The sad quiet death of computer and console magazines

Have you been to your local newsagent to buy a magazine recently? No?

You would be quite surprised if you went to one ten years ago, and then went to a newsagent these days (assuming it is still open for business). So many have closed in recent years.

This is the "Computer magazine section" in a local newsagent here in Australia in September 2025.

Most Newsagents I have seen in Australia now sell loads of stationery, occasion cards, act as agents for selling Lotto tickets, and do work under contract as agents for delivery/shipping companies (eg. Australia Post, DHL, UPS and others).

The newsagent shops in Australia are often full of undelivered packages, cluttering up the remaining tiny magazine display space which is always empty of people. Birthday/occasion cards dominate the previously full magazine display stands. 

The lines of people in the newsagent you see sometimes are for the post office delivery collection and for buying Lotto tickets...

The reality is that in 2025 very few people are still buying magazines from newsagents. In Adelaide's Central Business District (CBD), all but one newsagent in Rundle Mall have already shut down. 

I visited that newsagent in the city last weekend. They have a slightly larger selection of magazines than my local, but still very small indeed, with many copies of the same magazine across multiple locations to fill it out, as below:

So where has the magazine audience gone?

These days, on the internet you can see everything you ever wanted to know about pretty much any topic. 

Any new or old computer or console, any new or old game, application, tool or device. Read or view in real time - from the comfort of your smartphone or tablet.

Just search for and watch a short video on YouTube (as below), or watch development of new games live on Twitch, or read detailed posts about newly released devices on a blog. 

Such content is created within a few hours of a product release anywhere in the world. 

We get notified on our smartphones and tablets that something has happened and we can check it out, or use an AI tool to summarise it if we are too lazy or time poor to watch 5-10 minutes of content.

I can also watch short review or full long play videos online of any game ever made that I want to play. For any platform, current or old.

If that is not enough, I can watch popular streamers live playing these games and talk directly with developers who are often present on popular streams to gauge real time feedback and suggestions. I can save the videos to my smartphone or tablet device to watch later on a plane or train trip.

Take, for example, the latest release Hollow Knight: Silksong game on console (Switch 1/2) and Steam (PC/Mac/Linux) this past week. 

This game is made by talented local Adelaide developers Team Cherry over the past 7 years. 

First, let's check out YouTube and Twitch - Hollow Knight Silksong full and quick reviews, play throughs and live streams - huge quantities of instant content for you to consume...5.6 million people watched the release trailer alone!

You can see exactly what the game looks like and plays like - you don't need to rely on the reviewer - you can see it, and hear for yourself without buying it. 

I can do a quick search on Facebook, which has plenty of videos showing the game, and feedback to read.

Using Twitch (shown below), YouTube live or Kick, you can watch many people playing the game all around the world in real time and in your local language. 

You can ask questions in chat in real time too, to make the decision to buy it or not even easier - over 8,000 people are watching just one Twitch streamer in real time playing Hollow Knight Silksong during my lunch time Adelaide time (in the screenshot below):

In addition, you can debate Hollow Knight Silksong news items, product reviews or stories in real time with your similarly minded colleagues on Discord, Facebook, WhatsApp, BlueSky, X, Telegram, Tik Tok, YouTube, Line, Web forums or other social media platforms. 

Great game by the way, and I bought it on Steam. Sadly no physical box release yet.

I am so glad to see local game dev alive and well in Adelaide in 2025.

Continuing this example, you can get feedback from developers who worked on it directly or other knowledgable game players via the official Hollow Knight Discord channel. 

Discord channels have different sections for different topics, sort of like a web forum website but much more interactive between the users and in real time. Voice channels are also setup and available for active discussion about the game in real time.

As I screenshotted the discord channel below, note at the top of the right pane that there are over 55,000 people online at lunch time on a Tuesday in the official Hollow Knight Discord channel - just for this one game! 

*This* is where all the magazine audience has gone.

