Creative Computing (magazine)

Creative Computing

April 1980 issue
Editor-in-Chief	David H. Ahl
Founder	David H. Ahl
First issue	October 1974 (1974-10)
Final issue	December 1985 (1985-12)
Company	Ziff-Davis
Country	United States
Language	English
ISSN	0097-8140

Creative Computing was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format than the rather technically oriented Byte.^[1]

The magazine was created to cover educational-related topics. Early issues include articles on the use of computers in the classroom, various simple programs like madlibs and various programming challenges, mostly in BASIC. By the late 1970s, it had moved towards more general coverage as the microcomputer market emerged. Hardware coverage became more common, but type-in programs remained common into the early 1980s.

The company published several books, the most successful being BASIC Computer Games, the first million-selling computer book. Their Best of Creative Computing collections were also popular. Creative Computing also published software on cassette and floppy disk for the popular computer systems of the time and had a small hardware business.

Ziff Davis purchased Creative Computing in 1982 and closed the non-magazine endeavors.