I used to enter programs into my first computer, the Radio-86RK, exactly like this. From magazines. Before that, I had a programmable calculator (MK-61), and it was pretty much the same, only the programs were shorter.
Generally, finished programs were stored on magnetic audio tapes, and to run them, you first had to load them into the RAM from a tape recorder — a regular tape recorder connected to the computer by an audio cable. The tape contained several programs or games, and you had to rewind and by ear (remember the sound of a modem?) figure out whether to rewind a bit more or just wait a few seconds.
It’s worth mentioning that the monitor was just an ordinary B/W “bulky” television. But back then, the TV had no video input. It had to be soldered in, which varied with different TV sets. And yes, I didn’t ruin my eyesight at all by sitting close to a 56-cm flickering phosphor screen with an electron gun pointing right at my face for years. It only deteriorated much later to -1.25
I was about 12 years old then, doubtful that I knew what a soldering iron was, and it had been several years since our dad was around. Computer clubs were somehow helpful back then. I don’t know how else.
So, the programs were from tapes. But if you were doing something of your own, you had three options—machine codes, assembler, or BASIC. BASIC took up almost all the memory, so it was impossible to do anything serious with it. Assembler took up less, but still a lot.
What does a lot mean? My computer had 16 kilobytes of memory. There’s an emulator for programs and games online – I’ll drop a link in the comments.
So, you bought such a computer in 1988. Where to get programs for it? Buy them? Programs on cassettes aren’t sold in stores. I mean, they are sold, but in far-off Moscow, at the radio market. You could only copy them “from a friend.” For that, you had to go to his place with a cassette, load from his cassette to his computer, and from his computer copy to yours. You could also directly connect tape recorders or use a dual cassette deck, but the question is how good the quality is. It might not read properly. Well okay, you copied everything that was there, but where to get new ones? There were magazines like Radio and Modelist-Konstruktor. Something was in “Technique – Youth.” The subscription to magazines was cheap, but still, what was published last year stayed last year. You could go to the library, but as I remember, they wouldn’t lend out magazines. Probably because they often came back missing pages. Okay, there’s a reading room. So you went there, and they had bound volumes of last year’s magazines. With games. The question is—how to enter them into the computer at home? There won’t be mobile phones for another ten years, let alone cameras. No xerox either. Write them down in a notebook! And at home – from the notebook. One mistake – and that’s it, nothing works;)
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 