QBasic has had a long and colorful history on the Internet, and over the years, there have been a huge assortment of different periodicals specially dedicated to our favorite programming language. This is a collection of all of the significant QB magazines and newsletters that I could find on the Internet. They are archived here for easy access, and are all presented unmodified, in their original formats.
Please note that this collection only includes QBasic Periodicals, which were released on an issue-by-issue or article-by-article basis. QB sites that updated primarily with news blurbs have not been included. (This includes excellent sites like QBasic News.)
A big thank-you goes out to Barok, who compiled a zip archive of a whole bunch of QB Magazines in October, 2003. Many of the magazines you see here are reprinted from that original archive. Other mags have been captured from their original homepages, web archive sites, or given to me by the creators. I hope you enjoy this collection!
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Back 2 Basic
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Editors: Imortis Inglorian
Run: July 2010 - August 2012 (7 Issues)
Homepage: back2basic.phatcode.net
Archive: back2basic.zip (9.1 mb)
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About:
Imortis Inglorian started Back 2 Basic magazine in 2010, hoping to revive the community's magazine, targeted at beginners and QBasic and Freebasic game programmer. Imortis was a heavy contributor / co-editor for the last few issues of QB Express, and after the magazine came to an end at the end of 2008, he used the scraps of contributions that were meant for QB Express #30 to put together the first issue of Back 2 Basic. Over the next two years, he released 7 sporadically-spaced issues, each with a collection of programming challenges, tutorials, scene news, game demos, and more.
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Basic Gaming
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Editors: Lachie Dazdarian (Dean Janjic)
Run: July 2011 - November 2012 (9 Issues)
Homepage: games.freebasic.net/basicgaming.php
Archive: Basic_Gaming_all_issues.zip (517.4 mb)
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About:
BASIC Gaming was a FreeBASIC, QBasic and QB64 games ezine edited by Lachie Dazdarian, and ran for 9 issues, from July 2011 till November 2012. Lachie Dazdarian was a prolific contributor to QB Express, and also took it upon himself to create the amazing QBasic Games Directory and Freebasic Games Directory, where he meticulously categorized, reviewed and hosted all of the QBasic and Freebasic games worth sharing.
As part of his personal quest to support and nurture QB/FB/QB64 game development, Lachie started this Basic Gaming, using the same format as the abandoned QB Express, to share all the scene's game development efforts during the latter days of QBasic, the heyday of Freebasic, and the earliest days of QB64. This magazine is jam-packed with scene news, screenshots, and (as you'll notice by the larger file size) - zip archives of all of the game demos and releases that are mentioned in the magazine... a really great feature, which alleviates the problems of broken links that plagues most of the older QB magazines. (Who would have ever thought so much of the older content would get lost forever?) This is the last great QB/FB magazine, and one of the best ones ever... don't miss it.
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BASIX Fanzine
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Editors: Peter Cooper (#1-8), Alex Warren (#9-13), David Groulx (#14-17)
Run: November 1995 - April 2000 (17 Issues)
Homepage: come.to/basixfanzine (Dead)
Archive: basix.zip (669 KB)
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About:
The BASIX Fanzine could be considered the first QB magazine of the "modern era" of QBasic -- when kids and teenagers who programmed for fun started talking to each other over the Internet. Before, QuickBasic magazines were written for professional programmers and a few brainy enthusiasts. Peter Cooper started the BASIX Fanzine when there were only a handful of QB sites on the Internet and newsgroups were still king. In the premiere issue, he wrote his mission statement: "the purpose of the fanzine is to inform BASIC programmers of techniques, books, other people's BASIC tricks and more."
The BASIX Fanzine ran sporadically for five years, going through three editors and seventeen issues during its run. The issues contained a bounty of BASIC tutorials and tips, reader feedback, QB and PowerBasic community news and some of the first ever reviews of QBasic games. The BASIX Fanzine was an important step into uniting the online QB community, and influenced QB magazines for years to come. Zkman, editor of the lauded QBasic: The Magazine, was inspired to start his own QB mag by BASIX, and the BASIX Newsletter you see below was a spin-off of the original Fanzine.
