Do you remember those pop-up picture books from your childhood? These books, also known as 3D books, don’t just make little ones’ eyes light up—they captivate readers of all ages. When you open the pages, parts of the illustrations “pop” out of the book, creating a sense of depth for the scene depicted. This type of book has a long tradition. They were first published around 1860, primarily by German artists and publishers—and became widely popular. Today, it is mainly children’s books that are still available in this format.
This type of 3D book, featuring fold-out elements that create a sense of depth and tactile experience, was also used for a computer textbook published in 1984. The original English edition, published by Abbeville Press in New York, is titled “Inside the Personal Computer – An Illustrated Introduction in 3 Dimensions.” In Germany, it was published in 1986 by Oldenbourg Verlag as a German translation titled “Personal Computer in- und auswendig – Das Computer-Buch in 3 Dimensionen.” The same book, but as a publication by Heinz Nixdorf Computer AG, was distributed as an advertising and teaching aid under the title “Der Personal Computer, der sich spielend leicht vorstellt.”
At a time when very few households had even come into contact with computers, it vividly illustrates the structure and inner workings of personal computers. Thanks to the 3D elements, even beginners can get a sense of how a computer works and how everything fits together. The book alternates between text, images, and interactive elements designed to appeal to both teenagers and adults alike. Accordingly, the book is also structured with a focus on education.
In addition to the NIXDORF edition, my collection now also includes the original German edition published by Oldenbourg in 1986. The books differ only in the design of their covers; otherwise, their contents are identical.
Dive into the world of computers
The book is designed to be held in landscape orientation. When you open the cover, the first spread reveals a complete desktop computer, typical of those common in the early 1980s. It resembles, for example, the Tandy TRS-80 Model III or other computers from that era. The unfolded model features the typical green monitor on the left side of the case and, to its right, two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives stacked one above the other. The keyboard is also integrated into the cardboard case. The upper drive contains a replica of a small 5.25-inch floppy disk. The screen has a greenish transparent film and is interactive: At the start, the screen displays in German language “DISKETTE EINLEGEN UND KLAPPE SCHLIESSEN”. When the diskette is inserted into the drive and the cardboard flap is closed, just like on a typical Shugart drive, the text changes to: “Hello! This book explains what I am and how I work. By the end, you’ll know me inside and out.” This is achieved by an overlay of cardboard with slits behind the green film, which is moved up and down as the disk is inserted, revealing the text accordingly. I think this is an extremely creative solution!
On the same spread, various text boxes placed around the 3D computer model highlight the most important parts of a computer from that era. Here, for example, the monitor, keyboard, CPU/RAM, and floppy disk drives are briefly explained before the components are discussed in greater detail on the following pages.
As you continue reading, the keyboard is first described in more detail and its operation explained. There is an animation here that shows the “M” key being pressed down, illustrating the electrical impulses as an intermittent beam of light. However, the authors have made an error here: when a key is pressed, initially only a single contact on a matrix is closed. Only then is an ASCII code generated by the keyboard controller. It would have been nice if this preceding step had also been illustrated.
Various ASCII codes can be displayed using a slider, and a dial on the right-hand side can be used to convert decimal numbers into binary numbers, for example.
The coolest feature, however, is located at the bottom left, where a lamp can be turned on and off using a sort of switch by flipping a cardboard piece up or down.
On the next page, we take a look inside a computer. There, we see a central processing unit with a motherboard and its chips, all of which are slightly raised and can be felt. The text again provides explanations of the components, such as input/output ports, RAM, ROM, the central processing unit, and the bus system. The lower part of the spread shows the inside of a CPU. This image can be opened up, and underneath is a description of the logical structure of the CPU and the AND and NAND logic gates. The computer bus system—that is, the conductor paths between the components—is illustrated using a bus, which transports data from A to B much like people do.
Another fun interactive element: Inside a small bag is a cardboard computer chip that can be unfolded. It can then be inserted into the empty slot on the depicted motherboard.
When we turn to the next page, a floppy disk drive with a removable disk is revealed. On the top of the box is a flap that opens, allowing us to look inside the drive. When the floppy disk is inserted into the drive, you can see how it locks into place between the spindle and the read/write head. This makes it easy to understand how a floppy disk drive works mechanically.
In addition, a slider on the right allows you to track the movement of the read/write head. A life-size floppy disk is also shown in the lower right corner.
By flipping it, you can see the magnetic disk inside a floppy disk. Here, the storage of tracks and sectors on the magnetic disk is illustrated and explained. Readers will also learn about the proper handling of floppy disks and the available formats—8-inch, 5.25-inch, as well as 3-inch and 3.5-inch microdisks. Yes, there are even hard drives with storage capacities ranging from 8 to a whopping 50 MB!
We turn the page again and get a look at the back of a cathode-ray tube, the kind used in computers of that era. Here, too, we see a fantastic implementation of an interactive feature that demonstrates how the cathode ray builds up the image line by line: when a slider is pulled out, the “beam” is drawn across the screen like a thread.
On the left side is a scroll wheel that displays a series of screenshots showing various applications. This is intended to illustrate the main uses of a computer, such as gaming, word processing, spreadsheets, database management, and graphics.
The final spread of this spectacular textbook covers computer peripherals, particularly the printer. When you open the page, a dot matrix printer with its characteristic green-lined continuous paper pops out of the book in 3D. A slider on the right side allows you to move the print head back and forth, making it look as though the printer is printing “Goodbye” in German language “Auf Wiedersehen”. And the coolest part is that when you slide it in and out, it rattles just like a dot matrix printer used to! When I used the slider for the first time, I had to smile at the rattling sound because I found the implementation so surprisingly creative.
I think the whole book is really well done, and it’s still fun today to explore all the interactive features. Fortunately, both copies of the book are still in very good condition, and the moving parts usually work very well. I have to say, I’ve never come across a book about computers quite like this before. I really love the overall design, the way the interactivity is implemented, and the creativity of the book.
It’s too bad that hardly anyone today would think of publishing an educational tool in the form of a pop-up book. Nowadays, the graphic and interactive capabilities of computers are simply far superior to those of pop-up books and offer entirely new possibilities that were unimaginable back then.
I also found a great video about the original English edition of the book, with a pretty detailed description: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NueRKhEwvY
Another item in my collection that’s truly special and therefore deserves a nice spot.