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Free lunch?

I've just renewed my subscription for another 6 issues, all I can say is that I am really pleased with the mag and keep up the good work. One thing I have noticed though, in other magazines subscribing to X many mags in advance will save you money or you get a freebie or something, whereas it just stays he same and the only benefit I can see is that you save 26p for a stamp when renewal time comes around again.

At first I was a little sceptical about subscribing to a magazine that is only black and white, but upon seeing the first issue I was really impressed to see what you have done with it, and I really like the layout too.

Congratulations on such a great magazine, one that should be classed with the greats like AW, STF and AU.

In a world without walls and fences who needs Windows and Gates?

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Kev, via email
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** BC on **
Many thanks for the praise, I hope the layout changes meet with your approval, please do let us know.
We'd love to compete with some of the offers made by glossy news stand publications but we're running Atari Computing as an enthusiasts magazine on a tight budget. Since AC#1 we've already absorbed several price increases in disk, paper and printing to keep the price at œ3.00, 
Unfortunately our production costs have risen again and sadly we have to increase the cover price by 50p to œ3.50 starting NEXT issue.

This advance warning gives everyone an opportunity to avoid the price rise by topping up any existing subscription now. As an added incentive we'll throw in an Atari ST/STe dust cover, which normally sells for œ2.99 (while stocks last) absolutely FREE!
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** I'll make it the same size as the mousemat pic **

Mainstream matters

In the Commit to memory article in AC#3 Xav concludes it's good news for Atari users that the the price of peripherals such as modems, printers, scanners, hard drives, CD-ROM players, and so on continues to plunge.

Could you please explain in detail how we can take advantage of these peripherals using Atari machines? There are plenty of PC suppliers in my area but when I mention Atari no one wants to know or offer advice!

I know I can get my computer repaired by several of the advertisers in Atari Computing but what about publishing the names and addresses of companies who can repair these standard peripherals?

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Barry Jones, Derby
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I'll come clean and admit we have deliberately avoided articles covering "standard" peripherals. With so much coverage in the mainstream magazines we originally decided to focus on Atari specific articles.
Back when we launched Atari Computing most printers and modems would work out of the box with Atari machines but the goal posts have certainly moved. Modem standards are in turmoil, Windows only printers dominate the shelves and desirable new peripherals including digital cameras and scanners have appeared with almost no support for anyone trying to interface them to Atari machines.
Starting this issue we've decided to address this situation with coverage of the popular Hewlett Packard 690C printer and Motorola Bitsurfer modem. We're interested to know which peripherals you would like covered and from anyone successfully using, scanners, digital camera, photo-realistic printers and so on. Please write in and let us know which peripherals you're using and we'll put together a compatibility list for publication.
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Thanks Gordon!

We recently received a letter from Gordon Stott in Coventry enclosing a photocopy of his letter published in January/February issue of Keyboard Player magazine. This is exactly the kind of publicity we're looking for so we've sent him one of our Atari Power User mouse mats as a thank you.

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If you've done anything to promote Atari Computing why not drop us a line and let us know...

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Publicity campaign!

As a subscriber only magazine we need to explore every avenue to reach new readers. The more readers we have the lower our printing costs - which benefits us all in the long run.
We're found placing small ads in local papers does attract new subscriptions but there's no easy way for us to place small ads in every town around the country which is where you come in!

Cunning plan

You place a small ad in your user group newsletter, Fanzine, disk magazine, local paper, newsagent, supermarket or wherever else you can think of and for every new subscription we receive with your reference we'll extend your subscription by one issue and let you know by post.

Here's an example 20 word copy to use:

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Atari Computing magazine, 60 pages. Evaluation copies, send œ3 cheque/PO: Atari Computing, 65 Mill Road, COLCHESTER, CO4 5LJ. Quote: ???XXX
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Replace ??? with the first three letters of your surname and XXX with the first three letters of your forename. For example, the reference string for Joe Public would be: PUBJOE
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