Byte magazine is very much before my time. First published in September 1975, Byte magazine’s in-depth technical coverage of this new-fangled thing called microcomputers earned it a loyal readership. Also notable was the fact that the monthly publication didn’t focus on just one platform, but the entire field of small personal computers. The print edition ceased publication in the summer of 1998, but its dedicated audience continues to ensure the mag lives on decades later, thanks to a new archive effort with a fresh interactive twist.
Byte: A Visual Archive collates every cover, every page, and presents it as one zoomable graphic. It’s hardly the first archival effort for the publication, with the magazine’s entire run also available to peruse in PDF form via the Internet Archive. But this visual archive effort encourages curiosity akin to throwing a dart at a map and seeing where you land.
For instance, I’m quite taken with this quaint but still kind of prophetic in a funhouse mirror kind of way cover illustration that imagines a world where we’ll take our bulky microcomputers on the plane with us. Or this ad from much later that touts ‘At 500 MHz, whiplash becomes a very real possibility’. Oh, how far we’ve come.
Like humans in the grand tapestry of geological time, I just got here as far as computing history goes. However, there’s definitely still something to be said for looking back at a time when one’s personal computer—and all it connected you to—was confined to only one room of the house. Besides such millennial pining, there’s also much I could say about preserving that history.
For instance, Byte magazine also had an online counterpart that limped on until 2013. You can still visit snapshots of this page via the Wayback Machine, but many webpages simply aren’t so lucky; speaking as a former print professional, it’s often easier to preserve something you can hold in your hands rather than the ephemera of online webpages (though that hasn’t stopped the Internet Archive from preserving short-lived 80’s radio shows like the Famous Computer Cafe).
Anyway, speaking of print, how about a side order of one of America’s earliest PC gaming-focused mags? If you’ve not yet had your fill of 80s computing, then you can tuck into the entire run of Computer Entertainer online for free.
Returning to this here year of our gourd, print is far from dead either. For one thing, the PC Gamer mag itself is very much alive and kicking. Additionally, it’d be remiss not to mention Game Informer’s recent resurrection or how the publication took the opportunity to put its entire backlog online, too. Between face-melting game ads of yore and, you know, games journalism of genuine historical value, print magazines aren’t just worth preserving but continue to be worth reading in the here and now.
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