Poly Play

This is a second-generation GDR arcade machine. It features seven different games: DeerHunt, Wolf and Rabbit (a Pac-Man-type game), Ski, Butterflys, Shooting Hut (Carnival clone), Car Race, and Waterpipe. The games are really simple and most are just variations of preexisting games. Due to the character animation, the scrolling effects are like those of early PCs and terminals with text-only displays.

When being switched-on, the machine shows a text menu in which you can choose the games. Instead of an attract mode with sound and motion, it simply has a screensaver with the words "Press Button To Play" (in German, of course).

The game play varies between games. Choose the game from the menu and press the Start button. To play, you then have to insert a coin (a token with the Poly Play logo).

This was the second and last arcade machine built in East Germany. Its predecessor was a Pong-like game with a standard home console in the inside. There were maybe only a few thousand of both built for the market behind the Iron Curtain.

The cabinet is made of chipboard with beech veneer. The craftsmanship is excellent, but you can see that it was handmade with standard parts not designed for arcade machines. The manufacturer of the cab is the VEB Raumkunst Mosel, a GDR "company" that made furniture. The cab is covered with aluminum foil on the inside for shielding. The marquee is lit by colored blinking lamps.

Nothing in this game was designed specifically for arcade machines. The monitor is a GDR Television set, modified with an RGB input. Its resolution is quite good with about 60x40 chars (nearly PAL). The TV also provides sound. The computer consists of 4 PCBs, all made with russian ICs and parts. Its main processor is probably a Russian Z80 CPU. Except for the cyrillic letters, it looks like a standard early western-style arcade game. The power supply was made for other purposes and was modified for +5V and +12V.

If you look at all the parts, it is hard to believe that they were all made in the 1980s. The TV set is typical of the early 1970s, the cab looks like early 1960s; only the computer may be of the same era. From a technical standpoint, this machine used technology about ten years behind that of western manufacturers, but considering that there was no arcade business in the GDR and this was only the second arcade machine ever released with not many cabs produced, it is still quite remarkable.

The game in the picture above has the serial number 1492.