Description

In 1982, Philips introduced a special version of the Videopac in cooperation with a West German advertising agency from Düsseldorp; CSV. This CSV Video-Traffic Games Edition of the G7000 was given to approximately, 3600 primary schools in a small region of West Germany. The package consisted of a G7000 and two specially made games; Verkehrsspiele 1 and Verkehrsspiele 2. These games were not games in the traditional form, but edutainment titles to teach children the basics of how to behave on the street. 

The console

The G7000 in this Traffic Games edition was a standard version of the console with no special reference. The package, however, came with a special “Video-Traffic Games” sticker affixed to the TV screen on the box and the two forementioned games. There was also some extra guidance material for teachers in the box. Strangely, this guidance material doesn’t mention the Videopac, but refers to ‘Telespiel’; which were cheap Philips pong consoles in the late 70s.

The games

Special about this special edition of the Videopac was, as mentioned, that two games were included. These were clearly educational games, with the primary purpose of teaching children how to behave in traffic. The games do not have a story or elaborate gameplay elements, but show different traffic situations that children can find themselves in when they walk or cycle from home to school. The game basically involves you looking left, right, left and then crossing a crosswalk. But it is also possible to cheat and go backwards so that you come out on the right side without crossing the road.

The ‘Verkehrsspiele 1 and 2’ games were developed by Intron AB (in cooperation with CSV). Intron was a small Swedish developer consisting of 3 to 5 part-time developers who made games for the Videopac and MSX until 1985. They also made other games for the system like ‘Frogger’, ‘Trans American Rally’ and ‘Helicopter Rescue’.

In 1984, Intron showed the Verkehrsspiele games on the ‘Funk- und Fehrseh-Austellung’ and demonstrated the game to the Minister of Education of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, something that is also broadcast for around 20 minutes on nationwide television.

At a later stage, Philips reintroduced Verkehrsspiele 1 and 2 as a rebranded edutainment title named ‘V’ that was given to members of the Commander Rom Club. Because ‘V’, ‘Verkehrsspiele 1’ and ‘Verkehrsspiele 2’ were not sold in retail stores and only came bundled with this special version of the G7000, they are not always considered part of the regular distributed line of Videopac games.

Rarity

The ‘V’ card is very rare, but can sometimes be found on eBay or in game shops in Germany and the Netherlands. I found mine in a game shop in the Netherlands, close to the German border, where plenty of German customers come to buy or sell old games. Verkehrsspiele 1 and 2 are, however, extremely rare and genuinely hard to find due to the very limited production run and lack of commercial distribution. The box and the guidance material is even more rare than the games.