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BASIX Newsletter
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Editor: Peter Johnson (Screech)
Run: May 1999 - July 1999 (2 Issues)
Homepage: basixnewsletter.tripod.com/
Archive: basix_newsletter.zip (51 KB)
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About:
When Peter Cooper retired from the BASIX Fanzine and new editor Alex Warren converted it into a web-based html magazine in 1999, Peter Johnson, also known as Screech, decided to pick up where the old email magazine left off. It promised to be "a monthly series of Newsletters, [which will] mainly cover tutorials, but will also have news on other things to do with BASIC." According to Screech, "The main reason I started this Newsletter was because I read the old BASIX Fanzine (when it was
edited by Peter Cooper) and was inspired to write my own when he stopped." He named his magazine The BASIX Newsletter and delivered two issues in summer of 1999, before closing up shop for good. During its two issue run, The BASIX Newsletter delivered a few good tutorials on topics such as keyboard handling and simple ASM graphics techniques.
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PCOPY!
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Editors: MystikShadows (Stephane Richard) and E. K. Virtanen
Run: August 2006 - June 2008 (7 Issues)
Homepage: ascii-world.com (Dead)
Archive: pcopy.zip (663 KB)
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About:
In 2006, the founders of ASCII-WORLD.com, MystikShadows and E.K. Virtanen, set out to create a magazine dedicated to all dialects of BASIC with a decidedly old school look and feel, to fit in with their text graphic homepage. Both heavy contributors to QB Express, MystikShadows and E.K. felt that there needed to be a magazine that tailored to the non-QB and Freebasic dialects of BASIC, such as BCX, XBasic and others. However, the magazine did focus primarily on QB and FB over its two year, 7 issue run. This magazine bridged the gap during the years when QB Express was slowing down production, and brought a more professional development and less games-driven sensibility.
NOTE: This magazine was scavenged from Archive.org's Wayback Machine, so a lot of the images are unfortunately missing, and many of the links are wonky. If anyone happens to have a "clean" copy of PCOPY, be sure to contact Pete!
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QBasic Developers Forum
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Editor: Lord Acidus
Run: September 1998 - July 1999 (4 Issues?)
Homepage: geocities.com/TimesSquare/arena/5451/Qbasic (Dead)
Archive: qbdf.zip (57 KB)
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About:
Between Fall of 1998 and mid-1999, Lord Acidus of Acidus Software wrote a collection of excellent newsletters that were meant to teach "Advanced QBasic Programming." The issues were well-written, humorous and informative, covering topics like Boolean operators, harnessing the power of the printer and modem, and AI programming. The QBasic Developers Forum was a solo effort by Lord Acidus, but the issues held more useful content than many magazines twice their size.
Although there were only ever a few issues, this magazine was widely distributed; Lord Acidus personally emailed copies to dozens of QB websites and also created a large mailing list. The QBDF showed up on homepages all over the QB community, and is still widely available today.
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QBasic Gazette
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Editor: Tek
Run: 1999 - 2000 (8 Issues)
Homepage: neozones.tekscode.com (Dead)
Archive: qb_gazette.zip (27 KB)
Issues
Volume 1 (1999)
Volume 2 (2000)
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About:
Back in 1998-2000, NeoZones Productions was the center of the QB community on the Internet. This large and useful website took center stage because of its assortment of downloadable programs in the QCity section, its monthly CodeX challenges, the Qlympic coding competitions, its big collection of tutorials and the gigantic "Ask Tek" QB FAQ listing. But most of all, NeoZones was famous for its popular "QBoard", which was the most-used QB message board by a huge margin.
The QBasic Gazette started as an extension of NeoZones, in order to help visitors keep track of the newest NZP updates, as well as some other news from around the QB community. The "'Gaz" was an email newsletter that was sent out at irregular intervals (and none of the issues were dated). It included short, one paragraph reviews, QB news briefs, "Links in the Spotlight", and a few random articles about the QB Community. Unlike most QB publications, it usually had no programming tutorials or hints.
At one point, Tek asked me (Pete) to sign on as the co-editor of the Gazette, though not much came of it. (In Vol. 2, Issue 1, I'm listed as Tek's co-editor...I remember asking people to write articles for the Gazette, posting want ads on my website, and helping Tek judge CodeX entries for the extremely popular "Four Line Mini-Game competition". I also helped him design maps for his RPG, Indigo Moon, but that's about the extent of my contributions to Tek and the 'Gaz.)
