The legendary C64er magazine (correct name: “64’er – The Magazine for Computer Fans”) is back. From now on, Michael Steil is publishing the C64 edition every month as it appeared 40 years ago. So yesterday the April 1984 issue was published at this link. You can read the articles online or download the entire issue as a PDF.
Steil describes the whole thing as an art project. You can find the now published first issue and all subsequent issues on 64er-magazin.de. Steil describes the old issues that have now been published as follows: “On the modern homepage there is
- searchable PDF files of individual issues
- all articles in web format with comment function
- All listings can be downloaded instead of typed out
- Overview pages for all tests, all listings etc. across all editions
- a search over the text of all articles
- an RSS feed that delivers two articles every day after publication
- the function of sharing an article on Mastodon
All articles are identical to the text in the printed magazine, so typographical errors and factual errors remain unchanged. However, errata from later editions (“error devils”) are appended to the articles, and later documented errors in software are already fixed in the downloads!”
Brilliant hobbyist project
You can find at least parts of the old issues of the C64er magazine elsewhere, for example here. But so comprehensively and lovingly prepared and also published monthly – that’s only available on 64er-magazin.de.
The “64’er – The Magazine for Computer Fans” from Markt+Technik was required reading for owners of a Commodore C64 in the 1980s and 1990s. Unlike the equally popular “Happy Computer”, it only covered the C64 and its relatives such as the VC20 or the Amiga. Back then, computer notebooks were next to books – do you still remember the data backer books? – indispensable as a source of information, because the Internet did not exist back then as we know it now. And software, especially games, were exchanged with each other on floppy disks as “backup copies”.
