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                     ST COMPUTER MAGAZIN CLOSES DOWN COMPLETELY
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You surely remember  my article back in  UCM # 24 where I  wrote that the STC is
eventually going to close down. In fact it didn't died  completely, the magazine
was changed into a slimfast magazine, 16 pages thin but therefore in full colour
and it came along with the german PC magazine "PC WELT".

I had to fight with myself very hard. At first I wanted to quit my subscription,
but then I thought it would be  better to stay at the magazine to support it and
to make it life a bit  longer. And believe  me, it was sometimes  very horrible,
what we got  to read  then. Even thought the  magazine was already  damn thin in
comparison  with the  about 6o  pages it  had in its  last months as stand-alone
publication it wasted its space in a way you can't excuse.

Alone the fact that the ugly "up-to-date" list was still  included (this list is
displaying the latest version numbers of several tools and utilities) was  a big
drawback, as this list was  published with every  issue and always  took a whole
page, even if just a handfull of updated software was released.

And it was going on like  that, they reviewed old  Atari hardware with  one full
page per issue, gave  emulation tips  over 2 pages over  several  issues, it was
really  a pain in  the ass to see  such a waste of  space! You can say  that the
magazine looses its ground from issue to issue now, bringing no real information
anymore...

But there were a few little  highlights, such as  reports about  the very latest
developments  on the  wordprocessors Papyrus 1o  and Tempus Word NG, as  well as
some reports about the CT6o  and other new  hardware projects. But those goodies
weren't able  to overpaint the  obviously loss in  interest or will to publish a
magazine for all interested Atarians. After they  decided to  shrink the mag and
merge with "PC WELT" they first  wanted to focuse on the scene from time to time
as well, after I  wrote some kind of "Good Bye" article for the last stand alone
issue. But in fact they ignored my offer to help out with scene or entertainment
related  articles and  didn't answered  later on  at all and so even if they had
announced to check up the  things the scene  does in the last stand alone issue,
they never  did in the end. Therefore  they presented old games with every issue
as "entertainment" part.

And so I didn't cared as well. The last issues were just a shadow of the old STC
that was a very interesting mag  in the middle nineties  and overall the longest
running Atari 16/32bit oriented papermagazine  at all. Sure, the Atari community
is damn small nowadays, sure, such a project is damn expensive nowadays and esp.
because  of those  two points you have to  care about  the things you do. Things
that the  last editors  didn't  do in the best possible  way in  my eyes as they
wasted a lot of space for  quite (and often very...) uninteresting  articles and
uninteresting articles  are the  last things  the people  want to  read and give
their money for...

Ok, it was some kind of a wonder that the  magazine survived untill  now at all,
as  there is  no real Atari market anymore, no  firms that  can  advertise or no
Atari related software firms at  all anymore, the number of  readers is damn low
and the  flow of new software  and hardware is  just dripping  today, giving not
much away  to fill a monthly  magazine. It was a big adventure and we all knewed
about the way it  will end. But in  the end the  last subscribers and supporters
surely  thought to  see it ending  in a slightly different way, not like a flame
that was burning out slowly without being a flame at all over the last time.

I for myself  have to close  another chapter  now, reading  the STC more or less
consequently since 1992, but it is as same as sad as it was back with ST Format,
that I red over several years and I was on hunt for many times as it wasn't easy
to get  the latest  issues here  in Germany, but that  was always  a nice little
newsticker  for me in  times as I had  no  internet  connection  and only  a few
foreign contacts to swap news and informations with.

Farewell STC, we will keep at  least your golden  times in mind, even if they're
already over since long times...

                                                                moondog . 12/o3
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