Visit Guide
PORTUGUESE MAGAZINES
MICROSE7E
In March 1984 was released a magazine that became a reference in the national informatic scene: the MicroSe7e.
Even though it was multisystem, that is, it included the informatic world in general, it was, without a doubt, mostly aimed towards the ZX Spectrum because this computer was by far the one with most success in Portugal.
The first few editions were aimed mostly at an older and more adult audience, meaning that the games were not the focal point of the magazine.
Programming and technical articles were frequent and only after August 1984 did it finally enter the videogame realm, showcasing the mystical map of Jet Set Willy.
In November 1985, the Softmania contest came to life, in partnership with Astor Software. This contest was responsible for the release of plenty educational programme, which led to the beginning of a new wave of Portuguese programmers.
The first winner was “Aparelho Digestivo”, by students João Tavares, Alexandre Fraser and Paulo Pacheco.
POKES & DICAS
A CAPITAL SUPPLEMENT
On September 7th, 1984, A Capital debuted its’ supplement Pokes & Dicas, which, without a doubt, became the most popular one in Spectrum’s Portuguese community, notwithstanding its’ competitors: Diário de Notícias (Som & Imagem), Jornal de Notícias (Softmania), among other very well-known publications.
The supplement was at its’ peak during 1987/1988, period during with it dedicated 6 pages, weekly, to the Spectrum (a new number was released every Friday).
The games were masters and kings of the supplement, but the readers also got their own spotlight, not only through the many tips and maps they sent in (some were real works of art), but also through original programmes.
In 1986, it released two smaller magazines with the best games of the year, and that are nowadays a very sought-after item by collectors.
This supplement managed to keep publishing new numbers until the ‘90s.
FANZINE: CLUBE Z80
During the ‘80s there were no magazines in Portugal that were only focused on the Spectrum. There were newspaper supplements (DN, JN, A Capital, etc) and English literature (Sinclair User, Your Sinclair, or Crash, for instance), or Spanish literature (MicroGobby, for instance). However, usually these magazines were very expensive, especially regarding the Portuguese people’s purchase power at the time.
Usually, fanzines were very archaic, black and white and focused on reviews and tips for games, more often than not, being copied from foreign magazines. It was also during this that people tried to exchange and buy pirated cassettes with games.
It was not uncommon for fanzines made by amateurs to be successful, usually lasting about two or three new releases.
However, there were a few exceptions to this rule, and that was the case of Smash!, Micros & Hobbies, Computer Magazine or, the most known one, Clube 80. Z80’s Clube was created in Porto, in September 1982, led by Maria Irene and Alberto Fernandes. It lasted up until September 1985. On No. 6, March 1983, a “professionalization” of this publication took place.
PUSHSTART
In September 2010 Pushstart was published, a magazine that was firstly a digital publication, and later became a paper one, it was dedicated to gaming and pop culture.
A project created by various author that collaborated with a lot of blogs and websites related to videogames. They decided to join powers and come out with a serious and independent publication, and that also had a lot of quality.
On the founding team you can find Tiago Dias, Luis Teixeira, Ivan Flow, André Santos, Miguel Coelho, Ivo Leitão and Victor Moreira, that have gathered plenty of collaborators over the years.
In September 2015, the publication’s 5th anniversary, they were able to make their dream come true: they published their first paper edition of the magazine – something the community of readers had also been wating for a long time.
It was during this time that the magazine became dedicated solely to retrogaming. These paper numbers became the main focus of the team, up until the no. 65 came out, edited in 2017, at a time when the magazine was released only every 4 months, and after that it stopped being produced.
JOGOS 80 (BRAZIL)
Jogos 80 is a Brazilian magazine, created in 2004 by Marcus Garrett and Walter Garrote.
It is dedicated to videogames and classic microcomputers, like the ZX Spectrum.
Firstly, only being publish in a PDF format, now it has also being publish on paper in Brazil, Portugal, Canada, Chile and Uruguay.
A few years after being created, Eduardo Luccas took over the formatting and paging of the magazine, taking in articles, interviews and reviews from many Portuguese friends, as a way of collaborating with the publication.
Jogos 80 usually comes with a cassete (“cover tape”). One of them, released in 2020, was created by Filipe Veiga: Cadê os Artigos? (Rough translation: Where are the articles at?)
MICROSISTEMAS (BRAZIL)
The first Brazilian publication specialized in microcomputers and one of the very few that created opportunities from Brazilian software authors, and, in particular of computer games.
It was sold between October 1981 and mid-1997 (number 169).
Initially published by ATI Editora Ltda., and later by Enter Press Editorial Ltda. After the number 157 came out, it still made the rounds though PRB (Primeira Revista Brasileira) de Informática Editora Ltda.
Many of its’ editorial projects became classics in the programming community, like the Micro Bug for the Sinclair line, Aventuras na Selva (game that later became very known in the Amazon – first commercial Brazilian game – and now re-released by Bitnamic).
ESPECTRO (LUSO-BRAZILIAN)
The Espectro was a magazine dedicated to the SX Spectrum, having its’ first number published in 2017. It is edited by a Portuguese-Brazilian team, made up of names like: Filipe Veiga, Marcus Garrett, André Leão, Pedro Pimenta, João Diogo Ramos, Mário Veigas and Mario Cavalcanti.
Until now, it has already released three numbers, highlighting the third one, which came with a cassette that had four games in it, one of them being Varina, from the Portuguese team Espectroteam.