In the 80s, one of my favorite pastimes was reading computer magazines. Yes, I was and still am a nerd. I still spend far too much time collecting (and reading) retro magazines.
Today I almost certainly have more retro computer magazines than you do. By my count, I now have nearly 700 issues of various computer magazines from the 70s, 80s and 90s!
Just a small sample of my retro magazine collection!
Looking back at the 80s, it was a great joy to get a magazine in the mail. As a young teenager, I’d grab it and curl up on my bed and read it through, cover-to-cover. In fact, I also often reread magazines several times. Some I’ve read so many times, I know where to find topics and specific articles off the top of my head.
Being an Atari kid, my favorites were Atari magazines, especially Analog and Antic in those early days. Compute! was another one I enjoyed because it covered other computers like the VIC-20, Commodore 64, TI-99/4a, IBM PC and Amiga.
I remember my Dad had subscriptions to ANALOG and Antic, but he would often pick up others magazines at Bookland or Waldenbooks. He flipped through them, but I studied them all. Magazines were the web of the 80s!
I certainly loved hanging out in those book stores and flipping through the dozens of computer magazines that were available. There were just so many choices in the heyday of the 80s.
I’d sometimes buy a copy of Byte if the topics interested me, because at 300-400 pages, it always felt like a great value.
In High School I would even go to the school library to check out copies of Creative Computing magazine!
Later in the 80s we started getting START, ST Log and then Current Notes. Sadly, by the late 80s Atari computer magazines were no longer in normal book stores (at least here in the US). You had to go to an Atari dealer to find them, and there were not many of those, or subscribe.
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