Description
During the mid-to-late 1990s, chip phone cards dominated the option for making phone calls from the streets, in an era before mobile phones.
Telecom companies, such as MATÁV, took advantage of phone cards as a medium for advertisements, incorporating artworks and photography. The limited supply of each design led some enthusiasts to start collecting disposable phone cards.
Phone cards became collectibles similar to stamps, which led to the need to categorize all the phone cards released by Matáv. With so many options available, collectors typically preferred to narrow their focus and build collections around specific themes or interests.
Together with another graphic designer at the company where I worked at that time, we were tasked with designing and implementing an interactive CD-ROM as an attractive database of all the cards.
I used Macromedia Director as the platform to develop the software, allowing it to run on both Mac OS Classic and Windows. Between 1995 and 1999, a number of updated CD-ROM versions were released.
Quick History
The Hungarian Telecommunications Company (MATÁV) was established in 1989. In 1991, it was transformed from a state-owned company into a joint stock company, and then took the name Magyar Távközlési Rt (Hungarian Telecommunications PLC). In May 2005, MATÁV was renamed Magyar Telekom, having been owned by Deutsche Telekom since 2000.
Macromedia Director was a multimedia application development tool that enabled users to create and code interactive content, animations, and applications. Originally developed by Macromedia, it was widely used in the 1990s and early 2000s for creating educational software for CD-ROMs.
In 2005, Macromedia was acquired by Adobe Systems, and while Director continued to be used for some time, it eventually fell out of favor as web technologies evolved and other platforms emerged.