Video games in Poland

Video games in Poland, a pretty fascinating story, as I experienced the introduction of these games from the west of Europe as a kid.

I have never been a big fan of handheld computer games or consoles, I preferred our Commodore64 in the 80's. But why am I writing about computer games? Well my wife asked me to pose in front of this wall acting like the game's character.

Mural made by the Warsaw Etnographic Museum

She explained this particular game was Russian and very very popular in Poland back then. This game on the wall is called "Cat catching fish" ("Kot łowi ryby").

There were more variants, the one with the wolf catching eggs is the one every 80's kid knows here. Many Poles named the game "Jajka", which simply means "Eggs." 

When arriving at home she installed a clone on her smartphone and we gave it a shot. Fantastic those old school sounds,
good memories. 

Exposition

Later we went to an exposition going back to the year 1988, at the Etnographic Museum in Warsaw. There we found the game in a drawer.

Mrs MyWarsawDream in action

Nintendo
Being born in 1978, you could call me an 80's kid. I remember the hype when Nintendo was introduced in the Netherlands. The Nintendo Entertainment System broke all sales records and lots of kids owned one. I was one of those guys staying loyal to Commodore 64, just like there were many Atari or MSX kids who did not buy a NES. 

Poland

The experience in Poland was totally different, fascinating really. The Polish economy was only just starting to open to the west. One video game console dominated the Polish market. Nintendo’s first home video game system did not arrive in Poland until 1991, sort of. 

They were not available in retail yet. Instead, people went to a local bazaar, where you could find video game consoles being sold next to potatoes, home-made pickles and replica sports shoes. The Nintendo Console was also a replica, you for instance bought a "Funstation" instead of Nintendo's NES.

Free market
After the system wide transformation in 1989, Poles were only just starting to get accustomed to the free market economy. However, the law did not catch up with the changing market.

Intellectual property

Until 1994 there were virtually no intellectual property laws in Poland, which activated the bootleg market to flourish. At bazaars, flea markets and even in regular stores, people could just buy ‘legal’ bootleg clothes, music, films, video games and – thanks to Marek Jutkiewicz's video game consoles. Read that again!

Marek Jutkiewicz

In 1989 Jutkiewicz was a jeans trader. Buying in Taiwan selling in Poland, but that business was not profitable anymore. Looking for alternative trade,  he discovered game consoles during a business trip to Taiwan, 

He started importing the Nintendo bootleg pecifically a bootleg Taiwanese version of the Famicom (the original Japanese Nintendo console for the domestic market). He marketed the consoles under the brand name Pegasus.
 

Pegasus (source: wikipedia)

They did not bother to add an ® mark to the Pegasus logo. It looked like the Nintendo logo and they even mentioned their name on the packaging of the first version. 

Fuck patents!
The lack of intellectual property control laws, led many to believe that the Pegasus was a genuine legitimate game system. 
Nintendo did not seem to care – the NES was never officially sold in Poland (Nintendo did not have official distribution until the late 90's) and the low average Polish income at the time did not help becoming a good market for the electronics giants ftom Japan. 

Games

A video game console is nothing without exciting games and the Pegasus had them from day one. There were ‘168 in 1’, ‘1000 in 1’ and even ‘9999999 in 1’ cartridges.

I had a quick look on Allegro, the Polish  local version of Ebay still shows tons of consoles and games being offered.

Even though the Pegasus was compatible with Famicom (Japanese Nintendo system) cartridges, and also some modified NES cartridges, everyone was playing the bootleg ones. 

The end of an icon
The 1995 European release of the Sony PlayStation, which featured amazing 3D graphics for that time. The market was slipping away.

Still, the Pegasus will always be remembered as the system which introduced a Polish generation to video games and provided them with many happy moments. This in a time when video games were more simple, but no less entertaining.

All in all an amazing story about the time doors to the west started to open after the communistic regime. For me personally this is always a difficult topic, at history or economy classes we did not get much information about this subject. This story was an eye-opener for me, I hope you enjoyed reading it.




Sources: Wikipedia, Culture.pl