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1980's Soviet Bloc Computing: Printers, Mice, and Cassette Decks 74

Posted by samzenpus from the making-it-work dept.
szczys writes Martin Maly rode the wave of computer evolution in the 1980's while living in the former Czechoslovak Republic. Computers themselves were hard to come by, peripherals were even more rare and so enthusiasts of the time hacked their own, like dot-matrix printers and computer mice. If your build was impressive enough, the government would adopt it and begin manufacturing the design somewhat widely. Was your first computer mouse built into a plastic spice container? We covered what the personal computer revolution was like in Eastern Bloc countries back in December.
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1980's Soviet Bloc Computing: Printers, Mice, and Cassette Decks More

1980's Soviet Bloc Computing: Printers, Mice, and Cassette Decks

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  • C64 had a cassette drive (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cant_get_a_good_nick ( 172131 ) on Monday April 13, 2015 @11:35AM (#49463915)

    My C64 had a cassette recorder (DataSette I think it was called). It wasn't being Soviet, it was being cheap when the floppy disk drive more expensive than the computer.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The IBM PC had a cassette interface. There was a connector for it right next to the keyboard connector on the motherboard. If you booted up the PC and it didn't find a bootable floppy disk, or even a floppy disk controller on really stripped down machines, it would boot into ROM basic which had cassette i/o. They pulled the interface connector on PC-XT and later models but the ROM basic remained.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by itzly ( 3699663 )

      Most home computers from that era had cassette recorders.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Tx ( 96709 )

        Ahh, yes, the early days of software piracy (or my experience of it) - copying Sinclair Spectrum games onto C90 cassettes using twin cassette decks. If you tried, you could fit like ten games on one cassette. Those were the days.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by itzly ( 3699663 )

          Of course, as soon as you started with tapes from others, you entered the eternal process of turning the alignment screw on the recorder head.

          • I owned a Sinclair Spectrum and used to copy tapes using a dual deck and I never, once, had to adjust anything.

            One of us was doing it wrong, or one of us is making shit up.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dbIII ( 701233 )
              No, I can confirm that alignment was an issue - not a show stopper but sometimes stuff had to be adjusted. It also used to happen on tape drives designed for computers and for high end audio as well.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Early 5.25" floppy disks could only store around 180K of data. An extended play tape cassette could store 3 hours of audio per side, with the data transfer rate at 600 baud (around 60 bytes/second). So a tape cassette could store a maximum of 632K of data per side. In practice, it was less than that because you had to find space to store each program on the tape cassette, and handle your own "sector management" by allocating a good segment of space for each program. Your only clue was the little counter in

      • Not to mention most microcomputers from the 80s only had 64kb of addressable memory, and a good chunk of it was dedicated to ROM space.

      • Early 5.25" floppy disks could only store around 180K of data

        The single-sided, single-density 5.25" floppies I used with my TRS-80 Model 1 stored 72K of data.

        http://classiccmp.org/dunfield... [classiccmp.org]

      • An extended play tape cassette could store 3 hours of audio per side

        I'm sorry, a what now?

        The Compact Cassette standard had one tape speed (4.76 cm/s). Readily available cassettes came with 60-minute or 90-minute runtimes (total). You could get C-120 cassettes with 1 hour per side, but those used extra-thin tape that jammed easily. The longest tapes ever made were C-180, for 90 minutes per side, these used even thinner tape and so unreliable they never sold widely.
        I've never seen one, and I was a bit of an audiophile in those days.
        You'd have to combine a C-180 tape with a n

    • I had a disk drive, and it took me a long time to understand the message,"Press play on tape." Basically that was the blue screen of death for a C64. Restart the machine and try something different.

      • Actually, that was the point where you should hit Shift+Run/Stop, which would abort the tape load you might have inadvertently started.

        Second thing to try was Run/Stop+Restore (and you had to hit Restore hard because it was designed to prevent accidental closure), to warm-reset the machine.

        Then you restart.

        . . . Unless, that is, you had one of the defective machines (there were, admittedly, a hell of a lot of them -- I went through 6 before I found one that worked worth a damn), the first step above should

        • I'm a bit surprised that anyone could use a VIC or 64 for very long without realizing that you could do Shift+Stop to break out of that. I mean, even if you didn't RTFM (which was excellent for the VIC) you knew to do that to break out of a running BASIC program-- so why not try it elsewhere?
          • I started using a Commodore 64 when I was 7. All of our family was amazed when we realized how to do 'Load"*",8,1' and Load"*",8,1
            So many good times were had with the C64 simply because the jump in technology from what we had before it was so huge. We got our C64 a little over half a year before the NES. Its hard to imagine so much technology jump in one year. If you look at video games today, not much changes(more polys) each console generation anymore since we already had enough computing power to

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

              I started using a Commodore 64 when I was 7. All of our family was amazed when we realized how to do 'Load"*",8,1' and Load"*",8,1

              That always mystified me - what magic incantations did they do so that that command would actually load it off disk AND auto start the program. (I never did find out, so I don't know today).

