Electron User
Electron User was a magazine targeted at owners of the Acorn Electron microcomputer. It was published by Database Publications of Stockport, starting in October 1983 and ending after 82 issues in July 1990.[1]
 First issue cover | |
| Categories | Computing |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Publisher | Database Publications |
| First issue | October 1983 |
| Final issue | July 1990 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Based in | Stockport |
| Language | English |
Initially it was included as a 16-page pullout supplement to The Micro User but after four such editions it became a standalone title and within a year had grown to an average length of around 64 pages. The focus was news stories, type-in programs and software reviews. It also contained cheat codes and a long-running column on adventure games initially by "Merlin" in a column entitled "Merlin's Cave" and subsequently by "Pendragon".
Its advertisers included the top BBC/Electron games distributors of the day, such as Acornsoft and Superior Software.
Often the April-dated edition of the magazine included an April Fools' Day joke, generally consisting of a short machine code type-in listing which claimed to do something extremely useful and of wide interest but which in fact printed APRIL FOOL on the screen. Examples included:
- a program to predict what text the user would type next
- a program to compile BASIC programs directly into machine code leveraging the machine's BASIC interpreter
- a program to display colours on a monochrome screen by rapidly modulating the pixels (citing a recent Tomorrow's World)
See also
- Acorn User
- The Micro User / Acorn Computing
- Archive
- BEEBUG / Disc User
References
- "Electron User Magazine and Tapes". 8 Bit Software. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
External links
- Acorn Electron World website including complete archive of page-by-page scans of all issues of Electron User
- Acornmags Electron User section
- Archived Electron User Magazines on the Internet Archive