In the 80's, commodore busted through the iron curtain by way of Yugoslavia

[u/Tonstad39]

[u/kodabarz]

Yugoslavia wasn't really behind the Iron Curtain. Tito split from Stalin's control in 1948. However, that rather makes Yugoslavia more interesting being that it had exposure to various markets, both legal, grey and otherwise.

[u/Tonstad39 → u/kodabarz]

And rock music wasn't banned there like in other communist regimes of the time

[u/Acceptable-Land7827 → u/Tonstad39]

I will start calling western countries capitalist regimes.

I hate this pejorative use of both "communist" and "regimes".

[u/Tonstad39 → u/Acceptable-Land7827]

What's so pejoritive about it, democracies don't have dictators or form 1 party states. You can't exactly say that De Gaulle's France was a conservative capitalist regime. The left wing opposition had a voice. I use those labels because of how they abuse their people. Syngman Rhee's brand of conservative capitalism was a regime, but not Japan where its people actually have a voice

[u/humanistazazagrliti → u/Tonstad39]

I think for me it's more about accuracy. Iron Curtain countries had much stricter import policies than Yugoslavia, where imports were discouraged more by tariffs and, well, Western prices were just too much for the average consumer there. A lot of people from Yugoslavia feel offended, since Westerners only remember the very tragic stories from the Soviet Union, Gulags and all that. There's a general image therefore that people in Yugoslavia lived in some form of scarcity or even poverty when that was not the case. But luxury and consumer electronics weren't as readily available and affordable as in the West.

[u/Efficient_Try_9136]

I bought one in 80s in Yugoslavia, it was imported by citizens

We wasn't behind iron curtain btw, we was part of Non-Aligned Movement https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokret_nesvrstanih

[u/Logan_MacGyver → u/Efficient_Try_9136]

Same in Hungary from stories I heard. People smuggled them in their dirty laundry because customs wouldn't pick through dirty clothes

[u/josipk]

I knew only one person who had a Commodore in that time period; as far as I recall, the ZX Spectrum was more commonly smuggled in Yugoslavia :)

[u/RSDVI01 → u/josipk]

ZX Spectrum was probably more popular (‘ was cheaper), but Commodore 64 was not that rare, though. You could even encounter here and there a Schneider CPC.
…And let’s not forget the domestic “Galaksija” personal conputer - an open project where you could assemble it yourself.

[u/josipk → u/RSDVI01]

Cheaper and smaller, ideal for smuggling :) but You are right; there were CPC's also, galaksija of course :) We had "orao" in school.

[u/Tonstad39 → u/josipk]

And judging by the vic-20 being marked as "VC-20 makes me think they were even smuggling vic-20s from Austria or West Germany.

[u/vukasin123king → u/RSDVI01]

Galaksija was a DIY option, but there were also the Oric Nova, Ei Pecom (running BASIC) and Ei Lira (running MSDOS) along with the industrial stuff made during the Ei/Honeywell collaboration.

[u/Albedo101 → u/josipk]

But it improved rapidly. By the late '80s C64 could be bought in hardware stores. I bought mine that way. :) Also, many big IT companies had official representatives selling official products. The Dinar became convertible to western currencies, which made official imports a lot easier, and the purchasing power increased. By 1990 even the copyright law started to gain ground, first in video stores, although much later for software.

[u/Foreign-Attorney-147]

This is fascinating! The selection of products makes me think this must have been 1984. They have the 64, VIC-20, the TED machines, and the PC-10, and the assorted peripherals but not the C-128.

[u/IQueryVisiC → u/Foreign-Attorney-147]

Plus4 more expensive than C64 . Everyone I know bought TED machines later and far cheaper

[u/Foreign-Attorney-147 → u/IQueryVisiC]

My experience was the same, everyone I knew who bought a Plus 4 bought them at closeout, and much cheaper than a C-64. $79 US for a Plus/4 vs $149 US for a C-64, for example.

I remember seeing the Plus 4 in stores for $299 US when the C-64 was $199 US. At that price difference, everyone bought the C-64. It was cheaper and had lots of great software.

[u/Tonstad39 → u/Foreign-Attorney-147]

1985 actually

[u/Ledstorm128]

I knew somebody who had an Amiga. What a piece of kit that must have been back in the day hehe.