Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Classic Computer Magazine Archive

Posted by chrisd on from the days-gone-by dept.

savetz writes "I think /. readers will find this of interest: the Classic Computer Magazine Archive serves up the full text from old compter mags: three years of Creative Computing plus every issue of Antic, STart, and Hi-Res. There's also a bit of text from Compute! and Compute!'s Gazette. Everything is there with permission from the publishers."

16 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. Cross Roads - For Real by Flamesplash · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now I can finally type in the hex code for CrossRoads all over again. It was only 10 or so pages full of hex codes, should be fun.

    Man that game was great.

    --
    "Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
    1. Re:Cross Roads - For Real by whereiswaldo · · Score: 4, Funny

      I remember my sister and I working to get a game going on the C64. She read the hex numbers, I typed (over 10 pp). Now that I think about it, that was pretty cool of her. :)

  2. How to get permission from Creative Computing? by AdamBa · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I am wondering who "owns" Creative Computing now, that they got permission from. The reason is because of the books that CC published, Basic Computer Games, and More Basic Computer Games, I think some of those games would be interesting to update to modern BASIC, convert to other languages, etc.

    - adam

    1. Re:How to get permission from Creative Computing? by savetz · · Score: 5, Informative

      Dave Ahl, who was publisher. retains the copyright to Creative Computing stuff. I plan to put Basic Computer Games, and More Basic Computer Games online eventually. In the mean time these downloadable versions work with with Microsoft basic, but converting them to other languages would be cooler.

    2. Re:How to get permission from Creative Computing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      David Ahl sells insurance in New Jersey now, and wants to be left alone, unless you want to buy insurance. I have rewritten some of the better games from the two BASIC Computer Games books in Python. My versions of Eliza, Banner, and Wumpus can be found at http://cs.sru.edu/~conlon/it_workshop.html along with some other Python stuff I created.

  3. sweet! you might also like... by updog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    another popular computer related magazine from the past, atari age.

  4. Makes we want to cry... by benbean · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ah yes, when computer magazines weren't 90% ads, and contained genuinely useful and interesting, intelligtently written articles covering a myriad of topics both popular and obscure.

    Where did you go? :-(

    --
    It's a Unix system - I know this.
  5. Creative Computing by Angry+Toad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I heard that. Creative Computing was the magazine that got me really excited about computers. The collection of stuff was always eclectic, humorous, informative, and driven by a passion to communicate the excitement of the new world that was opening up. Younger people should be rightly suspicious when old coots start prattling about how much better things were in the day, but I'm here to bear witness that every now and then things really were better, and Creative Computing was one of those things.

  6. server == Apple ][+ by mashie · · Score: 4, Funny


    Seems to have been slashdotted into submission. They should have gone with a ][e.

  7. This is important stuff! by PotatoHead · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I was young, I read every one of these publications. Learned more than I could use at the time.

    Today, it is not so important to know that poke 710,0 would turn the screen background black on an Atari. Their time has passed for the most part and we could all focus our energy elsewhere today.

    It is important to remember the spirit of the times though. Hacking around the guts of your machine was encouraged and reported on! New techiques covered every aspect of these machines as people used them in almost every way, but the way they were designed for!

    What the Fu*k happened? People who only smell money and have no regard for others is what happened! We should be ashamed for letting them.

    One interesting thing was the included source code and programming techniques. Compute used to publish games and utilities written for all the major machines at the time! Never thought about it much as a kid, just thought it was cool.

    Fast forward today and what is that exactly? Open source! Not only that, but in popular publications where EVERYONE COULD SEE!

    A lot could be done with this code and it made each issue worth its purchase price.

    Open source preserves this spirit with todays hardware. Instead of text editors, assemblers, sprite editors we get Office Suites, C Compiliers, and OpenGL modelers.

    Seriously, the technology to meet everyones basic computing needs is already done! Nobody should have to keep paying and paying for it.

    Thanks for a nice reminder of exactly why I choose to use Open Tools! Somehow we need to get more people in the know. Once they do, they will never go back. Just as none of us who actually read these things did!

    --
    Blogging because I can...
    1. Re:This is important stuff! by PotatoHead · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree with this only because most of us do not relate to the computer in the way made popular by these old publications, but I think you miss the point.

      Websites, CD's and other media can bring new computer experiences and communication to us, but without anyone evangalizing (sp!) the actual art of computing, our industry will grow stale --a large portion of it has!

      Most of us don't care how the computer works, but that small percent that does is what makes the difference.

      This is why things like Linux *need* to be avaliable for people to understand and create with. This could be *Bsd, Hurd or anything else that is free as in freedom as long as it is open to those who want to look.

      This is also why hacking is *not* a bad thing in and of itself. We paid for the stuff, we should be able to do what we want with it. I could as a kid, nothing should have changed.

      Without these two things in place, our 'new' creations will simply be those things that are planned and accounted for. In this context, are they really creations, or just natural selection of the controlled set of possibilities?

      The difference is more than you think.

      When I was in high school, I was connecting my computer to other things and making them go. Nobody told me computers were bad. Nobody told me it could not be done. Nobody told me that I could be breaking the law by simply learning and sharing with others the results!

      When I asked the question, and gave the answer, I really meant this:

      Those who built their empires today fear for their future. They were the kids typing in the codes, learning new things and in a position to take advantage of it.

      Now they use their position not to further the industry, but to secure their position in it AT THE EXPENSE OF THE REST OF US. This is wrong at its most basic level and a lot of people here know it.

      Problem is that most everyone else doesn't!

      That is what the fu*k happened!

      Now it is not all bad, we all have machines, they are cheap and connected. Good, but getting stale. It's time for the next round.

      Somewhere in a small town high school, a group of kids might be computing on whatever they can find. It is likely they are using Linux and learning more together then they could ever learn alone.

      Good for them and good for us.

      Hope they see a coupla issues of Compute! or Byte! and know that they are doing the right thing.

      If they can get the same encouragement and freedom we all did, then perhaps we just might get the benefit, just as our elders did.

      --
      Blogging because I can...
  8. Does this mean... by bafu · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...that my wife will now make me throw out all of my original copies? :-O

  9. Google Cache by manly_15 · · Score: 4, Informative

    All sites on atarimagazines.com with atari in the text. Just remember to click on the "cached" link!

  10. Computer Language Magazine by gaj · · Score: 5, Interesting
    What I would love to see is an archive of _Computer_Language_Magazine_. Good stuff! I used to have several dozen article clippings, but over time they've all bitten the dust.

    Old Byte mags (back when Ciarcia was writing for them) would rock, as well.

    Hell, even old DDJ, back before it became the watered down dross it is today. It's still about the best left, but only because it doesn't really have competition, IMHO.

  11. Mapping the Atari by antizeus · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Looks like the site has been knocked out of action, so I can't see if it's there, but it would be really cool if they released some of the books that were associated with some of the magazines. My favorite was "Mapping the Atari" which had gory in-depth details on just about every interesting memory location in the Atari 8-bit line of computers (there was a 400/800 edition and a later XL/XE edition). This book made me feel connected to my Atari computers that I have never been able to duplicate with any subsequent platform.

    I think I have copies of both editions buried in my mother's basement, but it would be nice for it to be available on the web, if for no other reason than nostalgia.

    --
    -- $SIGNATURE
  12. Magazines I DON'T miss by rot26 · · Score: 4, Funny

    PC Tech Journal and goddam Will Fastie. The biggest idiot to ever have anything to do with a computer magazine, with the possible exception of Jerry (Plugola) Pournelle.

    --



    To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target