Newspaper The Vault · Magazines

Magazines

Gaming press, computing magazines, and fanzines.

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576 KByte

A Hungarian games magazine that starts the month after the system ends

576 KByte ran monthly from January 1990 to December 1999 — 140 issues, the only Hungarian title in this library. Its first issue is entirely about Western games, and the transition it was born into can be measured in its own pages: the companies advertising in it are gazdasági munkaközösségek until 1994 and limited companies afterwards.

ACE Magazine

Advanced Computer Entertainment

ACE provided multi-format coverage with a mature editorial approach, treating games as legitimate entertainment worthy of serious criticism.

Acorn User

The manufacturer's own magazine

Launched in August 1982 as the official magazine for Acorn's machines, published by Addison-Wesley for Acorn Computers. Unlike the independent titles this Vault mostly covers, Acorn User was the manufacturer's — which is why Elite launched in it.

Amiga Action

Chichester's entry into a crowded market, and what became of it

Launched from Sussex by Gollner Publishing in October 1989 against Future, EMAP and Europress, and running to June 1995 — by which time it had been bought by two of them in turn: Europress around mid-1991, then IDG at the end of 1994.

Amiga Computing

Macclesfield's Amiga monthly, and the house that later took CRASH

Database Publications' Amiga magazine ran from June 1988 to October 1997, through three owners. Its own small print traces a line most histories keep separate: Database was a division of Europress, the publisher that picked up CRASH and ZZAP!64 when Newsfield collapsed — and that sold the magazine on to IDG at the end of 1994.

Amiga Format

Comprehensive Amiga coverage

The long-running Amiga magazine (1989-2000) from Future Publishing that provided comprehensive platform coverage with multiple cover disks and professional journalism throughout the Amiga's commercial life.

Amiga Joker

The German Amiga monthly, and the first German title in this Vault

Joker Verlag published Amiga Joker from Haar, near Munich, between April 1990 and October 1996. Its masthead states a publishing schedule — ten issues a year, last Friday of the preceding month, double issues for June/July and August/September — that the holdings then confirm month for month across four consecutive years.

Amiga Power

Uncompromising criticism

Amiga Power rejected the cosy relationship between magazines and publishers, delivering brutally honest reviews that readers trusted and the industry feared.

Amiga Shopper

The Amiga magazine for people who wanted to buy things

Future Publishing's third Amiga title ran 108 issues from April 1991 to January 1997, positioned at the buying decision rather than the games — the serious end of a market Future already covered twice over.

Amiga User International

Croftward's Amiga monthly, and a third publisher in EC1R

An independent Amiga magazine published by Croftward Limited from Clerkenwell — the same postcode district as EMAP — and running at least from 1987 to 1996. The last British title in this library to get an entry.

Amstrad Action

Future Publishing's first magazine, and the CPC's longest run

117 issues from October 1985 to June 1995, and the title Future Publishing was founded to print. Its Mastergame award ran from the first issue, and it outlasted the machine it covered.

Amstrad Semanal

A weekly Amstrad magazine, and the longest weekly run in this library

Hobby Press published Amstrad Semanal in Spain from 3 September 1985, weekly, and this library holds a hundred consecutive issues to 1987 — more day-dated issues than any other title held, including Britain's Personal Computer News. Its first cover analyses Knight Lore as the number one program in the world.

Amtix!

Newsfield's Amstrad title, and the one that did not last

Nineteen issues from October 1985 to April 1987. Newsfield brought the CRASH and ZZAP!64 formula to the Amstrad CPC, gave it the Accolade award, and closed it inside eighteen months.

Atari Club Magazin

Atari's German club magazine, selling E.T. while America stopped buying

Atari ran a members' club in West Germany with its own magazine, held here from 1982 to 1984. Its pages promote E.T. for a December 1982 German release, report survey findings that video games reduce aggression, and apologise for club merchandise selling out — all in the months the American market was collapsing.

Atari ST User

The middle title in Database's platform sequence

Database Publications' Atari ST monthly ran from March 1986 to October 1994 — the second of three machine-specific titles the Europress group launched, after The Micro User and before Amiga Computing.

Australian Personal Computer

Melbourne's general micro monthly, and a claim this library contradicts

APC launched in May 1980 from Carlton, Victoria, with 'AUSTRALIA'S FIRST MICRO MAGAZINE' on the cover — five months after MICRO-80 began publishing in South Australia. Its contributors, columns and cover artist are British, and match a British magazine's, but this library holds nothing from that title early enough to test the connection.

Bajtek

A Polish computer magazine issued as a supplement to the state youth newspaper

Bajtek launched in September 1985 as a joint monthly supplement to Sztandar Młodych and Odrodzenie, with the stated aim of combating microcomputer illiteracy in Poland. Its first issue covers the ZX Spectrum, LOGO, joysticks, software protection — and Atic Atac.

C= Hacking

The net-magazine that documented the C64's tricks

Founded on Usenet in February 1992 by Craig Taylor to explain what people had worked out about the C64 and C128, and still running a decade later. Pasi 'Albert' Ojala's 'Demo Corner' in it is why FLI, DYCP and sprite stretching are written down at all.