Anyway, the QBasic Gazette wasn't really a very good magazine. The articles were too short, the issues were rushed, and there just wasn't much to them. It's worth a read if you were a NeoZones fan, though.
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QBasic: The Magazine
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Editor: Zkman
Run: July 1998 - August 1999 (12 Issues)
Homepage: qbtm.tekscode.com (Dead)
Archive: qbtm.zip (2,262 KB)
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About:
QBasic: The Magazine is probably the most-loved QB magazine of all time, and with good reason. It was well-written and well-edited, jam-packed with content, had a stylish design, and came right at the time when lots of programmers were taking QB to the next level by experimenting with ASM, 3D graphics and SoundBlaster routines. QB:TM truly brought the QB community together, with great QB news, editorials, analysis, reviews, and best of all, tutorials. It is by far the most inspirational QB magazine ever made--the editors of V Planet!, QB Cult Magazine, QB On Acid, and Pete's QB Site (heh) all list QB:TM as a major influence.
I was, at the time, one of QB:TM's biggest fans. I contributed several articles and letters to the editor. I even stayed up late on the release date to get the newest issues; check out this letter to the editor from Issue 5: "Wow! Issue 4 of QBASIC: the Magazine was undoubtedly teh best collection of qbasic related rants, raves, articles, etc. that I have ever read! I knew that you were going to release Issue 4 today, so I stayed up to get it! Now it's 12:30 on the 15th of November. (Yes...only 39 minutes since you released Issue 4 to the world)! Good job! -Pete"
Anyway, QB:TM had it all: Game reviews, information on the graphics library war, Petter Holmberg's incredible ASM tutorial series, Aaron Severn's SVGA series, a 3D graphics series, great editorials, QB community news, and much, much more! Some of the best QB tutorials ever written were made for this magazine. And even better, everything in QB:TM was completely original. There weren't any "filler" articles, and nothing was ever reprinted or ripped off from other sites (which happens frequently in other QB mags). Zkman was the best editor we could ask for, and the enthusiastic contributions made QB:TM the greatest QB magazine ever.
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QB Accelerator
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Editor: SJ Zero
Run: August 2003 - March 2005 (4 Issues)
Homepage: qbxl.net/
Archive: qbxl.zip (1,512 KB)
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About:
In the world of QuickBasic Magazines, QB Accelerator really stands apart from the rest. Instead of taking a conventional approach, QBXL takes an offbeat, humorous and completely insane approach to QB news, reviews and editorials. This magazine will not only tell you about the latest programs and happenings in the QB community, but it will make you laugh like a schoolgirl in the process.
QB Accelerator focuses mainly on doing game reviews, but it also features regular editorial columns as well as some tutorials. Other unique features include the "Face Off" where two editors debate important questions like "Is QB Ass?" (issue 3), and the .mp3 audio satire news wrap-up, which appears on the site with each issue.
QBXL has since moved on from its original periodical format to an article by article basis, but it is definitely worth a look for anyone that wants brutally honest QB journalism with a sense of humor.
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QBXL Audio Edition
SJ Zero's humorous QBXL Audio editions cover QB community news, national news, and anything in-between. They were originally released in conjunction with QBXL magazine issues, but in mid-2005, SJ Zero began releasing sporadic mp3 audio editions.
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QB Chronicles
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Editor: Fling-master
Run: February 2001 - October 2001 (4 Issues)
Homepage: qbchronicles.qbrpgs.com/
Archive: qb_chronicles.zip (364 KB)
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About:
QB Chronicles is the magazine of QB RPG mogul, Fling-master, which had a collection of some of the best-written QB tutorials I've ever seen. This magazine consisted mostly Fling-master's tutorials, which were heavily focused on teaching RPG programming techniques. The RPG creation series was excellent, as were the XMS and EMS memory articles. There were also great tutorials covering the basics of ASM, SVGA and using the Palette. The QB Community news coverage and rants were really good, too.
QB Chronicles was an excellent magazine with the same type of charm that The QB Times and earlier issues of QB:TM had. Well-written, nicely-formatted and informative--this is definitely worth your time!
