

Home Computers Behind the Iron Curtain - desdiv
http://hackaday.com/2014/12/15/home-computers-behind-the-iron-curtain/

======
acidx
This is surprisingly similar to the story of home computers in Brazil.

From 1984 (during which time we were under a military dictatorship) to 1991,
we were under a market reserve. Because of this, the computers we had were
either cloned from smuggled devices, or, funnily enough, devices imported
legally with the intention of being reverse engineered.

Reverse engineering was not only legal, it was encouraged by the reserve. Due
to government incentives, even companies that had nothing to do with computers
ended up building them.

Cloned computers ranged from ZX81 and Apple II+, to ones with more elaborate
circuitry, such as the Mac 512 (this one has a lot of interesting stories --
albeit somewhat sad, in a sense --, some even involves orange juice embargo
from the US government).

The idea behind the reserve was to create a computer hardware industry in
Brazil, but this ended up never happening the way it was supposed to happen.

Although locally-developed peripherals were made, there were very few
computers that were actually designed in Brazil that ended up having a
significant portion of the market. Clones thrived, mostly. Local semiconductor
companies failed to produce quality components, but those were used anyway.
Some companies managed to import (with special permission from the government)
processors and other components we were never able to properly manufacture.

In a move that's both obvious and surprising, the focus moved to software when
the reserve was finally lifted.

Obvious because, although we had many skilled people that managed to reverse
engineer circuits (including ASICs, as was the case with the Unitron Mac), and
build new ones, often improving them (either making them faster, more
reliable, or just cheaper), we still depended on foreign technology to build
our computers. The whole idea of the reserve was to reduce that dependency.

Surprising because, during the reserve, software was most often hacked
versions of foreign stuff. Although some important bits and pieces (such as
compilers, operating systems, CAD programs, word processing and a bunch of
other stuff) ended up being made locally, unless you're a collector, you're
not going to find the remnants of these bits.

------
drinchev
My first computer ( I was born in a soviet country ) was Pravetz 16 [1][2]. It
was bought for me by my father around 1994. It was a IBM PC compatible
computer that run on DOS.

Until today I haven't found any significant difference between what I had back
then and what similar age IBM-PC was in terms of hardware.

They were both with AT power [3] and they had the same extension slots ( Back
then it was ISA [4] ).

I still remember extending my Pravetz with a color screen and a EGA card [5].
It was so expensive ( the card + color monitor ), that I had to ask my father
to combine the presents that I had as a child for a series of occasions. ( I
think it was one birthday + christmas + name day ).

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravetz_computers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravetz_computers)

[2] [http://templar.blog.bg/photos/31865/original/photo-
pravetz-1...](http://templar.blog.bg/photos/31865/original/photo-
pravetz-16es-1.jpg)

[3]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_unit_%28computer%2...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_unit_%28computer%29#Original_IBM_PC.2C_XT_and_AT_standard)

[4]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_Standard_Architecture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_Standard_Architecture)

[5]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Graphics_Adapter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Graphics_Adapter)

~~~
peterfirefly
> Until today I haven't found any significant difference between what I had
> back then and what similar age IBM-PC was in terms of hardware.

On the other side of the curtain we had SVGA instead of EGA. And 486 or
(barely) Pentium instead of pre 386. Probably more RAM. Probably a bigger
harddisk. Probably printer or modem or both. Maybe a sound card. And CD-ROM.

~~~
dfox
These computers were manufactured in mid to late 80's, so most of them predate
both 486 and CD-ROM.

~~~
rasz_pl
>It was bought for me by my father around 1994

~~~
drinchev
Yeah back then my Pravetz was already 6 years ( manufactured around '88 [1] )
old and still very popular. I didn't have CD-ROM until I got my first 486DX4
custom case computer.

[1] [http://www.pravetz.bg/05-Pravetz-
History.html](http://www.pravetz.bg/05-Pravetz-History.html)

------
codeulike
East Germany showing off their home computers in a parade, 1987:

[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Bundesarc...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1987-0704-077,_Berlin,_750-Jahr-
Feier,_Festumzug,_Computer.jpg)

~~~
nicolethenerd
Only tangentially relevant here, but that photo reminds me of MIT's "Make Way
for Cruftlings" hack:
[http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2003/cruftlings/](http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2003/cruftlings/)

~~~
Aqwis
Even more tangentially relevant, but has there been just one hack in all of
2014?

------
flohofwoe
I was absolutely delighted when I found out that most East German home
computers (and probably most Eastern Bloc computers in general) are supported
in the MESS emulator. About a year ago I spent a few weeks to get some of my
old KC85 games from the 80's running in the browser via JSMESS and emscripten
(no sound support yet at that time unfortunately):

[http://www.flohofwoe.net/history.html](http://www.flohofwoe.net/history.html)

MESS has since been merged back into MAME, and has been moved to github:

[https://github.com/mamedev/mame](https://github.com/mamedev/mame)

And some info on how to get started with coding on the KC85:

[http://flohofwoe.blogspot.de/2014/11/new-adventures-
in-8-bit...](http://flohofwoe.blogspot.de/2014/11/new-adventures-in-8-bit-
land.html)

------
foobarian
Man, this brings me back. Couple of noteworthy entries from the lands of the
ex-Yugoslavia:

Orao (Eagle):
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orao_%28computer%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orao_%28computer%29)

Galaksija (Galaxy):
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaksija_%28computer%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaksija_%28computer%29)

VUK (Wolf): Only in Serbian, magazine scan from the 80s... the graphics
screenshot looks incredible for the time:
[http://retrospec.sgn.net/users/tomcat/yu/magshow.php?auto=&p...](http://retrospec.sgn.net/users/tomcat/yu/magshow.php?auto=&page=10&all=SK_88_09)

~~~
rasz_pl
The Ulimate Galaksija Talk [29C3]

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIwC9vdqfqw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIwC9vdqfqw)

------
redwood
Bit of a tangent but I recommend the Polish miniseries Decalogue.
[http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0092337/](http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0092337/)

All are great vignettes and ultimately quite secular.

The first episode is what made me think of it here. Watch to find out why.

~~~
Jun8
The first episode
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decalogue_I](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decalogue_I))
is the most poignant of all I think. If you are, like me, teaching your young
child how to program this will be both very interesting and heart wrenching to
watch. Note that the father's name is Krzysztof, which may refer to either
Kieslowski or to Krzysztof Piesiewicz with whom Kieslowski collaborated on the
script or both, perhaps hinting that this may be one of the more personal
episodes (Kieslowski's father was an engineer, too).

------
kabdib
At Atari (in the mid 80s) we had some relationships with dealers in Poland;
they would occasionally visit us in Sunnyvale to do buys and say "hi".

They loved our computers, but the Polish government wouldn't allow them to
sell any of the printers we made . . .

~~~
rasz_pl
Probably because we had Soviet bloc manufacturers of printers, Mera-Błonie in
Poland, Robotron in East Germany, etc.

Im guessing Polish delegates were representing Pewex, or Baltona. Those were
the only two institutions allowed to openly sell goods imported from the west.
You could buy anything you wanted, including cars :o, the catch was you had to
pay in western currency or fake dollars called "Bon towarowy". Their only
purpose was to extract foreign currency from black market.

~~~
jacquesm
The secondary goal was to give party members high up enough a way to get perks
in terms of western goods.

------
digi_owl
That PMD-85 looks interesting.

------
BrindsleyQuives
If you're into this kind of thing, there's a similarly interesting resource
here:

[http://www.computer-museum.ru/english/index.php](http://www.computer-
museum.ru/english/index.php)

