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.
PAPERsoft was an Italian weekly published in Milan by J-soft editrice from 15 June 1984. Ninety issues are held here, thirty-two pages each, running to 27 December 1985.
Its cover states what it is: “il primo settimanale di software su carta” — the first weekly of software on paper.
A weekly because monthlies are too slow
The opening editorial makes the case for the cadence, and the argument is about readers rather than about software:
“Un settimanale di programmi per il personal computer? Chi l’avrebbe mai detto, fino a pochi mesi fa? … Lasciamo dunque ai mensili il compito di approfondire certi argomenti, di pubblicare programmi complessi.”
A weekly of programs for the personal computer — who would have said so, a few months ago? The monthlies, it says, are all lovely, but “l’impazienza degli appassionati possessori di un personal computer è senza limiti” — the impatience of enthusiastic computer owners is limitless. So leave the monthlies to go deep and publish complex programs; this will do the other thing.
What the other thing is, it also states: PAPERsoft publishes only software. No reviews, no news, no hardware. A computer without software, the editorial says, is just a nice electronic box, and what it offers is programs “pronto per l’uso” — ready to use — of a kind it cheerfully calls “usa e getta”, use and throw away, or else worth keeping in an inexhaustible library.
Every program crossed a border
The contents page is the valuable part, because it credits each listing twice.
| Program | Author | Translated and adapted by |
|---|---|---|
| Meteor Storm | R. Harper | M. Cerofolini |
| Atterraggio lunare | H. Sanday | M. Cerofolini |
| La disfida di Camelot | G. Garrett | E. Re Garbagnati |
| Aereoporto | D. Courtier-Dutton | C. Panzalis |
| Gotcha! | D. Smoak | U. Barzaghi |
| Vic-Tastiera | D. Bingamon | U. Barzaghi |
English-speaking authors throughout, and a named Italian traduttore e adattatore for each. Trad. e adatt. on a program listing is more than a title change: prompts and messages become Italian, and the code is adapted to the machines actually on sale.
This Vault has documented three ways a magazine crossed a border. This is a different crossing and a smaller unit — the software itself, moving one listing at a time, with the adapter credited by name beside the author. It is what a non-English market looked like before commercial localisation reached it: not translated boxes in shops, but translated listings on newsprint, weekly, for anyone willing to type.
It split by machine
Volume 1, through 1984, is multi-format — the first issue alone carries programs for the TI-99/4A, the Spectrum, the C64 and the VIC-20. Volume 2, in 1985, breaks into machine-specific series: a Commodore run of thirty-one issues held, a Sinclair one, and two further numbered series.
That is the same move this Vault records among British publishers, who launched one title per machine as each market grew large enough to carry it — compressed here into eighteen months and happening inside a single weekly rather than across a catalogue.
⚠ This entry is built from the first issue and the shape of the run. This library holds PAPERsoft in quantity and no account of it from elsewhere, so nothing here says where J-soft obtained the programs, whether the original authors were paid, or on what terms the adaptations were made. The credits establish that adaptation was done and named, not that it was licensed.
See also
- MC-microcomputer, The Games Machine (Italy) — the other Italian entries
- Amstrad Semanal — the other weekly here
- Magazines across borders