Computist was a magazine devoted to the Apple II personal computer that was published by Charles R. Haight under the SoftKey Publishing name, between 1981 and 1993, for a total of 89 issues. The magazine was based in Tacoma, Washington.[1] Originally launched as Hardcore Computing, the 'hardcore' part was formally dropped from the title with the 27th issue.
Only three volumes of Core were published: "All About Graphics", "Utilities" and "Home Computer Games".
Originally, the "Games" topic was scheduled for Issue 4, but that issue was scrapped and "Games" became the theme for Issue 3. The "Databases" topic originally planned for Issue 3 later appeared as a feature article in Hardcore Computist #6. Core itself became a regular featured column in Hardcore Computist.
While it was billed as a magazine "for the serious user of Apple computers", in fact much of the content in Computist was devoted to the removal of copy protection from Apple software. At the time, it was commonplace for software publishers to prevent users from making copies of software by distributing the programs on floppy disks that had been written with a modified version of Apple DOS. Each issue of Computist included several "SoftKeys", short code snippets and instructions designed to circumvent software copy protection routines. Often these SoftKeys were designed to be used in conjunction with a program called Super IOB, which could reconstruct the publisher's DOS modifications, circumventing the copy protection for a particular program or group of programs. Typically, following the steps in a published SoftKey resulted in a disk free of protection, which could be duplicated with any disk copier, such as Apple's COPYA program.
Early in its run, Computist was the subject of controversy, when other computer magazines of the day (notably Nibble, Creative Computing and Compute!) refused to run ads for Haight's publications, citing their unwillingness to promote what they viewed as the facilitation of widespread software piracy; (they had also vetoed ads for bit copy programs, such as Essential Data Duplicator (E.D.D.) and Locksmith). Letters debating the merits of piracy versus the free exchange of information and the right of users to make legitimate backups of their programs, were exchanged between Haight and the other editors; several of these appeared in early issues of Hardcore Computist. When Creative Computing later closed down, Computist ran an obituary in Issue 28, reprinting one of its previous articles about the debate, as well as a response from a CC editor, George Blank.
The magazine changed formats several times, going from a thick cardboard-style cover with color graphics, to lighter paper stock covers with expanded content and increased page count; and finally to a large format (11" by 17") newspaper style publication. This last, beginning with issue 66, was intended as a cost-saving measure as subscriptions and reader contributions began to fall off with the waning popularity of the Apple II line. The final issue (#89) listed only four contributors, including Krakowicz, whose "submission" was nothing more than a section of his series on cracking protected software that had been circulating the BBS community for a while.
References
^"Computist magazine, issue no. 29 (1986". Old Computer Books. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
Online partial archive (issues 1 - 52) at textfiles.com
Computist(https:sdk.xyz)
March 04, 2023
computist, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk, page, learn, when, remove, these, template, messages, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, cita. This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Computist news newspapers books scholar JSTOR May 2008 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article possibly contains original research Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations Statements consisting only of original research should be removed May 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message Computist was a magazine devoted to the Apple II personal computer that was published by Charles R Haight under the SoftKey Publishing name between 1981 and 1993 for a total of 89 issues The magazine was based in Tacoma Washington 1 Originally launched as Hardcore Computing the hardcore part was formally dropped from the title with the 27th issue ComputistSeptember 1986 coverCategoriesComputer magazinePublisherSoftKey PublishingFounded1981Final issueNumber199389CountryUnited StatesBased inTacoma WashingtonLanguageEnglishOnly three volumes of Core were published All About Graphics Utilities and Home Computer Games Originally the Games topic was scheduled for Issue 4 but that issue was scrapped and Games became the theme for Issue 3 The Databases topic originally planned for Issue 3 later appeared as a feature article in Hardcore Computist 6 Core itself became a regular featured column in Hardcore Computist While it was billed as a magazine for the serious user of Apple computers in fact much of the content in Computist was devoted to the removal of copy protection from Apple software At the time it was commonplace for software publishers to prevent users from making copies of software by distributing the programs on floppy disks that had been written with a modified version of Apple DOS Each issue of Computist included several SoftKeys short code snippets and instructions designed to circumvent software copy protection routines Often these SoftKeys were designed to be used in conjunction with a program called Super IOB which could reconstruct the publisher s DOS modifications circumventing the copy protection for a particular program or group of programs Typically following the steps in a published SoftKey resulted in a disk free of protection which could be duplicated with any disk copier such as Apple s COPYA program Early in its run Computist was the subject of controversy when other computer magazines of the day notably Nibble Creative Computing and Compute refused to run ads for Haight s publications citing their unwillingness to promote what they viewed as the facilitation of widespread software piracy they had also vetoed ads for bit copy programs such as Essential Data Duplicator E D D and Locksmith Letters debating the merits of piracy versus the free exchange of information and the right of users to make legitimate backups of their programs were exchanged between Haight and the other editors several of these appeared in early issues of Hardcore Computist When Creative Computing later closed down Computist ran an obituary in Issue 28 reprinting one of its previous articles about the debate as well as a response from a CC editor George Blank The magazine changed formats several times going from a thick cardboard style cover with color graphics to lighter paper stock covers with expanded content and increased page count and finally to a large format 11 by 17 newspaper style publication This last beginning with issue 66 was intended as a cost saving measure as subscriptions and reader contributions began to fall off with the waning popularity of the Apple II line The final issue 89 listed only four contributors including Krakowicz whose submission was nothing more than a section of his series on cracking protected software that had been circulating the BBS community for a while References Edit Computist magazine issue no 29 1986 Old Computer Books Retrieved 26 December 2015 External links EditComputist at the Internet Archive Complete archive of Computist scans Online partial archive issues 1 52 at textfiles com Computist https sdk xyz Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Computist amp oldid 1066799524, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
