A T A R I C L A S S I C S¢¢A New Magazine¢ for the 8-Bit enthusiast !!! ¢¢¢ Greetings Fellow Atari 8-Bit Users! My name is Ben Poehland, and I'm pleased to announce that I shall be serving as Managing Editor of Atari Classics (AC), a new magazine exclusively devoted to the Atari 8-bit user. If you are among the thousands who have bemoaned the recent loss of nationally distributed magazines that once supported your beloved 8-bit, I'm here to add a ray of hope to your 8-bit future!¢¢ The philosophical orientation of AC - incorporated in its Manifest - is to be a magazine "of, by , and for the Atari 8-bit user". Unlike previous 8-bit periodicals, the content of AC will directly reflect the expressed desires of the user community, especially as recorded during the Mail-In Campaign conducted January 15 - May 2, 1992. The magazine will be staffed by members of the user community, and its content will be drawn entirely from the user community.¢¢ Unicorn Publications, already well-known for its outstanding Atari Interface Magazine (which covers both the ST and 8-bit markets), has agreed to provide publishing services for AC. AC and AIM will be essentially independent publications, and the addition of AC to Unicorn's stable of products will not affect AIM's present subscribers. One of the many unique arrangements concerning AC is that its actual day-to-day operation will be largely in the hands of the user community rather than the publisher. Whatever "flavor" we decide to give it will be entirely our own.¢¢ Atari Classics represents a unique experiment in the history of the Home Computer Revolution that began in the mid '70s. With Atari Corp.'s cessation of support for all products beginning January 1992, an entire class of machines with a global installed user base numbering in the hundreds of thousands was abandoned along with the community of users who still use them. But for the first time, a rejected user community has marshalled its resources and declared its right to exist independent of Corporate America. We respond to Atari's challenge in a way that would make our forefathers proud: by rolling up our shirtsleeves and doing the job ourselves!¢¢ This will be YOUR magazine. AC will succeed - or fail - on the number of subscription orders it receives. Although seed money to print the Premier Issue has been provided, the magazine will need 500 paid subscriptions to succeed.¢¢ A software disk bearing programs published in AC plus selected offerings from the Public Domain, will be available separately for $9/year in the USA. The disk will be distributed independently but will be timed to appear with every other issue of the magazine (3 disks/year). Full details on disk subscriptions will also appear in the Premier Issue and in future announcements.¢¢ The content of Atari Classics will initially lean toward user applications, hardware tutorials and modifications, programming, and software reviews. We plan to agressively recruit paid commercial advertising from scarce 8-bit vendors, and to publish periodic lists of current 8-bit supply sources.¢¢ Best of all, PAID subscribers will be able to place FREE ads in AC to buy, sell or trade their personal 8-bit treasures! (But of course, yah gotta SUBSCRIBE first!)¢¢ And, we'll have a whole bunch of other stuff, contributed by some of the most talented writers and hackers in the Atari 8-bit world, authors whose names you've seen gracing the pages of ANTIC, ANALOG, Current Notes, and Atari Interface Magazine. (You'll notice not very many details there - we wanna pique your imagination!)¢¢¢------------------------------------¢¢ED:- If you have some spare cash please consider a subscription to AC as it really does need your support to survive. SJM 4/11/92¢¢¢Note (10/11/92) : I have just received my free Premier Issue of Atari Classics this morning. A full review and details of subscription charges can be found within the file AC1.DOC.¢
