https://spectrum.ieee.org/yugoslavia-diy-microcomputer
"Eastern European Cold War–era computing has a poor reputation. The picture is
one of a landscape littered with uninspired attempts to copy American IBM PCs,
British ZX Spectrums, and other Western computers. But then there was
Yugoslavia’s Galaksija, a very inspired bid to put a computer into the hands of
regular comrades.
The Galaksija is a Z80-based, 8-bit DIY machine, cleverly designed so that its
bill of materials meshed exactly with what a Yugoslavian was able to import
from Western Europe. During its brief heyday, thousands were built, leading to
commercially assembled Galaksijas finding their way into homes and schools
across the country. And now you can try this scrappy machine for yourself.
As a retrocomputing nerd, when I saw early last year that the Galaksija was
being reissued as a complete kit through Crowd Supply, I placed an order on
general principles. But my interest was really piqued a few months later when I
attended a fascinating talk on Yugoslavian computing given by Vlado Vince at
the HOPE hacker conference. As delays kept pushing the delivery of the Crowd
Supply kit back into an indefinite future, I ran into Vince at the Vintage
Computer Festival East last April, and he slipped me a spare Galaksija printed
circuit board and a link to his modern bill of materials. Figuring it was plain
sailing from there, I canceled my Crowd Supply kit order and set off on my
own."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
