@GUNHED (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2029) 's post (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/games/gamebase-cpc-v33-happening-soon/msg206629/#msg206629) made me think, from what I know and due to the German law lots of games have had to be altered over the years to avoid certain prohibited subjects. Anyone can think of such titles on the CPC that were changed for the German market?
I am not aware of any CPC game that was changed for the German market, except for the language of course. As far as I know if a game was put on the index, it was always for a specific platform. And I can't find any source mentioning the CPC platform.
Huh interesting. To be honest there's no CPC game that comes to mind that featured swastikas or Hitler... quite strange!
Since 1982 there is a ban on blood being red in German games, but I don't know of any CPC game that got hit by the ban-hammer.
The first big game that was banned in Germany was probably Wolfenstein 3D, but that didn't come out for the CPC.
Bryce.
Wait, what color was the blood in Barbarian? Just had to check because I was *certain* it had red blood, turns out it's just hit 'flashes'. Huh.
Quote from: Bryce on 12:53, 03 September 21Since 1982 there is a ban on blood being red in German games
I am not aware of a legal ban regarding the color of blood. Afaik this is more a result of how companies tried to avoid a potential ban. They often (usually?) banned games for unreflected violence against human beings. So, the idea was, to make blood green and make opponents look less human, and sometimes with these kind of changes you could avoid the ban.
Swastikas and other Nazi symbols are a different story as they in itself are prohibited, so you shouldn't offer a game with these symbols unless you really want to see the inside of German prisons (and of course the game will be banned as soon as it's released).
The first big games that were banned were on the C64, e.g. Green Beret, Raid over Moscow, 1942 trainer (no kidding - the cracked version was banned!) - and also Barbarian.
Interesting article: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-03-17-a-short-history-of-banned-games-in-germany (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-03-17-a-short-history-of-banned-games-in-germany)
And also from wikipedia: "Conversely, Barbarian was banned in Germany by the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien for its violent content.[7] The ban forbade promotion of the game and its sale to customers under the age of 18.[25] A censored version of the game, which changed the colour of the blood to green, was later permitted to be freely sold in the country" so it wasn't actually banned, just got an age rating. [EDIT: I'm sure that worked well :D ]
[Also: who on earth bans an already illegal product as is the case with cracked titles :D ]
Yes, the trick was that all the laws/rules refer to "Blood", by changing the colour they could avoid most of these rules.
And yes, there were always hacks available to change the colour back to red.
Bryce.
Right now i can only think about "Commando" being released as "Space Invasion" in Germany.
Quote from: Dubliner on 19:22, 03 September 21
Right now i can only think about "Commando" being released as "Space Invasion" in Germany.
I must play this😂😂
Quote from: Gryzor on 14:07, 03 September 21Also: who on earth bans an already illegal product as is the case with cracked titles
If a game was banned, you could still buy the game, as long as you were 18 and knew what you had to ask for in the shop. The purpose was not to forbid it but to protect minors. A cracked game or public domain stuff could still be rated as harmful and would end on the list, even if it was never available in a shop. Sure, a pirated game itself is already legal but it's much more of an issue to give a banned game to a minor than just giving him a copy of normal game. In other words: if you were caught copying stuff you usually didn't have to fear the law - unless you were doing that commercially these things ended without any kind of penalty (civil law is a different story ... this was expensive!). The authorities really didn't bother with schoolyard pirates. But if minors were "put at risk", the authorities couldn't as easily drop the case.
I recall reading that the sale of most Microprose games to minors in West Germany was illegal because they were too realistic..
Quote from: zeropolis79 on 20:11, 03 September 21
I recall reading that the sale of most Microprose games to minors in West Germany was illegal because they were too realistic..
I can't find any banned game from Micropose: https://www.blood-is-red.de/mw/index.php/Liste_indizierter_Spiele
According to Amstrad Computer User, only allowed to be sold in adult shops
There is a special version of Renegade with blue blood (which also crashed when you "crouch" on the girls of the level 3), but I'm not sure if it was specific to the German market...
Quote from: Targhan on 00:03, 04 September 21
There is a special version of Renegade with blue blood (which also crashed when you "crouch" on the girls of the level 3), but I'm not sure if it was specific to the German market...
I'm sure this was the original release, I remember AA mentioning the blue blood in their review. The version I played back in the day was from a compilation, and was the same. You can enable red animated blood with a code.
Quote from: zeropolis79 on 21:50, 03 September 21According to Amstrad Computer User, only allowed to be sold in adult shops
Probably a slight misunderstanding: These games could be sold in any shop. They just were not allowed to show the games where minors could see them. No advertising, no public visibility. But as long as you were 18 and could ask for the game at the counter, they could still sell it to you (if they had it under the desk). In adult shops, it was possible to present the game as it was guaranteed that no minor would enter this shop.
In reality, adult shops didn't sell computer games and most computer shops didn't bother to keep the banned games somewhere under the desk. So a ban was usually the end of the legal distribution in Germany. And then the game was even more interesting for minors to get... I still remember how awesome we felt, when we finally got a copy of a "banned" game. (I didn't know that only the C64 version was banned, I always thought it would count for the CPC too).
Way to boost piracy! :D
This index list was a must-have list for us teenagers back then ...
(If the adults forbade us something, it could only be good, otherwise they wouldn't have forbidden it)
Absolutely Bullshit that they put River Raid, which looked primitive back then, on the index because people would serve on the ships shown and the game would therefore endorse violence against people.
Quote from: eto on 07:02, 04 September 21
In reality, adult shops didn't sell computer games and most computer shops didn't bother to keep the banned games somewhere under the desk.
Honest! I only went in there for an Amstrad magazine!! ::)
Bryce.
Quote from: Targhan on 00:03, 04 September 21
There is a special version of Renegade with blue blood (which also crashed when you "crouch" on the girls of the level 3), but I'm not sure if it was specific to the German market...
Very different reason.
I do believe the blood *was* intended to be red (hence why there's a keypress to activate it), but shortly before it was sent to the publisher in August 87 the Hungerford massacre took place in England resulting in the shooting of 16 random people before turning the gun on himself. Given that the end level boss has a gun, they changed the blood back to blue. I'm not sure if the patch was put in place before it was sent to Ocean/Imagine, or if it was sent back to be altered.
It eventually hit the shelves on October 1st 1987.
But yeah, that one had nothing to do with the German market. The blood was blue from the get go.
I believe if you hold down W,A,D,S, and Escape with your left hand, and with your right hand press 0, . and the small enter key on the numeric keypad and the space bar activates the blood patch.
(It's easy enough to do on a CPC 664 and a 6128 but it's a nightmare to do on a CPC464 due to the layout of the machine!)
Edit: The bug from crouching on the girls on level 3 only happens after you've done one loop of the game, it works fine otherwise. I also think it's just the blondes, the rest can be crouched on I think...
Amstrad was HOT in Germany.
Same difference :D
Quote from: Gryzor on 12:26, 03 September 21
Huh interesting. To be honest there's no CPC game that comes to mind that featured swastikas or Hitler... quite strange!
*cough* Operation Alexandra (https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=15674). ;) 4MHz released a censored version with the swastikas replaced with crosses.