Helmut Wiertalla
This is a very special place of this site. It is a hommage to a person without whom this site wouldn't exist in the first place. His name was Helmut Wiertalla, and he was also known under his alias helwie44.
Helmut Wiertalla (1944-2022)
The tale of the P2
It all started back in 2015, when I found a remarkably rare computer in a thrift store and brought it home. Soon I would find absolutely nothing about it other that it was from German origin. However, interest in the machine did not fade and after some time digging, I found some strange website in Deutsch which was collecting most of the information about that system. After some weeks examining sources of information that could help us start the computer, I decided to contact the author of the site.
Helmut, the author of the website, had been a worker at SKS, the company which developed the KISS computer, which at the same time was licensed to other companies, including Triumph-Adler for the models P1 and P2. He helped us to program using the monitor and thanks to that soon we had a working system with its CP/M disks and applications. In exchange for his help, we submitted to him a picture of our keyboard and a dump of our system ROMs, that he included in his website. As a side note, the fact that the Spanish romset has the name "jaumeep.bin" is a combination of my name and the word "EPROM" and was the result of this first exchange.
The project
From then onwards we would often write each other exchanging information about the computer, finding users and helping them. Initially we were only both of us but gradually a small community started to appear sorrounding the P2 and, of course Helmut. It would be fair to say he was the angular piece. It was then that most discussion left the email and was brought to the forums. And the community continued to grow, increasing the number of users but also improving the knowledge base. Even an emulator was written, which was a feat for the time, the low amount of users and sparse knowledge of the machine. Things were evolving but had a common element. Helmut was on nearly every project being made for the computer, and he was giving his all.
Pen pals
Still, while we had public talk in the forums we continued to have our private talks through email. But one day I wrote him but he did not answer. After multiple attempts to reestablish communication I suceeded in having an answer after a month had passed since the first mail. Apparently he was having a rough time and he was very worried. After talking for a bit I realized his situation had some points in common with mine at the time, so I comforted him. From then on we would exchange messages not only about computers, but also to greet each other and to have some small talk. He even greeted my birthdays while other people closer to me did not remember, and I greeted him his back. After five years exchanging messages, some sort of trust had formed. We continued having this long-distance relationship for some time.
The unavoidable end
One day during summer 2022, I sent him an email but did not receive an answer. Some days after, I received a call from my father while I was working. He told me that in the forums we participated a notification had been posted about Helmut's passing. So my message would never have an answer.
After the unfortunate news, I regretted not being able to visit him due to work as I was missing him as he was one of the very few people I talked with in a regular basis.
After thoughts
Not long after his demise, I decided to bear his torch and so, bitspassats.com was born in order to gather information about the computers we had at home, including the P2 and, of course, it was decided a memorial for Helmut would be hosted there.
However things are easier said than done and unfortunately a year passed with very few activity on my part due to personal reasons. Still, I got a chance to talk with his family and did get their approval both to host a memorial and to host a copy of the site, as well as the permission to make the appropiate modifications to make it work.
Although talks were being done, the hosting service shut down his personal website in 2023 much to our shock. Therefore the copy I am hosting of his site is a shallow backup I made to safeguard his work, but unfortunately some things broke.
Still, it is better than nothing. I hope this corner of the site serves its purpose both as a memorial and as the reference his personal website was at its time.