Compute's Gazette Magazine Returns After 35 Yrs, Will Focus on Retro Computing

I only clicked the link because the title didn’t spell out “years” and having clicked the link, I don’t get it at all. I need to click a second link inside the website, hopeful I click the right one?

Iirc the “gazette” version of Compute! Was focused on Commodore machines, whereas Compute was a polyglot of several popular US machines. Theses magazines were a lifeline to a lot of us in the 80’s pre internet. It reminds me how amazing this age is, with regard to freely available information.

AI slop at the top, closed immediately.

I can't find any evidence that they've acquired or licensed the name / trademarks from Ziff Davis, the last known holder of Compute's IP, so I would be wary of giving them any money.

Also the content gives off strong AI vibes

I worked for Compute! magazine when I was in high school (an excellent job, porting games for one PC to another) and so maybe it's just a me thing, but it seems weird to name this "Compute's Gazette" when there's no connection to the original magazine, besides fandom.

What was your most and least favorite computer to port games to?

This is great news for those of us who are into retro computing.

Not just because its a great magazine, but it indicates the rise of the retro-computing market as a source of revenue.

There is very definitely an upswell of interest in older computing platforms. As someone who has kept every computer he's ever coded on since 1978, and regularly exhibits them in functioning condition (over 40,000 visitors at one exhibit here in Vienna, alone) I am 100% going to subscribe to this and support its continued publication.

Old computers never die. Their users do.

I think the correct link should be https://www.computesgazette.com/iconic-computes-gazette-maga...

I want it to be true. There's really not much information out there on it or the CEO that I can find.

My first question was if there's was enough retro material for a monthly.

Not only information access but the distribution model. In middle school, I had a little side business selling shareware on diskettes. My school had gotten brand spanking new 386/486 machines. My older brother had copied a bunch of games and programs from his friends into a stack of diskettes. I was king and made some good cash. Enough to buy a bike.

I miss physical media.

I nearly did as well but apparently it's just an article discussing the pros and cons of AI. Seems appropriate to head such an article with an AI picture.

Edwin Nagle here. I believe there's definitely enough material to support a monthly, especially with a focus on the general retro community rather than solely on C64/128.

It's not all AI slop, I assure you.

I registered the trademark through USPTO, you can verify it there. There is some AI involved right now, but not for anything content related.

TI-99/4a was the worst for me, but I think the entire reason I was hired was that everyone else hated porting to the Apple //.

Yes, Gazette was published as a standalone magazine, as COMPUTE’s Gazette. Later, it was published as a supplement to COMPUTE, the main COMPUTE had some Gazette pages printed in the back or something.

I subscribed for at least a few years. I did the type-in programs. I think I got the BASIC ones to work but I never got one of the assembly language ones working. Understandably topping them in did not forgive errors, though each line of assembly came with a checksum, this didn’t save me.

And typing them was mind-numbing besides.

Yeah but the article ends up defending gen AI for game development and also confuses video game AI (a giant switch statement that drives an NPC's state machines) with gen AI. This dude just has red flags everywhere.

No desire to fire up MLX and type in raw hex from printed source, nope. I got some nostalgia feels when I browsed CG's back catalog on archive.org, but nothing that would make me want ever to do that kind of thing again.

Undoubtedly because the Apple II's graphics and sound sucked royally.

I think you might be better off getting rid of the "AI slop" entirely. Without getting into the whole ethical debate (it's worth having, but not here), putting it front and center on the website for a new retrocomputing magazine is kind of like putting an article about new features in Microsoft Word front and center on a website for mechanical typewriter enthusiasts.

Fwiw, I didn’t find the ai images problematic at all, and the writing doesn’t seem generated at all to me.

I like the switch drm writeup, but wonder if they’re just moving pirates towards downloading from the store + dumping the bits.

I disagree. Making high quality niche publications like this economically feasible is exactly how AI could be used to actually benefit society. I see no evidence that this site is a plagiarism mill.

All the retro computing people I know are computer nerds, and like playing with new shiny software, including llms.

I agree with that.

Why GAZETTE rather than just COMPUTE! ?

Big fan of the project here BTW.

The high quality niche is exactly why AI is a bad idea.

If I desire to fill my brain with slop, there are plenty of options.

The generated images take away much more than they add for me unfortunately. Attempting to harken back to an era of retro computing while using something that screams modern corporate slop is an easy way to kill the vibe. I'd recommend against it, good luck though.

Compute! had a fork? of a magazine specifically for Commodore Computers called 'Compute! Gazette' https://archive.org/details/compute-gazette I spent many of days in my youth typing in the pages of code they included at the end of every issue.

Yeah, I get that this is a re-creation of an existing title focused on C64 (also published out of the same office as the one I worked in). What's odd to me is that there's no connection to the original magazine -- no IP rights acquired, none of the old writers or editors involved, just name-squatting on something people feel nostalgia for. But maybe it'll be great.

Thanks! I originally was going to just call it Compute but I resonated more with Compute!'s Gazette from my own personal experience and it's going to be all brand new content anyway. Plus, I like the idea of a "gazette" and it just seemed to fit. Personal preference I guess.

Thanks! I originally was going to go a completely different direction with the Switch writeup. By the time I finished the write up I had to acknowledge what a smart move that was for Nintendo. I just hope devs use the opportunity to bring back some more physical "stuff" with their offerings.

Retro computing? First title:

> Generative AI and Game Development: A Necessary Evil?

It's not retro computing. It's called click-bait.

Who are the authors for the content of the first month's issue? The articles on the site don't list an author, which makes me think it's all written by Edwin Nagle, which makes me wonder if anyone else will contribute to the monthly issues.

And jumping on that stupid bandwagon... Its not a necessary evil, it something that should be carefully thought out and getting consent from the people that are being effected by it.

The idea of supporting AI for a retro mag is just a bad idea, where is there a relationship between the two? I am not getting it.

My dad used to bring me home the Gazette with a box of powdered doughnuts and chocolate milk.

I was 10.

I’d spend the whole weekend typing in all the code and trying to get it to run on our Commodore 64. If it was dinner time, he would bring me a plate and leave me be. I’d be so excited when everything worked and I could show it off to him.

It is the best memory I have of my father.

Thank you dad.

In another box in the gar-age...yes, a case of Compute magazines(and dead scorpions/scorpion parts).

That makes sense. No judgement here, just me wondering.