{"id":20369,"date":"2025-10-07T15:37:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/cold-war-power-play-how-the-stasi-got-into-computer-games\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T15:37:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:37:21","slug":"cold-war-power-play-how-the-stasi-got-into-computer-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/cold-war-power-play-how-the-stasi-got-into-computer-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold war power play: how the Stasi got into computer games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new exhibition in Berlin shows how the notoriously paranoid East German state greeted the dawn of video gaming with surprising enthusiasm<\/p>\n<p>In 2019 researchers at Berlin\u2019s Computer Games Museum made an extraordinary discovery: a rudimentary Pong console, made from salvaged electronics and plastic soap-box enclosures for joysticks. The beige rectangular tupperware that contained its wires would, when connected to a TV by the aerial, bring a serviceable Pong copy to the screen.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, they thought the home-brewed device was a singular example of ingenuity behind the iron curtain. But earlier this year they found another <em>Seifendosen-Pong (<\/em>\u201csoap-box Pong\u201d), along with a copy of a state-produced magazine called FunkAmateur<em> <\/em>containing schematics for a DIY variety of Atari\u2019s 1970s gaming sensation.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/games\/2025\/oct\/07\/stasi-coldwargames-its-all-a-game-alliiertenmuseum-berlin\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/e55bbe3cf278165028074bb44516391cb86b3588\/0_172_4410_3528\/master\/4410.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=c948a5bb5c94b51a63eb108624051469\" title=\"Cold war power play: how the Stasi got into computer games\" \/>A new exhibition in Berlin shows how the notoriously paranoid East German state greeted the dawn of video gaming with surprising enthusiasm<br \/>\nIn 2019 researchers at Berlin\u2019s Computer Games Museum made an extraordinary discovery: a rudimentary Pong console, made from salvaged electronics and plastic soap-box enclosures for joysticks. The beige rectangular tupperware that contained its wires would, when connected to a TV by the aerial, bring a serviceable Pong copy to the screen.<br \/>\nAt the time, they thought the home-brewed device was a singular example of ingenuity behind the iron curtain. But earlier this year they found another Seifendosen-Pong (\u201csoap-box Pong\u201d), along with a copy of a state-produced magazine called FunkAmateur containing schematics for a DIY variety of Atari\u2019s 1970s gaming sensation. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new exhibition in Berlin shows how the notoriously paranoid East German state greeted the dawn of video gaming with surprising enthusiasm In 2019 researchers at Berlin\u2019s Computer Games Museum made an extraordinary discovery: a rudimentary Pong console, made from salvaged electronics and plastic soap-box enclosures for joysticks. The beige rectangular tupperware that contained its &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/cold-war-power-play-how-the-stasi-got-into-computer-games\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Cold war power play: how the Stasi got into computer games<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":20370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20369"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}