creepingnet wrote on 2021-12-01, 00:32:

I think what has kind of happened is Computer Magazines are trying to legitimize their purpose by twisting the "branding" a little bit. "Hey, it's got a computer in it, let's write about it". Because nobody wants to hear about a pile of frighteningly similar PCs or the brand new yet-same-old Apple only 1/4 of the population can truly afford.

In the old days, because of broken barriers...the 640K Barrier, the 32-bit barrier, the 528MB HDD Barrier......getting actual full motion video on a PC with synced up and not-ear-raping quality sound...there was always some new exciting thing whether it was 3D shutter glasses or a laptop with a pen and touch screen that could be flipped over into a Tablet.

You make good points.
And I wonder about another thing at this point. In the old days, just to talk about computers, you had 400-500 pages per issue of many computer magazines, sometimes even thicker.
Nowadays, with the topics extended to a myriad of other computer-like or computer-containing devices, kinkles, and toys, you'd expect 2000 pages per issue. You get 50, 100 pages max.

Not to talk about the almost complete absence of print magazines. Almost all of them have gone electronic-only. I love the environment and I know it's important. Just, I miss that print part a lot. And technology today offers also 100% recycled solutions.

Magazines become more invaluable as you age... they remind you of that stuff you read on the internet 2 months ago that you were going to look into.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-12-01, 01:11:

Magazines become more invaluable as you age... they remind you of that stuff you read on the internet 2 months ago that you were going to look into.

Yes indeed, I suspect you centered the problem here. In the past, the magazine was a necessary tool. Now, it would be just for the pleasure of it, but not at all necessary, having the web. That must be it. Then, I suspect that only 1 thing could work.

A print computer magazine, thick, for print magazine lovers AND retro lovers. The magazine would be half modern half vintage. Every issue, a nice, thick thing, would have 2 parts: like a time machine to the past, like literally re-issuing and reviving the old stuff, as if we were in the past, like starting from the late 80s, pretending that stuff is coming out now. Even simply re-printing PC Magazine issues from issue n.1. Part 2 is the updated one, with current news and stuff. And they could even add a few pages commenting parallelisms and differences with the past.

It would sell to a niche market, true, but it would be a solid niche. Actually, two niches: 1) the print stuff lovers. 2) the vintage computing nostalgics.

aries-mu wrote on 2019-01-22, 17:01:

chinny22 wrote:

people still buy magazines?
Some of you guys are truly retro indeed!

u kidding man? The thrill of browsing awaited next issue of the magazine was priceless. An extinct beast

WHAT HI FI has stopped printing their Indonesian edition, the latest printed issue was December 2015 IIRC.

In any case, similar thing happens in audiophile magazines. Yesterday it was about loudspeakers, amplifiers, and AV receivers, now it's all about Bluetooth speakers, streaming devices, and sound bars. Ew.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2021-12-01, 03:12:

aries-mu wrote on 2019-01-22, 17:01:

chinny22 wrote:

people still buy magazines?
Some of you guys are truly retro indeed!

u kidding man? The thrill of browsing awaited next issue of the magazine was priceless. An extinct beast

WHAT HI FI has stopped printing their Indonesian edition, the latest printed issue was December 2015 IIRC.

In any case, similar thing happens in audiophile magazines. Yesterday it was about loudspeakers, amplifiers, and AV receivers, now it's all about Bluetooth speakers, streaming devices, and sound bars. Ew.

oh I can imagine!! then we can relate bro!

Lately I've been looking at PDFs of Computer Gaming World from the 90s. Somebody probably linked it on this forum, I don't remember.
I don't love it but it's okay.
They got angry letters when they started talking about Sega Genesis games.
They keep trying to figure out what the "Interactive Multimedia CD-ROM" platform of the future is going to be, or something. Entire pages dedicated to exploring the potential of CD-ROM to do some new amazing thing, but nobody knows what. I mean CDs are big and stuff. Obviously the world must adopt a new form of "entertainment" because of a new storage medium. That Philips CD-I totally looks fun. Everybody's gonna put those in their family room.

