''The Transactor'' was a

computer magazine Computer magazines are about computers and related subjects, such as computer network, networking and the Internet. Most computer magazines offer (or offered) advice, some offer Programming language, programming Tutorial, tutorials, reviews of the ...

directed at users of

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home computers. In contrast to other Commodore-focused publications such as ''

Commodore Magazine ''Commodore Power/Play'' was one of a pair of computer magazines published by Commodore Business Machines in the United States in support of their 8-bit home computer lines of the 1980s. The other was called ''Commodore Interface'', changed to jus ...

'' and ''

COMPUTE!'s Gazette ''Compute!'s Gazette'' (), stylized as ''COMPUTE!'s Gazette'', was a computer magazine of the 1980s, directed at users of Commodore's 8-bit home computers. Announced as ''The Commodore Gazette'', it was a Commodore-only daughter magazine of the ...

'', ''The Transactor'''s popularity was based on its coverage of deep technical issues and

hardware hacking Hardware may refer to: Technology Computing and electronics * Electronic hardware, interconnected electronic components which perform analog or logic operations ** Digital electronics, electronics that operate on digital signals *** Computer hardw ...

. ''

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'' called ''The Transactor'' "the undeniable authority" on "Commodore programming and hardware information".

Publication history

The magazine was launched on 30 April 1978 as the official international bulletin of

Commodore Canada Commodore International (other names include Commodore International Limited) was an American home computer and electronics manufacturer founded by Jack Tramiel. Commodore International (CI), along with its subsidiary Commodore Business Mach ...

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s. The early issues were low-tech

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ed productions with no non-Commodore advertising and a roughly monthly release schedule. Despite its association with Commodore, the magazine earned a reputation for being honest and upfront about bugs and faults in Commodore's products. In September 1982 the magazine was relaunched as a fully independent, bimonthly, advertiser-supported publication. From this point the magazine became professionally typeset with full-colour illustrated covers. It was sold by subscription throughout its run, and also appeared on newsstands from June 1982 until July 1987; during this period the magazine claimed a peak circulation of 72,000, of which 53,000 was newsstand sales. The independent ''Transactor'' went through a succession of publishers (

Canadian Micro Distributors Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

until April 1983, then Transactor Publishing from July 1983 to September 1988, and finally British publishing house Croftward Publishing). Though a popular magazine among Commodore users, it unexpectedly went out of business and ceased publication in August 1989.

Karl Hildon Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...

served as editor-in-chief of the magazine until the March 1988 issue. Frequent contributors included

Jim Butterfield Frank James "Jim" Butterfield (14 February 1936 – 29 June 2007), was a Toronto-based computer programmer, author, and television personality known for his work with early microcomputers. He is particularly noted for associations with Commodore ...

and

Richard Evers Richard Evers (born May 31, 1959) is a Canadians, Canadian publisher, programmer, technology consultant and List of Canadian writers, author. Evers was editor and publisher of ''The Transactor'' and ''Transactor for the Amiga''. He has worked for ...

Spin-offs

In January 1988, ''The Transactor'' announced that it had spun off its coverage of the

Commodore Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

to a dedicated magazine, ''

Transactor for the Amiga ''The Transactor'' was a computer magazine directed at users of Commodore home computers. In contrast to other Commodore-focused publications such as ''Commodore Magazine'' and ''COMPUTE!'s Gazette'', ''The Transactors popularity was based o ...

''. At least four anthologies of ''Transactor'' articles appeared in book form: ''The Best of The Transactor Volume 1'' through ''The Best of The Transactor Volume 3'', plus ''The Transactor Book of Bits and Pieces #1''. In the course of preparing ''Volume 2'' Hildon was inspired to create a comprehensive reference work for Commodore 8-bit computers, which was eventually published as ''The Complete Commodore Inner Space Anthology''.

References

External links

Authorized online archive

Miscellaneous info about ''The Transactor'' magazine
by Craig S. Bruce
Partial index
by Dan Fandrich
''Transactor'' books
at

The Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Transactor, The Commodore 8-bit computer magazines Defunct computer magazines Defunct magazines published in Canada Home computer magazines Magazines established in 1978 Magazines disestablished in 1989 Magazines published in Ontario