The origins of formal distribution of local digital games in the 1990s in Slovakia

Abstract

In the 1990s, two digital-game distribution companies were established in Slovakia. These companies started to distribute local game titles formally. Although digital games were created and distributed in Czechoslovakia before 1989, they were distributed informally at that time, mainly through computer clubs. Copyright Act No. 35/1965 did not protect computer programs until 1990. With the advent of the market economy and the amendment of copyright Act No. 89/1990, some informal distributors in Czechoslovakia switched to legal and official distribution of digital games. However, even after the amendment, some did not stop their illegal business of selling pirated copies of games. Slovak gaming magazines attempted to protect the authors of Slovak games and started to sell their games officially. After the opening of the borders, games by mostly amateur Slovak creators could hardly compete on the local market, where foreign titles started to arrive in larger quantities and none of them managed to reach the foreign market until the second half of the 1990s.