Hello from Hamburg, Germany

[bitbitplus]

Hey guys! Big arcade fan and devoted follower of all things Arcade and Retro Games here. Feeling like being stranded on an island though, since Germany does not really have an active culture of arcade games. Those had been banned a long time ago and I have never seen a real cabinet in person.
Luckily heroes like John or Greg and a lot of you guys let me feel the arcade vibe through YouTube.

Right now I am building a DIY bartop, using an old NES and doing the rest from scratch. Once I have a proper workshop or garage I am dreaming of building a Nintendo Cabinet from scratch. But that may take some time.

To John: Keep up your excellent videos. Such a great time and I have learned so much already that is written in no book anywhere to be found here!

To all you guys: Hope to get to know some of you folks or maybe even learn about other arcade fans located in northern Germany.

Game on!

[lesoleil70]

Hi from the UK, what do you mean by banned, you've got me intrigued ? Are you from old east Germany?

There's a great community near you on dragons lair forums, and regular events like Eurocade.  Good to see you here.

[bitbitplus]

Hey man, thanks for the hint with the Dragons Lair forums and the Eurocade! I wasn't aware of that and will surely check it out.

Now concerning the ban, back in 1985 Germany (and we are talking about the western part) was having some updated legal restrictions for youth protection. Back then this meant, that video arcade machines were no longer allowed to be operated in public places like restaurants, gas stations, bowling alleys or malls. Only way to do that was to have the game officially cleared from an authority to be suitable for children of the age of 6 and have that displayed on the machine.
So only 18+ restricted gambling halls were able to display them with no hassle. But of course the slot machines made much more revenue on the same space. So operators of those halls thought twice about setting up a new arcade machine or a slot machine.

Growing up I have never seen a true arcade anywhere in Germany. Denmark had some though. I remember summer locations NOT spent on the beach ;)

The last place I knew in Hamburg that had some machines (newer ones mostly, like Ghost Squad) was the Vegas World located on the red light district Reeperbahn. But they cleared out their last machines in 2008 or so. Now there's only slot machines as well.

[lesoleil70]

Wow thanks for the info, I never knew that.