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How one engineer beat the ban on home computers in socialist Yugoslavia
In Lewis Packwood’s book Curious Video Game Machines, Voja Antonić explains how he built a console and published instructions for anyone to make their own
Photograph: Voja Antonić/Lewis PackwoodTypically, computers and consoles have a CPU – which forms the “brain” of the machine and performs all of the calculations – in addition to a video controller/graphics chip that generates the images you see on the screen. He hosted a show called Ventilator 202 on Radio Belgrade, and he was approached by the Racunarieditor, Jova Regasek, with the idea of broadcasting programs for the Galaksija and other home computers, like the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. It was so successful that it highlighted the pressing need for Yugoslavians to have access to computers, and around a year after the first Racunarimagazine was published, the authorities altered the regulations that prevented the legal import of foreign microcomputers.
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