Magazines of Yesteryear - Personal Computer World Volume 29 Number 8 - August 2006

Whoa! Whoa!!! Whoa, I said!!! I know, it's a 21st Century magazine, but we're talking 2006, so that's retro in my eyes, at least for the purpose of this blog. 

So yes, Personal Computer World in 2006, and the times they had a changed since the heady days of the 1990's. It's a much more svelte publication at just under 200 pages. Gone were the reams dedicated to advertising. Oh, there were still ads, but far fewer. Similarly, whereas once you might have had two dozen entrants into a PC group test, by 2006, the cover article states only seven. We'll get to that in a bit though...

Good news everyone! Beta 2 of Vista was available for download, alongside a new version of Office. Both were ready to hit consumers in January 2007, with the OS doing some serious battering all on its own. OK, it wasn't terrible, it just had the reputation of XP to live up to and... well, yes...

Microsoft were promising "lighter and cheaper Origamis". If you aren't familiar with the concept, these were a hybrid media player cum ultra-mobile PC. The entire point was a tad flawed - compromised ergonomics, high prices, and the dual advent of tablets and the netbook did for the idea. At the other end of the (cough) portable segment was Dell's XPS-M2010 - an 8kg 20-inch chonk. It had its appeal but it stretched the definition of portable to the extreme for contemporary standards. 

The first feature details ways of trying to silence your PC - and although not as complicated as, say, making a nuclear submarine a hole in the water, there were a surprising amount of options to get the decibels down. Following that is a look at Boot Camp, a superbly useful option for Mac users at the time. Pieces on the Windows Registry and the true cost of wireless data prove worthy of inclusion for those interested in such things, as well as raising your humble scribe's eyebrows at the cost per megabyte punters would have faced. At the time of this issue, I was working at Phones 4u (don't hate me, I was admin, not sales!), and whilst there was some interest in "smart-er" phones, it was still early days. That being said, I often yearn for the time when handsets had style and character rather than the "beige" of phone design that rules today: the slab. Not the Nokia 7280 though. That "phone" had the dubious claim to fame of having a 100% return rate at our store with bloody good reason!

It's the reviews section next, and Mesh leads with an Athlon64 FX-62 powered gaming colossus. 2 (count 'em) gigs of RAM, 500GB of storage and twin Nvidia Geforce 7900 GT cards in SLI (Scalable Link Interface) configuration. This was serious stuff, and yes, it could run Far Cry - 86fps! Of course, at £1,999, you'd expect high performance and it's only the looming promise of Intel's Core 2 Duo chips that reins in the enthusiasm. 

Evesham have an AMD Turion 64 X 2 powered laptop for the much more sensible price of £799. It's a tad slow (blame the graphics), and with an average battery life (3h 19m), yet once again, the Core 2 Duo range raises questions over value.

The next page has Apple's Macbook and it's the the same model I used as a daily driver until about 2011. £749 for 512MB of RAM, 80GB hard drive and, as the review attests, the only downside was the poor 3D performance. I still wish I had that lappy! On the other page, Lenovo were showing off their Thinkpad X60. £1,360 got you an Intel Core Due T2400, 512MB of memory and 60GB of storage. Although lacking an optical drive (and possibly another half gig of memory for that price), it was the five and a half hour DVD playing battery life that astounded, reaching a heady ten (10!) hours in light use. Given the tech of the time, that was superb, and the best PCW had seen up until that point. 

The big group test is for £899 dual-core PC, with a septet of companies offering machines. Of those seven, only a couple are still extant. Dell wins this one, but even the lowest scoring option (the Cube 24/7) wasn't a terrible deal. In other words, any of these machines would have suited. 

A second group test is the cover star - dual graphics POWER!!!!! It wasn't a terrible idea for the time, but the advance of technology and the sheer cost of a Crossfire (AMD) or SLI (Nvidia) set up meant that it never truly caught on. The extra faff and hassle just wasn't worth it, and whilst anywhere between a 50 and 94% improvement was on offer, the market wasn't really suited to spending £400 on an extra GPU. Oh, how innocent they were...

The usual Business section (complied by Alan Stevens) has goodies for the seriously employed among us, and Hands On (edited by Kelvyn Taylor) has a wide array of hints, tips and guides for the dozen sections that comprises it. A buyers guide takes us to the cover disc section (MS Office Professional Plus Beta 2, no less), before the back page gives us the Flashback column - three issues are covered, the respective August editions for 2001, 1991 and 1981. 

