Development of Warajevo: ZX Spectrum Emulator Made During the Bosnian War
worldofspectrum.net
worldofspectrum.net
https://worldofspectrum.net/features/warajevo/Sshots4.html
I don’t remember how it came to be that my mam & dad bought me a ZX Spectrum+ – probably because I was about 10 at the time. Did I ask for it? How would I have known? Either way, an eternity of thanks is due because that thing changed my life. I mean, I just can’t imagine me without that foundation as a kid.
I know it’s a bit clichéd but I really think it’s true that the fact that kids today get iOS vs. a BASIC prompt is a real shame. Even having to manually LOAD a game makes you think, huh, what’s going on there? Back in my early 20s I worried that the next generation would come and eat my lunch, but it never happened, and I think that BASIC prompt was why. It really was a golden time.
Good times. I wish we’d never sold that thing, but it made way for an Amiga 500 and who was to ever have known that it would be valuable, even if only sentimentally, 30+ years later.
You have only 18 days left to stop wishing — a new reconstruction of the old hardware, compatible with the old, with modern ports added:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spectrumnext/zx-spectru...
Seen on HN:
To pick the right one my older cousin was consulted and he recommended the Spectrum. It turned out that the C64 was the machine that I should have chosen, so that wrong decision cost 1-2 years until a C64 could be bought instead. I still hold him accountable some 30 years later :o)
The main issue with the Spectrum apart from the rubber keyboard and sound was the color clash: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribute_clash
Thankfully, between the Amiga and Atari it was an easy choice to go for the Amiga, being a few years older also helped.
I know! I feel the same way about the C64 of my childhood. I ended up buying RetroGames' TheC64 (maxi version, with the full size keyboard), which is a C64 lookalike running a tweaked up version of VICE. Not the real deal, but close enough for me.
Not that it detracts from the article, but anyone else wanting a clear(er) view of the top two illustrations of how things can change in not too many years:
https://didyouknowfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sara1...
https://www.geographicus.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/L/Sarajev...
And for anyone wanting a quick Spectrum fix:
This month it was supposed to be used as a place for the Red Bull 400 race (400 meters uphill), but from what I can find, it appears as if the event was cancelled.
Like someone said, the history of Europe in the 20th century can be summarised as "from Sarajevo to Sarajevo", considering it's a place where an assassination triggered WW1 and a place of gruesome aggression at the end of the century.
...if you live there. In the broader historical perspective, Sarajevo was both in 1914 and late in the 20th century a pretext used by orders of magnitude bigger players making orders of magnitudes bigger moves, responsible for many millions of deaths.
Somehow, this line concentrates the partial perception of that, including somebody in Nigeria relating in the comment there:
I've always been interested in software development and electronics engineering on "the edge" with woefully inadequate parts and little documentation. This document gives great insight into those conditions in a real world example.
How can we celebrate that something ended through sheer attrition?
Why didn’t we do anything when it was on our doorstep?
Why do we celebrate this war’s end when we ignore countless other wars all over the globe?
It was shown in the headlines of newspapers like it was WW2 ending and like we had a hand in it ending and it was over through some great struggle on our part, when in reality Europe watched in a “bring more popcorn” fashion.
AT THE VERY LEAST the siege should have been broken (through force) and a humanitarian corridor opened.
This was right after the Cold War, the Western powers, including my native Sweden were still armed to the teeth.
It went underneath the airport (controlled by the UN at the time) and is now often referred to as the "Tunnel of Hope". Definitely not big enough to stand upright, but the city was fortunate enough that the Serb forces never quite figured out where the entrance is (a private home that looked quite ordinary from the outside).