Magazines

Where can you go for a regular(ish) read in printed or CD-ROM form?

If we were to go back twelve years, the Acorn market (as it was then) had more than a few magazines published on a regular basis. From the newsstand trio (Acorn User, Acorn Computing and Archimedes World) to the regular subscription-based titles (RISC User, BEEBUG and Archive) what was once a healthy market has now shrunk to a handful of titles.

Acorn Publisher and Acorn User magazine were recently combined to form Qercus. Aiming to provide a monthly look at the market as a whole, Qercus aims to take the best elements of Acorn Publisher and Acorn User and seemlessly combine them. The last issue of Qercus was published in September 2005, although we've been told that issue 277 is due for publication shortly.

While Qercus attempts to be 100% RISC OS based, what's a little annoying is the result that this delays the magazine considerably. Even Acorn User, in its days at Redwood Publishing, incorporated a Mac into its production. The page layouts were produced in Impression II, but the graphics were stripped in afterwards on a Mac. Hopefully Qercus will resolve its production issues shortly.

Paul Beverleys' Archive magazine is presently the longest-running magazine for RISC OS users. (Excluding Qercus which has issue numbers in excess of 200, but isn't in its original form). Written by users, for users, Archive adopts a 'no-frills' layout which generally works very well. On occasion it does make the explanation of technical issues a little more complicated than it need be. However for a dedicated support base, you can't beat Archive on line.

Foundation RISC User is an evolution of RISC User magazine. Edited by former RISC User editor RIchard Hallas, Foundation RISC User is the 'official' magazine from RISC OS Ltd. Lacking the convenience of a printed magazine, Foundation RISC User is provided on CD-ROM and it has to be said is a little expensive. However, you do get a lot for your money on each CD-ROM.

Edited by Aaron Timbrell, RISC World is a bi-monthly magazine on CD-ROM. Regularly providing a mix of commercial software and freeware, the articles cover everything from the technical to the tutorial. Book serialisations have featured heavily in recent issues, and there are more to come. (I should know - they come often from the Alligata library).

As the club magazine for The ARM Club, Eureka is another magazine written by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts. In the case of Eureka it shows in the passion evident through each authors witterings; and the magazines are frequently a very good read too. Eureka is presently the cheapest RISC OS magazine available, offering a years worth of reading for the annual membership to The ARM Club.

We're going to be a little biased here and mention eBay Advisor. It's not a RISC OS magazine, it's multiplatform, and its editor will always help to address any eBay issues that present themselves to RISC OS users. So much so, in fact, that issue two features a large eBay centric article.

Finally, GAG News is - to the best of our knowledge - the only magazine currently available in German language for users of RISC OS.

Support each one - they all deserve it; and it helps to keep the variety of reading material available for users available.

PRINTED/CD-ROM BASED MAGAZINES