How it was in Brazil...
Paulo Silva (Nitrofurano/Conscience)
I was born in Portugal in the early 70s and
moved to Brazil (where the majority live
members of my family on my mother's side) in co─
at the end of the 70s. In the early 80s there was a boom everywhere
on eight-bit computers. When I lived
there were many computer stores in
mainly selling copies of the TRS-80(model 3
- which with CP/M), Apple II and Sinclair
ZX81(also in kits for independent
assemblies), and there was my first meeting with
computers.
At this time, Brazil was still under war─
a dictatorship that tried to protect
industry through "market protection"
(Reserva de mercado ). It encouraged pain─
Most manufacturers produce non-functional copies of some hardware
platforms - mentioned above, and then ZX
Spectrum (48K only), TRS-Color (CoCo),
MSX (only MSX1, but MSX2, were produced
2+ and TurboR were available in kits for
upgrade), and did not allow it to spread
others - such as C-64, Atari (except con─
Atari 2600 salt, which has been widely cloned─
las), Apple IIGS, Apple Macintosh, Amiga,
Atari ST, Thomson, Japanese NEC machines and
Sharp, etc. Moreover, the price of all copies
was higher than the originals, and such a situation─
tion encouraged illegal importation (I think oko─
about 90% of Amigas that arrived in Brazil,
were smuggled from Paraguay).
Another example that I remember well is in
early 90s clone of IBM PC on 8088 with CGA hundred─
sludge in Brazil is significantly more expensive than 386
somewhere else (for example, here in Portugal)
- by the way, this market protection is now working
again, this shows up in all electronics:
computers, game consoles, etc.
There was also a funny situation with TVs─
ation - since the electrical network is there
60 Hz (in Portugal -50 Hz), black and white
television was based on the American
standard; but the Americans did it at home
NTSC, and Brazil introduced color television─
date much later and chose Europe─
Chinese standard PAL - what resulted in this
60 Hz frequency into the PAL-M system (single─
nationalPAL with 60 Hz, and I think it's not used─
used anywhere except Brazil). To the point─
lately everyone was forced to buy television─
zors produced specifically in Brazil, and
all sorts of 60Hz devices from the USA and
Japan - such as set-top boxes and VCRs─
new - it was necessary to connect through some
adapter.
While I was living in Brazil, I
me were ZX Spectrum (more precisely, its clone
TK90X) and MSX1 (Gradiente Expert). From others─
with my computer systems I usually had
it's with friends and neighbors, or at school.
I've always been very curious about
various computer hardware (even
mainframes), especially the rarer ones and for─
disgusting, and this desire to always find out
more and try to write something under
This iron is still alive with me! :)
Since the Internet was only then (and
then rare in Brazil) in scientific, military and
government agencies, and BBS in
Brazil were not common (phone─
calls and telephone licensing
networks were very expensive back then), the main
some of the information came through newspapers and magazines─
ly type MicroSistemas and MSX-Micro(http://
www.datassette.org/revistas.html - there up to─
there should also be amateur magazines like
Informativo MISC). Most of them are like this─
sy was with program listings, what wasvery useful for learning and stimulating
creativity.
* * *
Returning back to Portugal at the beginning
90's, I discovered that MSX wasn't here like that
popular as in Brazil (or even in Is─
company), the ZX Spectrum was significantly improved─
brighter than in Brazil, S-64 more or less
widespread (despite the fact that in Brazil there is
they didn’t know anything about him). Then I bought
myself an Amiga 500 (the Amiga was enough for─
popular here in Portugal), and used─
shaft it mainly for coding something on
AMOS BASIC or drawing all sorts of nonsense in
Deluxe Paint. I missed something like
AMOS or similar languages for 8-bit coms─
pewters until Roberto Viola released
sdlBasic (a branch of the previous version of wxBasic
using SDL instead of wxWindows/
wxWidgets). Before using sdlBasic
I mostly wrote programs in AMOS
UAE emulator (on an x86 machine, which I
I bought it in the late 90s, mainly for
to get a feel for what these distributions are
GNU/Linux). Now I use it all the time
sdlBasic, it helps me a lot quickly
write simple utilities such as converters,
which I often combine with utilities
for command line: imagemagick, ffmpeg
etc.
Returning to the conversation about Portuguese
scene, especially regarding the retro 8bit scene
- it’s quite sad that although in Spain ka─
Every year there are events (such asRetroCoruna, RetroMadrid, RetroEuskadi and
etc.), nothing like that here in Portugal
no. And in Brazil there are parties - in particular,
MSX-Rio.
Boriel's ZX-Basic Compiler has become complete
a surprise to me about 5 years ago.
I've been looking for a simple cross-compiler for so long
ANSI Basic that I could easily work with─
for GNU/Linux, and ZX-Basic Compiler
was just like that. I learned about him from his works,
exhibited at CSSCGC (crap game compo),
and he immediately struck me with how simple it would be...
It's okay to use it. So I put it on
this competition is several games created with
using this cross-compiler - all of them
can be found athttp://www.boriel.com/wiki/
en/index.php/ZX_BASIC:Released_Programs
- and then I was surprised how flexible it can be
be for coding for other hardware. That's all
This is done simply by converting the compile─
ed binary files into ROM images or
tapes and creation / use of spices─
specific libraries tailored for a specific
equipment, instead of those that are out there─
initially under ZX Spectrum.
* * *
Alone> Have you ever had any prog producers─
frame support? What were they releasing?
In Portugal? I think you'll laugh there
had nothing in common with the then crazy
activity in Spain:
http://contra-v2.blogspot.pt/2010/06/
videojogos-paradise-cafe.html
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/
infoseekid.cgi?id=0003612
this is really the only known
to me (and probably to most Portuguese)
Portuguese game of that time...
It was better in Brazil, although not particularly -
I think Renato Degiovani was there first:
http://www.techtudo.com.br/noticias/
noticia/2014/04/conheca-renato-degiovani-
o-pioneiro-na-industria-de-games-no-
brasil.html
he released such games (or participated in
their development), like Amazonia, Serra Pelada,
Angra I, Lenda da Gavea - some were
for ZX81, the rest for MSX.
Alone> In Russia in the early 90s, programs in
mainly officially distributed through
"Inforkom" (Moscow, they also published zhur─
cash ZX-Review), "Logros" (St. Petersburg)
and "Scorpio" (St. Petersburg, they also
made Scorpion computers). Unofficially
there were many individual traders,
who sold any software they could
get (buy or hack).
INIn Brazil, almost everything went to hell─
gal copies available almost immediately after─
le official release of programs! :D - were
even cartridges like MegaRam for MSX, which─
others launched software for Konami cartridges
MegaRom, and they loaded it from a floppy disk! :D
http://cosmiceffect.com.br/
2011/02/24/deja-vu/
http://www.marceloeiras.com.br/
msxsite/msxmega.htm
And this cartridge is still being sold -
and the same Ademir Carchano! :D
http://www.carchano.com.br/loja/
produtos_descricao.asp?
lang=pt_BR&codigo_produto=43
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