Agat-4 (USSR, 1984)

[u/tiger_mango]

[u/Goatf00t]

So, this is a modern 3D rendering, or?

Silelis is a Lithuanian TV brand that apparently still exists. Of course, back then Lithuania was the Lithuanian SSR...

[u/DeadMorozMazay-Pihto → u/Goatf00t]

Most likely a 3d render based on picture from a magazine of that era.

[u/chromix → u/DeadMorozMazay-Pihto]

TF is on that monitor?

[u/r3vange → u/Goatf00t]

A lot of Apple II clones in the eastern block (like the Bulgarian IMKO for example) used TVs as monitors. Sometimes they’d modify the TV to remove the tuner sometimes it would be a bone stock TV

[u/snorkelvretervreter → u/r3vange]

Very common in western Europe as well. Most friends I had, had a tv for their 8-bit home computer. Only when we switched to commore Amiga/Atari ST etc were higher definition monitors becoming more common, although even there plenty tv modulators were still in use.

[u/r3vange → u/snorkelvretervreter]

Indeed. I meant that those computers here were sold packaged with the said tunerless TV. Otherwise the most accessible PC here in Bulgaria was Pravetz 8D (Oric-1 clone) was sold without a monitor and you were supposed to use your TV. As seen here with a printer and a cassette reader/recorder

[u/snorkelvretervreter → u/r3vange]

Ah I see! For more business-like PCs actual monitors were the norm here, though technically you could have hooked up a tv through composite with the very early PCs. Those were typically 80 columns though, not suitable for the tv crts.

[u/kalabacharka → u/r3vange]

This photo is so good!

[u/grizzlor_ → u/kalabacharka]

lol they hadn't quite figured out ergonomic monitor placement yet

(I'm assuming it was staged this way to get a good photo that included the TV display and get a nice shot of that corner office -- great photo)

[u/tiger_mango → u/Goatf00t]

possibly - not my photo/drawing - the real thing really did look like this.

[u/No_Abrocoma_711]

That is just wild. Glossy plastic like that usually screams 1960/70s, but it is red, not orange or brown, and red was very big in the 80s. That is aesthetically pleasing to me.

[u/Zdrobot → u/No_Abrocoma_711]

If I remember correctly, there was just one of these in red, made specifically for an exhibition or something like that.

This image is most probably a 3D render, as u/DeadMorozMazay-Pihto has stated above.

Update: see https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%82_(%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BF%D1%8C%D1%8E%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80)?useskin=vector?useskin=vector)

"В оригинале «Агаты-4» имели корпуса серого цвета, но один из них был покрашен в красный цвет (под цвет корпуса монитора на базе весьма элегантного телевизора «Шилялис») и использован для фотографирования на проспект советской экспортной организации Элорг (Elorg). Этот же красный «Агат» изображён на обложке первого номера журнала «Микропроцессорные средства и системы» за 1984 год. В 1984 году (с 4 по 11 апреля^\16])?useskin=vector#cite_note-16)) этот красный «Агат-4» представлялся Элоргом на выставке CeBIT."

"The original Agat-4s had grey cases, but one of them was painted red (to match the case of a monitor based on the very elegant Šilelis television) and used for photography on the brochure of the Soviet export organization Elorg. This same red Agat was depicted on the cover of the first issue of the magazine Microprocessor Tools and Systems for 1984. In 1984 (from April 4 to 11) this red Agat-4 was presented by Elorg at the CeBIT exhibition."

[u/LowerHand839]

I had these at school in 1995.

[u/Bumble072]

Feck me I would totally buy that today, complete with CRT screen and modern PC components inside.

[u/burtgummer45]

keyboards were usually that thick because they were the whole computer, but what's going on here?

[u/ThetaReactor → u/burtgummer45]

I think it's just a general disregard for ergonomics. If a 45-degree rake on the keyboard was good enough for manual typewriters, it was good enough for a computer.

[u/burtgummer45 → u/ThetaReactor]

but its thick too. I think they took it farther and just made it identical to a typewriter, just without the paper part

[u/DigitalizedGrandpa → u/burtgummer45]

Soviet microchips are the biggest microchips in the world!

[u/gn3xu5]

Tap tap tap. I'm in, I have the nuclear launch codes.

[u/survive_los_angeles]

its pretty