BitWrangler wrote on 2024-12-19, 03:17:
I always had the impression that 1.2 was more popular in German than rest of Europe but a few West Germans I have talked to on the subject have denied this. So I guess it might be the case that more 1.2MB stuff was SOLD in W. Germany, because of ppl coming from East and a little further afield to buy it.
There were some utils for making 1.44 to 1.7MB that were more flexible than just doing that, and I had 720s up to 800 and 360s to 400 with them, so see no reason why they wouldn't be useful on 1.2Mbs, basically whatever was on Simtel in disk utilities area.
Hi, 5,25" 1,2 MB floppies had been used regulary by my father in early 90s.
We're from both W-Germany and also had already lived in a W-German city back then.
According to my father, the 5,1/4" 1,2 MB floppy was lower in price and could also be stacked so nicely!? 🤷♂️
The 1,2 MB type also was commonly used by some disk stations in computer shops, I vaguely remember. 360K type was available, too, but it barely held enough information.
You had bought a fresh/clean 5,25" floppy in the shop and could then enter the program number from software catalogue.
The copier station would then copy over the public domain/shareware/freeware program onto the floppy disk.
I can't say much about the East Germans, though. Neither good or bad.
Because back then I didn't really realize them as such in daily life. Unless they spoke in thick Saxon accent, for example.
To me, they were just other Germans, like ordinary people, albeit acting a little bit strange at times, which I couldn't really define at the time.
I guess they tried their best to not stick out after re-union.
It wasn't until much later when the wave of Ostalgie (east-talgia, a pun of east+nostalgia) and GDR fandom in the media broke out.
Coincidally, that's about the time when we got visits from a certain acquaintance of our family who's from former GDR.
The stories that this acquaintance told were quite distorted at times, or so it seemed to me. Another world, in short. That's when our reality shattered a bit.
Reading between the lines there was a mix of disappointment and inferior complexes shining through that I haven't really realized in daily life in the years before.
Apparently, there was ongoing frustration because the job market had caused trouble and integration was hard?
There also was a bit of dislike against the West, democracy and so on.
Apparently, we were considered the mean and snobby guys for some reason (and I thought we helped them). As if it wasn't enough that we're considered the Nazis everywhere already. Sigh.
That was new to me back then, because I wasn't areally aware of all of this East vs West drama. I thought it was all distant history already.
Anyway, I don’t mean to generalize. I want to believe that this acquaintance was/is more of the exception than the rule.
As a possible explanation, I think that person was still a teenager or twenty something when the GDR folded, so the positive memories of "the good old times" in GDR did overweight maybe.
In the NVA (GDR army), for example, they basically got croceries from the West I was told.
So life was different to these young people in comparison to their parents at home.
The reason I mention this at all is because there's seemingly a lot of stuff that's not apparent at first view. There's more.
You think you're certain about something, but then *poof* it turns out there's another form of truth or parallel reality you haven't really realized.
And depending who you ask you get opposite views, too.
For example, some former East German lady I've talked to even denied the existance of computers in GDR as a whole, which can't be true of course.
Sites like robotrontechnik.de say otherwise, after all.
In terms of computers, I think, a certain percentage of Germans in early 90s still had an interest in slightly outdated, but very affordable computers.
Like reasonable fast 286 PCs with VGA graphics and maybe 1,2 MB drives.
On plain DOS, they were sufficient for most tasks.
Lemmings and Prince of Persia ran fine, after all.
That being said, the 5,1/4" 1,2 MB drive had been carried over way into the Pentium days.
It wasn't unusual to see a big tower with a CD writer and a 5,25" drive in another drive bay.
The 1,2 MB drive was perceived being just as normal as the 1,44 MB drive.
Seriously, almost all used 386/486 PCs I got from ads in Sperrmüll-Zeitung (a special newspaper dedicated to private advertisements about second-hand stuff, a bit like Craig's List I suppose) had Prince of Persia installed! 😁 And a copy of Norton Commander. Often versions 3 to 5.x.
So Prince of Persia must have been a must have of some sort?
Makes me wonder how much of a factor the game played for the previous owners when acquiring their PC.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
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