Quick update.
Found another emulator for our beloved Windows 3.1! 😄
It's "KC EMU" and it emulates a Soviet era home computer from East Germany: The KC85 (Klein Computer '85?).
The emulator is surprisingly feature-rich and supports many models, WinG and comes with a tape utility, even!
From what I've read (and heard), the country it originates from was so poor that FM radio stations took the role of
distributing KC85 programs. Or more precisely, the programme (radio show) that was meant for the young people.
That way, the users at home could sit in front of the radio and wait until a new program was announced.
Then, they did hit the record button on their cassette recorders and saved the programs they were interested in.
Of course, this was not really supported/encouraged by the goverment (but tolerated).
After all, students and kids weren't meant to use computers.
They didn't want to wake sleeping lions, so to say.
In their minds, computers apparently were expensive and meant for the higher-society only. And for export.
You need to know, that all the "Mikroelektronik" (micro electronics) were a "Hochtechnologie" (High Technology) in the DDR (GDR)..
Nevertheless, East Germans also sometimes got "real" computers from their relatives in West Germany.
The C64 and Amiga were quite popular gifts or so I heard**. If memory serves, both goverments tolerated this silently,
despite that east-west technology embargo of the time. The GDR even wanted money (taxes) if more than one computer was sent to GDR. 😉
In the public, I heard, computers were some abstract construct which the citizens rarely had heard of.
And if they did, mainly in conjunction with espionage and the collection of personal data.
Their goverment often tapped phone lines and documented about everything.
Long story short: After the wall fell / after reunion, facilities like Robotron/VEB etc.
were invaded by angry citizens that took apart the machinery.
(All information is supplied without guarantee)
(** At some point, I read, the GDR also encouraged the production of ZX Spectrum clones.
Much to the dismay of GDR engineers at the time.)
"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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