Neumann Társaság’s Báthory utca center has been transformed into an exhibition hall, where until the end of October, those interested can see the dozen or so iconic microcomputers that have made IT a part of Hungarian education. At the exhibition, the first cybernetic sets from the fifties and sixties, the domestically developed computers of the eighties, and the later widespread Commodore and IBM machines can also be viewed, some of which can be tested in operation.
The beginnings of digital culture in public education the exhibition was the fortieth anniversary of the school computer program, which started in Hungary in the 1983-1984 school year.
Although a single school computer was still shared by a large number of students, up to 256, the start of the program was still of enormous importance, since a decade earlier the average person could only encounter a computer at a university or research center. The present anniversary is of such great importance that Charles Simonyi (Károly Simonyi), considered the father of Word and Excel programs, and his brother, Tamás Simonyi, visited the exhibition a few weeks ago.
It all started with a Swedish school system instead of a Soviet one
Although the first electronic computer in Hungary, the M-3, was made on the basis of Soviet design documentation at the end of the 1950s, we would look in vain for Russian technology among school computers. For many years, Soviet technology was represented by the Junoszty televisions, which were popularly used in Hungarian school computer rooms, since in Russian schools at that time they taught with programmable pocket calculators. By the way, the Hungarian device HT PTK-1060, produced under the license of the first Soviet programmable pocket calculator, was also included in the exhibition, along with the other primitive calculators that occupied half the table.
Students attending lucky schools were able to meet machines of Swedish and Hong Kong origin, but assembled here, with a famously durable design, which were brought to life in response to a school computer competition in 1982.
The Hungarian school computer cost ten months’ salary
One of them, that is ABC-80 it was a joint development of the Swedish Luxor and the Budapest Rádiótechnikai Factory, the interesting feature of which was the attached tape recorder for loading programs, which was designed for the machine by a Hungarian mechanical engineer, Jánosi Marcell, who also invented microfloppy disks (as the chief designer of the Budapest Rádiótechnikai Factory). Since a total of about one hundred ABC-80s were distributed to domestic schools, it is thanks to its durable design that there is also a copy equipped with an original tape recorder at the Neumann Company’s exhibition.
The American is at the exhibition Tandy TRS-80can also be seen, whose later, successful Hungarian school machine, the HT-1080Z he was essentially his “grandson”. The HT-1080Z reached our country as a license of the EACA Videogenie machine from Hong Kong, but it was based on the TRS-80. In the production of the Híradástechnika Szövetkezet, almost two and a half thousand copies have already reached public education. Although it cost 10 times the average salary at the time, HUF 58,000, the domestic production of the HT-1080Z was an advantage because the tight currency limits did not allow foreign purchases – moreover, the machine has been associated with several explanations over time, such as the placement of accented characters on the keyboard .
Many programs and accessories, such as a floppy drive, printer and electronic knowledge assessment system, were made for this computer – these can be viewed in their original condition at the exhibition, thanks to private collector István Majzik.
Its compact dimensions make it recognizable as British even from afar Sinclair ZX81-es is also one of the first computers to appear in Hungarian schools in the early eighties. Although it was not a school computer at all, it was the only affordable computer available for teachers who were open to new things when they traveled abroad. The ZX81, which was mostly smuggled in at the border, was typically shown to interested students in the context of specialist sessions.
Home computer made in the panel
At the opening of the exhibition, the designer brothers József Lukács and Endre Lukács shared stories about how they continued in a panel apartment, using home-made methods that were also accessible to average users and considered cheap compared to the types available at the time. Homelab-2 and Aircomp-16 the production of computers, some components being produced in the home oven (!).
Replicas of these machines (made by engineer Attila Nagy) can be tried out live at the exhibition, so even users of today’s modern devices can experience how difficult it must have been to type or even play games on the touch foil keyboard used for the purpose of saving money. The Neumann Company is doing everything it can to keep the Hungarian Homelab machines designed in 1982 alive, recently they even launched a game tender, thanks to which a dozen new games can be tried out on the historically valuable Hungarian platform.
Two more Hungarian attempts
In the second half of the 1980s, additional Hungarian products arrived at the schools from the production lines of Új Élet Mgtsz in Sárisápi, also equipped with touch (capacitive) buttons. Primoand then its version called Pro-Primo, developed for the second school computer tender in 1985, can now be used much more comfortably with a traditional keyboard. The latter did not spread widely, but many thousands of copies of the entire machine family were sold as affordable home computers. Primo, which is 40 years old this year, and was developed at the SZTAKI academic research institute and manufactured at a cooperative of the Hungarian agricultural sector, can also be viewed at the exhibition.
Another important attempt was the TV Computer (TVC), produced by Videoton in the second half of the eighties. Like the ZX Spectrum, it used a Z80 processor, a built-in (not very durable) joystick was available to move the cursor, and text input was ensured by a Hungarian typewriter-like keyboard. Thanks to these parameters, it was an ideal school computer, which many people bought, although repairing malfunctions was often not easy, even with domestic production.
The Commodore has overtaken everyone
The fact that the American Commodore machines finally took over the school computer rooms was due to the second school computer competition held in 1985, in which the Commodore 16 and Plus/4 models achieved the greatest success. Since the PÍÉRT (paper and stationery) and the software company Novotrade were able to sell the machines that appeared after the C64, but with cheaper and more modest capabilities, at an extremely favorable price, more than ten thousand of them ended up in domestic schools.
In addition to its favorable price, color display capabilities, good sound functions and reliable operation, its success was also due to the fact that Novotrade, founded by Gábor Rényi and a pioneer in the field of video game development, also published a good number of game and educational programs for them.
Thanks to the above-mentioned types of machines, the wide-scale teaching of computer technology could begin in Hungary. In the 1990s, the first versions of the PCs used today began to replace the original 8-bit machines in the computer rooms one by one (although both platforms were used simultaneously for years), so the exhibition included a representative of the latter, an IBM PC in almost immaculate condition.
Curiosities at the exhibition: cybernetic construction kit and artificial turtle
Two curiosities were also found among the machines lined up in the display cases of the Neumann Company: a MICROMAT A cybernetic construction kit that works with relays and can be “programmed” with wires has survived from the late sixties: it is among the creations of the legendary cybernetics department of Piarista High School, its prototype was made by high school student Ferenc Woynarovich in 1966. The set, which can also be purchased in stores, was designed under the leadership of the Piarist monk Mihály Kovács, a former teacher at the Piarist High School in Budapest – he was the first high school IT teacher in Hungary.
Next to the set, the electronic equipment of the Túrkevei Műteknősbéka, Simon László, a secondary school teacher from Túrkevey, made in the second half of the 1960s rests in the display case. The turtle-patterning machine is able to follow light, respond to sounds and avoid obstacles with its sensors, which are considered simple by today’s eyes – in essence, it is an ancestral robot built by teacher Simon for the students of the Ambrus High School in Ványa.
The beginnings of digital culture in public education exhibition named after the recently deceased president of the Neumann Company’s Talent Management Department, dr. It is recommended in memory of László Zsakó by the Informatics History Museum Foundation and the NJSZT. The exhibition can also be viewed as a virtual exhibition Ajovomultja.hu on the website in its own sectionwhere lectures on the history of computer science education in Hungary can be viewed again. The exhibition is sponsored by the National Cultural Fund, directed by Gábor Képes, managing director of the NJSZT.
Source: www.computertrends.hu
