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Sander
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 493 |
Eastern european scene before 1989?
Hello,
this topic has been fascinating me for quite a while, so i thought of just popping the issue here.
I wonder if there was a eastern scene before the fall of the Berlin wall. And if so, were they connected to the western scene, or did they 'invent' a scene of their own?
For what i understood the Russian scene evolved during the 90ties.. but i'd love to hear stories and insights of that period. Afaik, Polonus and some others of the early Padua dudes were 'easterns'?
I remember getting some snailmails in the early nineties from the east, but since i never replied those i never got to ask that question ;)
Perhaps i'm trying to fuel my nonexistant myth..
Please shed a light on this! |
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TDJ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1879 |
All I know is that I was already swapping with Mr.Wax way back in 1988, as well as a few other guys from Hungary. Plus you had HIC with that great megademo making clear that at least in that country they were 'connected' to the rest of the scene.
The first scener from Poland I was aware of was Kruger who I met at the Horizon party in 1990, he was somewhat of a surprise for most of us there ;) |
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Raf
Registered: Nov 2003
Posts: 343 |
I'm probably not competent enough to take serious part in this discussion , but in Poland first widely known scene group was Quartet (Quartet - some suckers downvoted it though , who cares anyway.. this voting system sux) set up back in 1988 by Polonus , Mr. Raf , Hi-Man and Jemasoft . There is also guy called Silver Dream - he still lives in Szczecin , he was cooperating with Quartet , he was decent cracker too :) surprisingly ... in 2004 I sold him my Elwro 800 junior (Polish spectrum clone)
remeber: due to communism it was extremely diffucult to get any computer in Poland (and other countries too) before 1989. Polonus started in circa 1987 with used C16.
www.vulture.c64.org |
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Oswald
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5086 |
My father bought a c64 back in 86 in austria, wien, and there were quite a few around already in town (20 000 citizens) , but it was just like 1-3 years later when everyone and his dog had a c64 :) The problem in hungary with getting stuff like c64 was that the amount of forreign currencies you could legally own was extremely limited, also the nr of foreign trips was limited. When we got the c64 it was held back in the duty at the borders until we 'prooved' with a mail from austrian relatives that the c64 was a present from them. Actually the case was that my father got a lot of foreign currency illegally ;) Worth to mention that even doing it like that we could only smuggle in the c64, no tape /drive, a drive was bought about one year later. Until then we played in basic / sometimes had borrowed tape / drive.
about the hungarian scene, I dont know much of the early year, but I bet hic was not in the first generation. I'll do some research at this years arok party, as some very old faces used to show up there these days.
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jailbird
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1578 |
As far as I am awared, Yugoslavian people started with scene-related activities around '88-89... Victory released a few stuffs those days and later merged with Transcom as a sub-group around 1990. There were a few other groups which were active before '89 but I can't recall a single name right now.
And the first scene party in Yugoslavia was organized in my home-town, Subotica. Hungarian Chromance members were also present there.
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Ben
Account closed
Registered: Feb 2003
Posts: 163 |
Interesting!
Oswald, yes, please do a bit of research on this :) |
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Shadow
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 355 |
Interesting stuff. I've never really reflected upon this before, but the iron curtain was actually still in full effect when the scene started! Also, wouldn't the price of a computer have been something like a months salary for the average eastern european back then? |
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Oswald
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5086 |
probably no1 can answer that, I was 10 when we got the c64, cared more than nothing about wages. |
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jailbird
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1578 |
Quote: Interesting stuff. I've never really reflected upon this before, but the iron curtain was actually still in full effect when the scene started! Also, wouldn't the price of a computer have been something like a months salary for the average eastern european back then?
My father told me that he got the C64 for a one year loan period from a local Duty Free Shop - a new C64 was around 300 Deutch Marks those days whilst the average salary was about 150-200 DMs. |
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Hate Bush
Registered: Jul 2002
Posts: 461 |
dunno about other countries (I was rather young too, at the time) but here, before Balcerowicz's shock therapy (1990), Polish currency was worth less than a pile of shit, due to hyperinflation. no one could simply buy a computer and pay for it in Polish zloty. you had to obtain foreign money, and that was the problem too (currency trade was forbidden by the state iirc). |
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Jetboy
Registered: Jul 2006
Posts: 289 |
In Poland, in mid eighties you would have to spend like 15 average monthly wages to buy ZX Spectrum, it would be like 20-25 to get C64.
I got my first c128 around 87, I was fascinated with intros before games, and later on with demos which rarely appeared between games.
