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''80 Micro'' was a
computer magazine Computer magazines are about computers and related subjects, such as networking and the Internet. Most computer magazines offer (or offered) advice, some offer programming tutorials, reviews of the latest technologies, and advertisements. ...
, published between 1980 and 1988, that featured program listings, products and reviews for the
TRS-80 The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer developed by American company Tandy Corporation and sold through their Radio Shack stores. Launched in 1977, it is ...
.


History

Wayne Green Wayne Sanger Green II (September 3, 1922 – September 13, 2013) was an American publisher, writer, and consultant. Green was editor of '' CQ'' magazine before he went on to found '' 73'', ''80 Micro'', ''Byte'', '' CD Review'', ''Cold Fusion'', ...
, the creator of many magazines such as '' 73'', founded ''80 Microcomputing'' as a spinoff of his ''
Kilobaud Microcomputing ''Kilobaud Microcomputing'' was a magazine dedicated to the computer homebrew hobbyists from 1977 to 1983. It was one of the three influential computer magazines of the 1970s, along with ''BYTE'' and ''Creative Computing''. It focused mostly o ...
'' solely for
Tandy Corporation Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned Retail, retailer based in Fort Worth, Texas that made leather goods, operated the RadioShack chain, and later built personal computers. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store ...
's
Radio Shack RadioShack (formerly written as Radio Shack) is an American electronics retailer that was established in 1921 as an amateur radio mail-order business. Its parent company was purchased by Tandy Corporation in 1962, which shifted its focus from ma ...
TRS-80 Model I The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer developed by American company Tandy Corporation and sold through their Radio Shack stores. Launched in 1977, it is ...
microcomputer. Like his other magazines it encouraged readers to submit articles and reviews. A 1980 advertisement for the magazine promised that it would "tell you the truth … the good things about the TRS-80 and the not so good" because "Wayne Green has never been one to mince words". By 1982 ''80 Micro'' was the third largest magazine in terms of obtaining advertising, selling 152,000 issues; only ''
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'' and ''
BYTE The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
'' were larger. Renamed ''80 Micro'' on issue 30 in June/July 1982, the magazine's November 1982 issue had 518 pages, the most in its history for a regular issue. Green attributed the magazine's success to Radio Shack's policy of not allowing other companies to distribute their products through their stores, while other stores would not carry the products as Radio Shack customers did not visit them. ''80 Micro'' became the most accessible venue for small companies to advertise their TRS-80 products. Despite a Tandy executive writing a column for the magazine, Tandy also prohibited the Radio Shack stores it owned from selling or displaying ''80 Micro'' so as to not lose sales to the magazine's advertisers, and Green—who claimed that most stores kept a copy hidden from "company spies"—asked readers to persuade franchise and other non Tandy-owned stores to sell the magazine. ''80 Micro''s success encouraged other publishers to start platform-specific computer magazines;
Harry McCracken Harry McCracken is a global technology editor for ''Fast Company'' and the founder of Technologizer, a website about personal technology. He was an editor at large for ''Time'', covering technology, from February 2012 to June 2014. McCracken is a ...
described ''
PC World ''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online-only publication. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tec ...
'' as "essential an ''80 Micro'' clone that happened to be about Windows, not TRS-80's". In May 1983 CW Communications purchased ''80 Micro'' and most of Green's other magazines. As Tandy introduced other computers ''80 Micro'' also covered them, but in 1983 it discontinued coverage of the Model II/12/16 and moved coverage of the
Color Computer The RadioShack TRS-80 Color Computer, later marketed as the Tandy Color Computer, is a series of home computers developed and sold by Tandy Corporation. Despite sharing a name with the earlier TRS-80, the Color Computer is a completely different ...
to the separate ''Hot CoCo''. In January 1988 ''80 Micro'' began only covering Tandy's
MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...
computers such as the
1000 1000 or thousand may refer to: * 1000 (number), a natural number * AD 1000, a leap year in the Julian calendar * 1000 BC, a year of the Before Christ era * 1000 metres, a middle-distance running event * 1000°, a German electronic dance music maga ...
. The change failed, and the magazine published its last issue in June 1988.


Features

Programming contests for young children were featured annually, and were noted by both the
Scholastic Corporation Scholastic Corporation is an American multinational publishing, education, and media company that publishes and distributes books, comics, and educational materials for schools, teachers, parents, children, and other educational institutions. P ...
and the
Boy Scouts of America Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...
. The magazine challenged readers to write complete games, sometimes including scoring, on just one line of BASIC code. Creativity was remarkable and included techniques to allow for a slightly longer line of code than originally envisioned. The magazine featured program listings for the machine, primarily written in
BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...
and occasionally
Z80 The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog that played an important role in the evolution of early personal computing. Launched in 1976, it was designed to be software-compatible with the Intel 8080, offering a compelling altern ...
assembly language In computing, assembly language (alternatively assembler language or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence bet ...
. These programs were printed in the magazine, but could be purchased on
cassette tape The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...
and
diskette A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...
media under the name Load 80 to save some typing. The magazine also featured articles, letters, reviews and humor (including - from January 1980 through July 1983 - the monthly
Kitchen Table International Kitchen Table International was a fictitious computer company created as a faux amalgam of Radio Shack, Apple Inc., Commodore Business Machines, and other organizations of the time, and was the subject of one of the earliest regular computer humor ...
satire/parody column).


References


External links

* * {{cite web, url=http://www.trs-80.com/trs80-mag-80micro-main.htm, title=Magazines - 80 Microcomputing - Main Page, access-date=2007-12-18, website=Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 Revived Site, url-status=dead, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170825235734/http://www.trs-80.com/trs80-mag-80micro-main.htm, archive-date=2017-08-25 Home computer magazines Defunct computer magazines published in the United States TRS-80 Magazines established in 1980 Magazines disestablished in 1988 Defunct magazines published in New Hampshire