Would you write an email for a future Magazine letters page asking for help to get an answer in a few months. Why bother, when you can get an instant answer in Discord, watch a long play in YouTube or watch full review and play through in realtime with all tips and tricks shown!

So why would anyone buy a magazine released at least 1-2 months afterwards with delayed and limited coverage of what they are interested in? 

They don't. And they aren't.

So the magazine companies are selling up, amalgamating multiple titles into one as readership and revenue from ad companies plummets, and then closing them down and disappearing. 

Quietly up until ten years ago, but much more rapidly in recent years. It is a generational shift.

This situation in 2025 is VERY different to what used to happen with magazines covering obsolete computer and console platforms. 

In those eras in the 1980's and 1990's, when the platforms life came to an end, the specialist magazine closed as people moved on to newer platforms, with new magazines to cover them. For example: OS/2, Amstrad, C64, Atari ST and Amiga users moved on to Windows, Mac and Linux magazines.

Web forums were in their infancy in the mid-late 1990's - mostly places like usenet - and there was no YouTube, no Facebook, no Twitch, no Steam, no Discord, no WhatsApp. No DLC, no "fremium" games, no micro-transactions in games to progress, no games dependent on online internet servers to run. Operating system patches and games were actually finished and tested fully internally before they were released to the public, back when Kickstarters, Early access, DevOps and Agile development processes didn't exist. 

Yikes, I feel much older after typing all that.

Magazines were how we found out about what was happening in the world of tech, and we trusted their reviewers to give us the scoop on whether a piece of hardware, system, game or application was worth getting or not.

Now in 2025, this is not happening with current computer and console platforms. The platforms are not obsolete yet, but the magazines are still gone - even the magazines that are available in Digital form on tablets and smartphones for many years!

Where is "Official Nintendo magazine", "Official Xbox magazine", "Official Playstation magazine", "PC Format", "Official Windows magazine", or MacWorld to cover current developments for current platforms in 2025? 

They don't exist. They are all gone. Years ago. Did you notice? Possibly not.

Young gamers were the first to move away from magazines and now almost everyone has, for the reasons I showed with Hollow knight Silksong example earlier.

Specialist platform magazines are also quietly disappearing. 

I saw Computer Music magazine, Linux Format, 3D World, Australian MacWorld and MacUser have also now closed.

Multi-format magazines are also mostly gone in the last ten years - C&VG, Electronics Gaming Monthly, Game Informer, Megazone, Games(tm), Games Master and many others. 

Specialist magazines also got the axe. None of the magazines below is still around as a physical printed magazine today (except PC Pro).

Commodore magazines are mostly long gone, but already I covered in a previous blog post about Amiga magazines from 1985 to 2022, and their amazing continued run despite the decimation of computer magazines elsewhere around the world. Please read that article for more detail on Amiga magazines!

Here are some of the older Amiga and Commodore magazines (definitely not all of them - see my blog post for more details) 

So what is left?

"Edge" magazine is one of the few multi-format magazines to still survive in 2025 - but seriously, take a look at the tiny thin size and page count of it. Other US and UK specialist magazines such as "PC Pro" and "Admin Network & Security" magazine are also still around in 2025. There are probably others that I can't get here in Australia, and I am only looking at English language magazines.

I bought Retro Gamer and PC Pro latest issues from the newsagent here in September 2025 (note we get magazines one or two months later than they are released in the UK/US. 

Ironically PC Pro magazine this month is running a feature about 30th anniversary of Windows 95 in 2025! :-)

Some Retro related magazines like Retro Gamer, recent new specialist Retro computer/console related magazines like Amiga Addict, re-started Zzap 64/Amiga, Boing, Amiga Future, Freeze64, K&A Plus, and similar have also survived. 

Amongst the negativity, it's good to see there are several Amiga and C64 magazines are still available in 2025!

