''Electron User'' was a magazine targeted at owners of the

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/ home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a ...

microcomputer. It was published by Database Publications of Stockport, starting in October 1983 and ending after 82 issues in July 1990. Initially it was included as a 16-page pullout supplement to ''

The Micro User ''The Micro User'' (titled ''BBC Micro User'' in the first three issues) was a British specialist magazine catering to users of the BBC Microcomputer series, Acorn Electron, Acorn Archimedes and, to a limited extent, the Cambridge Z88. It had a c ...

'' but after four such editions it became a standalone title and within a year had grown to an average length of around 64 pages. The focus was news stories,

type-in program A type-in program or type-in listing was computer source code printed in a home computer magazine or book. It was meant to be entered via the keyboard by the reader and then saved to cassette tape or floppy disk. The result was a usable game, ...

s and software reviews. It also contained

cheat code Cheating in video games involves a video game player using various methods to create an advantage beyond normal gameplay, usually in order to make the game easier. Cheats may be activated from within the game itself (a cheat code implemented by ...

s and a long-running column on adventure games initially by "Merlin" in a column entitled "Merlin's Cave" and subsequently by "Pendragon". Its advertisers included the top BBC/Electron games distributors of the day, such as Acornsoft and

Superior Software Superior Software Ltd (also known as Superior Interactive) is a video game publisher. It was one of the main publishers for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers in the 1980s and early 1990s. It currently releases games for Microsoft Windo ...

. Often the April-dated edition of the magazine included an

April Fools' Day April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...

joke, generally consisting of a short

machine code In computer programming, machine code is any low-level programming language, consisting of machine language instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Each instruction causes the CPU to perform a ve ...

type-in listing which claimed to do something extremely useful and of wide interest but which in fact printed APRIL FOOL on the screen. Examples included: *a program to predict what text the user would type next *a program to compile BASIC programs directly into machine code leveraging the machine's BASIC interpreter *a program to display colours on a monochrome screen by rapidly modulating the pixels (citing a recent '' Tomorrow's World'')

References

External links

Acorn Electron World website
including complete archive of page-by-page scans of all issues of ''Electron User''
Acornmags Electron User section
* Archived Electron User Magazines on the Internet Archive Home computer magazines Defunct computer magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1983 Magazines disestablished in 1990 Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines published in Manchester {{UK-sci-mag-stub

See also

References

External links