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Truco and clones: the beginnings of Argentinian computer gaming
Part of my series on national beginnings: Spain – Argentina – more to come Currently stuck between a monster wargame (Gulf Strike) and a Civ-like (Incunabula), I looked for short articles to fill the gap, and so selected a Spanish game called Reyes y Castillos. However, as I was playing it, I found the Spanish difficult to read, odd (“lo hizo de goma“, “sonaste macho“) and full of words I had never heard before (“amarrete“, “linyera“).
He launched the Programa Nacional de Informática y Electrónica(PNIE), a broad push to expand computing at all levels (grants for private companies, scholarships, informatisation of select schools,…). Finally, a company called Telemática sold the Talent DPC-200, a local production of a Korean MSX design, and with it managed to bag in 1986 the PNIE contract to provide Argentinian schools with tens of thousands of units, a feat that allowed it to have a significant presence until the end of the decade – 60 000 machines in total according to its founder Carlos Manzanedo. In addition to these computers, Timex managed to sell the T/S 2068 (another ZX Spectrum clone) despite local regulations, and the Argentinian branch of Texas Instruments continued to produce the TI/99A until possibly 1985 if not 1986, long after its production had ceased in the US.
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