The Premier Technical Journal of Its Time

2023-09-29 12:19:24

Byte, The Small Programs Journal, was began in 1975 with the daybreak of the microcomputer revolution and rapidly grew to become a number one pc journal, identified for all kinds of technical articles and commentary.

I might have been far too younger to learn the early points, however even when the 80s rolled round, I used to be not a giant reader of Byte journal. Its articles have been simply too technical and superior for my younger self. It additionally didn’t actually have that a lot in the best way of Atari protection.

Nevertheless, in March 1986 they printed my favourite concern of Byte ever, the one with the Atari 1040ST on the quilt:

My dog-eared copy of Byte, March 1986 bought in 1986.

1986 was a gangbuster yr for Atari and it was additionally one of the best yr for Byte journal’s Atari protection. In January they printed a product preview of the Atari 520ST, in March one for the 1040ST. They printed a evaluation of the 520ST in June. The ST made the quilt once more (together with the Amiga and Mac) in September.

In 1986 they really began together with ST information! There have been additionally occasional ST-related articles (Atari ST Software Development in September) and a few of the columns usually talked about the ST. Bruce Webster did a 68000 Wars sequence in his column, evaluating the ST, Amiga and Mac. Jerry Pournelle would typically point out the ST in his Chaos Manor column. Plus once they added BIX

summaries, they included an Atari ST part.

Again in 1986, I really purchased fairly a couple of problems with Byte on the newsstand due to this ($3.50 cowl value again then, about $10 right now).

At this time I’ve a decent-sized assortment of Byte magazines, together with the complete 1986 yr. I even have the complete 1985 yr and different random points between 1979 and 1983 which all collectively totals 42 points.

My Byte Journal Assortment

Even when Byte was usually not an amazing supply of Atari content material, when you have been into computer systems in any respect, it could possibly be fascinating. Every concern of Byte had a theme, which most of the articles would contact on not directly. However this additionally meant that when you didn’t just like the theme, you won’t like many of the concern’s content material.

Even right now, I discover some points engrossing and others I simply skip by fairly rapidly.

I typically loved Byte’s evaluations. They appeared to evaluation lots of oddball computer systems that I’d by no means heard of. Opinions have been additionally virtually all the time notoriously late. For instance, the Atari 520ST evaluation was printed a yr after it was launched! Similar with the Amiga evaluation, which was printed in October 1986, a few yr after it was launched and over a yr after that they had their first preview of in in August 1985.

The columnists additionally had lead occasions that have been a number of months. Byte was not a spot to get breaking information!

1985 for instance, there was a evaluation of the Atari 800XL in March. What was I saying about late? The 800XL got here out in fall of 1983! It was a very good evaluation, mentioning BASIC XL and Motion!, two nice languages. Additionally in March, that they had a blurb within the information part in regards to the newly introduced ST sequence.

As I re-read these, I observed that their evaluations of computer systems did additionally not do an amazing job of quoting comparable costs, although. For instance, the Atari 800XL evaluation quotes a value of $1200 for a system with two disk drives and a monitor. Which may have been its value in 1983, but it surely actually was not its value in 1985. After all, maintaining with speedy value adjustments within the 80s was tough.

However why quote two drives and a monitor for an 800XL? Most individuals can be utilizing a TV. Byte didn’t all the time quote costs like that. For instance, the Amiga evaluation quotes a value of $1300, which was the bottom value with one drive and no monitor. I can see one drive, however you actually wanted a monitor to make use of the Amiga. The Atari 520ST evaluation quotes a value of $1000 for a system with one drive and a shade monitor, which appears essentially the most cheap.

The IBM PC AT evaluation additionally quotes solely a single drive in one of many costs and no monitor.

Equally, within the March 1986 concern once they tout the 1040ST as the primary pc below $1000 for a megabyte of RAM, they’re utilizing the $1000 listing value for the system with a monochrome monitor. However of their graph, they quote the unique Commodore 64 value of $595, which didn’t embody a disk drive or monitor! If that they had completed the identical for the 520ST and quote its value with no disk drive or monitor, it could have additionally been lower than $1 per kilobyte!

None of those are remotely comparable! I suppose it needed to do with totally different folks doing the evaluations, but it surely looks as if the editorial employees might have up to date the worth charts higher, particularly with the lengthy lead occasions.

Anyway, sufficient of my value ranting.

Byte was a thick journal. Every concern was massive, with 400 to 500 pages. There have been loads of in-depth articles, however at the very least half of the journal was adverts. I’m not complaining, everybody favored pc adverts again then.

Having a look at a few of the older, points exhibits a a lot nerdier journal. Apparently, McGraw-Hill purchased Byte in 1979 and the type began altering after that. The earliest concern I’ve is.

The ultimate printed concern of Byte was July 1998, however I had lengthy since stopped studying it. It remained round in on-line kind for some time longer.

Yow will discover most problems with Byte within the Web Archive.

Talking of that, for Atari customers, somebody put collectively a PDF of all of the Atari-related Byte content material. The PDF is over 700 pages and begins with a information blurb from April 1979 and ends with the final Atari content material being a information merchandise with a primary impression of the Falcon030 in February 1993.

Byte Magazine – Atari Articles

Beneath are some highlights of a few of my favourite articles and evaluations. A few of these will possible flip into extra in-depth Goto 10 posts.

Atari 800XL Review: Relatively late as talked about above, however good data on BASIC XL and Motion! languages.
Atari 520ST Product Preview: Given Byte’s lead time, they most likely began this evaluation as quickly as they may purchase one (August 1985) and weren’t given entry to at least one early by Atari.
Atari 520ST Review: It took a yr for this evaluation and it was barely totally different than the product preview from January.
Atari 1040ST Product Preview: Make sure you learn my annotated commentary of this text.
Commodore Amiga Product Preview: Commodore’s advertising was on level right here. This evaluation appeared in August 1985. The Amiga had solely simply been launched to the world in late July. Clearly Byte obtained a very early peek on the Amiga with a purpose to meet their in depth journal lead time.
Commodore Amiga Review: So unusual that it took over a yr for this to look.
Chaos Manor was additionally an amazing learn. Written by famous sci-fi creator Jerry Pournelle, Chaos Manor was a prolonged month-to-month diary about expertise and the way he used it. I’ve learn lots of his sci-fi books and love his writing type.
Bruce Webster (authentic creator of Sundog: The Frozen Legacy for the Apple II) began writing a column, In keeping with Webster, in July 1985 that I additionally all the time loved.
Mindset computer: Apparently there was some Atari connections to this distinctive pc that appears to have some specs very similar to an ST.
AT&T Unix computer: Keep in mind, each Mac right now is basically a UNIX pc!