This I believe is because there is still some new software and hardware released for the C64 and Amiga, and an entire generation keen to learn more about their childhood computing/console history from Retro Gamer. 

There are also other old magazines like Compute's Gazette, Crash and Sega Force that have been resurrected under new owners in 2025 with new issues being released for the Retro computing/gaming community.

Luckily there are plenty of remaining developers and company executives still around to tell those stories as exclusives to those magazines, and AmigaOS continues to be developed in 2025 with new games also! 

I am glad this type of magazine is still around as I enjoy these too, but it is generational. Buy them while you can!

The next generation sadly couldn't care less about magazines or physical box classic game content. They seem totally engrossed with digital game licensed (with DLC upsell) gaming consoles, smartphones and tablets. This is when they are not live streaming or sharing snapchat, telegram, instagram, YouTube, Kick and Twitch content to their online friends and discussing in real time via Discord, etc. 

This is not limited to the home either. IRL (In Real Life) live streaming, emojis and chat are replacing magazines, real conversations and text for a new generation. 

Next generation adults are now watching YouTube shorts and Tik Tok videos - they last 1 minute or less. Their attention span has narrowed for whatever reason, and the need for companies to adapt ads to get eyeballs onto sponsored content to make money still rolls on without magazines. 

Content quality and quantity has consequently reduced in favour of shoddy clickbait, constant pestering for subscriptions and likes, and deliberate drawing out videos to meet minimum eyeball viewing time statistics for payments from platforms like YouTube. 

You probably know the sort of thing. 

Terrible "YouTube watch party live streams", YouTube videos reviewing of other people's popular videos, Unboxing videos, AI generated artwork, AI voice overs and AI generated videos are being released for a generation too lazy or not willing to spend the time to create their own content, all to make a quick buck. 

How many AI generated videos do you watch and learn something useful from?

Detailed quality reviews (blog or video) are rapidly becoming a thing of the past - except on my Epsilon's World blog of course :-) 

All of my content is written 100% by me and all photos and screenshots taken by me - no AI generation tools, or image perfecting processing used. I bought everything myself with my own money from working full time - no patreon money, kickstarters or shady pre-order schemes. And I make no money from it - I do this because I love it. I must be crazy.

Is this change a bad thing? I think you can be the judge of that. 

Given the situation, I decided to get a selection of these closed down computer/console magazines that people are chucking out while there are some still to be had. You have already seen some of them earlier in this post.

For me, particularly sad is the death of nearly all local Australian magazine content. No one talks much about Australian magazines, so I will!

Australia used to have so many different computer/console related magazines on the shelves. Above and below is a sample - a number of US/UK "official" computer and console magazines also had dedicated Australian versions with their own local content mixed in:

Atomic PC was a great Australian PC gaming hardware and software magazine that sadly closed in 2012 - the photo of Atomic magazine with the :-( at the top of this blog post was their last issue.

Australian PC User magazine was around for years (since 1990) before being rebranded in 2012 into Tech Life magazine, which was itself finally discontinued in 2022.

Hyper magazine was a popular local multi-format gaming magazine that lasted from 1993 until it stopped 26 years later in 2019.

Official Nintendo Magazine, Official Windows magazine, Official Playstation magazine (later rebranded to Play), Game Informer, Australian Game Pro, and MacWorld Australia (1985-2018) were local licensed versions of the US/UK original magazines with local Australian content added. All are now discontinued.

 

We also had older Australian magazine titles like Your Computer (1981-1997), Megazone (1988-1995), OZ Amiga (1991-1992), Australian Commodore & Amiga Review (1996), and Professional Amiga User (1990-1992)

With a few exceptions like PC PowerPlay and Australian Personal Computer (APC), there are basically no other locally produced Australian computer magazines left in 2025. 

Note: Silicon Chip is an electronics magazine, before someone local points it out - I know. Also, JB Hifi's Stacked "magazine" is not a magazine - just a long form advertisement for all their products dressed up as a "magazine".