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QB Cult Magazine
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Editors: Matthew R. Knight, Christopher Steffan Charabaruk (EvilBeaver), Mikael Andersson (Sane), Brendan Urquhart (wildcard)
Run: March 2000 - January 2004 (17 Issues)
Homepage: qbcm.hybd.net/
Archive: qbcm.zip (5,739 KB)
Issues
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
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About:
Though it has slowed down in recent years, QB Cult Magazine is still one of the best and of the longest-running QB magazines ever. Inspired by QB:TM, it has honest reviews, editorials and great QB news coverage, and has had its fair share of original tutorials. Its earlier issues were full of energy and excitement, debate, humor and commentary, as well as lots of submitted content. This magazine also has dozens of original tutorials covering all aspects of programming...just about every topic you can dream of has been covered in a QBCM tutorial. Though the more recent issues have been a bit lacking, relying on a lot of reprinted or uninspired content, QBCM has been one of the most steady and unflinching QB publications ever.
QBCM has had its share of praise; Nekrophidius, editor of QB On Acid, once said that QBCM is the only good QB magazine left...and it inspired him to restart QBOA. I have to agree with Nek on this one -- I await the next issue of QB Cult Magazine with baited breath. QB Cult Magazine is up there with the "greats" like QB:TM and the QB Times.
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QB Gamer Magazine
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Editor: Terry Cavanagh
Run: October - November, 2000
Homepage: homepage.eircom.net/~qbgames (Dead)
Archive: qbgamer.zip (193 KB)
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About:
A short-lived mag by Terry Cavanagh of Alternate Reality Entertainment that had two issues in late 2000. V Planet! wrote the following when this site opened: "First, the good news. We were very surprised when former Dark Legends Software member Terry Cavanagh dropped by our Discussion Board and dropped a note about a new QB game magazine. So, we took a look at their site and we were pleasantly surprised by a monthly QB game magazine with previews, articles, and even a game review of Darkness Ethereal's latest RPG, Mysterious Song. Best of all, the game review section for QB Gamer uses a modified version of the 35-point rating system V Planet uses (instead of Sound/Music QBGamer rates for Music, and instead of Fun Factor QBGamer gives a five-point Overall rating). Each game review is quite full and contains much insight."
QB Gamer Magazine had two great issues, focusing on game reviews, previews and game programming tutorials. Unfortunately, it was discontinued after the second issue because of "lack of interest". Oh well.
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QB Inquirer
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Editors: Gopus, Skarab
Run: July 2000 - June 2001, 94 Articles
Homepage: antisocial.meldstar.net/qbi/ (Dead)
Archive: qbinq.zip (825 KB)
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About:
Between July 2000 and June 2001, Gopus, Josh, Xmark, Skarab, Majiko, 5h4d0w, Wafn, Noaliens, Chilliwilli, Qbmrk, and others published a total of 94 articles about QBasic and the QB Community under the title of QB Inquirer. This offbeat, humorous, brutally honest collection of articles was not a "magazine", per se, since it didn't publish in complete issues, but the contributors periodically wrote random ramblings, editorials, interviews, humor articles, rants, reviews and news items that focused mainly on QB community happenings. These articles include many interesting interviews, a lot of rants about various QB sites (especially NeoBasic and Marcade), conspiracy theories, offbeat random QB topics like the KILL statement and LET...and a whole lot more. QB Inquirer was a wacky, unconventional countervoice to the prevailing QB magazines of its time: The QB Times and QB Cult Magazine. Definitely worth a look.
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QB News
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Editor: David Cleary
Run: November 1989 - June 1992 (11 Issues)
Homepage: None.
Archive: qbnews.zip (717 KB)
Issues
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
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About:
Back in the late '80s and early '90s, QuickBasic wasn't just used by beginning programmers and amateurs. QB was a serious programming language, used by many professional coding outfits. David Cleary's QB News, which is one of the earliest QB magazines I've seen, and predates the Internet QB community by half a decade. This magazine tailored to advanced QB programming, teaching more complicated techniques and reviewing commercially available and shareware QB programs. Each issue came with lots of separate source code modules and a variety of tutorials that would help programmers push QB to its limits.
