RADUGA: The Retro Computer from Behind the Curtain

When [Kasyan] was six years old, he saw a RADUGA computer, a Russian unit from the 1990s, and it sparked his imagination. He has one now that is a little …read more

May 14, 2025 - 18:12

RADUGA: The Retro Computer from Behind the Curtain

When [Kasyan] was six years old, he saw a RADUGA computer, a Russian unit from the 1990s, and it sparked his imagination. He has one now that is a little beat up, but we feel like he sees it through his six-year-old eyes as a shiny new computer. The computer, which you can see in the video below, was a clone of the Spectrum 48K.

The box is somewhat klunky-looking, and inside is also a bit strange. The power supply is a — for the time — state-of-the-art switching power supply. Since it wasn’t in good shape, he decided to replace it with a more modern supply.

The main board was also not in good shape. A Zilog CPU is on a large PCB with suspicious-looking capacitors. The mechanical keyboard is nothing more than a array of buttons, and wouldn’t excite today’s mechanical key enthusiast.

The computer isn’t working yet. [Kasyan] is looking for someone who has the exact schematic, although he’s found a similar one and identified at least some of the problems on the board.

The USSR did a lot of work with early computing, but we don’t hear as much about it. That’s surprising, as they had a very active home computer scene.