In days of yore when PC magazines ruled

[Dos_Box]

I've just been having a look around to see how one of my favorite PC magazines of old is doing and am sad to see that PC Format appears to be barely hanging on in the UK whilst having shut down some of it's overseas versions. The distribution betweek 2008-2012 has seen it's distribution cut by a third - PC Format - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and it's not just them.

I am hankering back to what I consider the 'golden age' of PC Magazines in about 1999-2000 when the take up of computers in the home was at it's peak, the internet had not yet begun to bite into printed puiblications and you got 'A £1000 of software on our coverdisk'!.

The technoclogy was chnaging rapidly and the reviews sections packed to the gills with ever developing graphics cards seemingly updated on a 3 monthly basis, sound cards which varied in price up to stupid levels yet with no dicernable sound differance between them given the speaker and headset technology of the time and each edition running to several hundred pages not least due to adverts provided by manufacturers and suppliers most of whome no longer exist.

 

Compared to now where the PC Pro I brought last week was so thin I mistook it for a US magazine (their computer magazine market is in real decline), with free software (well, download codes) that was pretty much useless and did absoloutly nothing I neeed it made me realise that although everyhting has moved onto the internet I kind of miss having a nice thick magazine to work my way through.

I wish I'd kept a few tbh. They'd make quite interesting reading now!

 

*sigh*

[mtillbrook]

haha, yer i remember those days!!

 

I was a PcPro subscriber for many years and used to spend hours messing around with all the "free" software on the cover disk!

 

I still remember an issue that was promising a crazy new speed of processor that was just about to come out - the 133Mhz!!! We couldn't believe it as we were used to using a 66Mhz!

 

I feel old......

[tmcd35]

I've posted this before, but It's my favourite Interweb discovery of the past year (yes, I know I'm late to the game) and relevant:

 

Internet Archive Old Computer Mags

 

Internet Archive Old Gaming Mags

 

And yes, they do make very interesting reading now!

 

[Cache]

I feel the same way about Newlestters/Brochures/Catalogs that companies send out which are all on Issuu. While I understand it is likely to be better for the environment, saves them a lot of money on printing and postage, I tend to scan the pages rather quickly to see if something catches my eye where as with a physical copy I would spend a lot more time on it.

[sonofsanta]

I remember walking up town of a Saturday morning and getting a magazine from Smiths, and sitting down on a bench for an hour on the way back to start reading it. More than that I remember pestering my parents for every Amiga Magazine going so I could get the coverdiscs - at one point I was reading Amiga Format, Amiga Power, Amiga Action and The One every month. There was little as exciting as one of the magazines coming with two coverdiscs that month, one of them undoubtedly "TWENTY full PD games!" crammed into an 880k floppy.

 

I've no idea where it came from, but the following has been lurking in my office and I can't bring myself to throw out such a pearl of history. I adore how many stereotypes it fits into one cover:

[jinnantonnixx]

I miss nostalgia.

 

I've still got some computer mags from the '80s (earliest is a copy of PCW from 1981 with Guy Kewney reviewing a Triumph Adler 'AT compatible').

[Jowley]

I've posted this before, but It's my favourite Interweb discovery of the past year (yes, I know I'm late to the game) and relevant:

 

Internet Archive Old Computer Mags

 

Internet Archive Old Gaming Mags

 

And yes, they do make very interesting reading now!

 

 

That's a great find, bit of a nostalgia trip flicking through issues of PC Zone.

[tmcd35]

That's a great find, bit of a nostalgia trip flicking through issues of PC Zone.

 

I found it when I was trying to remember the multi-format games mag I used buy each month in the late 80's. Turned out it was ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment) I'd had almost every issue until parents made me dump them in a house move (too much weight). Stoked to find them all in the archive. Also Amstrad Action

 

I've been trying to work out what my favourite Amiga mag was back then, but can't for the life of me remember. I know it wasn't one of the the big 3. Might have been "Amiga User International" but that sounds wrong somehow.

[Trapper]

Oh nuts. There goes my week.

 

I found an archive of old Acorn Users right back from the Beeb in 1982 through to the final issue in 2004. That took a few days of my life up!

 

Interesting reading the educational sections!

[Bezwick]

Ah this was my favourite magazine

 

Crash (magazine) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I Still remember buying the August 1985 edition and being confused because some pages had been cut out. Then my Cousin winding me up because he had the subscription version still with he pages in and he never let me read it.

 

Hmm thinking about it, I still owe him for that one.

[DPrince]

I still subscribe to PC Format and PC Gamer... on my iPAD!

[6Foot2]

I miss nostalgia...

 

For sure it's not what it used to be.

