The sexy ladies of Yugoslavian computer magazines

Source: http://dangerousminds.net/comments/t...uter_magazines


“Ignore the sex slave tumbling out of my monitor, it is a standard feature with this brand of personal computer…..”

The Bosnian word računari means “computers”; thus Računari was the natural name for a long-running periodical in the Balkans catering to software and hardware enthusiasts in the burgeoning age of the “personal computer.”

It’s hard to remember now, but while Apple was getting all the critical plaudits, most workplaces considered their devices too esoteric and expensive for scaled use—back then it was Windows and IBM clones that got all the love and money, and most of the programmers designed their offerings for the MS-DOS market. Nearly forgotten today, names like WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and Visual Basic once constituted core components of the consumer computing landscape, and they all were featured prominently in Računari. That’s why you won’t see much attention paid to Apple products in these images—they had to weather the tough decade of the 1990s before resurfacing with the iMac and beyond.

It’s often been observed that Sarajevo went from being a proud and prosperous Olympic host city to one of the most hellish places on earth in the short span of time between 1984 and 1994. The end of the Cold War around 1990 brought unimaginable horrors to Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia, and it’s worth noting that Računari, which started in 1984, never went out of print during all of that tumult, persisting through to the late 1990s. So it is that these otherwise mirthful images have a darker story to tell, of consumers seeking out computing products during a bloody civil war and the advertisers and retailers wishing to serve them.

The editors of Računari surely were well aware that their product sector was a little on the dry side, so they spiced up most every cover with a sexy lady draped over this or that piece of mechanized future landfill. As you’ll see, some of the images get a little bizarre, but hey, all the better to get those copies moving off of the newsstand and into your living room, right?


“I am the Windows 3.1 go-go girl…..”


“We hope this bizarre bondage scene incentivizes you to purchase WordPerfect for Windows.”


“Here is another bondage scene but the captive is in a much better mood.”


“Does dangling this i386 chip between my boobs make it more attractive to you?”


“I have brought all of my software packaging, it is a distinct turn-on for me.”


“Either this computing device is enormous, or I am very tiny.”


“This gizmo is so portable, I take it on my motorcycle.”


“Turnabout is fair play. The computers are MY slaves, and I walk them like dogs.”


“A little nocturnal fun with PageMaker 4.0 is all I require.”


I can carry two laptops at once.”


“Watch as I dangle this mouse seductively by my side.”


“This joystick makes me think of ... something. It’s on the tip of my tongue….”


“I am breeding a pygmy race of scientists on my computer chip carpet.”