As one of many 8-bit micros searching for a place in the limelight in the early 1980's, the Dragon 32 and 64 were reasonably successful by the standards of the day. Launching in 1982 (Dragon 32) and 1983 (Dragon 64) respectively, they gained quite a following as the existence of Dragon User magazine testifies, the April 1985 issue of which we're looking at today.
The cover is simple, clean, and straight to the point with regards to the issue's contents. A new Paint program, getting sound out of your Dragon, a handy game of Battleships, and a witty take on Forth programming entice the average reader. That and a chance to win one of four Dragon 64s from Compusense.
The contents page, showing off the 44-page count, also contains the editorial, and it's early 1985, so of course the general market gets a mention. Acorn's collapse into Olivetti's arms, Commodore's fire sale of the Plus/4, Sinclair's QL woes, and Sord's troubles are noted, as is the general state of the home computer market after the "boom years." There is some sage advice for Dragon users to offer optimism towards those with machines then affected by the ongoing turbulence. That and a comment that if the formats have established themselves well enough then they will continue to be supported, original manufacturer around or not. As to what state the market would be by the time the dust had settled, well, that was anyone's guess.
The letters page has eight missives from users across the UK (and one American), as well as the Top 10 software chart. Good to see Chuckie Egg at the top spot, although I'm at a loss as to how entertaining Edit+ would be in tenth (sarcasm, btw).
In the news, there's a notice that the Second 6809 Colour Show for Dragon and Tandy users will be held at the Royal Horticultural Halls in March. With the prospect of a new modem for Dragon users (300 to 1200 baud, no less), and admission at just £2 for adults, it was a place to be if the Dragon was your computer of choice.
Games are also still a thing for Dragon fans, with Jet Set Willy, Screaming Abdabs, adventure games and a quartet of "homages" from Blaby Games. Oh, and a new supply of computers too. Compusense have announced they will be importing Dragon 64s and various flavours of disk drives from Eurohard, the Spanish company that picked up the format after Dragon Data imploded the previous year.
Artist is a type in program that gives you options for drawing, all within 180 lines of code, and Battleship does what it says on the tin in 114 lines. Handy little type ins would keep users occupied and were something that faded out as the 16-bit machines entered the market. Your humble scribe recalls many a Saturday afternoon achieving only moderate success with the typing of programs in to his CPC 464. These days, it's in RISC OS, and with similar levels of success!
The Dragon goes Forth for those wishing to learn yet another programming language, and to think that true adherents would have already equipped themselves with a Jupiter Ace a couple of years prior! Still, for the masochists out there, here was a chance to scratch that itch.
Reviews covers three titles: Masterstroke 2, a BASIC utility to add commands to the Dragon's limited interpreter, Moneybox, a simple accountancy program that offers some advantages over other offerings, and finally Downland, a platformer arcade title that is a bit of a challenge.
Sound generation delves in to Hex shenanigans to get the most out of your machine, and it has to be said that it is quite the informative and easy reading approach to the subject.
Dragon Open File is Dragon User's equivalent to that other great 1980's magazine sensation, Reader's Wives, except here it's where people send in their BASIC programs for the world to see. This month, a program that simulates a heart rate testing machine, and a simple conversion utility from one unit of measurement to another.
Mike Gerrard's Adventure Trail keeps readers up to date with adventure game news, hints, tips and reviews. Say what you like about the early 80's but it was awash with text adventures, and even after all of this time, this column is still a great read.
A page and a half of Classified adverts seems mostly filled with people trying to offload their Dragons, although to be fair, if you were in the market for one (prior to the Compusense news, of course), then this was the best place to get one.
Also of note are the ABC figures. 35,379 copies averaged per issue in the first half of 1984. Of course, Dragon Data was still extant then, but even so, a quick check into the future would show a figure of 30,004 for the second half of 1984. Not shabby at all, and given that this magazine would remain available in newsagents until June 1986, the userbase were a committed bunch. The final issue would be January 1989, and again, a two and a half year run as a subscriber only publication was highly respectable. Especially so, as the May '85 issue would confirm that there would be no Dragon 32 hardware for Britain, and Eurohard would go bankrupt in 1987.
The last two pages of editorial are for Dragon Answers, a help page for readers queries, and the competition for one of four Dragon 64s. All you had to do was use a program that you've written in BASIC to calculate how many other powers of ten have two factors that do not contain zeros (other than the examples given). Oh, and a fifteen word or less tiebreaker. Ah, old school competitions.
Despite only being 44 pages, there are still plenty of adverts, so something of a sign of the good health of the UK Dragon scene at this time, at least as far as software and accessories went.
First up is Oasis Software, offering a mix of serious (Sprint BASIC Compiler and Petite Pascal) and leisure (Dragon Chess, Mind Games Compendium) titles. And a rather unnerving hue for the packaging. Hmmm...
Micromail have a quartet of games and a graphics utility. Some funky spelling there with Athletyx, to be sure, and Ice Castles looks... very familiar, but hey, at least Dragon and Tandy owners had choices when it came to spare time frolics.
Compusense have two pages, the first with a selection of their productivity wares (and Colossal Cave Adventure, too!), before the real excitement comes from the announcement that the Dragon is BACK, baby! Well, for a short time, anyway.
Disk drives were a nice to have accessory for Dragon, and pretty much any 8-bit micro user by this point, but they were still pricey things to invest in. Cumana (a name familiar to many BBC owners), would happily set Dragon users up with faster storage than tapes, but you were still looking at £200 ish for either a 5.25 or 3.5" drive.
J Morrison (Micros) Ltd would gladly sell you a bunch of games, all very reasonably priced too, but as always, reviews would have been necessary before parting with any cash.
Speaking of parting with the readies, how about The Rainbow, a 300 page (and more) monthly mag from the US for the various flavours of 6809 computers. $28 for an annual subscription isn't too shabby, in the US. That would equate to £21 back then, and £65 now. However, you would need to get it shipped over. The surface mail sub took the price to $65 (£50 then, £155 now), and airmail was a rather ridiculous $100 (£77, and £240)!
The five smaller adverts here are all selling games, the most striking of which is the 747 Flight Simulator from DACC Ltd. Not sure about the accuracy, but the promise of 21 real dials and 25 other indicators does make me wonder how they managed to get all of them on-screen - the screenshot doesn't really help either.
Blaby Computer Games have a full page of their releases and it has to be said that the numerous screenshots are a very useful thing to see. At least potential buyers could get an idea of what they could expect, such as those rather suspicious looking "fighters" in Cosmic Crusader...
Datacom were also present with what, as far as the advert states, is a really great offer. Nine, (count 'em) games on one cassette for just £3.95. Ah yes, the bundle packages. If you know, you know, but for everyone else, the odds of getting even one remotely playable title out of a selection like this were seriously high. I'd also argue some were of questionably poor taste: Execution, anyone?
Last up is Wintersoft and their fantasy adventure range. The latest release, Return of the Ring, is a brand new standalone title that continues the story from The Ring of Darkness (stop sniggering at the back!). I'm not entirely sure what they were aiming for with the artwork, but hey, whatever sells cassettes, I suppose.
Dragon User magazine had a bloody good run as far as 8-bit publications go. Although nowhere near as successful as the Spectrum, C64 or the CPC 464, the format did not disgrace itself, and neither did this magazine. True, by this point, it already felt like a niche format given the brevity of its time in the sun, but Dragon User was what existing users needed, and no criticism should be levelled for that.
As for the next Magazines of Yesteryear, perhaps a look at something more suited to games players...
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