              Or how that even worked...

              • Re: (Score:1)

                by Anonymous Coward

                http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4344234/how-to-autostart-a-program-from-floppy-disk-on-a-commodore-c64

  • Admirable aspects (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Monday April 13, 2015 @11:48AM (#49464047) Journal

    Modernism and human efficiency aside, they repaired and reused a lot of equipment and parts rather than make version N be landfill and buy version N + 1. You have to admire that aspect. The throw-away culture we have now is an embarrassment to humanity. Plus, there's the fun side of their MacGyver-ism.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tablizer ( 95088 )

        I'm sure the potential knock on the door in the middle of the night had something to do with the MacGyver attitude.

        I'm not sure what you mean. If you quietly fix stuff without complaining to get your work done (i.e., carry out your orders), you shouldn't have any problems with authorities over such.

        the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

        And I didn't mean to say life was overall better there. I was just pointing out it had some up-sides to it. Every culture and country has something to admire about it. Life is b

        • I'm not sure what you mean.

          Me neither. Probably a Rand Paul supporter who forgot to put in something about Agenda 21, the mark of the beast, or gay marriage before hitting [send].

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Tablizer ( 95088 )

            I thought improvising was expected for technicians there, because supplies were hard to come by. Now, if you are talking about something outside of your area of work, I can see potential problems. The article did say they eventually allowed some degree of hobby projects in order for their students' knowledge to keep pace with the west.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Try modifying your BluRay player now. You'll get that knock on the door.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ezdiy ( 2717051 )
      It's true the economic restraints of COMECON bolstered DIY culture all across eastern bloc, a lot of which remains to this day.

      It had it's downsides as well - the hardware at hand was often ancient and the planned state production we relied on for a lot of source components was very inefficient because of communist cadres - basically incompetent bureaucrats created a lot of e-waste by manufacturing useless junk (a lot of which was not salvageable even for DIY) - buggy ASIC clones, poorly done circuit boa

    • And the less admirable aspects ... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by drnb ( 2434720 ) on Monday April 13, 2015 @01:46PM (#49464965)
      A former coworker who worked in a Soviet client state during that period told me that the distribution of printers was controlled because it was a "printing press" and could be used to create anti-government propaganda for distribution. That there were government offices where you could take your data to be printed if you were unable to justify why you needed a printer yourself.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tablizer ( 95088 )

        ...told me that the distribution of printers was controlled because it was a "printing press" and could be used to create anti-government propaganda for distribution.

        Perhaps that's why the state-distributed printers and kits described in the article were so slow: it makes it too difficult to print mass amounts of "subversive" flyers. It wasn't necessarily lack of technology keeping them slow, but political paranoia.

      • A former coworker who worked in a Soviet client state during that period told me that the distribution of printers was controlled because it was a "printing press" and could be used to create anti-government propaganda for distribution.

        This is what frustrates me so much when people refer to the USA as a 'police state.' They have no idea what a real police state is - In a true police state you can't even have a printer.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          They have no idea what a real police state is - In a true police state you can't even have a printer.

          And this is what frustrates me when people make the No True Scotsman argument - they don't even realise they've made it, or that the thing they're claiming runs a spectrum.

          Tell you what, you go and take a few photos of government buildings today, see what happens to you.

          I'll tell you what happened when a friend of mine, as a symbol of solidarity, took a photo of an American flag in another country - four cop

        • Don't worry. You soon won't be able to have a 3D printer without a license, and thereby officially become a police state.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dbIII ( 701233 )
          It doesn't have to be a police state to not be able to have a printer or equivalent, we can fuck things up too even if the penalties are nowhere near as bad.
          I was in a western nation in the 1980s The hoops that had be jumped through to import a digital audio tape recorder for a small radio station were ridiculous and were placed in fear of violations of music company copyright. It took well over a year, possibly even into a second, and by then CD burners were available without ridiculous legal restriction

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday April 13, 2015 @11:52AM (#49464091)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nbauman ( 624611 )

      Sounds like the Vietnam war in the U.S.

