80 Micro

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80 Micro

June 1983 issue
Publisher/Editor Wayne Green
Categories Computer magazine
Frequency Monthly
Publisher 1001001 Inc. (as 80 Microcomputing), CW Communications (as 80 Micro)
First issue January 1980
Final issue
— Number		 June 1988
101
Country  United States
Language English
ISSN 0744-7868

80 Micro was a home computing magazine published by CWC/I publications (Wayne Green) between 1980 and 1988 about the TRS-80 microcomputer built by Tandy Corporation and sold through Radio Shack. The magazine featured program listings for the machine, primarily written in BASIC and occasionally Z80 assembly language. These programs were printed in the magazine, but could be purchased on cassette tape and diskette media under the name Load 80 to save some typing. The magazine also featured articles, letters, reviews and humor (including - from January 1980 through July 1983 - the monthly Kitchen Table International satire/parody column).

Starting out under the name 80 Microcomputing, the magazine was renamed to 80 Micro on its 30th issue. Founded by Byte magazine founder Wayne Green, it was later sold to CW Communications. Green attributed the magazine's success to Radio Shack's policy of not allowing other companies to distribute their products through their stores, while other stores would not carry the products as Radio Shack customers did not frequent them. Thus 80 Micro became the most accessible venue for small companies to advertise in.[1] Tandy also prohibited the Radio Shack stores it owned from selling or displaying 80 Micro to not lose sales to the magazine's advertisers, and Green—who claimed that most stores kept a copy hidden from "company spies"—asked readers to persuade franchise and other non Tandy-owned stores to sell the magazine.[2]

In 1982, 80 Micro was the third largest magazine in terms of obtaining advertising, selling 152,000 issues.[3] Programming contests for young children were featured annually, and were endorsed by both the Scholastic Corporation and the Boy Scouts of America.[4][5]

One of the fascinating features of the magazine at some point was the challenge to write complete games, sometimes including scoring, on just one line of BASIC code. Creativity was remarkable and included techniques to allow for a slightly longer line of code than originally envisioned.

See also

References

Ira Goldklang. "Magazines - 80 Microcomputing". Retrieved 2007-12-18. 

  1. ↑ Bartimo, Jim (10 December 1984). "Magazines Woo Users". InfoWorld (InfoWorld Media Group, Inc) 6 (50): 35. ISSN 0199-6649. 
  2. ↑ Green, Wayne (December 1981). "80 Remarks". 80 Microcomputing. p. 6. Retrieved March 21, 2011. 
  3. ↑ University of Michigan (1983). Information intelligence, online libraries, and microcomputers 1–2. Information Intelligence, inc. 
  4. ↑ Electronic Learning (Scholastic Corporation) 4: 15. 1984. 
  5. ↑ Stuckey, Scott (August 1984). "Hobby Hows". Boys' Life (Boy Scouts of America) 74 (8): 14. ISSN 0006-8608. 

External links


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