{{Short description|Defunct American home computer magazine}} {{More citations needed|date=March 2010}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox magazine | based = New York City | image_file = COMPUTEjune1987.jpg | image_caption = June 1987 issue, showing ''Laser Chess'' | frequency = Monthly | firstdate = November / December 1979 | finaldate = September 1994 | country = United States | issn = 0194-357X | publisher = Small System Services (1979–1983)<br />ABC Publishing (1983–1994) }}
'''''Compute!''''' ({{ISSN|0194-357X}}), often stylized as '''''COMPUTE!''''', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue1/3190_1_THE_PET_GAZETTE_THE_EVOLUTION_OF_A_MAGAZINE.php |title=The Evolution of a Magazine<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=October 1, 2007 |archive-date=March 31, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331104052/https://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue1/3190_1_THE_PET_GAZETTE_THE_EVOLUTION_OF_A_MAGAZINE.php |url-status=live }}</ref> In its 1980s heyday, ''Compute!'' covered all major platforms, and several single-platform spinoffs of the magazine were launched. The most successful of these was ''Compute!'s Gazette'', which catered to VIC-20, Commodore 64, and later the Commodore 128 computer users.
''Compute!'' printed type-in programs for games, utilities, and applications, usually in BASIC. Often there were multiple versions for different computers. Sometimes programs were provided as lists of numbers representing a machine language program, to be typed in a utility called MLX.
==History== ''Compute!''{{'s}} original goal was to write about and publish programs for all of the computers that used some version of the MOS Technology 6502 CPU. It started out in 1979.<ref>{{cite book|author=Roberto Dillon|title=Ready: A Commodore 64 Retrospective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ecuoBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA113|access-date=12 February 2017|date=3 December 2014|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-981-287-341-5|page=113}}</ref>
ABC Publishing acquired Compute! Publications in May 1983 for $18 million in stock, and raised circulation of the magazine from 200,000 to 420,000 by the end of the year. ''Compute!'s Gazette'', for Commodore computers, began publishing that year.<ref name="dougherty19831116">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/16/business/advertising-abc-seeks-additional-magazines.html |title=Advertising; ABC Seeks Additional Magazines |last=Dougherty |first=Philip H. |date=1983-11-16 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2017-07-02 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited}}</ref> ''Compute!'' claimed in 1983 that it published more type-in programs "in each issue than any magazine in the industry".<ref name="lock198304">{{cite magazine| url=https://archive.org/stream/1983-04-compute-magazine/Compute_Issue_035_1983_Apr#page/n7/mode/2up | title=Editor's Note |volume=5 |issue=4 #35|magazine=Compute!|date=April 1983| access-date=30 October 2013|last=Lock |first=Robert|page=6}}</ref> A typical issue would feature a large-scale program for one of the covered platforms, with smaller programs for one or more platforms filling the remainder of the issue's type-ins.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Cover|url=https://archive.org/details/1985-06-compute-magazine|magazine=Compute! |date=June 1985 |volume=7 |number=6}}</ref>
Editors of the magazine included Robert Lock, Richard Mansfield, Charles Brannon, and Tom R. Halfhill. Noted columnists included Jim Butterfield, educator Fred D'Ignazio and science fiction author Orson Scott Card.<ref>[http://www.hatrack.com/osc/about-more.shtml Who Is Orson Scott Card?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250121190428/http://www.hatrack.com/osc/about-more.shtml |date=January 21, 2025 }} from Card's official website</ref>
In 1984–1985, ''Compute!'' published type-in listings for the SpeedScript word processor by Charles Brannon, which was on-par with commercial offerings at the time.
In 1987, ''Laser Chess'' for the Atari ST won ''Compute!''{{'}}s programming competition and versions were published for other systems in the magazine. Multiple ''Laser Chess'' inspired games have been written since then.
