Man, those Indiana Jones and Bruce Lee posters hit in the feels
The iPad killer.
They look like upside down tv’s
There’s a good video on the RMC YouTube channel about the various micros that found their way into the Eastern bloc either on licence or as rip-off copies.
For some reason it never crossed my mind that Bulgarian keyboard layout is different from Russian despite sharing basically the same alphabet.
I’m seeing a huge spike in interest for CRT and analogue technology… and I just want to say, I’m absolutely here for it
Bulgaria, the Silicon Valley of the Eastern Bloc
First picture, is that the game Karateka, if memory serves?
I took my first lessons in programming on one of these. It was in the late 90s (!!!), and we were the last students to use them, after that the school got some more modern units.
I like the nudity advertising computers, Bulgaria was ahead of its time
Now that’s a blast from the past
Unitra’s Grundig! I never thought of it being exported, but, of course, that certainly makes sense.
I wonder if Dark Avenger himself learned to write his first virus on these computers. It’s more than likely.
(Unitra did not get the recognition it should have, by the way. It was largely scoffed at here, but it was, in fact, highly reputable abroad. And, of course, when the 90s came, it was sold out for nothing and destroyed).
9 looks almost like AI generated…
Calling /r/cyberdeck and /r/cassettefuturism
When you see the green “Karateka”, you should be immediately hearing that cracking, digitised “HAA!”. And maybe thinking of the eagle.
For a brief moment I thought I was on r/midjourney
They write in Russian ? Cool
Didn’t know that about Bulgaria
Ngl I’d vibe pretty hard in some of these photos.
I miss MS DOS sometimes.
Interesting, I didn’t know the Bulgarians used to produce computers.
Were these good, for their time? Were these available to purchase for normal people?
It’s interesting that the movie posters on the wall were Western Hollywood films. Not sure if that is a reconstruction after the fact or if it is an authentic photo, but either way it speaks to the total lack of cultural soft power the Communist bloc had. Nobody believed in the system, not even in the most pedestrian cultural output.
Also, given how strong Eastern European programmers are today, I can’t help but feel sad at the colossal waste of talent by having their grandparents stuck behind the Iron Curtain for nearly half a century. Final proof that talent alone is not the final determinant. You need a supporting system, too.
a small country like Yugoslavia also used to make computers, mainly for industrial/education purposes rather than home use, but still managed to pull it off. You should’ve seen some of the magazines promoting the tech, where manily hot girls showed it. Socialism did wonders to smaller states.
In Poland Mazovia were popular computers in this time.
When myself in the UK started working on computers in the mid 70’s it was the Acorn, Commodore Pet, the PC and PC-XT. When I retired two years ago, I’m a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. And many more certifications under my belt. But back then. Computers mostly looked like those in these pic’s. Even old Compaq portables came in a box like an old portable sowing machine. In standard Compaq yellow, of course, and the bottom folded down to be the keyboard. No batteries, just plug in, oh and they weighed a ton.
Socialism never made anything. They just produce cheap knock offs of what capitalism created.
Pics with commentary in this excellent post from r/retrobattlestations:
39 comments
[Pravetz 82](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravetz_82) is an Apple II clone apparently.
[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravetz_82)
Man, those Indiana Jones and Bruce Lee posters hit in the feels
The iPad killer.
They look like upside down tv’s
There’s a good video on the RMC YouTube channel about the various micros that found their way into the Eastern bloc either on licence or as rip-off copies.
For some reason it never crossed my mind that Bulgarian keyboard layout is different from Russian despite sharing basically the same alphabet.
I’m seeing a huge spike in interest for CRT and analogue technology… and I just want to say, I’m absolutely here for it
Bulgaria, the Silicon Valley of the Eastern Bloc
First picture, is that the game Karateka, if memory serves?
I took my first lessons in programming on one of these. It was in the late 90s (!!!), and we were the last students to use them, after that the school got some more modern units.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-UVPw1c_So](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-UVPw1c_So)
There’s a great video on the topic.
I like the nudity advertising computers, Bulgaria was ahead of its time
Now that’s a blast from the past
Unitra’s Grundig! I never thought of it being exported, but, of course, that certainly makes sense.
I wonder if Dark Avenger himself learned to write his first virus on these computers. It’s more than likely.
(Unitra did not get the recognition it should have, by the way. It was largely scoffed at here, but it was, in fact, highly reputable abroad. And, of course, when the 90s came, it was sold out for nothing and destroyed).
9 looks almost like AI generated…
Calling /r/cyberdeck and /r/cassettefuturism
When you see the green “Karateka”, you should be immediately hearing that cracking, digitised “HAA!”. And maybe thinking of the eagle.
For a brief moment I thought I was on r/midjourney
They write in Russian ? Cool
Didn’t know that about Bulgaria
Ngl I’d vibe pretty hard in some of these photos.
I miss MS DOS sometimes.
Interesting, I didn’t know the Bulgarians used to produce computers.
Were these good, for their time? Were these available to purchase for normal people?
It’s interesting that the movie posters on the wall were Western Hollywood films. Not sure if that is a reconstruction after the fact or if it is an authentic photo, but either way it speaks to the total lack of cultural soft power the Communist bloc had. Nobody believed in the system, not even in the most pedestrian cultural output.
Also, given how strong Eastern European programmers are today, I can’t help but feel sad at the colossal waste of talent by having their grandparents stuck behind the Iron Curtain for nearly half a century. Final proof that talent alone is not the final determinant. You need a supporting system, too.
a small country like Yugoslavia also used to make computers, mainly for industrial/education purposes rather than home use, but still managed to pull it off. You should’ve seen some of the magazines promoting the tech, where manily hot girls showed it. Socialism did wonders to smaller states.
Now we can’t make a bicycle tire.
They were actually pretty decent.
https://youtu.be/t-UVPw1c_So?si=EAG-YlD0Ucifn-8r
In Poland Mazovia were popular computers in this time.
When myself in the UK started working on computers in the mid 70’s it was the Acorn, Commodore Pet, the PC and PC-XT. When I retired two years ago, I’m a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. And many more certifications under my belt. But back then. Computers mostly looked like those in these pic’s. Even old Compaq portables came in a box like an old portable sowing machine. In standard Compaq yellow, of course, and the bottom folded down to be the keyboard. No batteries, just plug in, oh and they weighed a ton.
Socialism never made anything. They just produce cheap knock offs of what capitalism created.
Pics with commentary in this excellent post from r/retrobattlestations:
https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/lnt98q/a_short_history_of_the_bulgarian_personal/
I recommend Asianometry on yt, alongside other top quality clips he also has one on what the Bulgarian computer industry was and could be
I can smell picture 11
Infernal machine poster?
I had a TV like that on pic#3.
Someone is starting a new run on Karateka. Noice.
And I absolutely hated that bird.
As a person from Bulgaria, I am proud that we made them and yet ashamed that we stopped.
That looks awesome tho
I desire number 8.
The history for those interested:
https://youtu.be/t-UVPw1c_So?si=ZiyP6TgIojRONfks
Asianometry did a video on the [subject](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-UVPw1c_So). Its very good