Club Commodore

A Barcelona distributor's bulletin, greeting its readers in four languages

Club Commodore was a bulletin for VIC-20 and CBM users published in Spain from 1982 by Microelectrónica y Control, Commodore's exclusive Spanish distributor. It is the earliest club magazine in this library, its content is technical rather than promotional, and its December 1982 issue wishes readers a happy new year in Spanish, Catalan, Basque and Galician.

Club Nintendo

The manufacturer's own magazine, issued page-for-page in three languages

Nintendo of Europe published Club Nintendo from 1989 in English, German and Dutch. The three editions are the same twenty pages in three languages — same features, same page numbers, same jokes — with only the club's return address changed. It was made in cooperation with Tokuma Shoten of Tokyo, under project leads titled national and international.

Commodore Computer Club

Milan, September 1982 — the earliest club magazine held, and it previews the C64

Commodore Computer Club ran from September 1982 to December 1991, ninety issues from Milan. Its first issue previews the Commodore 64 at launch, runs a part-work programming course, interviews a self-described compucantautore, and pays its contributors in cassettes. Nothing in it claims any connection to Commodore.

Commodore Format

C64's last champion

Commodore Format supported the Commodore 64 through its twilight years, providing reviews, type-in listings, and cover tapes when other magazines had moved on.

COMPUTE!

The multi-platform standard

American computing magazine that served multiple platforms from 1979 to 1994, famous for its type-in programs and technical content.

Compute!'s Gazette

Programs you can type

Compute!'s Gazette provided Commodore users with type-in programs, tutorials, and reviews, teaching programming through practical application.

Computer & Video Games

Britain's first, and it outlasted almost everything it covered

C&VG launched in November 1981, before most of the machines it would review existed, and ran until 2004. It is the largest single holding in this library's magazine archive and the source of 347 scored Spectrum reviews.

Computer Gaming World

America's strategy bible

Computer Gaming World provided in-depth coverage of PC gaming from 1981, becoming the authoritative voice for strategy, RPG, and simulation enthusiasts.

CRASH

The Spectrum monthly that defined a decade

Newsfield's CRASH magazine ran from February 1984 to April 1992, covering the ZX Spectrum with the wit, art, and reviewer energy that made it the platform's defining publication.

Creative Computing

The first personal computer magazine

David Ahl's pioneering magazine that covered personal computing from 1974 to 1985, predating the home computer revolution.

CU Amiga

Commodore User, renamed when the Amiga won

EMAP's Commodore magazine ran from June 1983 to October 1998 under two names — Commodore User for six years, CU Amiga for nine more. It is the longest-held British Commodore title in this library and, until now, the largest one the Vault had never written about.

Drean Commodore

Argentina's Commodore magazine, for a machine called the Drean Commodore 64

Drean Commodore ran from December 1985, covering Commodore machines built in Argentina under licence by Drean. The magazine names the product the way its readers bought it — la Drean Commodore 64 — which is the whole difference between Argentina's route to the machine and Britain's.

Famitsu

Japan's gaming authority

The most influential Japanese gaming publication (1986-present), known for its four-reviewer scoring system out of 40 and prestigious perfect scores that only around 30 games have ever achieved.

Illegal

The cracking scene's own press

Illegal was a Commodore 64 diskmag by Jeff Smart and Triad — the cracking scene's news, charts, and gossip, carrying the debates a crack intro never could.

Input

The complete computing course

Marshall Cavendish's 1984 part-work magazine that provided comprehensive computing education across 52 weekly issues.

MC-microcomputer

The largest title in this library, and the first Italian entry in this Vault

Technimedia's Italian computing monthly ran 222 issues from September 1981 to June 2001. At 60,950 pages it is the biggest single publication in this project's reference library — larger than Byte, Compute! or Computer Gaming World — and until now the Vault had never mentioned it.

Mean Machines

EMAP's console magazine, when consoles arrived

EMAP's console monthly ran from October 1990 to September 1992, covering the Mega Drive and Super Famicom era for a British readership that had spent the decade on home computers.

Micro Sistemas

Brazil's first microcomputer magazine, opening on the death of John Lennon

Micro Sistemas launched in Rio de Janeiro in October 1981, calling itself the first Brazilian publication devoted to microcomputers. Its opening editorial answers 'the dream is over' with a dream beginning, and its first issue carries an interview that explains, from inside the industry, why Brazilian machines cost more and used domestic parts.

MICRO-80

An Australian TRS-80 monthly that sold its listings on cassette in 1979

MICRO-80 was published from Goodwood, South Australia, from December 1979 — the earliest Australian title in this library and eighteen months earlier than the earliest British one. It bought its programs from its readers, offered every issue's listings on a companion cassette, and printed an anti-copying appeal that declines to threaten anyone.