Since this magazine came out before the QB Community as we know it, you won't find game reviews or RPG programming tutorials that dominate today's QB magazines. You'll find information here that is mostly for tech heads, not the teenagers and young adults who program QB for fun these days and are mostly interested in making games. So, for the large part, these are advanced tutorials that you might find pretty boring. However, if you need to learn one of those advanced techniques, this magazine could be a life saver!
Anyway, QB News is an interesting magazine because of its age, and it can give you a window into the programming problems people were experiencing fifteen years ago. You'd be surprised how many of them we still face today.
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QB On Acid
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Editor: Nekrophidius
Run: November 1999 - January 2004 (11 Issues)
Homepage: nodtveidt.net/qboa (Dead)
Archive: qb_on_acid.zip (1,308 KB)
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About:
QB On Acid is one QB magazine that isn't afraid to speak its mind. It's full of blunt criticism, biting commentary, and honesty above all else. I think Vance Velez summed up QBOA best in his December, 2000 article: "QB programmers and gamers who really research their stuff will know that QB on Acid is Nekrophidius's QB magazine. Started by himself, the purpose of QB on Acid was to inform as many people as possible about the inconsistent and often more unnecessary parts of QB journalism and game-making. During its five-issue run in 1999, QB on Acid dealt harsh words at the vast number of QBRPGs and QB magazines on the Internet, saying that only a great few were necessary and that imitators should be extinguished. This in-your-face attitude of QB journalism greatly differed from anything else being produced in the QB community at the time, and although a key few were insulted by the publication QB on Acid gained a respectable following, especially from QB programmers and fans of first-generation QB games."
QBOA is a magazine that pledged to allow anyone who wanted to write to get their work published. It was a magazine where writers would always tell the truth, regardless of who was offended -- and for that, I really respect this magazine. Not only that, but it's also really fun to read. Compared to the QB magazine news reports and editorials with a detached, objective reporter, this is full of opinion and analysis. QBOA let commentary, analysis and news mix, to great result. The reviews and editorials in QBOA are great. There were also a lot of useful tutorials published here, too.
Unfortunately, some issues of QBOA have been permanently lost. Nobody, for the life of them, can find issue five, which was the magazine's largest issue ever. Anyway, the first three articles are pure gold, and issues 6-8, though on the short side, are still definitely worth your time. These magazines are definitely ones that don't go stale with age.
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QB Times
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Editor: Nightwolf (Marinus Israel) & Jorden Chamid
Run: 1999 - 2000 (9 Issues, 2 QB.Scene Mini Mags)
Homepage: qbtimes.qb45.com (Dead)
Archive: qbtimes.zip (3,379 KB)
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About:
QB Times was the principal QB magazine for many months after QB:TM ceased production, and it was a really great follow-up to Zkman's uber-mag. Nightwolf's Times was especially good at covering QB news, and provided the most thorough QBasic news coverage of any QB periodical that I have seen. (Only V Planet! has done a better job -- and that's not a periodical.) Every issue had information about major updates to QB websites, news about the progress of all kinds of QB projects, as well as miscellaneous news briefs. When Jorden Chamid's QB.Scene newsletter merged with the QB Times after its second issue, the Times became an even better resource. Additionally, this magazine did thorough reviews of QB websites and thorough "First Impression" preview articles of upcoming projects.
As far as tutorials go, The QB Times was no slouch, either. It had a bounty of original tutorials written by the likes of Jorden Chamid, @bionnn, Nightwolf and Michael Hoopman. Though it did post regular articles about different file formats (which I consider to be "filler" content), The QB Times did a great job of teaching old programmers new tricks.
The QB Times is one of those magazines that "worked", because lots of different QB programmers joined forces and worked together to create a really good publication. While most magazines only receive contributions from a handful of contributors, this one was a joint effort, put forth by Nightwolf Productions, Future Software, members of the NeoZones crowd and former contributors to QB:TM.
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The QFiles
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Editor: Timothy D. Mowrer
Run: November 1999 - May 2000
Homepage: swsoft.mekin.net
Archive: qfiles.zip (516 KB)
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About:
A smaller, lesser-known QB magazine that lasted from November of 1999 to May of 2000 at Secret Weapon Software. This magazine's four short issues focused more on entertainment than on nuts-and-bolts QB tutorials or news. Here's SWSoft's description of the contents of their mag: "The QFiles always includes a few humorous articles, some news (local and general) and usually a tutorial. Also, we've added a little something we've never seen on a QB site and felt it was lacking: A 'Babe of the Month' section."
