Bajtek

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Bajtek was one of most popular Polish computer magazines at it times.

History

First issue of Bajtek

Bajtek was started in 1985 by Władysław Majewski, an editor of "Przegląd - Komputer" - insertion added to "Przegląd Techniczny". First issue would be published by "Krajowe Wydawnictwo Czasopism", but because it was started 'ad hoc', it didn't have paper allowance (dear reader - please remember, at this time Poland was a communist country), so it had to borrow paper. The "Sztandar Młodych" (Youth Banner), the newspaper of ZMP (Polish Youth Association - an organ of the communist party for the young communists) decided to lend paper for the Bajtek, and the first issue could be printed. It was continued by three other issues during the 1985 and all 200,000 copies were sold on spot.

The "Sztandar Młodych" editor liked the idea of a computer magazine adresed at the young computer entusiasts (rather than at computer scientists - as all other polish computer magazines, at that time did), so much, that he decided to take it over.

First full-color issue of Bajtek. Also notice the new logo

In the Fall of 1985, the editor of "Sztandar Młodych" Aleksander Kwaśniewski (who will later became President of Poland) become "minister do spraw młodzieży" (Youth minister? minister in matter of youth? Blah, communistic 'nomenclature' is really hard to translate and my english ain't good too), and his first decision, was to make Bajtek, a part of the "Sztandar Młodych" publishing house. Since 1986, until 1989 Bajtek was published by "Sztandar Młodych".

In the year 1989, thanks to the 'Round Table', there were many changes in Poland. One of the most important, was the closing of the Office of Censorship and stoping of the press regulation. With that (and many other changes), Bajtek was divided from the "Sztandar Młodych" and continued on it own, published by Bajtek Publishing House, an co-operative stared by Bajtek redactors. It ran down until 1996, when bancrupcy of Agrobank had bringed Bajtek Publishing House to its knees, eventualy bancrupting it too.

Bajtek and CPC

On the beginning, Bajtek had mainly articles about computers from "private import" (more communistic 'nomenclature'), particulary about ZX Spectrum, which became quite popular in Poland in the first half of the 80'ies, mainly because of it's price. In the 1986, there was an advent of 'clans' - subparts of Bajtek, each dedicated to only one machine/producer (All Ataris, All Commodores and so on).

By that time, the popularity of the CPC in Poland was rising. That was, to the simple fact, that CPC were (thanks to CP/M+ and 80 column mode) considered as cheap alternative to IBM PC and other 'professional machines'. Personally, I've heard about CPC applications in scientific calculations, witch on it own shows how this trend was strong. That was because even institutions (like universities) couldn't allow themselfs for substantial amounts of PCs. Poland was (at that time) very poor country and high exchange rates added to the problem. Also, there was COCOM, which meant that really big machines were out-of-reach.

Also, the bulit-in Cetronics port of the Schneiders allowed very easy producing of so called "Publikacje bezdebitowe" ('debitless' publications). Debit is a word from french, meaning 'to sell', 'place of selling' and 'bez-' is a polish word for "without". At that time, if you wanted to distribute your publication, you had to have 'debit', an allowance from Office of Censorship. So, in short, "bezdebitowe" or 'debitless' publications were illegal 'papers' distributed by underground. As they usally been produced in quantities of around 200 copies, The CPC with good NLQ printer and possibly a copier was all you need to fight with communism. Needless to say, CPC became quite popular in underground.

Thanks to that, CPC was noticed by Bajtek and The "Klan Amstrada/Schneidera", a clan for the CPC and PCW computers was also formed. Unfortunatly, because of the typical profile of polish CPC users, polish 'scene' never formed, so there weren't autors in "CPC clan" who could portrey the "Colour in CPC". Most articles was about practical applications of CPC and PCW.

Bajtek continued to publish articles about CPC and PCW until 1994.

List of articles releated to CPC

(As no other wiki editor could do it, I'll make that list, but this will take some time. Some of my Bajteks were lost when I've moved, others still aren't here... But should be by the end of this year)

1986

Title Title translation Issue Page
Arnold - Rozmowa z Joe Oki Arnold - interview with Joe Oki 5-6/1986[1] 6
CPC 464 n/a 5-6/1986 10
Mini organy Mini organ 5-6/1986 12
Drugi drążek sterowy Second Joystick 5-6/1986 13
Pisać zamiast pisac Imposible to translate - this was article about polish diacritical signs 5-6/1986 13
Animacja Animation 5-6/1986 14
Zabezpieczenia Protections 7/1986 19
Odzyskiwanie plików omyłkowo skasowanych na dyskietce (6128) Recovering data deleted from disc by accident (6128) 7/1986 19
CPC 6128 n/a 8/1986 8
Menu dysku Disc menu 8/1986 8
AMX dla myszy AMX for mouse 8/1986 9
Ekran na papierze Screen on paper 8/1986 10
Zegar dla Amstrada Clock for Amstrad 8/1986 10
Lista zmiennych variables list 8/1986 11
Powiększanie napisów Enlarging the Signs 8/1986 11
Jednoręki bandyta Blackjack (?) 9/1986 12
Magnetofon i Amstrad Amstrad and the tape recorder 9/1986 14
Jak odbezpieczyc program w BASIC-u How to unprotect BASIC program 9/1986 14
Test oczu i uszu Test your eyes and ears 10/1986 14
Muzyka robota Robot's music 10/1986 14
Transmat ??? 10/1986 15
Polskie litery Polish letter (again about polish diacritical signs) 11/1986 8
Trochę ruchu... Some movement... 11/1986 8
Pamięć pod lupą Memory under magnifing glass 11/1986 9
Amstrad PC 1512 n/a 12/1986 11
Circle n/a 12/1986 11
Ruchome literki Moving letters 12/1986 11

[1] - Troughout the 1986, there were some problems with continous publishing, so there were couple of bi-monthly issues

1987

Title Title translation Issue Page
PCW8512 n/a 1/1987 20
Co piszczy pod klawiaturą (1-12) What squeaks under the keyboard (part 1 to 12) 1-12/1987 [1]
Węże Snakes 2/1987 11
Programy biurowe Office applications 2/1987 12
Zmiana krojów pisma Font changing 4/1987 15
BASIC CPC 464 n/a 5/1987 14
Jezyki programowania Programming languages 6/1987 13
Drukarka? Printer? 6/1987 14
Instalacja polskich liter w CP/M PLUS dla CPC6128 Installation of polish letters under CP/M PLUS for CPC 6128 8/1987 13
Firma Firm 10/1987 14
Uczymy mówić CPC 464, 664, 6128 Teach CPC 464, 664, 6128 to speak 11/1987 13
Katalog Catalog 12/1987 12

[1] - This article was 12 part, each one had been on diffrent page. I could list 12 entries, each one stating the correct page number, but, as I don't think, any of You collect Bajtek(now or will in the future), I don't see the point.