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25-604: Mikrobitti (formerly called MB , MikroBitti and MikroBITTI ) is a Finnish computer magazine published in Helsinki, Finland. MikroBITTI was first published in May 1984. The original publisher was Tecnopress. Later it was published by Helsinki Media Company. Then the magazine was published monthly by Sanoma Magazines . The publishers were divisions of the Sanoma Group, since Sanoma purchased Tecnopress in 1984. MikroBitti

50-433: A fictional German space-themed computer game Illuminatus , designed by one "Jürgen Sternreise" (which loosely translates to John Star Trek), as an April fools' joke . Illuminatus supposedly starts out as a single-player spaceflight simulator and then expands into a massive multi-player strategy game. It was hailed as the greatest game ever. The magazine staff had made up the entire story, including convincing screenshots. It

75-471: A technology than a computer magazine. One of the latest moves was the complete removal of games section, and putting the remaining few game reviews and news among other hardware tests and news sections. For gamers this was unfortunate, because MikroBitti had always given large support to unusual games and independent publishers. The game section returned in the December issue, but the number of games reviewed

100-640: Is aimed mainly for beginner to mid-level computer users. The computer platform coverage in MikroBitti has shifted according to the market and public interest over the years. Originally, in the middle 1980s, the magazine covered 8-bit home computers such as the Commodore 64 , the MSX line and the ZX Spectrum . In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the focus shifted to 16- and 32-bit home computers such as

125-450: Is significantly lower than before. All the changes were related to the magazine HIFI and MikroBitti merging. When Talentum bought the magazine in 2015, the new publisher changed the focus back on computers. In his first editorial, Editor-in-chief Mikko Torikka promised that the newly relaunched Mikrobitti won't write about grass cutters and razors unless someone programs one to play Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up . (Soon one of

150-632: The Amiga and the Atari ST . In the 8-bit era, MikroBitti was very hobby-oriented, presenting type-in programs for home computers and home electronics projects. Some columns, like the famous Peliluola by Nordic the Incurable , were written in a subculture insider style, and obscure in-jokes such as exploding hamsters were occasionally used. Many of the staff were fans of Star Trek: The Original Series and sometimes even wrote entire articles about

175-539: The "150 or so" industry magazines published articles without clearly identifying authors' affiliations and conflicts of interest . Around 1985, many magazines ended. However, as their number exceeded the amount of available advertising revenue despite revenue in the first half of the year five times that of the same period in 1982. Consumers typically bought computer magazines more for advertising than articles, which benefited already leading journals like BYTE and PC Magazine and hurt weaker ones. Also affecting magazines

200-1059: The December 1983 issue that "all of our previous records are being broken: largest number of pages, largest-number of four-color advertising pages, largest number of printing pages, and the largest number of editorial pages". Computers were the only industry with product-specific magazines, like 80 Micro , PC Magazine , and Macworld ; their editors vowed to impartially cover their computers whether or not doing so hurt their readers' and advertisers' market, while claiming that their rivals pandered to advertisers by only publishing positive news. BYTE, in March 1984, apologized for publishing articles by authors with promotional material for companies without describing them as such, and in April suggested that other magazines adopt its rules of conduct for writers, such as prohibiting employees from accepting gifts or discounts. InfoWorld stated in June that many of

225-485: The annual party until 1995, when the organization set up the Finnish company ASSEMBLY Organizing in order to "provide a solid financial basis for the events and a reliable partner for our sponsors". Long time Future Crew member Abyss is one of the party's main organizers. Future Crew did not release anything as a group after Scream Tracker 3 (July 1994). While it was never officially dissolved, its members parted ways in

250-507: The heyday of printed computer magazines was a period during the 1990s, in which a large number of computer manufacturers took out advertisements in computer magazines, so they became quite thick and could afford to carry quite a number of articles in each issue. Computer Shopper was a good example of this trend. Some printed computer magazines used to include covermount floppy disks , CDs , or other media as inserts; they typically contained software , demos , and electronic versions of

275-581: The industry". Computer Gaming World stated in 1988 that it was the only one of the 18 color magazines that covered computer games in 1983 to survive the crash. Compute! similarly stated that year that it was the only general-interest survivor of about 150 consumer-computing magazines published in 1983. Some computer magazines in the 1980s and 1990s were issued only on disk (or cassette tape, or CD-ROM) with no printed counterpart; such publications are collectively (though somewhat inaccurately) known as disk magazines and are listed separately . In some ways

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300-615: The magazine staff. In the beginning, the class used various 8-bit computers such as the Commodore 64 and the MSX , but these were later replaced with Amiga computers. In the evening, the camp offered common summer camp outdoor activities, although attendees generally spent most of their free time playing computer games. The last summer camp was held in 1991. Jyrki Kasvi , a longtime contributor to MikroBitti , has mentioned having found many summer camp attendees at executive positions in Finnish IT companies. In 1989, MikroBitti reviewed

325-549: The most influential PC demos ever made. Future Crew was also responsible for the popular MOD editor Scream Tracker , which was fashioned after the Amiga Soundtracker as well as the Advanced DigiPlayer sound editor, and later became itself inspiration for other trackers like Impulse Tracker . Future Crew was co-organizer of the first Assembly demo party in 1992. They continued organizing

