4 ms·
My programming carrier started at the tender age of ten when my parents smuggled a ZX Spectrum in 1985... good old days behind the Iron Curtain. As weird as the
by chx 9y ago
My programming carrier started at the tender age of ten when my parents smuggled a ZX Spectrum in 1985... good old days behind the Iron Curtain. As weird as the eighties were in Hungary, some of it were beneficial to me: in 1987, I attended a Z80 assembly course in one of the community centers every Sunday. From the second weekend on, it became a one on one education because all the other kids fled. But, because of how those years went, they didn't cancel. I wonder to this day whether he would have done the course to the empty room if I hadn't been there. Wouldn't have surprised me!
- gerdesj 9y agoI would love to hear that story - smuggling a ZX Speccy to Hungary. In 1985 I was a British army brat with my parents stationed in West Germany. Just like you, I was surrounded by quite a lot of (big) hardware and yet life had to go on. My school probably had a few more bomb scares than yours thanks to the Provisional IRA but you probably had a few snags about what the Western powers were going to do to you. The Cold War was not nice for you or me or anyone else. I'd really love to hear about how a shitty piece of plastic with a rainbow on the corner with a Z80 inside and squishy keys got to Hungary.
- chx 9y agoI am afraid it's nothing too exciting, my parents went on an tour, bought one in Munich (by then it was in the bargain bins) and hid it in the tour bus. Practically everyone was smuggling something and by then they weren't that keen on stopping it. The eighties were weird, contradiction (and corruption) was the name of game.