If I missed any other local Australian computer/console magazines still sold as physical magazines in 2025, please let me know! 

I bought both those Australian produced magazines below in September 2025 - APC has been released every month since 1980 - it's now 45 years old! PC Powerplay magazine has been released since 1996, so next year will be 30 years!

I paint a bleak picture about magazines future in 2025 because it is bleak. Very.

I am glad to see that Australian government is working to preserve copies of Australian produced computer magazines so they will not be lost forever as the world moves on.

I openly wonder how will content created on Discord and other walled garden social media applications be preserved in the future after they are inevitably discontinued and their supporting servers turned off?

For now sadly, the magazine as you and I know it, is dying. Forever. I believe it will not return once it is gone.

In ten years, I predict no one will be able to buy a magazine in a newsagent - they simply won't exist. 

Your children's kids/grand kids will grow up not even knowing what a magazine is, the same way as your kids don't know what a floppy disk, DAT tape, Minidisc, cassette or Iomega zip disk is today.

Technology moves on. People move on. Not all progress is good progress, but it is what it is. 

While we older people may wipe away a tear, I assure you the next generation is losing no sleep over the quiet death of magazines in 2025.

So here on my blog I wanted to show and preserve a small piece of what are wonderful memories for me - the humble and long lasting computer and console magazine. 

You can also read more detailed videogame magazine history on the very excellent Forgotten Worlds website. Many scanned collections of these old magazines are available on archive.org and elsewhere on the internet if you want to read them without further filling your house or apartment with old magazines!

I have a special thanks to everyone who has ever worked on, or written an article for, any computer or console magazine in any era. 

Especially I want to acknowledge those still creating magazines and content in 2025 for the tiny remaining audience. I do my best within my financial means to support those who continue to produce magazine content in a format that is now considered "old fashioned and obsolete".  

Like most others, in 2025 I have embraced the new tech as well, but I love magazines still - the fact I kept so many old magazines to remind me of that era, and still buy 2025 new release magazines from overseas and occasional issues of local magazines should hopefully prove that!

Retro Games Arcade console

 In the post xmas sales rush here in Australia, one deal that got my attention was from Jaycar, who was offering the Retro Arcade Game console for $50 on clearance! Since it is normally $250, I thought it worth picking one up and quickly checking it out!

I remember seeing these on display in Jaycar electronic stores over the past few years, but I thought they were too expensive. For $50 though I think it was definitely worth trying it - here is the back of the box:

So what is it?

It is a Android OS based system that emulates various Arcade systems, and some home console systems too. It has a MicroSD preloaded with a number of games to try out.

It is setup with a similar form factor to an arcade fighting game two player joystick controller, making it clear that it is intended for two player action! It is very wide and solid!

On the back is a power switch, HDMI output, power input, MicroSD slot and USB socket.

I connected it up to my 1080p TFT screen that I use for the Atari 7800+ I got recently, SNES Mini, NES Mini, Neo Geo X, and PS3 using a HDMI switcher. The Intellivision II and Intellivision Remake are also here too, connected via AV to the 4:3 TFT TV next to it.

Out of the box it has a number of arcade favourites using MAME emulation. I quickly selected Aero Fighters, one of my favourite arcade shoot em up games:

I have to say, the joystick and buttons have that arcade feel, and it feels like you are playing an arcade machine.

I was impressed - Aero fighters ran well with no slowdown. Not sure why the top and bottom of the screen is cut off though...

Unlike a normal arcade game, you can save the progress so you don't have to start over every time, which is a great feature.

This console is running Android, so all the emulations are running on Android platform. The system information is a bit thin on the ground though...I wonder if you can upgrade the firmware?

They have preloaded emulation for Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, MegaDrive, SNES, Playstation 1, PC Engine and NES, as well as MAME.

I fired up Puzzle Bobble next:

This game is still as addictive as ever.

