about this console is mainly its origin and the stories surrounding it, otherwise it would have been forgotten like many of the other Pong consoles, of which there were numerous different variants.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Das BSS01, auch bekannt als Bildschirmspiel 01, ist eine neue Erg\u00e4nzung zu meiner Sammlung von Pong-Konsolen. Dieses Ger\u00e4t ist alles andere als „normal“, wie man \u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4779],"tags":[4843,4737,4768,4828],"class_list":["post-27444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-veb-bss01","tag-englisch-verfuegbar","tag-hardware","tag-konsole","tag-veb-frankfurt-oder"],"wp-worthy-pixel":{"ignored":false,"public":"badc9b421c8a4844b0a6de33c420458c","server":"","url":"https:\/\/vg05.met.vgwort.de\/na\/badc9b421c8a4844b0a6de33c420458c"},"wp-worthy-type":"normal","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/BSS01.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42619,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27444\/revisions\/42619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}