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I miss those days so much. 80s computer magazines were exciting. The web is great, but it doesn't have the anticipation of waiting for the next issue and then s

I miss those days so much. 80s computer magazines were exciting. The web is great, but it doesn't have the anticipation of waiting for the next issue and then sitting down to dig into it with focused attention to see what was fresh and new and to be wowed by all the things you couldn't afford. A 20 megabyte hard drive for ONLY $1000? That's a good price! Unimaginable luxury, I only had floppy disks into the 1990s. I am someone who used to type in code from a magazine before I knew what the SAVE command was. You would never see someone doing something like that today. "In 1983 an average of one new computer magazine appeared each week. By late that year more than 200 existed." 80s computer magazines were thick too! Compute! magazine published 392 pages in December 1983.

dhosek 5y ago
I remember how shocking it was when SoftTalk came out. It didn't have program listings in it!
- Sunspark 5y ago
  That's why the T-800 Terminator's code was from Nibble magazine. SoftTalk didn't want to create Skynet.
  - dhosek 5y ago
    There was an article published in Nibble that I desperately wanted to read¹ back around 1982ish, but the only library near me that carried it was a few suburbs away. I remember calling the library to make sure they had the issue on hand and the library thinking that I was joking. 13-year-old me patiently explained to her that a nibble was half a byte which didn't really help my case.² 1. If I recall correctly, it provided a way to use a 100ohm dual pot joystick from Radio Shack with the Apple ][ which expected 150ohm pots on its paddle/joystick inputs. 2. And because you're probably dying to know, it turns out that the issue in question had gone missing, so I never did learn how to make that joystick work with an Apple ][, but then I also didn't have the money to buy one anyway.
TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
> I am someone who used to type in code from a magazine I did this, too, but after being burned again and again with software that didn’t work after hours of typing, I gave up. Disheartening for a child. Of course, I could have been responsible for the problems.
tomcam 5y ago
The September 1983 issue of COMPUTE! was my introduction to programming. Still have it, and just showed it to my kid, who didn't understand its appeal at all. I later became a columnist, and it was an amazing experience.
- Sunspark 5y ago
  What was it like being a columnist in the 80s? Did everyone work from home and hold meetings over the telephone, or did they have a shared office space?
  - tomcam 5y ago
    The former. Worked from home and used phone or email. It was great and paid OK (I think $500 per column, plus all the commercial software I wanted). I also wrote reviews, so if I wanted to learn databases I would write a database roundup. Didn’t go to school for programming, so this was getting paid to learn. And of course being a published writer looked great when applying for a job. The full-timers did have a real office, BTW. At one point the owners of Penthouse bought COMPUTE! and Omni, so my churchgoing editor found himself putting a porn mag online…
cubano 5y ago
I fondly remember sitting in the display window at the local Radio Shack saving my typed in programs to a cassette tape machine , connected, of course, to a Trash-80. It was almost pure luck if I managed to save the silly little thing, and all i was really interested in were the games. I do remember to joy of getting a little ASCII slot machine game actually working after like 3 sessions. and the guys at the RS were so impressed that they left it running and used it as a in store demo.

dhosek 5y ago

I remember how shocking it was when SoftTalk came out. It didn't have program listings in it!

Sunspark 5y ago
That's why the T-800 Terminator's code was from Nibble magazine. SoftTalk didn't want to create Skynet.
- dhosek 5y ago
  There was an article published in Nibble that I desperately wanted to read¹ back around 1982ish, but the only library near me that carried it was a few suburbs away. I remember calling the library to make sure they had the issue on hand and the library thinking that I was joking. 13-year-old me patiently explained to her that a nibble was half a byte which didn't really help my case.² 1. If I recall correctly, it provided a way to use a 100ohm dual pot joystick from Radio Shack with the Apple ][ which expected 150ohm pots on its paddle/joystick inputs. 2. And because you're probably dying to know, it turns out that the issue in question had gone missing, so I never did learn how to make that joystick work with an Apple ][, but then I also didn't have the money to buy one anyway.

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago

> I am someone who used to type in code from a magazine I did this, too, but after being burned again and again with software that didn’t work after hours of typing, I gave up. Disheartening for a child. Of course, I could have been responsible for the problems.

tomcam 5y ago

The September 1983 issue of COMPUTE! was my introduction to programming. Still have it, and just showed it to my kid, who didn't understand its appeal at all. I later became a columnist, and it was an amazing experience.

Sunspark 5y ago
What was it like being a columnist in the 80s? Did everyone work from home and hold meetings over the telephone, or did they have a shared office space?
- tomcam 5y ago
  The former. Worked from home and used phone or email. It was great and paid OK (I think $500 per column, plus all the commercial software I wanted). I also wrote reviews, so if I wanted to learn databases I would write a database roundup. Didn’t go to school for programming, so this was getting paid to learn. And of course being a published writer looked great when applying for a job. The full-timers did have a real office, BTW. At one point the owners of Penthouse bought COMPUTE! and Omni, so my churchgoing editor found himself putting a porn mag online…

cubano 5y ago

I fondly remember sitting in the display window at the local Radio Shack saving my typed in programs to a cassette tape machine , connected, of course, to a Trash-80. It was almost pure luck if I managed to save the silly little thing, and all i was really interested in were the games. I do remember to joy of getting a little ASCII slot machine game actually working after like 3 sessions. and the guys at the RS were so impressed that they left it running and used it as a in store demo.