I took out the MicroSD and put into my Mac to copy some Megadrive roms to the appropriate folder in the card so they can be seen by the launcher. I tested Cool Spot, a game I used to own on the original Mega drive back in the day, and still enjoy playing today.

I found the arcade controls work well for this game. It is worth noting that games that use unconventional buttons like the playstation will probably be a bit more tricky as you have to map the buttons to the various PS joystick, which was different in features to the arcade joysticks and buttons on this system.

I have to say, for $50 it is hard to complain. It is a good deal for this money if you don't already have these system emulated on another platform like Pi etc, and using the arcade joystick and arcade buttons feels more "real" when playing MAME arcade games on it.

That said, I note that Jaycar has put the price back up to $250 again now, so it makes me doubly grateful I jumped on it while it was on sale!

I had only a short time to try it out before I left for Prague, so hopefully I can dig a little bit deeper later on and see what else I can do with it!

Atari 7800+ has arrived

 At the beginning of this year I bought the new Atari 2600+ console, looking forward to using my homebrew and old Atari 2600 carts in it. 

Sadly I was disappointed, as per my blog post here - a lot of titles didn't work at all.

Fast forward to December 2024, and they have now released the Atari 7800+ console. Does it work any better? Let's find out!

I bought this from EB Games locally, pre-ordered 6 months ago and released in early December here in Australia.

Unlike the Atari 2600+ launch, there are far more titles available to buy with the console, including (as you would expect) a number of re-released Atari 7800 console games in original style boxes, with manuals and cartridges.

Feels funny walking into EB Games, past all the latest PS5, Nintendo switch and Xbox games and consoles to pickup new release system and game released originally back in the 1980's. I remember when these games and systems were on the shelves on these same game shops back then...heh.

I used to own an Atari 7800 back in the day, and sold it to help fund my Amiga 4000T back in 2004.

This re-creation of the Atari 7800 is quite impressive, and the retail box looks great:

The box rear shout out "Get your pixel fix like it's 1986" - love it.

A wireless gamepad is included with the 7800+. I also bought an additional wireless gamepad for two player games.

Inside the box is the console, wireless controller for the original DB9 joystick ports on the unit (also compatible with the original atari gamepads), and a usb to wireless converter if you want to use the wireless controller on a PC or Mac, eg with an Atari emulator.

Also included in the box is Crystal quest (a 7800 game), an Atari branded HDMI cable and USB-c, but no power supply...

Personally, having own the "woody" 2600, the later 2600jr and also the 7800 systems originally, I like the look of the 7800 the best. It looks more modern, the buttons are more understated, though I understand why people like the original metal switches. This machine feels like a late 80's era machine.

The 7800 looks basically identical to the original machine, just smaller. It has the cartridge port on top (as per the original) to load game cartridges into.

Lifting up the main unit, you can see the front ports, I put the wireless controller in the left one in this photo:

There his a B A switch next to both ports to change their function.

The wireless controller comes with two fire buttons, directional pad and the screw-in plastic thumb stick controller, which allows for games that need smooth transition in the diagonal directions. The original 7800 had the same controllers (wired though). I keep the thumb stick screwed in when not using it, as I don't want to lose it! 

There is also a small round indented button on the back (top?) of the wireless gamepad so you can pair it with the wireless connector plugged into the DB9 joystick port on the Atari 7800+. 

Press and hold to start pairing - it flashes the light, which becomes solid once paired, as below:

The controller also has a USB-C port for charging it.

At the back of the Atari 7800+ is the modern HDMI output connector, a switch to switch the output 4:3 or 16:9, and USB-C power. No RF out or TV modulators needed in 2024. Glad for that! Some retro things like that are best left in the 80's!

The 2600+ also supports running 7800 cartridges, but I think it makes more sense this way - having an Atari 7800 that can play 2600 games too was the setup of the original machine.

The original 2600 cannot play 7800 games. Only the 2600+.