With the May 1988 issue, the magazine was redesigned and the type-in program listings were dropped.<ref name="keizer198805">{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/stream/1988-05-compute-magazine/Compute_Issue_096_1988_May#page/n5/mode/2up|title=Editorial License|magazine=Compute!|date=May 1988|access-date=10 November 2013|last=Keizer |first=Gregg | pages=4 | volume=10 | issue=5 #96}}</ref>
In 1990, ''Compute!'' was out of publication for several months when it was sold to General Media, publishers at the time of ''Omni'' and ''Penthouse'' magazines, in May of that year. General Media changed the title of the magazine to ''COMPUTE'', without the exclamation point, and the cover design was changed to resemble that of ''OMNI'' magazine. Ziff Davis bought ''Compute!''{{'}}s assets, including its subscriber list, in 1994.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1994-08-08 |title='Compute!' Magazine Bought By Media Group |url=https://greensboro.com/compute-magazine-bought-by-media-group/article_04fa9384-9082-5869-b69e-528b8f685145.html |access-date=2024-05-11 |website=Greensboro News and Record |language=en}}</ref> General Media had ceased its publication before the sale.{{citation needed|date=March 2010}}
==Former employees== After Compute! Publications, Robert Lock started another company, Signal Research, which was among the first to publish magazines and books about computer games. Among the biggest magazine published by Signal Research was ''Game Players'', a magazine devoted to Nintendo, PC, and Sega gaming. He also wrote the book ''The Traditional Potters of Seagrove, N.C.'' in 1994, and started ''Southern Arts Journal'', a quarterly magazine featuring essays, fiction and poetry about all things Southern, in 2005, but it ceased publication the next year after only four issues.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cliffordgarstang.com/2006/06/ |title=SAJ Calls it Quits |author=Clifford Garstang |date=June 26, 2006| access-date=June 25, 2018}}</ref>
Tom R. Halfhill went on to become a senior editor at ''Byte''. He is currently a technology analyst at The Linley Group and a senior editor of ''Microprocessor Report''.<ref>{{cite web|last=The Linley Group|title=Analyst bio|url=http://www.linleygroup.com/analyst_detail.php?Tom-R.-Halfhill-6|access-date=14 June 2014}}</ref>
David D. Thornburg continued to work in the field of educational technology and was involved in projects both in the US and Brazil.<ref>{{cite web|last=Thornburg|first=David|title=Current efforts|url=http://www.tcse-k12.org/|access-date=1 December 2011|archive-date=May 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515205312/http://www.tcse-k12.org/|url-status=live}}</ref>
Charles G. Brannon moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to work as a Project Manager for Epyx, before moving back to Greensboro and working for his father's insurance wholesaler company Group US as an Information Technology Manager.<ref>{{cite web|last=Group US|title=Meet the Staff|url=http://groupus.com/groupus/employees/guscgb.htm|access-date=24 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325201727/http://groupus.com/groupus/employees/guscgb.htm|archive-date=25 March 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> He has retired as of 2016.
==Books== Under the name COMPUTE! Books, ''Compute!'' sold {{resx|6|9}} inch spiral bound collections of articles previously published in the magazine. These were often platform-specific, such as ''COMPUTE's! First Book of Atari'' and ''COMPUTE!'s First Book of Atari Graphics''. Some original books were also published, such as ''Mapping the Atari'' (1983) by Ian Chadwick.
==Reception== ''Time Extension'' wrote: "The magazine ran across three decades, but it’s the late '80s / early '90s era that’s really interesting, as it provides a fascinating counterpoint to the micro-computer dominance of the UK gaming media."<ref name="TimeExtension">{{cite web |last1=Napieralski |first1=Mikolai |title=10 Forgotten Gaming Magazines That Are Worth Remembering |url=https://www.timeextension.com/features/best-of-2024-10-forgotten-gaming-magazines-that-are-worth-remembering |website=Time Extension |publisher=Hookshot Media |access-date=31 January 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250101154230/https://www.timeextension.com/features/best-of-2024-10-forgotten-gaming-magazines-that-are-worth-remembering |archive-date=1 January 2025 |date=1 January 2025 |url-status=live}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Internet Archive|compute-magazine|''Compute!''}} * [http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/ ''Compute!'' at The Classic Computer Magazine Archive website] * [http://www.electronicarchives.org/periodicals/compute/ ''Compute!'' at Electronic Archives website] * [https://archive.today/20130414081959/http://www.bombjack.org/commodore/magazines/compute/compute.htm ''Compute!'' at DLH's Commodore Archive website]
{{Authority control}}
Category:Apple II periodicals Category:Atari 8-bit computer magazines Category:Commodore 8-bit computer magazines Category:Defunct computer magazines published in the United States Category:Defunct magazines published in New York City Category:Home computer magazines Category:Magazines disestablished in 1994 Category:Magazines established in 1979 Category:Monthly magazines published in the United States