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During the home computer boom of the early 1980s there was, of course, a similar boom in published magazine titles - followed by the bust as the bubble burst around the middle of the decade. With the restructuring that occurred later on another small boom occurred nearer the end of the decade with many titles dedicated to the newer 16-bit home machines such as the ST and Amiga coming to the fore (see final page). A few of the new magazines attempted to fill perceived niche markets - for example, Computer Answers (top left) relied primarily upon questions sent in by readers (um, and who wrote them for the first issue??). Others tried to muscle in on areas already covered by the existing titles. However, some took fringe subjects as their theme - on the left is the first edition of Practical Robotics - appearing bi-monthly for just a short run of four issues it was really ahead of its time (and probably would be even today). The same subject had already been unsuccessfully attempted by Your Robot, a short-lived supplement in Hobby Electronics (itself a relatively short-lived sister magazine to ETI). The early 80s also saw the rise of the weekly magazines, a trend started by Personal Computer News which was followed by Popular Computing and Home Computing Weekly. Costing just 35p an issue when launched in March 1983, the initial 116 pages (including an 8-page supplement on the anatomy of the BBC micro) soon slimmed down and the price had risen to 50p by the end of the year. Although PCN disappeared after about two years and the others not long after, that didn't stop New Computer Express from trying to revive the idea in 1988. Unfortunately, it went the same way as the rest and folded in October 1991. One interesting subject is Computer Age, shown top right. This came about by renaming an already existing, averagely successful magazine, Electronics and Computing Monthly, and dropping much of the electronics side of the content. This appears to have produced the unenviable situation of quickly alienating its old readership and, as far as I can recall, the whole thing folded within months. Attempts to cater for the computer professional, as opposed to home market, could be seen by the arrival of SOFT in 1983 though, like the liquid Apple II on the first edition's cover, the title had melted away under a year later. In 1987, Program, renamed Program Now by the second edition to avoid 'confusion' (their word - they probably meant to avoid legal problems) with another title of the same name, aimed itself fairly and squarely at those developing programs. Initially, it tackled programming on any available platform but migrated almost wholly to MS-DOS/Windows later on. Although it hung around far longer than SOFT, lasting well into the 1990s, the title has now gone the same way. The only magazine shown on this page that is still with us is Computer Shopper. Born in March 1988 and, apart from the cover, printed on cheap, non-glossy paper to keep the price down to a highly respectable 78p, it is still one of the more popular titles today. |
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