350-509: The name Nordic the Incurable as the writer of the Peliluola ("The Gaming Den") column in MikroBitti . In 2003 MikroBitti had the largest circulation figures of computer magazines published in the Nordic countries . The 2011 circulation of the monthly was 71,429 copies. The circulation was 42,866 copies in 2013 and 35,293 in 2016. In 2022, current readership calculation methods estimate

375-522: The number of Mikrobitti readers at 74 000 (paper) and 198 000 (paper and digital). In the 1980s, the MikroBitti staff used to hold an annual summer camp in Lautsia , a small village in the Tavastia Proper region in southern Finland. The camp was open to all MikroBitti readers, with a registration fee, and lasted about a week. Each day consisted of computer programming classes taught by

400-461: The print issue. However, with the rise in popularity of the Internet , many computer magazines went bankrupt or transitioned to an online-only existence. Exceptions include Wired , which is more of a technology magazine than a computer magazine. Future Crew Future Crew was a Finnish demogroup that created PC demos and software , active mostly between 1987 and 1994. The group

425-552: The readers really made a shaver to play the song.) MikroBitti also produced spin-off magazines: C-lehti , Tietokonepelien vuosikirja , Pelit and Peliasema . List of magazines in Finland Computer magazine Sources:. 1980s computer magazines skewed their content towards the hobbyist end of the then- microcomputer market, and used to contain type-in programs , but these have gone out of fashion. The first magazine devoted to this class of computers

450-522: The second half of the 1990s. Companies like Futuremark ( 3DMark ), Remedy ( Death Rally , Max Payne , Alan Wake ), Bugbear Entertainment ( FlatOut , Glimmerati , Rally Trophy ), Bitboys (a graphics hardware company) and Recoil Games ( Rochard ) were all started in whole or in part by members of Future Crew. Prior to their dissolution, they also contributed graphics to the game Ken's Labyrinth published by Epic MegaGames . Skaven contributed music to Unreal Tournament 1999. Future Crew

475-490: The show, which had little or nothing to do with home computers. In the 2000s, the magazine was renamed to MB and mainly covered PCs and games consoles . It also reviewed other hardware, such as digital cameras . In 2015, Sanoma sold MB to Talentum, which had also acquired Sanoma's other computer magazine Tietokone in 2013. In the process, the magazine was renamed to Mikrobitti . In September 2015 Alma Media Corporation acquired Talentum. Risto Hieta became famous by

500-427: Was Creative Computing . Byte was an influential technical journal that published until the 1990s. In 1983, an average of one new computer magazine appeared each week. By late that year more than 200 existed. Their numbers and size grew rapidly with the industry they covered, and BYTE and 80 Micro were among the three thickest magazines of any kind per issue. Compute! ' s editor in chief reported in

525-686: Was an influential pioneer of the PC demoscene and the PC as multimedia device in general, and achieved wide public recognition. Slashdot voted the Future Crew demo Second Reality as one of the "Top 10 Hacks of All Time". Tributes to Future Crew include a 3D graphics benchmark called Final Reality by Remedy Entertainment (shown at Assembly 1997), and a remake of Second Reality for the Commodore 64 by Smash Designs called Second Reality 64 (released at The Party 1997). Nectarine Records has released

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550-400: Was basically just a wish list of gaming greatness, but few readers seemed to realize this. Instead Illuminatus became a local phenomenon. Its name quickly appeared in Finnish mail order advertisements and even foreign distributors called the magazine to express interest in the game. Later there have been a couple of attempts to implement the fictional game, including one by Future Crew , which

575-540: Was founded in 1986 by PSI (Sami Tammilehto) and JPM (Jussi Markula) as a Commodore 64 group, before moving to the PC demoscene in 1988; other members included, over time, Trug, Wildfire, Pixel , ICE, GORE, Abyss, Purple Motion , and Skaven , as well as several others. Noteworthy demos by Future Crew include Unreal (released at Assembly 1992), Panic (released at The Party 1992) and Second Reality (released at Assembly 1993). Second Reality may be considered one of

600-417: Was not finished. Skrolli magazine independently implemented a playable demo of Illuminatus , based on recreated graphics from the 1989 MikroBitti article, and published it on the virtual cover disk of the first Skrolli International Edition in 2016. Later, when the magazine grew more popular, its orientation and style became more mainstream. During the middle 2000s the magazine has branded itself more as

625-674: Was the computer industry's economic difficulties, including the video game crash of 1983 , which badly hurt the home-computer market. Dan Gutman , the founder of Computer Games , recalled in 1987 that "the computer games industry crashed and burned like a bad night of Flight Simulator —with my magazine on the runway". Antic 's advertising sales declined by 50% in 90 days, Compute! 's number of pages declined from 392 in December 1983 to 160 ten months later, and Compute! and Compute!'s Gazette 's publisher assured readers in an editorial that his company "is and continues to be quite successful ... even during these particularly difficult times in

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