The original ones had just a potato-tier 8-bit CPU (a 6502, IIRC) and no wireless capacities, but it would not have been beyond the KGB (or indeed the CIA) to make one with a chip that looks identical to the 6502 but contains a second, more powerful, processor and a radio transceiver. And they probably had practical examples of this.
Doing something like that would probably actually have been outside the capability of Russia at that time. There is a reason the Commodore 64 was still popular in Eastern Europe in the 90s. Basically in the late 70s Russia, who’s technology was largely electro-mechanical, stopped trying to innovate and started covertly importing. By the time the Soviet Union collapsed they were completely reliant on western technology.
There is a museum of Soviet era “video” games that I have always wanted to go to because their tech was so different than ours, we never had any games like them.
Soviet military technology, whilst behind the west, was considerably more advanced than what trickled down to the consumer (mostly because consumer expectations were kept low; the USSR only started manufacturing toilet paper in the mid-1970s, for one, and so wasn’t about to launch its own ecosystem of 8-bit home computers).
I also think you may be misunderstanding the technologies that were available to Soviet citizens. I highly recommend you check out the book How Not to Network a Nation.
KGB was disbanded in 1991. The FSB was the eventual successor. But also during the late 90s russia was being stomped economically. It’s unlikely they would have been able to come with a device like that.
The original ones had just a potato-tier 8-bit CPU (a 6502, IIRC) and no wireless capacities, but it would not have been beyond the KGB (or indeed the CIA) to make one with a chip that looks identical to the 6502 but contains a second, more powerful, processor and a radio transceiver. And they probably had practical examples of this.
Doing something like that would probably actually have been outside the capability of Russia at that time. There is a reason the Commodore 64 was still popular in Eastern Europe in the 90s. Basically in the late 70s Russia, who’s technology was largely electro-mechanical, stopped trying to innovate and started covertly importing. By the time the Soviet Union collapsed they were completely reliant on western technology.
There is a museum of Soviet era “video” games that I have always wanted to go to because their tech was so different than ours, we never had any games like them.
Soviet military technology, whilst behind the west, was considerably more advanced than what trickled down to the consumer (mostly because consumer expectations were kept low; the USSR only started manufacturing toilet paper in the mid-1970s, for one, and so wasn’t about to launch its own ecosystem of 8-bit home computers).
You are right… They started with a 16-bit machine.
Though given that they cost 4 months’ wages, they were a consumer product only in theory
I also think you may be misunderstanding the technologies that were available to Soviet citizens. I highly recommend you check out the book How Not to Network a Nation.
KGB was disbanded in 1991. The FSB was the eventual successor. But also during the late 90s russia was being stomped economically. It’s unlikely they would have been able to come with a device like that.
Yeah it didn’t have any kind of modem.