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I failed to understand the point: there were ZX Spectrum clones, there was a clone called HC, and the article is about an illegal clone Cobra. Some of the peopl
by acqq 9y ago
I failed to understand the point: there were ZX Spectrum clones, there was a clone called HC, and the article is about an illegal clone Cobra. Some of the people building Cobras even used the cases of HC. So what were the functional differences? Except for knowing you've made your own machine, was there some other advantage of Cobra over the HC or some other clone? Were all illegal for home use?
- qbrass 9y agohttp://www.homecomputer.de/pages/easteurope_ro.html http://www.homecomputer.de/pages/easteurope_ro.html Both were unlicensed clones. HC's were made by a company to sell to business. Cobras were designed by a university and built by the same company as the HC's for school and possibly business use. The computer in the story is an unlicensed copy of the school's unlicensed Speccy clone. I don't know if the university was cracking down because they were losing sales, or if the government was cracking down on non-business use, or if it was just the cops busting people with stolen computer parts.
- acqq 9y agoThanks for the linked page, to me it explains the context much better than the article.
- int_19h 9y agoI don't know much about socialist Romania, but if they were like USSR, the crime would be 1) stealing the parts to make the computers, and 2) actually selling them. The Soviet criminal code actually had an article in it titled "Private business activity and commercial brokerage".
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- sitharus 9y agoAccording to the article it was illegal to purchase the ‘legal’ clones for personal use. They were for business use only and cost the equivalent of over a year’s salary. These illegal clones were ‘only’ 5-6 months salary, mostly built from ‘faulty’ parts smuggled from the factories.
- colejohnson66 9y agoWhy the quotes around faulty?