editorial
licenseGREGG KEIZER
We Changed Because We Saw You Changing. It's That Simple.
We've changed.
When you flip through the pages of this issue, the first thing you'll notice is a new, clean layout and design. Thanks to the expert guidance of our art director, Janice Fary, the magazine is easier to read, easier to use, easier to digest. COMPUTE!'s contemporary look reflects, we think, our philosophy of providing the most up-to-date information about computers and how to put that information to use.
Which brings us to an even more fundamental difference. Over the last decade, COMPUTE! has published the highest quality software available in print form. With this issue, however, COMPUTE! magazine begins a new era, one that doesn't include type-in programs.
As computers and software have grown more powerful, we've realized it's not possible to offer top quality type-in programs for all machines. And we also realize that you're less inclined to type in those programs. You're more interested in hands-on features, dependable and forthright product reviews, and insightful columns. We've changed because we saw you changing. It's that simple. After all, our job is to give you the kind of information you want.
We believe that the new COMPUTE! will make the time you spend on your computer more interesting, more worthwhile, and more productive. And we think that the package we've put together does that better than any other consumer computer magazine.
COMPUTE! will include more feature articles, written by authors old and new to the magazine-practical features that demonstrate the power of personal computers, that show you how you can use the machine to educate, entertain, produce, and process. Well-written articles show you how to use your computer, not how one person far removed from your experience may use it. This issue, we're showing you a bit of everything-a preview of what to expect from COMPUTE! features. Hardware guru Arlan Levitan looks at laptops; educational computing expert Fred D'Ignazio shows how summertime can be fun with a computer; and our games-crazed staff picks its 20 favorite computer diversions.
There will be a complete buyer's guide in each issue to help you find, and then buy, the right software for your computer. This month, for instance, we offer a comprehensive listing of personal finance packages. Next month, flight simulators. The month after that sports games. And so on.
We're doubling the number of our product reviews, adding hardware evaluations on a regular basis, and changing the focus of those reviews to give you solid information about the software that you want to buy, not the software we want to hype. We'll review programs like Quattro because many of you work in the home, Ticket to London because you and your children want to learn with the computer, and GeeBee Air Rally because everyone likes to have fun.
COMPUTE! has always been known for its recognized columnists, and we're not going to change that. "Gameplay," our new entertainment column, is written by Orson Scott Card, an award-winning science-fiction writer who has a keen eye for what makes or breaks a game. We're also debuting "Discoveries," David Stanton's educational computing column and "Levitations," our free-form column that reports on almost anything connected with personal computers and their users. And though we've changed the name of his column, we're keeping David Thornburg's refreshing look into both the near and the distant future of computers.
Even though we no longer carry type-in software specific to each kind of computer, we do give you computer-specific information in the new COMPUTE! Specific department. If you own an Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64 or 128, IBM PC or compatible, or Macintosh personal computer, you'll find this new section an invaluable fount of product information, news, and application hints and tips. Here you'll read about everything from an IBM PC virus to Commodore 64 emulators for the Amiga.
Rounding out the magazine are such things as "News & Notes," full of industry news-the serious and the humorous-that appeals to anyone who owns a computer; letters to the editor; technical and programming hints and tips; and a stronger new products listing.
We like what we're offering, and we hope you do, too. If you like using your personal computer, want to know more about computers and how to put them to work (and play!), then you've got the right magazine in your hands. Stay with us, and stay on this unique road of discovery as we see what lies ahead.
Editor