An Overview Article about Educational Computer Systems from Germany in the 1980s

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There were three major systems (1981 Busch Microtronic, 1983 Kosmos CP1, 1984 Philips MasterLab), and so far, there has been no English documentation of these unique and wonderful little computers. I would hence like to draw this forum’s attention to an updated English translation of three articles that I wrote for the German “LOAD#” vintage computer magazine (LOAD#11 in 2024, and LOAD#12 in 2025). As I had witnessed some interest in these machines in this forum before, I thought this might be of interest to this audience:

There is a PDF version also:

Also, I am in the process of translating the Busch Microtronic manuals to English; so far, the Manual 1 and the Programmer’s Reference are complete:

I will have a table at this year’s VCF West in Mountain View with these three major machines: Busch Microtronic, Kosmos CP1, and Philips MC6400 MasterLab, hoping to make them more well-known and more appreciated in the US.

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Excellent! I do find it interesting that a move “backwards” from the already-available 8 bit games appliance machines to an educational machine with GPIO was a good enough idea to have products brought to market.

Also nice to see the Pico as part of the solutions for modern expansions to these older machines.

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