As PC magazines go, I have to admit, I kinda miss Computer Shopper. Some of my earliest, and fondest, memories of getting started in computing involve poring over issues of that magazine, reading the columns, drooling over the parts advertised in the copious ads, and dreaming about ordering up a motherboard, case, power supply, video card, etc., and building a computer from scratch.
As history would have it, that's pretty close to what I did. I bought a 386DX/40 motherboard and CPU, a whopping 1 megabyte of RAM, and a few other bits, as I pieced together my first PC. Then a guy I went to school with offered to sell me a dead 286 box that had a good power supply, videocard, floppy drives, etc., that I needed, so I bought that, and cobbled together this Frankenstein's PC of a computer. Got myself a 28.8 modem and start exploring BBS's, Tymnet and Telenet networks, reading Phrack magazine, got into phone phreaking and other sordid activities...
Then somehow I got hold of a shareware C compiler, and a copy of Herbert Schildt's book Teach Yourself C. That started an addiction that led to Borland Turbo C++ for DOS, and the need to upgrade my computer to an absurd 4 megabytes of RAM.. and eventually to Borland C++ (the full suite), a whole shelf full of C/C++ books, and my earliest forays into this strange world of something called "linux" and "open source". Then came the Internet, Slashdot, Kuro5hin, Freshmeat, BOFH, Sluggy Freelance, User Friendly, Dilbert, etc...
Years later - who knew that this is where it would all lead? wistful sigh
Call me a sentimental old fart, but Computer Shopper will always hold a special place in my heart. :-)
To be honest, an ad in Computer Shopper had a nice means of pitch. In just a few square inches they had to fit their pitch into an ad, maybe with a diagram. I couldn't get tricked into some website signup, they had to make their elevator pitch on paper for what ever product or service was offered.
There was no lying about CS -- you were buying a telephone book sized tome of ads, and that was fine -- that's the reason you got it. It was a virtual analog marketplace. Anything and everything you could have wanted was in there.
Absolutely. Seems almost funny in hindsight, but I absolutely bought Computer Shopper for the ads! The articles were basically an afterthought, most of the time.
I almost always went right to the back page, for the BBS numbers.
I'd call whatever was local, which wasn't much, but would find the most eclectic treasure troves... found an easy to use gravity simulator once. Took FOREVER to download at probably just a few MB.
It was a weirder online experience then, you really felt like you had something secret, all to yourself.
Very much like my experience. I actually did enjoy the articles, though. Reviews, there were some excellent regular columns, and some nice programming articles too.
As history would have it, that's pretty close to what I did. I bought a 386DX/40 motherboard and CPU, a whopping 1 megabyte of RAM, and a few other bits, as I pieced together my first PC. Then a guy I went to school with offered to sell me a dead 286 box that had a good power supply, videocard, floppy drives, etc., that I needed, so I bought that, and cobbled together this Frankenstein's PC of a computer. Got myself a 28.8 modem and start exploring BBS's, Tymnet and Telenet networks, reading Phrack magazine, got into phone phreaking and other sordid activities...
Then somehow I got hold of a shareware C compiler, and a copy of Herbert Schildt's book Teach Yourself C. That started an addiction that led to Borland Turbo C++ for DOS, and the need to upgrade my computer to an absurd 4 megabytes of RAM.. and eventually to Borland C++ (the full suite), a whole shelf full of C/C++ books, and my earliest forays into this strange world of something called "linux" and "open source". Then came the Internet, Slashdot, Kuro5hin, Freshmeat, BOFH, Sluggy Freelance, User Friendly, Dilbert, etc...
Years later - who knew that this is where it would all lead? wistful sigh
Call me a sentimental old fart, but Computer Shopper will always hold a special place in my heart. :-)