Mikroprozessortechnik

An East German computing journal, licensed by the Council of Ministers

Mikroprozessortechnik began in East Berlin in 1987, published by VEB Verlag Technik for the Kammer der Technik under licence number 1710 from the GDR Press Office. Its first issue leads on microelectronics as a key technology for the national economy, and its programming courses cover the Soviet 8086 clone and the GDR's own dBASE.

Mikroszámítógép Magazin

Hungary before 1990, published by the John von Neumann Computer Science Society

Mikroszámítógép Magazin ran from 1984, published by the John von Neumann Computer Science Society with the state computing institute. It is the first pre-transition Hungarian title in this library, and the machine landscape it describes — with the Enterprise and the domestic Primo in its top six — vanishes entirely from the Hungarian press after 1990.

Nintendo Magazine System

An official Nintendo magazine that Nintendo did not publish

EMAP launched Nintendo Magazine System in Britain in October 1992, publishing it commercially while holding a licence from Nintendo for the characters, logos and trademarks. An Australian edition of the same name appeared under a Sydney publisher with its own staff, its own numbering and half the page count — and no printed statement of any relationship between the two.

Nintendo Power

The house magazine

Nintendo of America's official magazine (1988-2012) that provided exclusive coverage, strategy guides, and promotional content, becoming essential reading for Nintendo fans through its combination of tips, maps, and insider information.

PAGE 6

A computer club's magazine that outlasted the professionals

Started in December 1981 by the Birmingham User Group as a bi-monthly for Atari owners the national press ignored, PAGE 6 became New Atari User and ran until 1998 — seventeen years, longer than CRASH, ZZAP!64 or Your Sinclair managed.

PAPERsoft

An Italian weekly of nothing but programs, translated from English one listing at a time

PAPERsoft launched in Milan on 15 June 1984 as 'the first weekly of software on paper', publishing type-in listings and nothing else. Almost every program carries an English-language author and a named Italian translator-adapter, which makes the magazine a record of foreign software entering a market program by program, before commercial localisation.

PC Player

Germany's PC games monthly, and the largest German title held here

PC Player ran from January 1993 to at least December 1999 under Heinrich Lenhardt, published by DMV Verlag of the WEKA group. In September 1999 it announced its own sale — to Future Verlag GmbH, the German arm of Future Publishing — in a stop-press note that also records what Future had become by then: 108 magazines, and the market leaders in Britain, Italy, France and the United States.

Pixel

Greece's listings magazine, launched on the evidence of a reader survey

Compupress launched Pixel in Athens in October 1983 as a quarterly of type-in program listings, spun out of an existing magazine because a questionnaire showed readers wanted more of them. It went monthly in 1985 and ran until June 1996 — 133 issues, the largest holding here from any territory outside Britain, Italy, the United States and Germany.

Računari

The Belgrade magazine that published a computer you could build

Računari began in Belgrade in January 1984 with a special issue, Računari u vašoj kući, carrying complete self-build instructions for a home computer. The machine was the Galaksija, designed — the issue says — by one man, Voja Antonić, in under a month.

Retro Gamer

Celebrating gaming history

Retro Gamer magazine became the definitive publication for classic gaming enthusiasts, documenting gaming history through developer interviews and retrospectives.

Scene Diskmags

Underground publications

Diskmags were electronic magazines distributed on floppy disk, covering the demoscene with news, interviews, tutorials, and opinion pieces from within the community.

Sinclair Programs

A magazine that was mostly listings

ECC Publications' companion to Sinclair User ran 52 issues from June 1983 to September 1985, built around type-in programs rather than reviews — and its 1985 survey of the trade's birthdays is a source this Vault leans on.

Sinclair User

The serious Spectrum monthly

Sinclair User ran from April 1982 to May 1993 — the technical, programmer-friendly counterpoint to CRASH's reviews and Your Sinclair's irreverence. The longest-running Spectrum monthly, and the one that took the platform's hardware seriously.

ST Format

Future's Atari ST monthly, and the other half of a split

Future Publishing's Atari ST magazine ran from July 1989 to September 1996. It and Amiga Format are the two halves of ST/Amiga Format, which separated in mid-1989 — and its colophon places Future in Bath by then.

ST Magazine

The first Atari ST magazine held here, and the one a state told it was not journalism

ST Magazine launched in France in September 1985 — six months before Atari ST User and nearly four years before ST Format, making it the earliest ST-dedicated title in this library. In December 1986 the Commission paritaire withdrew its press accreditation, on the ground that magazines devoted to a single computing standard are effectively advertising catalogues for the brand.

The Games Machine

Newsfield's answer to a rival's good year

Launched October 1987 as a multi-format magazine from the publisher of CRASH and Zzap!64 — a deliberate departure, and by a competitor's account a direct response to the success of a revamped Computer & Video Games.

The Games Machine (Italy)

The licensed edition that outlived its licensor by eight years

Newsfield licensed The Games Machine to Edizioni Hobby of Milan in 1988. The British edition closed after 34 issues in September 1990 and Newsfield collapsed the following year; the Italian edition dropped the licence line, changed publisher, and kept going until May 1999 — 112 issues held here against Britain's 34.

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