Why have you bought that tat? - Computing magazines, purpose and posts

As someone with an interest in history, the importance of primary sources, contemporary to the events of which they describe, cannot be overstated. The same can, should and will be said (by me) for the history of computing.

MacUser(s) always wanted to show off!

I have an interest in the topic, one that stretches from the earliest years to about the beginning of the 2010's. Over the last few years, I've managed to acquire a selection of pdf's for magazines such as Acorn User, Amiga Format, The One, a decent range of Computer and Video Games, and so forth. However, an area that remains somewhat incomplete is the UK general computing genre. 

You can, for instance, collect quite a few Personal Computer World pdf's from Archive.org, and many an enterprising eBayer will sell you DVD's with these collated for a few quid. The pdf collection of Personal Computer News, a fortnightly mag from the early to mid 1980's is a treasure trove of machines, news and reviews. The thing is, that without access to these long out of print titles, much of that history would be lost. The problem is actually worse for the period that most fascinates me, the mid 80's to mid-90's.

Over this ten year period, the 16, 26 (good old Archie) and 32-bit machines arrived and, in the end, became dominant in the form of the Windows PC and Mac (albeit with the latter having a torrid time). Yet whilst there are any number of format specific mags available in pdf collections, the likes of Computer Shopper are almost totally missing, and neither love, money or entreaties of personal fealty will get you an early PC Pro. And as for 1990's PC Format, jog on, bonny people. 

You DO NOT want to know the postage on these two batches!

Still, through the joys of eBay, I have managed to create a collection of What Micro and Which Computer from the 80-90's period, as well as a smattering of PCW's that aren't around as pdf's. As much as I would love a full collection of period PCW or PC Pro's, the Holy Grail remains Computer Shopper. I have issue 4, covered here, and recently picked up issues 40 (June 1991) and 80 (October 1994).

Why, you may ask? Well, much like contemporary sources serve any historical wargamer well (hearing it in the words of those who were there gives, at the very least, flavour to the period, never mind facts, opinions and the like), for the history of computing in the UK, the equivalent of these primary sources are the magazines of the time. 

Let me demonstrate with a couple of photographs. Below you will see the three physical issues of Computer Shopper I own, as well as the eleven PCW's. Note how they change, oldest at the bottom of their respective piles - they get bigger, and in the case of Shopper, much bigger!

What a difference six years makes.

Are you surprised? It did advertise itself as a journal...

I'll cover these changes in greater details in future posts, but what I'd like to point out is that the computer scene back in the early 1990's was an absolute riot of manufacturers, suppliers and resellers. The sheer variety of kit and software available is mind boggling, especially when compared to the mature, staid and much changed, online dominated market now. 

Without physical copies of these magazines, there is little online evidence, aside from the odd image an wikipedia entry, that this even happened. Having written a piece that should be published later this year on Amstrad's attempts at gaming-focused PC's, it would have been extremely difficult to research such an article without having some of the paper issues of mags long past. Similarly, you get a feel for the period. Going back further than the 90's, you'd think the 8-bit UK computer market in the early 80's was a three way between Amstrad, Commodore and Sinclair (alphabetical order to annoy at least some of the fans) with a few failed formats like the Enterprise, Ace and Lynx. Except it wasn't - it was the Wild West, with scare stories of Japanese competitors (this being the time of the fear of Far Eastern superiority in high tech industries) driving editorials in Personal Computer News, alongside reports of Sinclair's prickly nature, the omnipotency of CP/M, and the constant news reports of computer companies being torn a new one by the Advertising Standards Agency. This is stuff is long forgotten yet is key to understanding why things happened the way they did - and how commentators back then failed to realise how much the US market would drive the home computer revolution in to the 90's - seriously, once the IBM Compatible ensconced itself as the defacto home computer in the States, everybody else's (excluding Apple, eventually), time would be limited. 

As a source of information, be it news, reviews or opinion pieces, or imagery (especially adverts - what have we lost with the decline of print ads - looking at you, Gateway 2000 and MJN - you'll see why when we get to the Shopper 80!), these are a goldmine and, in my humble opinion, should be preserved however possible. 

It's not just the general computing publications either. MacUser, of which I own three issues, is another, and there may be a piece about 1995 coming at some point, as that was the year that things started to fall apart for our fruity little tinkers in Cupertino - as far as hardware goes. The OS was looking very tired against the behemoth that would become Windows 95, and Apple were already half way up the creek when it came to sorting a replacement. 

Similarly, this wonderful screenshot from an Acorn User issue in 1992 and the last paragraph talking about the benefits of getting an A3010 over an Amiga A500 or A500 Plus... as a valid comment, not really, as flavour, hell yes!

The comment in column two: meow, pussycat, MEOW!

Anyway, long post short (too late!), there will be a new series of occasional posts looking at specific issues of computer magazines past, starting with Shopper 40. Much like "Was That Film Really That Bad', they'll happen as and when, but as you can see from the pictures above, there are a few editions to get through... and maybe more if eBay continues to be a friend...

If you're more into video games coverage, check out the Out of Print Archive here, who have a cracking (and growing collection) of high quality magazines scans.