Poish scene originated from "priates" selling warez on local markets. We didnt have any copyrights concerning software, and almost no others so it was not really piracy.
Those priates were ripping other intros and "making their own". The proceder was going on at least from 1985-86. Then some of the people started getting more into it and doing their own stuff. Some early groups were THB, BiP, WCF (World Cracking Federation) etc. The real first quality polish group was Quartet as mentioned above.
I started scening somewhere around 1988-1989 - those were the times poish scene started to form. The bloom started around 1992 when Commodore and Amiga (i used to write there), Kebab (Quartet's magazine) and C64 plus 4 (featuring TGJSL/Parados) appeareed on the press market.
Anyway - there was some website describing scene history, a lot of info about eastern parts of europe is there, albeit in most part uncomplete. Something like scene encyclopedia - anyway i cant recall anything more now. |
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BAR.
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 324 |
Crumbsucker
this guy was born in russia..
You should ask him. |
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Trazan
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 620 |
I really dont think Crumbsucker can add value to this thread really.. |
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BAR.
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 324 |
Quote: I really dont think Crumbsucker can add value to this thread really..
why not, so far as i know he went in 1991 to N.Y. ? |
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stash
Account closed
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 343 |
i swapped with alof of hungarian sceners around 89 also visit alot of them.. what i remember they had to have this grren stickers they had to use on the envelopes something about gowerment shit |
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Jetboy
Registered: Jul 2006
Posts: 289 |
You mean Custom Declarations? |
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stash
Account closed
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 343 |
Quote: You mean Custom Declarations?
yeh must have been
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gabriel
Account closed
Registered: Jul 2007
Posts: 1 |
Quote: Hello,
this topic has been fascinating me for quite a while, so i thought of just popping the issue here.
I wonder if there was a eastern scene before the fall of the Berlin wall. And if so, were they connected to the western scene, or did they 'invent' a scene of their own?
For what i understood the Russian scene evolved during the 90ties.. but i'd love to hear stories and insights of that period. Afaik, Polonus and some others of the early Padua dudes were 'easterns'?
I remember getting some snailmails in the early nineties from the east, but since i never replied those i never got to ask that question ;)
Perhaps i'm trying to fuel my nonexistant myth..
Please shed a light on this!
Well, there definately was one before 1990 in Hungary.
One of the first proper groups was FBI crew (formed in 1988 perhaps), which later morphed into Chromance a few years later. There was Reds, who did not do much besides importing, there was a few others here and there. And there was us, Idiots, a bit later, then we also merged into Chromance, gradually. There was Trumwyrat or whatever it was called, and later Faces, but Chromance was the true Hungarian 'elite'. :)
The whole Hungarian scene started in the Csokonai Muvelodesi Kozpont, around 1988. There was this computer club, where Friday afternoon was for members only, and Saturday morning wss for free for all. I waited I think 1 year for my Friday afternoon membership. :) You could get anything there, all the latest releases, everyone brought his weekly import there, ant then we swapped. More like copied anything Jean had... :)
That's how it started.
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polonus
Account closed
Registered: Aug 2007
Posts: 9 |
It was indeed beyond imagination to buy a computer in Poland before 90'ties. As a teenager I could only dream and watch "first personal computer ZX 81" on TV when some lucky guy was kind enough to bring it to popular "SONDA" TV Studio. C64 was a myth no to be seen around. Then was a wave of ZX Spectrum. I bought my C+4 Commodore from a friend. He wanted a "tv game" and his uncle sent him 'this'. So I bought it quite cheap. Since the computer was literary "naked" - no software etc I started to program it using included built-in monitor. Several month later I bought used C64. The very first 'productions' to somehow mimic Western intros were made by me on January 1987. Before me there was Silver Dream with some short demo from 1986. I don't know anything about any earlier releases. Quite a story. |
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Jetboy
Registered: Jul 2006
Posts: 289 |
Hey Pawel! Nice to see, that you are still alive :) |
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polonus
Account closed
Registered: Aug 2007
Posts: 9 |
Quote: Hey Pawel! Nice to see, that you are still alive :)
Well... nice to be with you again, guys :) |
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chancer
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 346 |
I do remember seeing a few polish things in the UK, I had a polish friend who used to bring them back,that must be 88-89 time.
Also they did a thing about the tetris on the BBC4
Tetris - from russia with love.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/tetris.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em2b5g4b77s
couldn't find a full version, but it showed how they also scouted/talent hunted for programmers/games in the east also. |
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stash
Account closed
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 343 |
i was in some computer club with clairvo/faces when i visited hungary once :)
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