And now for the commercials:

Dell occupied their traditional inside front cover, where some of their prices now seem ridiculously low. A Pentium 4 with half a gig of RAM, 80GB of hard drive storage and a 17-inch monitor for £299 ex VAT! That's £411 inclusive with delivery. For a basic machine, what more could you want, except maybe doubling the memory. 

Mesh had their range of laptops on show and not one of them cost more than £1,000 inclusive. It has to be understood that these machines were in no way as portable as many laptops are considered today, but even so, they could be moved about with relative ease as long as you had the power adaptor to hand. 

Evesham Technology's looked all cool and modern, but as fate would turn out, they were a year away from trouble. At that point though, they were still a good source of kit. 

An insert from Microsoft extolled the benefits of Windows XP Media Centre Edition, and a couple of ads from Mesh and PC World for suitable machines. To be honest, they weren't worth the cost, but another fad of getting the computer and television to sit nicely together. 

Ah! Here's PC Specialist! Still going now, in 2006 they catered for a whole gamut of users - and that gaming rig, although £1,308 VAT inclusive, looked great on paper. Compare that to the price of a top of the range GPU (alone) now!

Morgan Computers had a range of goods on offer, but nothing that stood out, whereas Timeuk(dotcom) were busy trying to flog new fangled flat screen televisions as well as PC's. Not an HD TV (it only offered a 1024x768 resolution), it promised to be HD ready. Readers may recall the need when shopping for a new gogglebox at the time of being aware that just seeing the letters H and D was not enough to guarantee the spec. 

Sterling XS were another refurb box shifter, and yes, I'd have snatched that Panasonic Toughbook CF-27 without a second thought given the opportunity again. The same impulse could also be directed at those Thinkpad models as well. At the time, however, I had my heart set on a shiny Macbook, so there you go. 

Last of all, and suitably on the back page, an ad from Sony for their VGX-XL 100 Media PC. Nope, no idea why the crappy name for a consumer focused product, and even the dog is unimpressed. I can imagine him thinking "Why have you bought that, Dave, you absolute plum?"

So that was PCW in mid-2006. A magazine that still had a place in the world, even if that world had changed massively since the halcyon days of the previous decade. Next time, we'll be back in the far more comfortable confines of the DOS era.

From Ants to Zombies - Book Review

Horror has been a part of video games since the form's earliest days, and this 2023 publication from Bitmap Books casts an extremely detailed eye over the topic. At a just over 660 pages, this is a hefty tome, handy for dealing with an attack of the undead if you didn't have a chainsaw or two lying around, as well as being an informative read. 

Under the guiding hand of Alexander Chatziioannou, dozens of contributors lend their skill on what is quite the ride. As you can see from the image below, it's a hell of a gathering, as is the format list which imitates the title in that it covers everything from (A)rchimedes to the (Z) Machine. 

As is standard for Bitmap, the layout is clear and easy to read. White text on a black background helps, the latter also aiding the numerous screenshots in popping out from the page. Given the vast range of systems hosting the titles on show, it's all rather colourful, banishing preconceptions that horror has to be all dark and gloomy.

Each write up is easily readable and informative, and it is evident the there is much care and attention given to the subject. Given the huge variety within the over-arching horror genre (albeit organised as you can see above), it feels pretty safe to say that the average gamer (no matter what their age), will have played at least one of the 130 plus games mentioned. The same can be said for the spread of gaming types: first person, third person, shooters, light gun games, isometric puzzlers, point and click adventures - horror really covers the gamut of gaming. Additional commentary from notable individuals connected to some of the most iconic horror titles enhances the appeal of the book even more. 

Like the best of Bitmap's collection, once I had finished admiring the effort put into this book, I felt the urge to start investigating a number of releases here. That was a rabbit hole that I don't think I've entirely escaped, and my "to play" list is looking more like an impossible task these days. 

There isn't really much more to say about this, the ninth book in my slowly growing Bitmap collection. With precise attention to detail, great write ups and a lovely eye for imagery, this is another genre-specific release that has, for me, re-kindled an interest in the subject. It will most definitely remain a go to reference, and much like previous Bitmap Books offerings, provide a long list of titles that, with a little time (ha!) and effort, I'll get round to playing. Someday... Maybe... 

You can pick up a copy direct from the publisher's website here, as well as order it from the usual physical and online bookstores.