The Nintendo Power Glove is a huge step toward Virtual Reality. 3D graphics are no problem. All they need now are cheaper headsets. An affordable Virtual Reality game console will definitely be coming out in 1994-95.

They liked to test limits by veering off into the console world, but I haven't seen them write reviews of GE's new user interface on their microwaves.

aries-mu wrote on 2021-12-01, 03:59:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2021-12-01, 03:12:

aries-mu wrote on 2019-01-22, 17:01:

u kidding man? The thrill of browsing awaited next issue of the magazine was priceless. An extinct beast

WHAT HI FI has stopped printing their Indonesian edition, the latest printed issue was December 2015 IIRC.

In any case, similar thing happens in audiophile magazines. Yesterday it was about loudspeakers, amplifiers, and AV receivers, now it's all about Bluetooth speakers, streaming devices, and sound bars. Ew.

oh I can imagine!! then we can relate bro!

*High five.*

Klipsch, JBL, Focal, NHT, Mirage, and PSB are among the proper speaker names to me, so what the hell is this 'Sonos' people keep talking about? Oh, and Apple makes speakers too? And Apple's loudspeakers are actually reviewed in an audiophile magazine?

I guess I'm getting too old for this world.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2021-12-01, 05:44:

*High five.* […]
Show full quote

aries-mu wrote on 2021-12-01, 03:59:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2021-12-01, 03:12:

WHAT HI FI has stopped printing their Indonesian edition, the latest printed issue was December 2015 IIRC.

In any case, similar thing happens in audiophile magazines. Yesterday it was about loudspeakers, amplifiers, and AV receivers, now it's all about Bluetooth speakers, streaming devices, and sound bars. Ew.

oh I can imagine!! then we can relate bro!

*High five.*

Klipsch, JBL, Focal, NHT, Mirage, and PSB are among the proper speaker names to me, so what the hell is this 'Sonos' people keep talking about? Oh, and Apple makes speakers too? And Apple's loudspeakers are actually reviewed in an audiophile magazine?

I guess I'm getting too old for this world.

*High Five* bro!
I'm an IT tech and you won't imagine how many clients I get to assist and they got this Sonos thing. Oh and Apple's infection is everywhere.

shamino wrote on 2021-12-01, 05:36:

Lately I've been looking at PDFs of Computer Gaming World from the 90s. Somebody probably linked it on this forum, I don't reme […]
Show full quote

Lately I've been looking at PDFs of Computer Gaming World from the 90s. Somebody probably linked it on this forum, I don't remember.
I don't love it but it's okay.
They got angry letters when they started talking about Sega Genesis games.
They keep trying to figure out what the "Interactive Multimedia CD-ROM" platform of the future is going to be, or something. Entire pages dedicated to exploring the potential of CD-ROM to do some new amazing thing, but nobody knows what. I mean CDs are big and stuff. Obviously the world must adopt a new form of "entertainment" because of a new storage medium. That Philips CD-I totally looks fun. Everybody's gonna put those in their family room.

The Nintendo Power Glove is a huge step toward Virtual Reality. 3D graphics are no problem. All they need now are cheaper headsets. An affordable Virtual Reality game console will definitely be coming out in 1994-95.

They liked to test limits by veering off into the console world, but I haven't seen them write reviews of GE's new user interface on their microwaves.

Oh then I see similar phenomena also affected gaming magazines!

Until some time ago I still rarely bought computer magazines to find what was already there in the early 2000's magazines, many ads and less and less interesting reviews or comparison. Probably the last interesting were those retro game console ones I think nowdays are not sold anymore and were quite expensive for a thin tech magazine. The same informations and reviews can be read online and more accurate when the old paper magazines weren't always accurate. I remember those old video card game rendering comparisons (for example Voodoo2 rendering vs Voodoo3) with the supposed quality differences that if real, on a real monitor it should have been like comparing a sw rendering Quake to the GLQuake version. I still remember nowdays a Voodoo3 review showing a rendering quality in game screenshots that would make the Voodoo2 looks like an ancient accelerator. At the end the quality improvements existed for the single video chip and the better vga output signal instead of the pass cable but the rendering wasn't that improved or not that much.