I had Pravetz 82 (1MHz CPU and 64KB RAM, some of which used by the system) with 1-2x 5.25" floppy drives. It was between 1992 and 1996, and I was 12 to 16 year old during the period.<p>Having small competitions with several boys in my small hometown that were about who is going to write the fastest program to calculate all 16-bit prime numbers (in machine code, obviously) will forever remain one of my sweetest and fondest memories.<p>I am not a highly impressive programmer these days; in fact I am fairly mediocre and the only thing that might put me above the crowd -- occasionally, not all the time! -- is that I am an efficiency maniac with an excellent eye for simple and readable code. But in general and in terms of commercial programming, I am nothing special -- and I am OK with that.<p>But, having a Pravetz 82 at such a young age definitely shaped my thinking in ways that help me in my life to this day.
This line of computers is really a testament to the ingenuity of people from the Soviet Bloc at a time when resources were few. There's so many stories of them harnessing the limited computing/calculator power they had to play games, run simulations, and more. This era minted a generation of techies that formed the foundation of the tech industry there today. Here's some examples of the clever tricks these hackers did to push their machines to the limit:<p><a href="https://hackaday.com/2014/12/15/home-computers-behind-the-iron-curtain/" rel="nofollow">https://hackaday.com/2014/12/15/home-computers-behind-the-ir...</a><p><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/gaming-iron-curtain" rel="nofollow">https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/gaming-iron-curtain</a><p><a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/how-programmable-calculators-and-a-scifi-story-brought-soviet-teens-into-the-digital-age" rel="nofollow">https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/ho...</a>
Yes, this is how I learned programming Basic, assembly, Turbo Pascal (CP/M) and C on Pravetz 82M and 16. It was fun time. Some models of Pravetz 16 had a NEC CPU clone that was running substantially faster, if my memory serves me well 12 MHz vs 4 MHz for the Intel.<p>They were widely available in the education system and there were optional classes to learn programming.<p>Edit: I forgot the Pravetz 8D a friend had - they were available for purchase fro individuals. It had 4 channel audio synth and I programmed on it a drum-box for my teen rock band.
I studied in the high school that was built to produce both hardware and software specialists that were going to further develop and support these computers and their software. It was great. We were studying material and subjects that were thought in universities (i.e. 3-5 years ahead in time).<p>For example, I could work with binary numbers as a 11-12 years old kid as my older cousin thought me. I think 80% of the people that studied in that school ended up owners of IT companies or working as high-end tech specialists.<p>For the record, at its peak the factory in Pravetz was producing 40% of all computers in the Soviet Union. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_hardware_in_Bulgaria" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_hardware_i...</a>
MAME can emulate the Pravetz 82 and 8M. However, there are no known dumps of the character ROM so it uses the AGAT character ROM. If anyone happens to have a Pravetz 82 or 8M and wants to dump the character ROM, you can help end this injustice.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agat_(computer)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agat_(computer)</a>
Here you can find all the different models of Pravetz <a href="http://www.pravetz.info" rel="nofollow">http://www.pravetz.info</a> it's in bulgarian but it's the most complete source of information
Holy - wasn't expecting this here.<p>My father bought me in the 90s Правец 8Ц (Pravetz 8C), which was Apple ][ E clone (or something like this). Had 80 columns (PR#3), 128kb banked memory - awesome machine... and was more expensive than a russian car (according to my father).<p>Growing up in Bulgaria, not really knowing what sold software means - we end up having most of our games cracked, and you'll be like - "Hey another cool game by the Merchant!" (no it wasn't the "Merchant" that made the game, it was "EA", or some other real company.. ."Merchant" were one of the hacking groups, replacing the original game logos with their own...)<p>A bit later, round when communism fell or maybe later - even Bulgaria started producing it's own games... not really - same thing - "KARATEKA" - in cyrillic, or "MOON PATROL" as "Лунен Патрул" - and I think it was claiming it was done in my country (could be wrong though, they might've got the license after all!)<p>It was so much fun to use it!
"Pravetz 8М - Integrated second CPU Zilog Z80A at 4 MHz to be able to run CP/M and its software."<p>I'd love to be able to buy and ARM cpu card, mostly a RPi with a pci car form factor, to plug into my main computer and run android programs without emulation.<p>Considering development benefits of such a system, specially more complete ones with video output, why isn't it used these days?
And here you can find software for Pravetz computers: <a href="https://www.sandacite.bg/%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%84%D1%82%D1%83%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B8-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%83%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%B8-%D0%B7%D0%B0-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%86-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BC/?fbclid=IwAR2feV_sL7_OiYSwX_2jfli7WmO_KchuUY0ccRt1lG_07UmbgZCCy9oAXzA" rel="nofollow">https://www.sandacite.bg/%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%84%D1%82%D1%83%D0%B...</a>
The Pravetz 8 and 16 were the first computers I ever saw and used on school. We programmed in Basic and Turbo Pascal as well. This was around 1992. The 16s were attached to robotic arms that could be manipulated by the system.
Pravetz was coincidentally the birth place of Todor Zhivkov, the leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria. If you know how rampant nepotism and corruption was during socialist time (even more than today), you will now that this was no coincidence at all.<p>Also, here is a nice quote from Zhivkov that he said during the opening ceremony of Bulgaria's first semi conductor factors:<p>"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of full conductors."
I remember I loved it's keyboard. I really liked feeling back then, used to type even when computer was not on :)<p>One generation of programmers learned programming with these, I remember schools had these computers, it was a privilege to have computers in schools back then when you think about it.
I learned Basic when I was in third grade (1988) on Pravetz 8M in DOSAAF.<p>The was Russian analog called Agat without screen and worse hardware.<p>It's funny that during Soviet Union times even Bulgaria was technologically more advanced, than Soviet Union itself.
Odd that the wiki page doesn't mention that the 8 bit series of computers were clones of the then current generation of apple computers gotten through industrial espionage.<p>We had a friend in the security bureau who had some funny stories. Like the part that was most difficult to manufacture were the rainbow ribbon cables because the petroleum industry only produced primary color wires.