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PC scener from the US visits the USSR in 1991 (old diskmag report)

category: general [glöplog]
 
I was just adding old MS-Dos pirate diskmags to demozoo, and found this piece that I just wanted to share with you. Lord Reagan/SCD, a PC pirate from the US, apparently visited the USSR in the summer of 1991, just shortly before its collapse, and wrote a report about it in the SCD Report #9 issue (August 1991) (http://demozoo.org/productions/98397/).

It's a pretty unique report - it's written just a few months before the country fell apart, it's a computer underground geek's perspective on Soviet computers etc., it's much more warm and positive than you'd might expect, and it also coves the provinces (he went to Murmansk!).

I'll just share the screenshots here with you, because I think this might be an insightful and heart-warming read (not only) for the Russian sceners among you.

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added on the 2014-01-19 03:59:28 by dipswitch dipswitch
damn, that's awesome dipswitch!!!
added on the 2014-01-19 04:17:44 by Forcer Forcer
It would be great to find that guy and let him tell more about his trip. Perhaps Radman knows him?
added on the 2014-01-19 04:21:32 by dipswitch dipswitch
I think we can track him down. Someone probably knows his real name.
added on the 2014-01-19 04:25:28 by Forcer Forcer
I don't know if he is a PC scener per say (somewhat similar discussion on some other active thread). He is mentionned as having done beta tests of a beigan box in 2600hz hackers quarterly around the time of the report. Also he seems to have been a member of the phreaking group called P/Harm which had is WHQ BBS in California.

src : http://servv89pn0aj.sn.sourcedns.com/~gbpprorg/2600/pdf/2600_19-1.pdf
src : http://www.textfiles.com/phreak/BOXES/beagon
http://www.textfiles.com/anarchy/CARDING/ripccn.txt
Thunder Struck (714) 497-6453 P/HARM Node 2
Dopey's Domain (714) 951-7939 P/HARM Node 1
Slightly related: I was spending my holidays in Central Slovakia (the area around Zvolen) short after the fall of the East Bloc (my father was born in that country). I wrote a report about my experiences which was published in the very first issue of Hugi (released in 1996). To summarize it: There was some sort of kids' club (probably with roots in communist days, when there were "pioneer clubs" or what they were called all over the country) which had a biology (animals) and a computer department. The computers were mostly from the type "Didaktik", which was widespread in Slovakia back then, but they also had an Amiga 500. In Zvolen there was also a computer store which was selling video games (for Sega Mega Drive) and published its own paper magazine, named "FIFO". It was like a gaming hall; for 10 crowns per quarter of an hour (roughly 3 Austrian schillings or 50 German pfennings) you could play a game of your choice.
added on the 2014-01-19 09:45:43 by Adok Adok
^ Not exactly Mensa. Is it?
added on the 2014-01-19 09:54:58 by ringofyre ringofyre
Pretty cool report. I still remember most of the stuff he talks about :)
added on the 2014-01-19 10:08:24 by introspec introspec

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