What was the first computer magazine you read?

[dudeslife]

for me, it was Compute's Gazette. I was a hardcore c64 user and that magazine sported a massive payload of articles and type in programs.

[Mirage]

Probably Compute!'s Gazette, for same reason you mention. Hardcore C= user to this day.

Edited December 31, 2012 by Mirage

[RickR]

Compute! For the VIC-20, then Atari programs and articles.

[CGQuarterly]

Does Computer Shopper count? My friend and I used to read it cover to cover, back when it was ridiculously over-sized, and as thick as a phone book. It was nothing but ads, but we would price out our dream computer by finding the best deals in the mag. Of course, we were teenagers and couldn't afford to build new PCs...

 

Chris

[desiv]

Tough one..

Probably either ComputerWorld or Byte....

 

desiv

[boxpressed]

99'er Magazine, probably late 1982 or early 1983.

[Jinks]

I have a couple year collection of compute just aquired. pretty neato stuff..

[Ransom]

Atari Connection. I'm pretty sure it was volume 2, Issue 2. It came with (or was free when sent away for) my Atari 400 and/or one of the packages I got with it (Entertainer, Programmer, Educator).

 

But I didn't subscribe to AC. I subscribed to Compute! Great mag. I remember being so excited when it would come in the mail. Typing in all those programs...

[Keatah]

Interface Age

[Rybags]

Hard to say. Possibly a local one "Your Computer". Early regulars were Byte, Creative Computing, Compute!, Australian Personal Computer, Your Computer.

[The Usotsuki]

Most likely it was COMPUTE!.

[AtariLeaf]

I only remember reading "Rainbow", the Tandy coco magazine. I probably read others back then but Rainbow was the only one I subbed to.

[tep392]

It was Analog for me. Typed a lot of the programs into my little 400. I remember being particularly impressed with Livewire. I couldn't believe such a good game could be typed in from a magazine. There was also this little assembly language sub-routine that ran in the vertical blank and would create the explosions used in Missle Command. A Basic version of Missile Command was one of my first attempts at programming.

[+HatNJ]

Creative Computing was the 1st and Family computing close second But Compute!'s Publications dominated most of my time had Compute! and Gazette til there end still like to read through them today

[jhd]

My very first computer magazine was TRS-80 Microcomputer Newsletter -- the first six(?) months came free with the purchase of my Coco back in Spring 1982. It covered the entire TRS-80 line with some surprisingly good technical articles -- and lots of small-print BASIC listings.

 

I discovered Hot Coco in late-1983 (the January 1984 issue) and I remained a subscriber until the end of publication in about June 1986.

 

I began collecting Byte in January 1987 and I continued to subscribe until that too ceased publication in Summer 1998. Sigh.

[jaybird3rd]

My family got me a subscription to Enter, which subsequently became a shadow of its former self as a tiny subsection of 3-2-1 Contact. I was also given a bunch of back-issues of Family Computing by my grandfather. The latter is especially interesting to read in retrospect because it always had profiles of families who "took the plunge" and invested in a computer (no small investment in those days!), talking about how they liked them and the various ways in which they were using them. It was the very early stages of a massive societal transformation. Of course, both magazines also had type-in program listings, game reviews, etc. I would love to have had the chance to read Byte, Creative Computing, and other "more important" magazines in their heyday, but my family either wasn't aware of them or couldn't afford them at the time.

[Mirage]

Actually, I just remembered long before seeing any of the Compute! publications, I had one issue a TRS-80 magazine called, I think, 80-Micro. I had a late '70s one that I think someone handed down to me. It's what got me really interested in computers, before even using one. I didn't understand a lick of what the magazine said (it was more business-oriented than anything Compute! did), but I was fascinated all the same. Then I went into the Radio Shack stores to mess with their machines until they kicked me out. Fortunately there were couple Shacks within bike riding distance, so I went from one to the other wearing out my welcome. All because of that 80-Micro. Still, Compute! publications were the first ones I ever bought myself and really started to understand.

[potatohead]

ROM Issue 1. Had it for many years too, and I'm pissed that I lost it in a move along with a bunch of Atari stuff some clown stole out of the truck.

 

Great issue! Had a picture of a motorcycle with a computer strapped on back, switches and lights and all! An uncle brought it home as a curio and I read every page, sparking an interest in computers when I was really young. The only other info I really had was the two page entry in the World Book Encyclopedia.

[20ohm20]

I'd look through the Byte magazines my dad brought home in the late 70's, but I had no idea what most of the stuff was at the time.

 

The first computer magazine I read on a regular basis (and had use for) was Compute! and Compute!'s Gazette. I still have my Gazette disks from when I was a subscriber from July 1984 to 1987.

[high voltage]

TeleMatch and Happy Computer, two early German video game and computer magazines.

Happy Computer was important in that it printed a listing in the magazine for Turbo Basic XL for Atari 8.

Edited December 31, 2012 by high voltage

[magnusfalkirk]

Mine was Incider, for the Apple II. Subscribed to it from the very first issue.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Must have been Byte magazine, since we had no German magazines back then.

[Keatah]

Like I said a few posts ago, It was Interface Age. I liked the concept art on the front cover. But prior to that, it was some long-forgotten newsletters and NASA spinoff reports. I don't know if you want to consider that a computer magazine/publication. Otherwise Interface Age it is!

[high voltage]

Working for the US Army in Germany, I did pick up Antic sometimes. but it was always sold out so very quick.

 

Oh I did buy UKs C&VG regular from the Station's magazine shop, that was like a 'god' video game magazine and dead expensive due to taxes imposed onto exports by the British king. Later the magazine was banned in Germany (I didn't care I was out of there)

Edited January 1, 2013 by high voltage

[ClausB]

My high school computer club subscribed to BYTE and Kilobaud (and maybe Creative Computing), so it was likely one of those, although I scoured the local libraries for any computer articles in Scientific American, Popular Electronics, and such.

 

From Kilobaud, June, 1977 (by way of MITS Computer Notes, p. 8 ), here's the story of my high school's computers: http://www.altair32.com/pdf/cn0777.pdf

Edited January 1, 2013 by ClausB