COMPUTE!'s Gazette Returns With a 116-Page 8-Bit Networking Issue Covering Tandy, CoCo and Assembly

Revived COMPUTE!'s Gazette releases a 116-page full-colour issue dedicated to 8-bit networking, TRS-80 history, MLX32, and 6809 assembly.

The revived COMPUTE!'s Gazette has released an especially substantial new edition dedicated to 8-bit networking and classic-computer culture. The new issue runs to 116 full-colour pages and is being offered in both print and digital formats. Its subjects extend well beyond the Commodore machines historically associated with the Gazette name, including the origins of Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model I, a Laser Chess feature for the TRS-80 Color Computer, the debut of MLX32, material on 6809 assembly programming and profiles of people continuing to keep Tandy hardware alive. That mixture makes the issue a useful snapshot of how retro-computing publishing has evolved. COMPUTE!'s Gazette originally belonged to an era when computer magazines were not simply sources of reviews and news. Readers typed entire programs printed across multiple pages, learned assembly techniques from monthly columns and used magazines as a primary form of technical documentation. Before widespread internet access, a magazine might be the only realistic route for an ordinary home-computer owner to discover new utilities, programming tricks or hardware projects. The revived publication operates in a completely different environment, but its long-form print format still makes sense for retro computing. Online information is plentiful but fragmented among repositories, forum threads, Discord servers, personal blogs and social media posts that can disappear without warning. A curated issue creates a more durable record of what communities are doing now. Networking is an especially appropriate subject because classic machines are increasingly being connected to services their designers never anticipated. Wi-Fi modems, Ethernet adapters, BBS gateways and network-storage devices let computers from the 1970s and 1980s communicate over modern infrastructure while preserving their original interfaces. The inclusion of TRS-80 and Color Computer material also broadens the publication beyond the enormous Commodore scene toward American systems that can receive less international coverage. A 116-page magazine devoted to hardware approaching fifty years old would have sounded improbable when the original publications disappeared from newsstands. In 2026, however, retro computing has matured enough to support new print journalism about old computers. The latest Gazette is therefore itself part of the story it documents: a supposedly obsolete publishing format covering supposedly obsolete machines, with both remaining unexpectedly alive.