      • I'm not sure either conflict counts as a "meat grinder". Total USSR losses were under 15,000 troops over a 9 year period. Total US losses in Vietnam were under 59,000 over 19 years (but almost all over a 7 year period). To put this in perspective, WW2 cost the Russians around 9-14 million troops, depending on who you ask. The US lost 400,000. WW1 cost Russia around 2 million troops and the US around 100,000 - and the US was only in that for around 6 months! Hell, even the Korean War managed to kill 36,000 i

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by nbauman ( 624611 )

          It sounds like the Vietnam war because as nimbius describes it, students in the Soviet Union could get a good science and mathematics education, but the purpose of the education system was to provide soldiers for the war.

          Some of our political leaders believed during the cold war that we needed an educated workforce to fight Communism, and our educators encouraged that belief in order to get a lot of money.

          There was some truth to that. After all, we won WWII through industrial production and technology. You

          • It sounds like the Vietnam war because as nimbius describes it, students in the Soviet Union could get a good science and mathematics education, but the purpose of the education system was to provide soldiers for the war.

            That's great, except that going to college was one way to have a good shot at dodging the draft. Heck, only about 1/4 of US troops were drafted. This just doesn't fit that narrative.

            I don't know enough about how the Soviets manned their force in Afghanistan, but with so few losses it is hard to imagine that they needed troops so desperately. It certainly was not a "meat grinder".

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by nbauman ( 624611 )

              My point wasn't that it was a meat grinder war.

              My point was that educators on both sides were exploiting the cold war to promote education.

              One of the trump cards that U.S. colleges used to promote science education was, "We have to keep up with the Soviets." It was shameless but it worked. As I recall, I got something called a "National Defense Scholarship" to study science and math.

              I'm sure the Soviet educators were doing the same thing.

              The cold war would have been pretty good if all they did was compete w

              • My point wasn't that it was a meat grinder war.

                It was not clear from your initial comment - it sounded like you were agreeing with all of the parent's points and saying that the same situation was true in the US. In fact, nimbius was making exactly the opposite point - he was saying that they were trying to churn out uneducated "working man" soldiers. You are making the point that education was seen as essential to prevailing in the Cold War. I happen to think you are correct and nimbius is wrong. Or at least that nimbius's comments cannot be applied to

    • Nah, computer periphials don't make a good AK. Well, maybe a Model M keyboard could be used for a receiver flat. But a shovel [northeastshooters.com] could do the job pretty good... (with photo evidence)

    • Eh? Are you talking about the actual satellite states or the union republics?

    • Czechoslovakia was no speed-bump.
      Standard of living was higher than in Soviet Union.
      It was not an agrarian society and was definitely not a drain of Soviet resources. The drain was in different direction.
      In Czechoslovakia, in 70s and 80s if you had money you could buy lots of interesting stuff, including cars. In Eastern Germany or Soviet Union you had waiting lists for those.
      The infrastructure in Czechoslovakia was superior to what was available in Moscow.

  • Yes, I had a lot of fun... (Score:3)

    by SlovakWakko ( 1025878 ) on Monday April 13, 2015 @12:11PM (#49464229)
    ...putting together a plotter for my ZX clone. The best thing about those time was - no MMORPGs to hook your kids at 6. The games of the time (and place) were so lame that it was more fun to learn BASIC :)

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ezdiy ( 2717051 )
      fukovo tetris2 represent ^_^

      FWIW the title is a bit incorrect, as both hackaday posts deal mostly with computer scene in czechoslovakia, not soviet bloc as a whole - MM is recycling/abridging existing computer history series from root.cz into english.

  • lolwut (Score:5, Funny)

    by edittard ( 805475 ) on Monday April 13, 2015 @12:33PM (#49464377)

    We covered what the personal computer revolution was like in Eastern Bloc countries back in December.

    Going from nothing to serious cyber espionage in four months is pretty impressive.

  • ...was built into a piece of drainpipe.

  • In America, you build computer. In Soviet Russia...oh, skip it.

  • Looking at all these home-made dot-matrix printers and pen plotters reminds me of the DIY 3D printers.

  • Editor: 1980s' (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Hula!

    1980s' decade's worth
    1980's year's worth

    Non-native writers exempted! It's a wonder you can write it at all!

  • Thanks, have a nice day :) http://www.educa.net/curso/cur... [educa.net]
  • Thanks, a have nice day :) http://www.educa.net/curso/htm... [educa.net]

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