Just like all QB magazines, The QFiles just stopped one day, abandoned with no explanation, just like the rest of the Secret Weapon Soft website. In fact, if you visit the SWSoft site, there's still a preview for the "upcoming" June 2000 issue of The QFiles that unfortunately never saw the light of day.
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QNews QBasic Newsletter
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Editor: Jeff Rapp
Run: July 1998 - February 1999 (15 Issues)
Homepage: qbplace.home.ml.org (Dead)
Archive: qnews.zip (34 KB)
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About:
Jeff Rapp's QNews QBasic Newsletter is not so much a magazine as it is a newsletter-based discussion board. Jeff Rapp acted as an editor / moderator of sorts, collecting emails with questions, answers, announcements and ideas about QBasic programming. When he had enough to warrant sending an email message, he would zip it off to the near-200 members. Occasionally, there was an intriguing article or a good mini tutorial, but some of the issues were fairly shabby. Without fail, every issue, Jeff would write "The Final Say," which quite often would be the most interesting section.
Back in 1998-1999, I was a subscriber to this list, and I never really considered it much of a magazine. However, it was periodical, and it did have some good information in it once in a while. It's certainly no QB:TM or QB Cult Magazine, but it is definitely worth a look.
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Razor Diskmag
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Editor: Terminator_Z
Run: December 1999 (1 Issue)
Homepage: razor.quickbasic.com (Dead)
Archive: razor.zip (319 KB)
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About:
After QBasic: The Magazine ceased production in fall of 1999, QB:TM fans banded together to create a "spiritual successor" to the magazine. This was known as Razor Diskmag, and was headed by Terminator_Z. However, after just one issue, the QB:TM replacement announced that it was going to disband. Razor Diskmag was a "disk magazine", meaning that each issue ran from its own special DOS-based executable program, which had its own unique interface. In order to make this magazine more accessible, I have also formatted the magazine's text (and some graphical content) as an HTML file so you can read it in your web browser. You can download the actual disk mag or view the read the HTML version.
Razor Diskmag was hosted at razor.quickbasic.com by ChUcK and Dark Elf Productions, but is now no longer available. Thanks to 19Day for sending me this issue.
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V Planet! QuickBasic Magazine
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Editor: Vance Velez
Run: October 1999 - November 2004 (~300 Articles and ~150 Game Reviews)
Homepage: vplanetmag.com (Dead)
Archive: vplanet.petesqbsite.com
Articles & Reviews
Articles & Editorials
Game Reviews
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About:
Vance Velez, editor of V Planet! QuickBasic Magazine, developed the best QBasic game reviews site of all time, bar none. Vance had a true knack for writing thoughtful and honest QBasic game reviews, using his unique 35-point rating system, and his ranking of QBasic games still stands the test of time. V Planet! also was host to regular updates of QBasic community and scene news, and was home to the QB Gaming Gold Awards.
This archive of V Planet! is presented as a full website, rather than links to individual issues, because the articles and reviews were posted individually, rather than in a big clump. V Planet! was the source of some of the most up-to-date QB scene news anywhere between 1999 and 2004, with a particular focus on QBasic gaming.
Scrolling through V Planet! is definitely a fun walk down memory lane, and this site is still host to the best-of-the-best QBasic games archive that you'll find anywhere. Enjoy!
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VSNews
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Editor: Danny Gump
Run: July 1998 - January 1999 (5 Issues)
Homepage: chainmailsales.com/virtuasoft
Archive: vsnews.zip (772 KB)
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About:
Danny Gump, the the guy in charge of VirtuaSoft who made the Dash library, The Mystical Journey and dozens of other programs, ran a great little QB magazine from August 1998 - January 1999. This magazine included regular columns like "Demo Game of the Month", "Tricks of the Trade", interviews, editorials and articles. It also covered Danny Gump's own VirtuaSoft releases and updates pretty substantially, which at the time was some of the biggest news in the QB scene. Everyone was interested in Dash and TMJ.
