What about CD-ROM Today? (Missing Magazine)

[marktrade]

It's not your typical gaming magazine, but for all I can tell it seems to be Imagine Media's version of Electronic Entertainment from IDG. In fact I think IDG replaced its PC Games magazine with E2 in order to compete with CD-ROM Today in the burgeoning multimedia age. Eventually multimedia died and games took over again, but there were a couple years when multimedia and gaming were viewed by some as part of the same thing. About half the reviews in CD-ROM Today are of games and nearly all the ads are gaming ads. People were still trying to figure stuff out then. It'd be really interesting to mark it for preservation.
 
Edit: Now that CD-ROM Today has been given a place in the database and download manager, this thread will no longer be updated!
 
This is for the US version of CD-ROM Today. There is also a British version, some scans of which are available at OldGameMags.com and elsewhere on the web. All 25 discs that accompanied US versions of CD-ROM Today are already available on Archive.org. The discs are numbered separately and the first four issues did not come with discs, so don't get confused.
 
Here is a list of issues published.
 
01 — July/Summer 1993 (preserved) (Premiere issue)
02 — Fall 1993 (preserved)
03 — Winter 1993 (acquired)
04 — Spring 1994 (acquired)
05 — April/May 1994 (acquired) (first issue with a disc)
06 — June/July 1994 (acquired)
07 — Aug/Sep 1994 (acquired)
08 — October 1994 (acquired)
09 — November 1994 (acquired)
10 — December 1994 (acquired)
11 — January 1995 (acquired)
12 — February 1995 (missing)
13 — March 1995 (acquired)
14 — April 1995 (acquired)
15 — May 1995 (missing)
16 — June 1995 (missing)
17 — July 1995 (acquired)
18 — August 1995 (missing)
19 — September 1995 (acquired)
20 — October 1995 (acquired)
21 — November 1995 (acquired)
22 — December 1995 (acquired)
23 — January 1996 (missing)
24 — February 1996 (acquired)
25 — March 1996 (acquired)
26 — April 1996 (acquired)
27 — May 1996 (acquired)
28 — June 1996 (missing)
29 — July 1996 (missing)

Edited October 28, 2016 by marktrade

[kitsunebi]

I support and applaud the preservation of any and all magazines covering PC games.

[Areala]

I don't see why this would be a problem. I don't think the magazines archived here absolutely must be 100% game related, that's just what got the ball rolling. I scanned a couple of issues of "Sync" magazine several years ago, which was a basic computing magazine for the ZX Sinclair that wasn't at all gaming related, though it occasionally talked about games. We don't have a spot for that magazine in the database, so they're not available for download at the moment, but nobody seemed irritated that I scanned them.

*huggles*
Areala

[mariobro]

I also think that the internet helped kill interest in multimedia and CD-ROMs. Before access to the web was widespread, CDs provided a wealth of information in a small package.You could fit a whole encyclopedia on two discs. But once the internet became accessible, multimedia discs lost much of their appeal. At least that's my theory.

[Areala]

I also think that the internet helped kill interest in multimedia and CD-ROMs. Before access to the web was widespread, CDs provided a wealth of information in a small package.You could fit a whole encyclopedia on two discs. But once the internet became accessible, multimedia discs lost much of their appeal. At least that's my theory.

This, only put "high speed" in front of "internet". Magazines offering demos, patches, extra levels and other stuff via their CD-ROMs was a boon to us lowly dial-up internet users. While downloading a demo that was 5-10 megabytes in size was fine, the demo for the original Diablo was 50 megabytes and people in my house usually had a problem with the phone line being tied up for several hours at a stretch.

*huggles*

Areala

[kitsunebi]

I took a look at a few issues of CDROM Today I already downloaded from somewhere, and I would love to have more of them. PC gaming was never as purely about gaming as console gaming was. You didn't just stick a cartridge in a slot and push play - you needed to know a thing or two about the operation of a computer to properly install and configure a game before you could play. As such, peripherally related articles still seem part of the PC Gaming spectrum to me, whether covering hardware, operating systems, productivity software, etc. Bottom line: CDROM Today is a game mag that also covers other things a PC Gamer would be interested in. I hope to see more of it.

[marktrade]

While TPTB decide whether CD-ROM Today is an appropriate magazine for this site, I'll post acquisition and scanning updates in this thread and edit original post accordingly.

[marktrade]

Edited top post to add new acquisitions.

[Areala]

I'm pretty much always going to vote 'archive' on this.

*huggles*
Areala

[KiwiArcader]

Of course these should be scanned and archived. They're magazines about computing with a subset of features on gaming so go for it. I have an issue in my basement which I will try and locate to see if it is one of the missing issues.

[marktrade]

Original post updated with new acquisitions! Only seven issues missing now.

[Areala]

I made an image gallery for uploading cover scans. Making the database is something I think Phillyman does by importing all the issue information, and it would take forever to do by hand, so I'm leaving it up to him since I don't know how to do that yet.

*huggles*
Areala

[RetroDefense]

Added to the magazine dbase!

 

https://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/cd-rom-today/

 

Hopefully the publication and download sections will be up soon.  

 

As for whether the 'zine qualifies, I think the vast majority of "general interest" computer magazines should be preserved here at RetroMags.  It may sound like scope creep but as kitsunebi77 explained, computer gaming coverage doesn't necessarily end with the games themselves.  It's also a matter of the hardware requirements to play or improve the games, the operating system, other reliant software, etc.  Even computer mags strictly dedicated to computer languages - you could argue these are analogous to console development kit docs.

 

All that said, there are a ton of general-interest computer zines that still need cataloged here at RetroMags.    We may eventually want to begin tagging 'zines as dedicated gaming, general-interest, programming, etc, and allow some kind of filtering against these criteria.

Edited August 4, 2016 by RetroDefense

[marktrade]

Issue number one of CD-ROM Today has been scanned, edited, and uploaded to my ADO page.

 

https://archive.org/details/CDROMToday01Jul1993

 

I had some time recently and may do some of the others. Not sure if this will be a habit. Hopefully. 

[Areala]

Issue number one of CD-ROM Today has been scanned, edited, and uploaded to my ADO page.

 

https://archive.org/details/CDROMToday01Jul1993

 

I had some time recently and may do some of the others. Not sure if this will be a habit. Hopefully. 

Oh, that Battle Chess ad is a thing of beauty.

 

*huggles*

Areala

[marktrade]

Issue 02 is up!

 

https://archive.org/details/CDROMToday02Fall1993

[marktrade]

A category has been made for CD-ROM Today in the download manager, so I will no longer post updates in this thread and instead post in the new releases section. 

 

One thing, though. I'm not sure what's happening but the download buttons aren't appearing in the database entries for CD-ROM Today after I add links. I thought it might have been because we're in the process of adding custom buttons for different download sites and automatically applying them, but now that I'm uploading official links, I notice those aren't showing up either.

[kitsunebi]

Fixed it for you.  Let me know if it happens on anything else.

[KiwiArcader]

@ marktrade .....I have already scanned and released issue 14 quite a while ago which you are welcome to use here and I also have issue 11 which I am more than happy to scan to help spread the scanning load of you want me to ....

[marktrade]

@ marktrade .....I have already scanned and released issue 14 quite a while ago which you are welcome to use here and I also have issue 11 which I am more than happy to scan to help spread the scanning load of you want me to ....

 

No worries, Kiwi. Thanks, though!