Magazines of Yesteryear - Personal Computer World Volume 5 Number 11 - November 1982

42. A simple number. Possibly the answer to something. But also the number of years since this issue of Personal Computer World was published and, gentle reader, the past was a very different country. And that's before we get to the cover star of this issue, Digital's Rainbow.

Guy Kewney kicks us off with the news, and it's smiles all round as Acorn seem to have banished their backlog of BBC Micro orders. Huzzah, tea, biscuits, and all that jazz. Then you read what Mr Kewney has actually written and he is bitingly caustic at the shambles Acorn have been responsible for. New ROM versions that cause incompatibilities and unhappy user groups are just two of the headaches Acorn are now dealing with and there is very much a sense of "I told you so" emanating from the pen of the news desk. Sinclair are in fighting form trying to get their wares in to Primary schools, there is news of a new machine called the Oric, there is some confusion as to the nature of the then-unreleased but much promised Sinclair Microdrive, and what can only be described as "you couldn't make this up" reporting on Osborne. 

There are more new machines coming to market - Camputer's Lynx promises another 8-bit wonder, while Espon's HX20 is the portable computer that did. Regular readers will know my affection for the much later Amstrad NC100 (as well as the Alphasmart 3000 and Cambridge Z88), so I really want someone to bring the form factor into the 2020's, and I do not mean the over-priced Freewrite Alpha. 

Once past the latest happenings, Peter Rodwell ponders developments in the growing fight between MS-DOS and CP/M, whilst Martin Banks regales with tales of predictions in the computer industry and why he is wary to make his own. There's some interesting stuff here. The description of Clive Sinclair launching the Spectrum in the US - "Clive was a man with a reputation, to the US financial men, for a flair in design and danger in manufacturing" is brilliantly apt, and comments on Apple and Commodore are equally illuminating. The former has coasted for too long on the Apple II, the III isn't cutting the mustard and although it has a fantastic international distribution set up, if the company falters, it could be the target for a Japanese takeover - remember that back then, the Japanese were considered the competitors to beat when it came to microelectronics. As for Commodore, its issue was that it didn't have that great of a US base - it's European operations were bankrolling the operation. Once again, a potential Japanese offer could see the company off. Mr Banks closes with the statement that the apparent leaders of the personal computer market in the future would be IBM and DEC. As predictions go, that seemed likely at that point in time, but the advent of the 68000-powered Mac and Amiga would delay any collapse of either Apple or Commodore (but both would suffer for a variety of reasons as they entered the 90's), and the advent of the "clone" IBM compatible would topple the idea that the hardware producing companies mattered. 

There is a report on the 5th PCW show, and very period it looks too. With 47,000 attendees, it was another smashing success and featured 210 exhibitors. Although Apple wasn't there, both Sinclair and Acorn had set up "villages", DEC had their Rainbow (see below for the preview), Professional and DECmate II, Commodore were showing off their new "64", and Jupiter and Camputers were proud their Ace and Lynx respectively. It was a profitable show too: Dragon claimed 275 sales of the Dragon 32 machine, and NewBrain dished out a similar amount. 

Given the current fashion for all things A.I., the feature on using Artificial Intelligence to cheat your way out of algebra homework feels more than a little quaint, but at least there is a type in listing to get you started. 

Canon provide the first hardware test for this issue with their CX-1, and it's a behemoth! Coming in at 55lbs(!), it would take up a fair amount of desk space and a disproportionate amount of your bank balance. Initially launching at £4,500, it was, by now, a tad more sensibly priced at just £2,500. That's alright then. An all-in-one with a 12-inch green on black monitor and dual floppy drives, the unit measures 64cm x 53cm x 33cm. There's no real graphics mode for the Canon, and although the display can handle 80 columns by 24 lines, the bottom two lines are used for the command display area. The two disk drives are 320k capacity and there are storage expansion options, with external 8-inch floppies and a 30Mb hard drive option. A Motorola 6809 running at 4MHz offers only mediocre performance but this definitely feels like a case of steady as she goes. You can fit up to 128kb of RAM, 32kb of which is used by the system, and there's 4kb of ROM too. If you fancied getting into the Canon action, that two and a half grand did include the maximum memory allocation. Adding extras like CIS Cobol (£190) or UCSD Pascal (£400) would prevent the bank balance from recovering too much. 

The just looks silly.