VSNews's "What's New in QB Programming?" section was one of the first news QB Community news sources ever started. In fact, VSNews predated the first issue of QB:TM by several weeks, and many of the QB magazine conventions Danny Gump created may very well have influenced the format and style of Zkman's magazine. (The writing style, quality and formatting of the QB News shorts, for example, is almost identical in the two magazines.)
Though the issues are fairly short, VSNews is a great time capsule of the QB community. It has interesting articles, some good tutorials, editorials, game program previews...but most of all, it lived up to its name and did a tremendous job of covering upcoming projects and QB Community news in an interesting, enjoyable way.
VSNews had a total of five issues (and one work-in-progress issue that was never released).
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Other Magazines
- These are magazines that I know about, but can not find on the Internet. If you have copies of any of these missing magazines, please contact me! Also, if you know of any other QB magazines that are not listed here, make sure you let me know!
- Basic Code Cache
After Dave Cleary ended the QBNews in 1992 because of lack of interest, he started the Basic Code Cache. This new magazine replaced QBNews and included code and tips for QuickBasic, PowerBASIC and Visual Basic. The first issue, which was released on April 20, 1993, is the only one that I have been able to find. I don't know if any other issues were produced.
Download the first issue of The Basic Code Cache.
- Basic Magazine
In April of 1994, Ken Witherow released the first issue of Basic Magazine, which tailored to all versions of BASIC except for Visual Basic. This magazine required readers to subscribe and pay for disks to be delivered to them in the mail. These disks included dozens of small programs and libraries. The majority of the content, at least for the first issue, was for QBasic and QuickBasic. I have found a copy of the very first issue, which has some short text articles and many .bas programs that do things like send information through the modem or disply the Jurassic Park logo.
Download the premiere issue of Basic Magazine.
- Basic Pro
This is an odd QB magazine made by Exodus of MimicSoft. I don't know how many issues there were, but I assume that there were at least three (because I have a copy of the third issue). This magazine was distributed as a .bas file that was actually a small QBasic program using PRINT and COLOR statements to display the written content. Basic Pro used a simple menu system, and focused on writing short reviews of different QB games.
Download the third issue of Basic Pro.
- Basic Softips
This is a magazine published by "Hank" of Marquis Computing beginning in November of 1990 and distributed over BBS systems. I have a copy of the first issue (thanks to Macric); I don't know if there ever was a second issue published.
Download the first issue of Basic Softips.
- Efnet QB Magazine
In December 1999, a group of QB coders from the Efnet #QuickBasic channel banded together to create their own disk magazine. QB On Acid reported: "As a response to Razor's delay, several Efnet people had decided to create their own diskmag. It's apparently still in the early stages as of now, but it shows promise. QBoA was able to obtain an early copy of this new diskmag, and it looks pretty impressive, but looks are one thing, and content is another...we'll see what develops."
Update (8/15/04): According to Nekrophidius, the editor of QBOA, a preliminary version of this diskmag was released, but the project unfortunately died before its first issue. We are still interested in getting a copy of this unfinished issue, if possible, for archival purposes.
- Inside Microsoft Basic
Inside Microsoft Basic is a magazine that was published around 1990, and appears to be the predecessor to "Inside QuickBasic" (below). This magazine is mentioned in this article on the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Macric was able to find the .bas sourcecode packets for 17 issues of this mag (but not any of the original articles), which you can download below.
Download the IMB sourcecode packets: IMB.zip
- Inside QuickBasic
Inside QuickBasic was a monthly QuickBasic journal published by the Cobb Group from at least March 1991 to March 1992, and had at least fifteen issues. From the descriptions I've seen, it looks like it was filled to the brim with useful tutorials and source code, though I have never actually seen an issue. There is a lot of information about this magazine at The Microsoft Knowledge Base and KB Alertz.com, including lists of article titles. Additionally, the Simtel database has the downloadable source code from the February and March, 1992 issues of Inside QuickBasic, though the text and tutorials that came with them are not available.
Update (1/14/06): Macric was able to find the source code packets for nine issues of Inside QuickBasic -- issues 103, 104, 106, 107, 109, 110, 112, 202 and 203. This archive does not includes the original text of the magazine's articles, but only the accompanying source code files.
