[HN Gopher] Soviet computer has been forgotten for 30 years [video]
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       Soviet computer has been forgotten for 30 years [video]
        
       Author : admp
       Score  : 64 points
       Date   : 2023-09-29 20:44 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | robotnikman wrote:
       | Slightly related, the soviets operated mechanical computers which
       | used water instead of gears and levers to compute things.
       | Apparently they were used well into the 80's
       | 
       | https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/12/vladimir-lukyanovs-wat...
        
         | eps wrote:
         | Tangentialy related -
         | 
         | Legend has it that there was once a water-cooled Soviet
         | mainframe model. At some point one of the machines was
         | overheating and it was tracked down to the algae growth in
         | coolant tubes. So the joke was that this made Soviets the
         | pioneers of bionic computing.
        
         | flir wrote:
         | https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/how-doe...
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MONIAC
        
       | lxe wrote:
       | Growing up in Belarus in the 90s, the ES-1841 was my first
       | computer. I accidentally formatted a games diskette on it for the
       | first time, after accidentally fumbling something in Norton
       | Commander. I think I was around 6.
       | 
       | I was one of the few kids in my elementary school with a computer
       | and a printer, so I was able to score some clout with the
       | classmates, until a few of the richer kids starter to have access
       | to more modern computers.
       | 
       | We had 256 KB of RAM until my dad upgraded it to 512. I learned
       | to program using QuickBasic on it when I was around 8, I think.
       | 
       | I have many memories of this machine, and I would be so thrilled
       | if I could gain access to it in the US somehow.
        
         | lxe wrote:
         | Some of the games I remember playing were:
         | 
         | - Chessmaster 2000
         | 
         | - nz.exe which took me decades to find to be "Saboteur 2",
         | 
         | - digger, a game similar to digdug, as you can see in the video
         | 
         | - moon patrol
         | 
         | - kicks.exe -- I still can't find what the actual title was. It
         | was a game where balls bounce around an area and your job is to
         | slice sections of the area closing off the balls, once you
         | capture the balls in a small enough area, you move to the next
         | level.
        
           | akersten wrote:
           | > - kicks.exe -- I still can't find what the actual title
           | was. It was a game where balls bounce around an area and your
           | job is to slice sections of the area closing off the balls,
           | once you capture the balls in a small enough area, you move
           | to the next level.
           | 
           | JezzBall - https://www.myabandonware.com/game/jezzball-fkh
        
             | lxe wrote:
             | Thanks! Yeah it was something similar to it, except
             | probably from the 80s and for IBM DOS.
        
               | bennysaurus wrote:
               | Given the name, it'll be Qix, I had a copy as well!
               | 
               | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qix
        
               | SupremumLimit wrote:
               | Thanks! I used to play it as a kid and have been trying
               | to remember the name of the game for years.
        
               | mbreese wrote:
               | As soon as I read the description, that was my guess too.
               | It was such a simple game and I spent a lot of time
               | playing it.
               | 
               | If you wanted to be patient, it was almost impossible to
               | lose. But if you hurried, it was anlmost impossible to
               | win.
        
               | lxe wrote:
               | Bingo. This is it. One of the variants for sure! Thank
               | you so much!
        
         | ivan4th wrote:
         | I grew up in Russia, and ES-1841 was my first computer, too.
         | Also with a printer, yet no HD. That was 1990 and I was 10
         | y.o... Once printed a caricature of one of school bullies using
         | (a Soviet clone of) Turbo Pascal and its turtle graphics
         | facility, resulting in a fight. My favorite pastime was writing
         | DOS viruses in asm, though... I didn't spread them, just wrote
         | some for fun. Found some of my virus code written down a couple
         | of years ago
         | https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E-jP39nXEAAve0O?format=jpg&name=...
        
       | Obscurity4340 wrote:
       | In Soviet Russia, computer never forget YOU!
        
       | maximinus_thrax wrote:
       | Slightly related but a fascinating read if you're interested in
       | vintage Soviet computing stuff:
       | https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/27310479
        
         | cptnapalm wrote:
         | I need to find the two reports I got from the US Government
         | about the Ural computers.
        
       | qaq wrote:
       | Kibernetika (Cybernetics) was considered a pseudoscience in USSR
       | for a long time. That set USSR back so much that it would never
       | catch up. I think thats an important lesson to remember re:
       | politicians influencing scientific research to match their
       | narrative.
        
       | hn8305823 wrote:
       | This is amazing. The card cage/connectors on the back looks like
       | something from another planet. Are those some kind of Molex clone
       | connectors and each one requires an adapter dongle/cable to
       | interface to standard connectors?
        
       | tigen wrote:
       | The video is talking about a Soviet ES-1841 computer from the
       | Chernobyl zone.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ES_PEVM
        
         | varjag wrote:
         | The video is indeed talking about ES-1841, one of the most
         | common Soviet PC clones released a couple years after the
         | catastrophe. The channel tends to really stretch its exhibits
         | connection to Chornobyl.
        
       | sergiotapia wrote:
       | This would make a great piece of a videogame. There's an
       | extraterrestrial enemy that's completely impenetrable to our
       | weapons and systems. They based all their defenses around our
       | devices and current tech.
       | 
       | One day we discover this old russian tech that was a fork-in-road
       | tech-wise 70 years ago and is ultimately the key to beating the
       | enemy!
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-29 23:00 UTC)