IBM 5150 Personal Computer Magazine Articles

The 1st Issue of PC Age Magazine. (PDF)

Prior to the magazine, Jack Crone worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a lead programmer in the Deep Space Network. Jack's
coworker there was a hardware engineer named Ron Reasoner. They decided that they wanted to start a company manufacturing hardware accessories for personal computers, a field which they thought had serious growth potential.

They were sure that personal computers were about to break out of being mainly hobbyist toys and they were looking for a machine with serious business potential. They examined everything currently available and almost settled on supporting the Xerox 820, mainly because the Xerox name implied business usage. About that time IBM announced the 5150 so they decided to wait and see what that was all about. One look and they were sold - that was the machine to go with. They bought three of the first machines available in Los Angeles and started dissecting them.

Their original business entity was CRC - Crone-Reasoner Corporation - and they developed a few simple hardware add-ons, mainly prototyping boards. They also sold RAM and technical books.

Very early on their marketing director suggested that they produce a newsletter for their customers. So they started one, but everyone
involved with the company wanted to contribute something and the first issue - all of 24 black and white pages - ended up being less than a serious magazine, but far more than a marketing newsletter.

In January 1982 there was a one week long computer show in San Diego. Personal Computer Age's first issue had just been printed and they had sent a copy to all their hardware customers and the few subscribers they had. Packing up a few thousand extra copies they headed to the computer show.

That's where Jack Crone met David Bunnell, the founding editor of PC Magazine. He had no idea whether David's magazine or Personal Computer Age was the first to be printed, but that year some seriously bad weather really screwed up David's plans. PC Magazine was printed in Reno and the weather prevented it from being delivered timely to the show. For the first few days poor David had one copy of PC Magazine to show people and that was it. In the meantime PC AGE was giving away copies and signing up hundreds of subscribers. That's why Jack claims Personal Computer Age was the first IBM PC magazine; PC Age was there and PC Magazine wasn't.

Meanwhile, back at the office and after a few issues, they realized that they had become much more of a magazine publisher than a hardware
manufacture. Ron wasn't interested in the publishing business and they amicably split. Ron went on to open a computer store, which did very well far a few years.

PC Age was published for over two years when it finally collapsed as a result of growing faster than they could get financing. At the end it
ranged from 136 to 170 pages, all color, perfect bound, and with a circulation of 50,000. It was never a major publication, but it was a notable one, particularly for its technical content. Intel loved them or their technical articles, particularly ones about the numeric
coprocessor.

PC Age was the first magazine to publish comparative reviews of the same product. Peter Norton started his career with PC Age. In the beginning they gave him ad space in exchange for articles he wrote; later Jack and Peter wrote a column together.

After the failure of PC Age Jack and Dan Rollins, one of the PC Age writers, started Flambeaux Software. They developed hypertext based
manuals. Products were DOS Help, Tech Help, and xText. These were ahead of their time and considered best of breed at that time. DOS Help won a PC Magazine Editor's Choice award. Their technology was licensed by both IBM and Microsoft for use in their DOS offerings. They are the best references ever made for DOS work.

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