Covers
1985 was the second year of our newsletter phase, which lasted through 1986. True covers were still two years away. But we continued to mess around with our masthead and, as the year progressed, we kept throwing things into the little box that had popped up next to the name 2600.
We honestly don't know where most of these graphics came from. The majority were probably generic pieces of clip-art. In January, we had a little telephone in the shape of a car driving down a road. February saw a very short-lived experiment of listing the contents of the issue. In March, we were back to graphics, this time with a sneaky looking Uncle Sam waving a flag, April had an unusual image of a computer terminal with a telephone handset displayed on the monitor. In May and June, we tried listing the contents again, either because we thought it was a good idea or we couldn't find any graphics. In July, we printed an image of a penny farthing bicycle, most likely because a bunch of us were watching The Prisoner at the time. The whole British aristocrat standing in the rain with an umbrella imagery continued into August, only the rain was falling inside the umbrella. Heavy stuff.
In September, we started to go a little nuts, sticking some of the clip art we had used in ads (such as a waiter holding dishes and a collection of knives) on top of an image of our very first issue. We don't understand October now and we probably didn't back then. It just seemed like a nice pattern. Where it came from is anyone's guess. November was another weird one, with our umbrella being sneezed away into the light by some guy with a handkerchief standing in the dark. (This might have been our psychedelic period.) The year ended with another self-referential image in December: a string of holiday elves for the tree next to a disembodied hand holding an issue of 2600. It was clear we wanted to make covers, but hadn't quite figured out a way to get there.
In the tiny print, January saw the first mention of a "lifetime subscription" for $260, along with a corporate sponsorship of $2600. We never got any of the latter, however lifetime subscriptions became popular and still exist to this day at the exact same price. We stuck the word "Dial:" in front of our phone number, replacing "ATT:". In March, we added the first of our BBS numbers to the masthead. This one was The Private Sector which would become infamous later in the year.
April saw our first rate increase after a mere 15 months of publishing. Subscriptions went from $10 to $12 a year, $5 to $6 for a half year, and overseas went from $13.50 to $15 for a year. After a full year and change of putting this newsletter out, we finally had figured out what we needed to bring in to keep it going. We added a line in May that let people know to make out their checks to "2600 Enterprises," as we were getting checks made out to everything from "Hacker" to "Magazine." Some clarification was in order.
In June, we realized that if we moved the "volume" and "number" part a bit higher, well have the full width of the page for the tiny print. We didn't have anything more to say, but we now had a whole lot more space to say it. Our next changes came in August, when we got rid of the half year subscriptions and introduced a corporate subscription rate of $30, as opposed to the now labeled individual rate of $12. We were getting hammered on international postage, so the international rate went up for the second time in four months, this time to $20 for a year. We also added "Inc" to the name to write checks to, probably at the behest of a paranoid accountant. We also introduced a brand new post office box "for advertising rates and article submissions."
In September, our back issue rates doubled, from $1 to $2 each. Again, this is probably something we just figured out as they started to sell and we saw how much we were spending on them. We apparently had also been chastised by the post office for saying "Box" in our address instead of "P.O. Box," so we made that change as well. It should also be pointed out that we continued to defiantly list our BBS number, even after it had been seized by the authorities in August. (It came back to us the following January.)
We made the January exclamation point a tradition by repeating it after the "1985" on our January masthead. The typeface of the month was changed this year and converted to a smaller size and all caps. The volume and number would remain the same style and size as in the previous year. The only other bit of creativity in that section came with the word "TYCHO" inserted into the February masthead. This was undoubtedly the name of some computer somewhere that we weren't supposed to know about.
From April through August, we experimented with a "letter quality" printer instead of a typesetting machine for articles, but not news updates. While it looked better than any other computer printer of the day, it paled in comparison to what we were used to and we wound up going back to our old ways, even though that involved sneaking into offices of a local newspaper after hours.
(This experiment was also responsible for a rather unusual typo in the "What a White Box Can Do" article, which was the first to be printed in this manner. The word "eatpastrami" was typed in order to push text onto the next line, which we were having trouble doing for some reason. It was supposed to be temporary, but we wound up forgetting to erase that word, resulting in much embarrassment for many years to come. In fact, we even did it a second time, with the word "dsfdsfkskfgsjkfggreegfds" in that issue letters column. This would forever be remembered as a low point for us.)
In May, we expanded from six sides of 8.5x11 paper to eight sides, or two 11x17 sheets folded in half. During 1985, you might have gotten six page issues as three separate sheets or one large sheet folded over with a smaller middle sheet while eight page sheets were either two 11x17 sheets or four 8.5x11 sheets. Loose-leaf holes continued to be punched in the side and page numbers (starting with "2-") printed on the bottom for filing purposes.
2600 Flash
The "2600 Flash" column continued to be a regular feature through 1985, having started with the very first issue the previous year. (Unlike articles, this column wasn't a part of the "letter quality printer experiment' that lasted from April to August.)
The collection of news stories from various sources (including ourselves) serves as a window into the world of hackers back then, as technology, laws, and society all underwent tremendous change in a relatively short period of time.
Once again, there was a single story in the year that was surrounded by a box and written in bold: the announcement of our first official BBS in February. The column was shortened in August due to a number of articles focusing on the seizure by authorities of our first official BBS.
Letters
Reader feedback significantly increased during our second year and the letters page was a regular feature for every month except August, which was devoted primarily to the seizure of our BBS.
As in 1984, letters were confined to a single page and the December page contained responses to the surveys that had been mailed to all subscribers.
Systematically Speaking
In May, the magazine added two more pages and in June, a new feature was introduced.
"Systematically Speaking" was rather similar to "2600 Flash" but was meant to be devoted exclusively to "news on advancing technology" and not so much the anecdotes one might find in 2600 Flash. This new feature appeared in every subsequent month except for August.
The 2600 Information Bureau
The "Page 5" feature from 1984 was renamed to "The 2600 Information Bureau" in order to be more clear in what this part of the magazine was all about.
As in 1984, various bits of data were printed here, everything from lists of phone numbers and computer addresses to bits of phone bills and lists of acronyms. Two pages were usually devoted to this section.
Back then, data of any sort was considered valuable information and the content we printed often resulted in a crisis of some sort for those who were trying to keep it secret. Other times, it served as a public service, such as December's listing of every BBS number we could find.
As with other features, "The 2600 Information Bureau" didn't appear in August due to the crisis we were facing with our own BBS being seized by the authorities.
Ads
We had a brief period of experimentation with advertising in our early years.
Many young publications fall under the influence of this powerful addiction, but we were able to eventually break free of its evil clutches. Actually, it wasn't so bad, but it didn't really fit in with what we were trying to do.
However, we felt it best to acknowledge this piece of our history by reproducing those ads here, as well as our own house ads, which continue to this day.
Just remember that nothing offered here still applies. But you knew that.