Locally made/obscure hardware - For manufacturers and products not known worldwide

[Brown People are Gross]

In this thread, post interesting, good or bad, products from underrepresented brands. Be it a manufacturer local to you, or tech coming from a country with an insignificant chunk of the market.

For example, here are some weird neuro-headphones from a Russian company called Neiry:

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"A device for real-time tracking of brain activity: as an EEG device only in the form of headphones or a headband + an app for Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone. It helps to deal with stress, calm down quickly, maintain a long-term focus of attention and increase productivity."

Doubtful. They go for an outrageous price.

There's a company called Red Square, they make gaming accessories. Tell me if these are dropshipped from China. At the very least, I haven't seen them on AliExpress.

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The pricing is seemingly reasonable.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Not sure if it's what you mean OP, but any of the 80s home computers that were big in the UK. Everyone knows Commador 64, but machines like Sinclair Spectrum or ZX81, or the "grandstand" series of home arcade games.

These are dismissed in gaming history as unimportant or an afterthought. In part because while the US was going through the video game crash, in the UK there was a boom of "bedroom programmers", teenagers getting rich making games in their spare time. It spits in the face of the "gaming died and then swooped in and saved it" narrative that people like to share.

I never owned a Spectrum, but I did own some grandstand games, and they were pretty neat.

 

[Brown People are Gross]

Russians also make their own CPUs, though only for servers. They are called 'Elbrus'.

Not sure if it's what you mean OP, but any of the 80s home computers that were big in the UK. Everyone knows Commador 64, but machines like Sinclair Spectrum or ZX81, or the "grandstand" series of home arcade games.

You might have also heard of when the first ever consumer-grade PCs were proposed to Stalin, which he dismissed as "of no use to a Soviet citizen". And then they got shot.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Not sure if it's what you mean OP, but any of the 80s home computers that were big in the UK. Everyone knows Commador 64, but machines like Sinclair Spectrum or ZX81, or the "grandstand" series of home arcade games.
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These are dismissed in gaming history as unimportant or an afterthought. In part because while the US was going through the video game crash, in the UK there was a boom of "bedroom programmers", teenagers getting rich making games in their spare time. It spits in the face of the "gaming died and then swooped in and saved it" narrative that people like to share.

I never owned a Spectrum, but I did own some grandstand games, and they were pretty neat.

Playground fights over the C64 and ZX Spectrum were commonplace then. You could get games in magazines and use all of that programming experience to get somewhere.

 

[The Grognard]

There once was a time when Nokia made their own mini and microcomputers. They started out with their own direction but towards the later years, just became yet another manufacturer making generic IBM compatibles for business customers. Name for the minicomputer was Mikko, and the obvious name for the micro was MikroMikko.

 

[Brown People are Gross]

How could I forget about the Cybersuit "invented" by some cosplayer?


Olga Levitskaya claimed to have a working prototype in 2017. Fast forward to December 2025, and no goals on their roadmap have been reached. This year, they apparently were planning to release the fitness variant of the Cybersuit, and in 2026, the VR haptic suit, with the physical rehabilitation targeted Cybersuit (the initial selling point) now coming as far out as 2027. You can read their website for yourself, though it's pretty barebones.

https://cybersuits.me/

 

[Slav Power]

Poland has two big names in the computer space.


Wilk Elektronik SA, better known as Goodram. They're known for manufacturing flash memory devices, SSD's and RAM modules, and are generally known for being the budget option. Even though they aren't manufacturing the chips themselves and still rely on Samsung/SK Hynix/Micron for them, it's still an impressively advanced business to have domestically. I have/did have some products of theirs and they haven't been causing me any issues, though I wonder how they'll fare with the current chip shortages.

Endorfy, formerly known as SilentiumPC/SPC Gear. They're known mainly for two things: cheap Chinese rebrands and cheap products of their own design made cheaply in China. First you had SilentiumPC and their focus was purely on PC parts like cases, fans, cooling and so on. My PC was initially housed in one of their cases and eventually got a cooler of theirs, both of which ended up becoming a part of a separate PC due to how much I've upgraded it over the years. They weren't especially known for their quality and often people called them "SzajsentiumPC", or "CrapentiumPC.

Later on they came out with their own peripherals which were mostly Chinese rebrands and that's when they started using the name "SPC Gear" to differentiate themselves from their hardware branch. Eventually they've decided to come up with a more catchy, more modern and more western name, and that's how they've consolidated both brand under Endorfy. In general they're still popular budget options and their Fera 5 cooler and Fluctus fans are often praised for good price/quality ratio, but even though they've decided to enter the American market I don't think they'll be making a big bang given how Thermaltake has cornered the budget cooler market and Arctic cornered the budget fan market, but we'll see.

 

[gildersleeve]

Russians also make their own CPUs, though only for servers. They are called 'Elbrus'.
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You might have also heard of when the first ever consumer-grade PCs were proposed to Stalin, which he dismissed as "of no use to a Soviet citizen". And then they got shot.

There was a crowdsource campaign for a mini ITX Elbrus SBC I almost went for a few years back. I love strange CPU architectures.

https://www.crowdsupply.com/sra-centr8/icepeakitx-elbrus-8cb