DEC's Rainbow is up next, but only in a preview. Although the monitor looks small, it really is a 12-inch CRT just with a huge housing, and looking teensy on top of that massive base unit. The display can handle 80 columns with a hassle, and a software option can take you up to 132, but that's eyestrain territory for any length of time. There are, however, graphics modes - 320x240 with 16 colours, or 800x240 with four colours from a palette of eight. The disk storage is funky - there are two drives, each handling two floppies at a time. As each disk can hold 409.6kb, that's over 800kb per drive. Impressive for the time, as is the option for a 5Mb Winchester disk. Similarly impressive is the CPU set up - the Rainbow contains both a Z80 and an 8088. Both share the supplied 64kb of RAM, with expansions for 128 and 192kb, taking the maximum amount to 256kb. To control all of this is the hybrid operating system CP/M 86/80. All of this costs a pretty penny, and as you can guess, adding extras quickly takes the price into the stratosphere. Still, it would have done whatever you wanted it to do and it was cheaper than an IBM PC.

And still more functionality than a Freewrite Alpha.

It's portable time with Hewlett Packard, its HP-75C comes under the gaze of Dick Pountain, and although it would not become "the ultimate status symbol among the technologically inclined", it was a supremely powerful portable computer at a price (£728) that took it out of means of many. With 16kb (expandable to 24kb) of RAM, 48kb of ROM and using magnetic cards for storage (1.3kb per card), it was another step closer to Pountain's ultimate goal of a "pocket sized personal database cum calculator cum word processor cum communications station". It just needed another couple of decades to really get there. 

Screenplay takes a gander at the Acorn Atom's range of games - eight in total, the best of which seems to be the Acornsoft Games Pack II, and even that scores just slightly above average. 

The In Store section provides a handy guide to the range of machines available to the potential purchaser - and my word there are a lot! Six(!) pages of ready-made computers, plus another page of single board offerings. 

To the adverts now and, in a departure from the usual, just check these out.

There is a lot to digest here.

'Cos everyone loves a game of Mastermind, yeah?

That 700-series has serious 70's vibe, but that 500-series vibe would make a comeback.

Condescending, much?

"Professional" keyboard... yeah, right!

Well played, Sinclair, well played...

Me thinks the Spectrum is writing un-cashable cheques here...

Beeeeb!

They did have the Advertising Standards Authority back then, surely?

With very good reason, Newbrain, very good reason!

This ad was buried towards the back of the mag - it feels like they didn't care even then.

Phew! In 1982, it wasn't a question of finding a computer to buy, it was which one of the many to choose from. If you think the market looked crowded then, there was more to come, and of all of these formats, only the Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Beeb would see much success passed 1985. All the rest would be gone or retired for better specified alternatives. It was also the time of national computer retailers, and Laskeys promised to see you right:

Home users could also top up their software collection at Maplin, as well as 0% interest for computer hardware purchases. Mind you, credit would have been useful for the games too - £25 then is about £85 now!

Spectrum were another potential source of cool kit, but unlike Maplin, their headline prices excluded VAT, so they only appeared cheaper when they were actually pretty much par for the course. That is more than slightly odd considering the machines here were aimed at home users.

For actual business people, there were other options. Although advertising with a mugshot that would make a Stasi ID card blush with embarrassment is something we have moved on from since then...

Obviously Frank hasn't sold many computers recently...

LSI were offering a combo machine that could be the only machine you'd need - a Z80 for CP/M and an 8088 for MS-DOS - for a price, you understand, and £2k plus in 1982 was proper folding money! But it was also British, when such things mattered...

And the same could be said for the British Micro MIMI802, priced at a cool £1,350 minus the monitor (from £132) and not actually the machine pictured (that is the MIMI 802G at £1,495. Even the address is suitably patriotic for those who cared for such things: Penfold Works, Imperial Way. Needless to say, it was just another Z80 CP/M-ish (OS/M actually) desktop that would go the way of the dodo soon enough.

1982 was still very early days for the microcomputer and interested folk were spoilt for choice, a lot of which depended on the depth of your pockets. Yet despite the plethora of 'puters, pretty much anything (even ones like the Ace and Newbrain) would have been good enough for the next couple of years, by which point, the home market was settling down somewhat and the business world had IBM compatible clones to consider. 

Next time, I think a journey to a different century is in order. However, in the best tradition of Crimewatch UK (don't have nightmares now), I shall leave you with this Stepford-inspired (and completely "not acceptable then, never mind now") back page ad...

What the actual???