Download Macric's archive of sourcecode packets for nine issues: IQB_Inside_QuickBasic.zip
Download the Sourcecode packets from the February 1992 or March 1992 issue..
- PC Magazine's BASIC Techniques and Utilities
In the early 1990's, Ethan Winer wrote a book on advanced QuickBasic programming techniques, which is widely available online. This book was sanctioned by PC Magazine, but I am uncertain about whether this book ever actually appeared in the magazine. Winer was an editor for PC Magazine, and the BASIC Techniques and Utilities certainly could have been serialized in a magazine on a chapter-by-chapter basis, though I don't actually know if this ever happened in PC Magazine. However, Winer's book *has* been serialzed in the QB Cult Magazine over many months. At any rate, this is a very well-written and informative book for advanced QB programmers, even if some of the information is outdated.
Ethan Winer's homepage is at EthanWiner.com. PDF and .txt versions of his book are available there. You can also download this book from the Tutorials Section of Pete's QB Site..
- QBMagazine
A QB magazine with a very unoriginal title. (This is NOT QBasic: The Magazine!) I don't know what exactly it had in it, or even if it was a periodical magazine. It was formerly hosted at members.xoom.com/QBMagazine, but is no longer available.
- QBRPG Magazine
I have been told that a QBRPG Magazine once existed, though I don't know a thing about it. If you have ANY information about this, let me know...even if you don't have copies, I would still like to learn what this magazine was about -- or if it even existed.
- QB Voice
An excellent QB magazine that was edited by Martin Rampersad, also known as Rems. QB Voice was updated every few months for a while in 1998-1999, and had many great tutorials. This was a well-written and popular magazine, and I'm surprised that it has been forgotten. This is a magazine that I would absolutely love to get copies of. Rems' QB site used to be at globalserve.net/~rampersad, but it has long since disappeared.
Update (9/03/04): Rems emailed me and said that he unfortunately no longer has copies of QB Voice. He did, however, say that he will help me search for copies of the old issues.
- Queue Basic
I have found a few mentions of something called Queue Basic that was made, according to Buff's QB Site, "Formerly Qbasic Magazine". This site / magazine was created by Rusty Charley and others, and was once located at: http://queuebasic.hypermart.net/
- Qubed
I know absolutely nothing about this magazine, other than that it existed. Zkman of QB:TM mentioned it a few times in conversations with V Planet! and QB Cult Magazine.
- QuickBasicNews
A QB disk magazine (with its own exe viewing program) published by Dave Barron. The first issue from August 1994 is available below (thanks to Macric). This issue included decent tutorials on topics like Interrupts, Arrays and Combining Libraries Together. I don't know if there were any other issues produced.
Download the first issue of QuickBasicNews.
- Etc.
- 3-2-1 Contact
Children's print magazine from the 1980's which once ran a section called "Enter" or "BASIC Training." This section included the source code of simple programs.
- Mike Birken sent me a zip archive with 110 scans from the 3-2-1 Contact Enter Section from between 1983 and 1989. He also sent me the following information:
The "Enter section" in 3-2-1 Contact magazine evolved from Enter magazine. If you never heard of it, check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enter_%28magazine%29
Over time, the Enter section got smaller and smaller and soon only "Basic Training" remained. And then that disappeared completely. There were some really cool programs in there some times. I couldn't find the issue, but there was once a variation of Lunar Lander. The game required you to get a flying saucer through a jagged cave by only tapping on the space bar. Each tap initiated your rocket booster to momentarily fight gravity.
You can download Mike's zip archive here: 321contact.zip | mirror (WARNING: This is a VERY large file -- 132MB)
- Potato recently sent me scans of a few pages of these old mags: here, here and here.
- Hugi Diskmag
Hugi Disk Magazine is a leading disk magazine pertaining to the PC scene, with a huge following. According to the official site, "Hugi deals with a wide range of topics: computer art (especially demos - see the page Introduction to the Demoscene), programming, new technologies, politics, philosophy, lifestyle, poetry & stories, music and more." In Hugi Issue #20 from August 2000, Toshi Horie of Toshi's Project Page wrote a great article on the QBasic Demo Scene. It's definitely worth a look: Official Hugi Site or Issue #20 -- or just download hugi20.zip.
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