[rich_tech]

I noticed these days that a few of the magazines I read are getting a lot thinner on content, CustomPC was a prime example, its chock full of adverts, probably more of them than content, I noticed too PC Pro is getting a bit thinner as well.

 

I do miss the "good old days" of PC magazines, I started with PC Format, which I graduated too after years of "Mean Machines" and "Computer and Video Games"

[PotNoodleTech]

Google is all the magazine we ever need nowadays. *

 

 

 

 

*other search engines are available if you google them

[jumpinjamez]

I noticed these days that a few of the magazines I read are getting a lot thinner on content, CustomPC was a prime example, its chock full of adverts, probably more of them than content, I noticed too PC Pro is getting a bit thinner as well.

 

I do miss the "good old days" of PC magazines, I started with PC Format, which I graduated too after years of "Mean Machines" and "Computer and Video Games"

 

I used to love Mean Machines is so interesting pre internet dayz to see how readers interacted with the writers by sending letters and drawings which would have take hours.

 

 

I have these in my office right now and cant throw them out. They are older than some NQTs here.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I remember walking up town of a Saturday morning and getting a magazine from Smiths, and sitting down on a bench for an hour on the way back to start reading it. More than that I remember pestering my parents for every Amiga Magazine going so I could get the coverdiscs - at one point I was reading Amiga Format, Amiga Power, Amiga Action and The One every month. There was little as exciting as one of the magazines coming with two coverdiscs that month, one of them undoubtedly "TWENTY full PD games!" crammed into an 880k floppy.

 

I've still got a massive collection of these amiga mags! Coverdiscs were just about the greatest thing ever! It's something that would be unheard of these days i guess

 

Come to think of it I've still got a couple of C64 mags and the covertapes. I wonder how well they've fared over the last 25 years or so.

[fiza]

Stoked to find them all in the archive. Also Amstrad Action

 

 

I used to buy Amstrad Action all the time. I remember being around 14 or 15 and me and my mate got a new game (cant remember what it was called now) and we finished it within a few days and wrote up the walkthrough, submitted it to the Amstrad Action and we won a prize for best walkthrough. We got vouchers which allowed us to buy GAC (Graphical Adventure Creator) Graphic Adventure Creator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Happy days!!!

[Dos_Box]

I noticed these days that a few of the magazines I read are getting a lot thinner on content, CustomPC was a prime example, its chock full of adverts, probably more of them than content, I noticed too PC Pro is getting a bit thinner as well.

 

I do miss the "good old days" of PC magazines, I started with PC Format, which I graduated too after years of "Mean Machines" and "Computer and Video Games"

 

They should think themselves lucky, many magazines are struggling to find advertisors these days (It's all on t'interwebs now don'tcherknow). Stange about the lack of content though :/

[tmcd35]

We got vouchers which allowed us to buy GAC (Graphical Adventure Creator) Graphic Adventure Creator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Happy days!!!

 

Didn't they give away the GAC with one of the covertapes? I had a copy previous to that which came with this horrible lenslok system (special magnifying glass you folded in a particular way to decode letters on the screen). I'm sure when AA put it on the covertape (without lenslok) they ran a competition. I entered with an adventure game based on the London underground I created using GAC. Got a thank you back from The Balrog (obviously didn't win - rubbish created by an 8-9 year old!).

Edited July 24, 2014 by tmcd35

[jinnantonnixx]

I had a copy of 'Big K' with a cover disc - they called it a 'flexidisc'.

 

I'm not joking, it was a thin, plastic record which you had to copy to tape to play the games that were recorded on the record. Must have been about 1984.

Edited July 24, 2014 by jinnantonnixx

[chazzy2501]

Man I miss Zzap!64

 

 

I remember I got the Robocop2 Demo on a tape which was the only way to play it as it only came out in full on a cartridge:(

Edited July 24, 2014 by chazzy2501

[Gibbo]

There's a great archive of INPUT magazine here:

 

Commodore - Magazines - Input

 

My favourite has to be the "Home Computer Course", and the "Home Computer Advanced Course", with the way they took the lid off computers (literally).

[SpuffMonkey]

Yeah - the mag I favoured - PCPlus went a while ago as did the music mag I subscribed to - I guess its just the way of things and sign of getting...old(er)

[truebluesteve]

I have still have a couple of copies of Acorn User magazine from 84 knocking around in my office and they always make me smile when I read them again. Spent lots of times typing in the listings from those pages!

 

One of my favourite mags was Micro Computer Mart and I bought and sold a lot stuff via it. I spend hours searching for bargains and getting ink all over my hands

 

Happy days 😄

[hardtailstar]

I still subscribe to some mags but all on my tablet.

 

I miss the old days of magazines but I think the internet has killed most of them off.