Glossy magazines

It’s a genuine thrill to be writing for Retro Gamer. I can proudly say that RG is one of the few mags I have subscribed to in my life. The others are Record Collector, Combat Magazine (Bruce Lee style as opposed to prepping for the apocalypse) and The Micro User.

I used to get The Micro User between the ages of 11 to 13. It was a fairly weighty monthly read dedicated to the BBC Micro. As a kid, I would pore over each issue as it arrived. Skimming through first to get the gist of the issue, and then slowly reading every single word to digest the majesty of it.

To stop me going insane during my recent divorce I have been buying bundles of videogames magazines on ebay. Many might argue that this was actually a sign of the insanity I was trying to stave off, and they probably have a point. Recently, I got my hands on two lots of Micro User mags. One set from 1985 and one from 1988. I was thrilled when they arrived, and first thing I did was rip open the box and take a bloody good sniff. My word, they smelled magnificent. There’s just something about 34-year-old bundles of thick paper that sets me off.

I picked an issue at random, Volume 3, Number 9, November 1985, and rifled through it. The first thing that grabbed me is there are a lot of adverts. A lot.

I mean just pages of tiny print, almost too small to read, advertising graphics ROMS, acoustic couplers, IEEE interfaces, monitor plinths with wood grain. So much stuff that as the 12-year-old I would have been then I had absolutely zero chance of getting. And yet, I devoured this stuff. These lists were the equivalent of holiday brochures for those who would never travel, or the Freemans catalogue for those with no chance of ever touching a member of the opposite sex.

There was some actual fun stuff in there. A game to type in called Whodunnit by Ken Smith. Micromail, a page written by readers that had to, of course, be sent in via post. And the games review section, which surprisingly only lasts four pages and has hardly any pictures. Microcosm, Lode Runner and (I kid you not) a lathe simulator were the big releases in November 1985!

The Micro User is certainly a lot dryer than I remembered. The issues from 1988 seem a little user-friendlier, but they are still a challenge to get particularly excited by. I’m scratching my head, wondering exactly what I saw in these magazines back when I was a kid, but I guess it must be partly because these were all we had. Obviously, one couldn’t go online to find out stuff. Today we are bombarded with information about gadgets, games and gizmos every second of the day, and it’s all beamed directly to your smartphone. 1985 was different. We had to wait. And when it came, we were grateful.

But actually… these mags really aren’t as exciting as I initially thought. Anyone want to buy 50 or so copies of The Micro User?

I have been buying bundles of videogames magazines on ebay