Included is Crystal Quest, a 7800 game:

I plugged in the cartridge and switched on the system using the power button on top. There is a pause, reset and select buttons on the top of the console also.

I chose to use 4:3 output mode by toggling the switch on the back (shown earlier), as the output is very pixelated when stretched to 16:9...

The Atari 7800 system was a step up from the Atari 2600, with faster CPU, dedicated MARIA GPU for superior graphics, supporting high resolution also. The sound though was the same as the 2600. As a system it was comparable to the NES, which was its main competitor at the time of release.

Safe to say the NES was way more popular, and ultimately the Atari 7800 system and games were discontinued in 1992.

Playing the 7800 games after so many years is quite nostalgic, though I will concede that Atari systems are not in the same league as C64 and Amiga systems in my highly biased opinion. YMMV.

As I bought a lot of new 7800 games with the system, I was keen to try them out. 

Asteroids deluxe - well, err, it's Asteroids, and it's deluxe? Looks way better than the 2600 version, but basically the same game.

I bought Bezerk as well, and I forgot how frustrating that game is!

They say apparently you can swap the cartridges without powering off first, but old habits die hard - I turn it off each time.

Reading up on the internals of the Atari 7800+, it seems the system on power on reads in the physical cartridge in real time to a cartridge file format temporarily, that is then fed into an Atari 2600 emulator running on the system. 

Personally I prefer not to delve too much into the black magic happening behind the scenes, but I was curious how physical cartridges worked in a re-creation system like this. Now I know.

Bounty Bob Strikes back is a new game for the Atari 7800, rather than a re-release. It was released on Atari 5200, but not on 7800 before. It is the sequel to the classic Miner 2049'er.

I remember playing Miner 2049'er a lot, mostly on the C64, so it is nice to have the new release 7800 version finally in 2024.

I then turned my attention to my homebrew Atari 2600 cartridges and demoscene cartridges. Most of these didn't work on the Atari 2600+, and I was very worried about if they would work on the Atari 7800+ given the underlying system is essentially the same. 

I bought the physical release homebrew games and demoscene titles from AtariAge, in case you are wondering where they came from.

Happily though, whatever the issues are in the Atari 2600+ have been resolved in the 7800+. I am pleased to report the demo cartridges and homebrew cartridges work great on the 7800+, which is a huge relief.

Being able to run physical Atari 2600 demoscene cartridges on the 7800+ like the 6 in 1 demo cartridge below is fantastic!

As mentioned, the homebrew physical release games I couldn't get working on the 2600+, now work on the 7800+. I can now finally play Space Rocks:

It is kind of an Asteroids clone which has more complex enemies to shoot down.

Deepstone Catacomb is a dungeon exploration game, and very impressive for a Atari 2600 title:

Stay Frosty 2 is a surprisingly additive game:

I will concede though that I am not very good at it.

In addition to the new release 7800 games I bought with the 7800+, I also bought some more new re-release Atari 2600 games in physical cartridges and boxes! How amazing in 2024 to be able to buy new release titles for Atari 2600 and 7800? Hard to believe right?

Epyx games is a compilation including Summer Games, Winter Games and California Games. I had to play California Games naturally:

One limitation with the 7800+ (same as the Atari 2600+) is it can't play my Harmony SD Card Cartridge.

 

This cartridge has all the games on the SD Card, selectable from a menu. 

I note that all the multi-game cartridges being released have physical dip switches on them to select the game on the back of the cartridge.

The reality is therefore that you buy the Atari 7800+ to play physical cartridge games. 

If you want to play sd card based games, you can use an emulator for that anyway.

I have to say I am quite impressed with the 7800+. It is what the 2600+ system should have been. 

I was worried about wasting my money, but it is great that I can finally run all the games I want on the Atari 7800+, and it means I can continue to buy new homebrew games for Atari 2600/7800 into the future also. 

Exciting times indeed!

Anyone want a lightly used Atari 2600+? :-)