COSMICOS

 

Designed for electronics enthusiasts, the Cosmicos wasn’t a polished consumer product, but a build-it-yourself kit. Readers could order the parts, solder the components, and bring the machine to life themselves. It featured a hexadecimal keypad, LED display, and supported 256 bytes to 4 KB of RAM, depending on configuration. Program entry was done in machine code, and it used monitor software in ROM for basic control and editing. Storage was primitive but functional — typically via cassette interface.

 

The Cosmicos stood out not just because of its hardware, but because of its open, educational spirit. Its schematics were published in detail, encouraging users to modify and expand it. Some users added video output or simple sound capabilities. It was a machine that invited curiosity and rewarded experimentation.

 

Though modest in power, the Cosmicos carved out a special place in the Dutch computing scene. It wasn’t a commercial hit, but it was a formative experience for many young tech minds. For a generation of Radio Bulletin readers, the Cosmicos was their first hands-on exposure to computer architecture, programming, and digital electronics.

 

Today, the Cosmicos is a rare collector’s item — a symbol of the early days of personal computing in the Netherlands. While the world moved on to faster, sleeker machines, the Cosmicos remains a beloved relic of an era when computing was raw, personal, and deeply inspiring.

 

For more info about the cosmicos: http://retro.hansotten.nl/radio-bulletin/1802-cosmicos/