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Računari

The Belgrade magazine that published a computer you could build

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Računari began as Računari u vašoj kući, a special edition of the Belgrade magazine Galaksija dated January 1984, written by Dejan Ristanović. It carried complete instructions for building a home computer, Voja Antonić's Galaksija, and grew into a monthly computing magazine that ran until the end of the 1990s.

Most computer magazines told their readers which machine to buy. Računari began by telling them how to build one. Its first issue, Računari u vašoj kući (“Computers in Your Home”), was a 200-dinar special edition of the Belgrade popular-science magazine Galaksija, and its cover promised “complete instructions for building a home computer yourself”. Thousands of readers did. The machine was the Galaksija, designed by Voja Antonić, and the special edition grew into a monthly computing magazine that lasted into 1999.

Fast facts

  • First issue: Računari u vašoj kući, dated January 1984, on sale in the last days of December 1983.
  • Publisher: BIGZ (Beogradski izdavačko-grafički zavod), through its Duga newspaper division, Belgrade.
  • Author of the first issue: Dejan Ristanović.
  • Frequency: occasional at first (January, July and December 1984), then roughly every two months; monthly from October 1985.
  • Last issue: Serbian sources give 1999; issue 142 is dated December 1998/January 1999.

A book in the form of a magazine

The special edition was Dejan Ristanović’s work. He later recalled that a reader of Galaksija first suggested an issue about computers, and that the editor, Gavrilo Vučković, asked him in 1983 to write it. He wrote nearly all of it himself. Ristanović called the result “a complete publication that only had the form of a magazine”.

It covered a lot of ground. There were chapters on choosing a computer and its printers, disk drives and plotters, on commercial programs and “hacker’s reading”, a section called “ZX 81 bez tajni” (the ZX81 without secrets), another on the Spectrum’s peculiarities, and a 32-page insert on programming for beginners. Readers abroad paid double: 400 dinars, or 3 US dollars, 9 marks or 2 pounds.

The magazine printed the machine

The part that made the issue famous was the Galaksija. By the end of August 1983, Ristanović recalled, the chance had arisen to add a computer readers could build themselves. The issue gave it a whole section: Antonić’s build article, the circuit, a guide to the machine’s first microseconds after switch-on, the Galaksija “in comics” and the Galaksija “in school”.

The editorial explained the aim. The project should let every computer enthusiast “with skilful hands” finally get their first machine, and “break the myth of the computer as a complicated technical product”. It went on:

“Računar ‘galaksija’ je projektovao jedan jedini čovek, Voja Antonić, za nešto više od mesec dana, a od prve ideje do pojave prvih primeraka na tržištu prošlo je jedva nešto više od šest meseci.”

The Galaksija was designed by one man, Voja Antonić, in a little over a month, and barely more than six months passed from the first idea to the first machines on the market. The editorial added that the machine was entering series production without any changes, and that its manufacturers, Elektronika Inženjering and the Zavod za učila i nastavna sredstva, were “swamped with orders, not only from individuals but from schools”. It also doubted that the issue would change “by a hair” how customs officers treated computers.

Ristanović later gave the issue’s sales: a first printing of 30,000 copies sold out within a month, and further printings of 30,000 and 40,000 followed. By his count more than 8,000 readers built a Galaksija.

From special edition to monthly

A second special edition followed in July 1984, with a “school of action games”, and a third in December, whose cover featured the Amstrad, Spectrum, Commodore 64, Electron, BBC B and Galaksija. Through most of 1985 its issues came two months apart. The October 1985 issue, which reviewed the improved Galaksija Plus, announced on its cover that it now appeared once a month, and by November the price had risen to 250 dinars. That issue gives a flavour of the magazine: a postcard from London, the Amiga, a “hacker’s manifesto”, laser printers, a cryptography puzzle in “Dejanove pitalice” (Dejan’s puzzles), and machine-code tips for the Spectrum and Commodore.

By 1988 it called itself a magazine “for popularising informatics and computing” and cost 1,000 dinars. It followed its readers from home computers to the PC: by January 1993 it was running comparative tests of laser printers, monitors and motherboards, and reviewing compilers, and by the end of 1998 it had a web address, racunari.com, and covered Comdex, Windows programs and games such as Fallout 2. Issue 142 is dated December 1998/January 1999, and Serbian-language accounts give 1999 as the year it closed.

Sources

  • Računari u vašoj kući, special edition of Galaksija, January 1984: cover (price, author, “kompletno uputstvo za samogradnju kućnog kompjutera”, the 32-page insert); contents and masthead (BIGZ, OOUR Novinska delatnost “Duga”; editor Gavrilo Vučković; the chapters listed above; foreign prices); editorial, p. 3 (the quotation above; series production by “Elektronika Inženjering” and “Zavod za učila i nastavna sredstva”; the customs remark).
  • Računari u vašoj kući, July 1984 and December 1984: covers and contents.
  • Računari, February/March 1985: cover date.
  • Računari, October 1985: cover (“izlazi jednom mesečno”) and the Galaksija Plus test; November 1985: price and contents.
  • Računari, January 1993: contents.
  • Računari, January 1988 (cover: “časopis za popularizaciju informatike i računarstva”, 1,000 dinars) and issue 142, December 1998/January 1999 (cover and contents).
  • Dejan Ristanović, “Računari u vašoj kući”, dejanristanovic.com (accessed September 2026) (web, secondary; the author’s own recollection): the commission, the Galaksija added at the end of August 1983, release in the last days of December 1983, print runs of 30,000, 30,000 and 40,000, more than 8,000 builders, and “zaokružena publikacija koja je samo imala formu časopisa”. http://www.dejanristanovic.com/rac1.htm
  • Wikipedia (Serbian), “Računari (časopis)” (accessed September 2026) (web, secondary): closure in 1999. https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Računari_(časopis)

See also

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