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Web meant change for PC journalism [Columbia Daily Tribune (MO)](Columbia Daily Tribune (MO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) If you ever find yourself getting misty over floppy disks or missing the screech of a dial-up modem, you might be suffering from technology nostalgia. I know I do. But rather than long for old technology, I choose to celebrate it and move on. It's fun to reflect back, however, on the golden age of personal computing. The PC industry changed forever with the August 1982 release of the Commodore 64. It was one of the first home computers mass- marketed in department stores, outselling Atari, Apple and IBM combined. The unit shipped with a whopping 64KB of RAM, hence its name, as well as an onboard BASIC operating system, and specialized audio and video chips. Even the C64's external floppy drive, the Commodore 1541, was unique -- controlled by its own co-processor, the drive could be programmed to do extraordinary things. The whole package was, at the time, revolutionary. I got my C64 in 1983 and was immediately hooked. You have to remember that at this time, hobbyists comprised the majority of PC owners. Few had formal training in electronics, but everyone was excited to learn, and the C64 was the perfect teaching machine. It was user-friendly enough to appeal to casual users and completely wide open for those eager to explore. Many of the industry's most highly regarded software designers taught themselves to program on a Commodore 64. More than 10,000 software titles were released for the C64, from technical tools and business applications to lots and lots of games. Indeed, the entertainment side of personal computing is what drove the industry to develop bigger, faster and more interactive technology. I'll admit to purchasing my C64 for the sole purpose of playing the classic games released that year alone, including Lode Runner from Broderbund, Jumpman from Epyx and Beach Head from Access Software. Groundbreaking stuff, released one after another. The C64 changed my life in two ways: It sealed my future in technology, and it led to a lucrative writing career. Like every other PC hobbyist in the mid-80s, I devoured every publication dedicated to the craft, of which there were quite a few, all of them staffed by fellow hobbyists. Entertainment software was exploding, driving hardware sales through the roof. At the peak of its production, Commodore was churning out 400,000 units per month. One of the many cottage industries that grew alongside were computer magazines. In 1985, I stuck my virtual foot in the door of Commodore Power/ Play -- later renamed Commodore Magazine -- an in-house publication of Commodore Business Machines, and they liked what they saw. For the next three years I contributed freelance software reviews for the C64 and its successor, the Commodore 128. Back then, one magazine gig usually led to many others, so it wasn't uncommon to see your byline in a half-dozen magazines every month: Compute!'s Gazette, Compute, Computer Gaming World, PC Magazine, Computer Shopper, Byte and Home Office Computing, to name just a few, and that doesn't count trade magazines. It was a glorious time, and I was right in the middle of it. This was a pioneering time in the evolution of the personal computer, and it was a blast experiencing it as both an insider and end user. The first big change came when the software industry settled on IBM-PC compatible as the platform of choice, eliminating a great number of niche magazines. The focus then became about the evolution of Windows. We might never have looked back if not for this thing called the World Wide Web. The emergence of the Web as a source for instant, free information pretty much killed the computer magazine industry as I knew it. Some survived online, but not for long. Those truly were the golden days of PC journalism, when we celebrated what's new and dreamed of what's next. Scott A. May is a local computer consultant and Deskside Support technician at IBM. Reach him at [email protected]. If you are getting this message, it's because your browser is blocking cookies. For free access to this full story, please enable cookies in your web browser. [bold] How do I enable cookies? [/bold] On your computer: * Chrome * Firefox * Internet Explorer * Safari On your mobile devices or tablets * Android devices * iPhone/ iPad * Windows Phone Scott A. May is a local computer consultant and Deskside Support technician at IBM. Reach him at [email protected]. [copyright] 2013 Columbia Daily Tribune . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. (c) 2013 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |