website/content/museum/pravetz-imko-1-2-pravetz-82.md

---
title: Pravetz IMKO-1/2 & Pravetz 82
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Home Computer
origins:
- Bulgaria
years:
- '1979'
cpus:
- '6502'
params:
  name: IMKO-1/2 & Pravetz 82
  company: /companies/pravetz
  company_name: Pravetz
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: IMKO-1/2 & Pravetz 82
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Pravetz
  - label: TYPE
    value: Home Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: Bulgaria
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1979'
  - label: END OF PRODUCTION
    value: Unknown
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: Floating point BASIC interpreter. Several ROM expansion boards were available with Cobol, Fortran, Pascal, Logo, Ada languages
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Full stroke 56 keys
  - label: CPU
    value: '6502'
  - label: SPEED
    value: 1 MHz
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: None
  - label: RAM
    value: 48 KB expandable to 64 KB
  - label: ROM
    value: 12 KB
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 40 chars. x 24 lines
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: |-
      280x192 dots x 6 colours (or 280 x 160 + 4 text lines) in HiRes\
      40 x 40 squares (+4 text lines) or 40 x 48 in 16-colour mode.
  - label: COLORS
    value: '16'
  - label: SOUND
    value: built-in speaker
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: 39 (W) x 45 (D) x 12 (H) cm
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: floppy drive, tape recorder, 8 expansion slots
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: None
  - label: OS
    value: Apple OS
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in power supply unit
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: All Apple II extensions
  - label: PRICE
    value: 4190 Levs - About $2600
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  photos:
  - title: IMKO-1
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: RIGHT SIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      The lower case letters are replaced with the Cyrillic alphabet.

      The AAT keys are like Shift keys but toggle between the two alphabets. The yellow AAT key is like a 'Shift Lock'. The associate led lights when the Cyrillic alphabet is selected.

      the 'MK' key is like the 'Control' key, and 'OCB' means 'Escape'.
    image: null
  - title: REAR SIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Left side: Composite video jack and tape recorder DIN plug.

      Right side: AC/DC power fuses and power switch.
    image: null
  - title: OPENED CASE
    subtitle: ''
    text: Like the genuine Apple II, a trap door allows the user to add, remove expansion cards. The expansion slots could receive any Apple or compatible cards.
    image: null
  - title: INSIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      The main board was an almost pure copy of the Apple II card. The card was made in Bulgaria but all the integrated circuits came from Asia, USA or Western Europe.

      The power supply was strong but simplistic and of old design.
    image: null
  - title: IN USE
    subtitle: ''
    text: Here with a Zenith monochrome composite monitor.
    image: null
  - title: DISPLAY CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: A small Basic program allows to see that the character generator ROM holds both Cyrillic and latin alphabets.
    image: null
  - title: ROBKO-1
    subtitle: ''
    text: The arm robot Robko-1
    image: null
  adverts:
  - title: 'ADVERT #1'
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      The display says: "Personal computer Pravetz 82"

      Thanks to **Bojidar Stefanov**
    image: null
  - title: 'ADVERT #2'
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Pravetz Apple II compatible technology and price are compared with the IBM compatible Pravetz 8C.

      Thanks to **Bojidar Stefanov** for the English translation
    image: null
  comments:
  - author: Sergei Frolov (Russia)
    date: Friday 30th September 2016
    text: http://pravetz.bg/history says that IMKO-1 was based on 8080 CPU and not Apple $$
  - author: Marin Aleksandrov
    date: Thursday 6th February 2014
    text: Does anyone know how many of the Pravetz 8 series were produced in total? Thanks.
  - author: Ivan Toshkov (Bulgaria)
    date: Thursday 17th October 2013
    text: Note, that the normal monthly salary back then was about 200lv. So 4190lv is quite high price and not many people had them in their homes. That said, these computers (and later models) became quite common in factories and schools and there were freely available computer courses in many places.
  - author: Konstantin Pavlov (Bulgaria)
    date: Tuesday 11th December 2012
    text: This computer is historic for two reasons - First, it introduced the $phonetic$ layout of the Bulgarian keyboars (as opposed to BDS, which is the standard typewriter layout). Second, it was hacked (upgraded) to work with cyrillic characters, replacing the small latin letters and creating a new Cyrillic codepage.
  - author: Kiril (Plovdiv, Bulgaria)
    date: Tuesday 26th September 2006
    text: Well. I watch this machine and remember the early 80's when I started to learn BASIC.... Sweet memories :)
  oc_id: 956
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230128071023/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=956
    date: '2023-01-28'
---

In 1979, the Bulgarian Techical Cybernetics Institute took up with the idea of creating a small microprocessor based system.

In 1980 the first three Bulgarian microcomputers were produced. Their creators called the machine IMKO-1 for **I**ndividualen **M**icro **KO**mputer. In 1981 a series of few tenths machines was released. First users were enthusiastic about the versality and ease of use of the IMKO. Furthermore, the price wasn't very high.\
Mass production started in 1982. First models shipped with a standard TV set instead of a monitor.

The IMKO-1 was actually an almost 100% compatible [Apple II](/museum/apple-ii/) system featuring same expansion slots. Sadly, neither expansion card nor floppy disk unit were available in Bulgaria. Some rare customers bought them from Western European countries or from Taiwan, others used a tape recorder.

The first international presentation of the IMKO-1 occured at Robotics Symposium in England. Bulgaria demonstrated then a robot controlled by a microcomputer. At this time, Japaneses and U.S. robots were controlled by minicomputers. The IMKO-1 robot system cost thus ten times cheaper and its maintenance was much more easy.

---

**Bozhidar Stefanov** from Bulgaria adds:\
**Imko-1** and **Imko-2** (almost the same machine with little upgrades) have been first manufactured in Sofia until 1982. The name was changed to **Pravetz 82** when the computer was made in Pravetz, a small town near Sofia. It had a lot of peripherals like daisy whell printer, plotters or modems as well as loads of strange expansion boards specially manufactured for various factories. The Robot was called **Robko 1** (an arm type robot)

**Ivaylo Uzunoff** reports :\
Usually there was a monitor the same color as the computer box sitting on top of the main unit. The monitor had a black background, the symbols displayed on the monitor were green. usually on the right hand side there were two floppy drives one on top of another. They were connected with a wide "ribbon" cable to the main computer. To load OS you need to insert the disk into the flopy, since the computer did not had a HDD. Then you can insert a disk with primitive software or game.

<table> <tr> <td></td> <td>We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.</td> <td></td> </tr> </table>