Welcome to the Virtual Multimedia Centre of the Croatian School Museum.

(Hrvatska inačica: Virtualni multimedijski centar)

The idea of the Virtual Multimedia Centre is to be a permanent active exhibition of information technology usage, specifically in Croatian schools. ViMMC started existing as a part of the exhibition "Seagull Calling Eagle, The HP2000 Has Arrived:The First School Computers And Beginnings of Computer Education in Croatia of the Croatian School Museum.

In the Virtual MMC, which is constantly being updated, you can play games on a HP2000 computer (simulated) from the 1970-ies, or program on it in Basic, you can play a Multi-user Dangeon Game on a Sun 3/60 computer from 1986 (real, serving you these pages), or try the Croatian computer "Eagle" (simulated) from early 1980-ies, or you can read a historical overview, or study a lot of documentation.

History:

Documentary film about the Multimedia Centre (in English): The Multimedia Center - MMC.

A documentary film about first computers constructed and produced in Croatia (text in Croatian): Life On 8 Bits.

(In Croatian, translation follows soon): Historical Overview of the Development of Calculating and Computing Hardware and Their Technology

A lot of text and audio-visual material (in English and Croatian) can be found in the Library.

On-line access to active machines:

HP2000 Access Timesharing Basic

For the access to the HP2000 Access Timesharing Basic system, as it was installed in the Multimedia Centre in Zagreb between 1970-ies/1980-ies, you need telnet. Further short instructions how to access the system as Guest you will get after establishing the telnet connection. If you wish to have permanent access and your own user-name, please write to me (e-mail address at the end of this page).

For telnet access from Windows you need (e.g.) putty (https://www.putty.org/). (32-bit version: putty.exe. Just download it onto your, for example, desktop. There is no installation, that's it.) Start putty and enter 'Host Name' 'melior.irb.hr', 'Port' 2100 and 'Connection type' Telnet.  Then connect :)

On UNIX or Linux (and Mac OS X) open a terminal, and enter 'telnet melior.irb.hr 2100'.

On Android mobile you can use (e.g.) ConnectBot (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.connectbot&hl=en). Change the protocol to telnet and set hostname:port to 'melior.irb.hr:2100'. (The usage of ConnectBot is very simple, in the case of any problems read its Help.)

If you would like to access these telnet services over the WEB-a, this is slightly more complicated. You need, for example, Firefox and Firefox Add-on "BBSFox", which you can download from 'addons.mozilla.org' at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/BBSFox/. (Though when you install it, it works fine. I only do not know how to send a "break".)

Presently I am testing a more convenient WEB access (for the knowledgable, 'jutty' will be installed), but it is not ready yet.

After that you can access the HP2000 system by this link:
telnet://melior.irb.hr:2100/

Remark: if the HP2000 system does not give a response from first, close the terminal and try again. For some reason it happens sometimes.

Short HP2000 Access Pocket Guide: http://gridvision.irb.hr/MMC-Multimedijski_centar/Software/2000-Access_Basic_Pocket_Guide-1.pdf.
Full HP Access BASIC book: http://gridvision.irb.hr/MMC-Multimedijski_centar/Software/22687-90001_AccessBasic9-75.pdf.
List of all presently installed programmes on the HP2000 simulator: http://gridvision.irb.hr/MMC-Multimedijski_centar/Software/HP2000_Directory_2018.12.7.txt.

The Philosophical Multi-User Dungeon

In addition to that, those curious can also visit the MUDroslovni MUD (The Philosophical Multi-User Dungeon), developed during advanced courses on the Department of Information Sciences of the Faculty of Philosophy of Zagreb University, developed during the 1990-ies, on the original machine from 1986:

telnet grgur.irb.hr 4000

- On Windows, using putty adjust 'Host Name' to 'grgur.irb.hr', 'Port' to 4000 i 'Connection type' to Telnet. In a UNIX/Linux terminal use telnet grgur.irb.hr 4000.

Web access: telnet://grgur.irb.hr:4000/ - Remark: if you use BBSFox, you will not be able to see what you write, although it is possible to play even in such a way.

Eagle - Orao

Do not forget to try working on the Web emulator of the computer Orao (Eagle), developed by Hrvoje Čavrak (the access is direct over WEB!):

http://orao.hrvoje.org/


We wish you pleasant time and good work in the Virtual Multimedia Centre.

Original HP2000 system from the Multimedia centre in Zagreb
in the dome of the Croatian School Museum

For language gourmands:

László Bulcsú: English-Croatian and Croatian-English Dictionary of Information Science Terminology, compiled by Zdenko Škiljan, Zagreb, June 1994.


Visit also the main multi-portal entry page, with the "Light Art Exhibitions Gallery", the "Knin - Croatian Thoughtwell", "Gridvision", "VEPPAR", "Library" ... at grgur.irb.hr.

The machine simulating the HP2000 system (Melior i Grampus), as well as the MUD-a and Web server (Grgur) are located at the Centre for Information and Computer Science of the Rudjer Bošković Institute.

CIR IRB

The idea was sponsored by Span.
Span
These, as well as gridvision pages, where served to you by grgur.irb.hr, SUN 3/60 workstation from 1986. (20 MHz Motorola MC68020 + MC68881, 24 MiB memory), which was during the 1990-ies known as "grgur.ffzg.hr".
Melior (HP2000 I/O processor simulator) is SUN Entrerprise 220R server from 1999. (450 MHz UltraSPARC, 512 MiB memory).
Grampus (HP2000 main processor simulator) is Intel server from 2004. (2 processors * 1.4 GHz Intel Pentium 3, 1 GiB memory).
HP2000 Access system is simulated by SimH.

The pages are being updated quite regularly, come back again, as there will be much more additional documentation during and after the exhibition in the Croatian School Museum. The intention is that the Virtual Multimedia Centre becomes a permanent place.

The pages are edited by Zorislav Šojat (mailto:sojat@irb.hr). Last change: 4/2/2020, 17:09.