Some of my earliest memories in life involve setting in the floor in front of my family’s television set with my trusty Commodore 64 breadbox setting in my lap, typing in programs listed in Compute!’s Gazette magazine. This computer had belonged to my older brother John who had just gotten a PC clone and handed the Commodore down to me as a Christmas present. Little did I know, that one single gift was one that would have such a profound impact on the rest of my life.

How I came to receive this Commodore computer is a story all in itself.

John was 11 years my senior and I was the annoying kid brother, so needless to say it was a rarity that I was allowed in his room, much less on his computer. John was already an accomplished programmer by this time, and used his new PC clone heavily to develop C programs. I used to sneak into his room while he was out to play games on his PC clone. I was able to pick up books and learn about computers fairly easily, so I knew my way around DOS at least on a rudimentary level (the idiom “enough to be dangerous” is personified in this story).

On one fateful day, I waited for him to leave the house and I copied a game called “Starflight” onto the hard disk drive to play it. About a half hour into the game, my mother (who was lookout) yelled to me saying “Jobie’s Back!” to which I panicked, exited the game, and typed “del *.*” before turning off the computer trying to cover my tracks. I didn’t realize that when I exited the game it dropped me in root C instead of the subfolder and I instantly erased a number of important files rendering the system unbootable. Immediately realizing what I had done, I powered off the PC and exited the house, passing John on the way out. I took off on my mini-bike and stayed away from the house until dark, fearing that John would be furious.

“Jobie” was my brother John’s nickname growing up (and it stuck well into his adult life). He loved Star Wars so much growing up, my other brother Dusty started calling him “Jobie Wan Kenobi” and later it was shortened to just “Jobie”.

When I returned home John was certainly upset but he had calmed down by that time. Thankfully, much of his work resided in subdirectories on C: so my del *.* only affected whatever was in the root directory. I don’t exactly remember what happened after that, but I do know that certain physical security (and psychological security) measures were taken to prevent me from mucking around on his computer again. A few short months later I unwrapped his old Commodore 64 underneath the Christmas tree along with an “Incredible Musical Keyboard” add-on that mom and dad had bought to go with it and a stack of Compute!’s Gazette magazines that had been collected over time.

As I got older, my brother John and I became very close. When I was 15, he got his dream job as a game developer with Iguana Entertainment (later known as Acclaim Studios Austin) and I helped him move to Austin, TX. I moved to Austin shortly after in 1999. We shared a passion for computers and aviation. Sadly, in 2022, John lost his life while piloting a helicopter that had an engine failure over inhospitable terrain in West Virginia.

Rekindling this magazine brings back so many good memories for me and I hope it will do the same for my readers. That is my true goal for this project.

I was just as enthralled with the magazines as I was the computer. I had access to the magazines way before I actually had a computer. They were a source of wonder and mystery and the computer became a tool to realize those potential realities that were so clearly depicted in the magazines. From the type-in programs which helped me understand the true power of the computer, to the fantastic artwork and games that were featured in it’s glossy pages – I was hooked.

Fast forward almost 35 years and after subconsciously futilely waiting for the next issue to arrive in my mailbox, I decided enough is enough. I wanted to make it happen again.

My goal with this publication is to recreate those same feelings. There’s nothing better than the gratification that you get after receiving the next issue you had waited on for so long. Even though none of us are children anymore, if you’re reading this then certainly that spark has never left you either. This magazine aims to bring to you exciting new topics in the retro community regardless of the type of retro computer you use. From 8 bit to 64 bit – if it’s retro related, we will cover it.

Even though this magazine is retro related, we’re still keeping up with the times. Not only will we publish this magazine in an online e-edition, we will be offering a print edition as well because there’s nothing like getting your favorite magazine in the mail.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber so we can continue bringing this legend back to life!

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