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MikroBitti

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MikroBitti



 
 
MikroBitti (sometimes spelled MikroBITTI) is a Finnish computer magazine, founded in May 1984 and published by Sanoma Magazines, a division of the SanomaWSOY
SanomaWSOY

Sanoma Oyj is the leading Mass media group in the Nordic countries with operations in 20 European countries, based in Helsinki. The group is also among the top five European magazine publishers and has a strong position, in addition to its native Finland, in Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, L...
 Group. MikroBitti is aimed mainly for beginner to mid-level computer users. In the year 2003 MikroBitti had the largest circulation figures of computer magazines published in the Nordic countries
Nordic countries

File:Location Nordic Council.svgThe Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and far northeastern North America, called the Nordic region, consisting of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories which include the Faroe Islands, Greenland and ?land....
.

The computer platform coverage in MikroBitti has shifted according to the market and public interest over the years.






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MikroBitti (sometimes spelled MikroBITTI) is a Finnish computer magazine, founded in May 1984 and published by Sanoma Magazines, a division of the SanomaWSOY
SanomaWSOY

Sanoma Oyj is the leading Mass media group in the Nordic countries with operations in 20 European countries, based in Helsinki. The group is also among the top five European magazine publishers and has a strong position, in addition to its native Finland, in Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, L...
 Group. MikroBitti is aimed mainly for beginner to mid-level computer users. In the year 2003 MikroBitti had the largest circulation figures of computer magazines published in the Nordic countries
Nordic countries

File:Location Nordic Council.svgThe Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and far northeastern North America, called the Nordic region, consisting of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories which include the Faroe Islands, Greenland and ?land....
.

The computer platform coverage in MikroBitti has shifted according to the market and public interest over the years. Originally, in the middle 1980s, the magazine covered 8-bit
8-bit

Eight-bit CPUs normally use an 8-bit data bus and a 16-bit address bus which means that their address space is limited to 64 KBs. This is not a "natural law", however, so there are exceptions....
 home computers such as the Commodore 64
Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer released by Commodore International in August, 1982, at a price of United States dollar595. Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore MAX Machine, the C64 features 64 kilobytes of Random-access memory with sound and graphics performance that were superior to IBM-compatible computers of tha...
, the MSX
MSX

MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s. It was a Microsoft-led attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers, conceived by one-time Microsoft Japan executive Kazuhiko Nishi....
 line and the ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum

The Sinclair ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. Referred to during development as the ZX81 Colour and ZX82, the machine was launched as the ZX Spectrum by Sinclair to highlight the machine's colour display, compared with the black-and-white of its predec...
. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the focus shifted to 16-
16-bit

16-bit architectureThe HP 2100#Descendants and variants , introduced in 1975, was the world's first 16-bit microprocessor.Prominent 16-bit processors include the PDP-11, Intel 8086, Intel 80286 and the WDC 65C816....
 and 32-bit
32-bit

The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295 or -2,147,483,648 through 2,147,483,647 using two's complement encoding....
 home computers such as the Amiga
Amiga

The Amiga is a family of personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. Development on the Amiga began in 1982 with Jay Miner as the principal hardware designer....
 and the Atari ST
Atari ST

The Atari ST is a home computer/personal computer that was commercially available from 1985 to the early 1990s. It was released by Atari Corporation in 1985....
. Nowadays, it mainly covers PCs and games consoles. It also reviews other hardware, such as digital camera
Digital camera

A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording digital image via an electronics .Many compact digital still cameras can record sound and moving video as well as still photographs....
s.

In the 8-bit era, MikroBitti was very hobby-oriented, presenting type-in program
Type-in program

A type-in program, or just type-in, is a computer program listing printed in a computer magazine or book, meant to be typed in by the reader in order to run the program on a computer....
s for home computers and home electronics
Electronics

Electronics refers to the flow of charge through nonmetal electrical conductor , whereas electrical refers to the flow of charge through metal electrical conductor....
 projects. Some columns, like the famous Peliluola by Nordic the Incurable, were written in a subculture insider style, and obscure in-joke
In-joke

An in-joke is a joke whose humor is clear only to those people who are "inside" a social group or occupation; an esoteric joke. They may be colloquially referred to as "You had to be there" moments, as in "You had to have been there when it happened to think it's funny"....
s such as exploding hamsters were occasionally used. Many of the staff were fans of Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek is a science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that aired from September 8, 1966 to September 2, 1969. Though the original series was titled simply Star Trek, it has acquired the retronym Star Trek: The Original Series to distinguish it from the spinoffs that followed, and from the Star Trek fi...
 and sometimes even wrote entire articles about the show, which had little or nothing to do with home computers.

In the 1980s, the MikroBitti staff used to hold an annual summer camp
Summer camp

Summer camp is a supervised program for children and/or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
 in Lautsia, a small village in the Tavastia Proper
Tavastia Proper

Tavastia Proper is a Regions of Finland of Finland. It borders to the regions Finland Proper , Satakunta , Pirkanmaa, P?ij?nne Tavastia, and Uusimaa ....
 region in southern Finland. The camp was open to all MikroBitti readers, with a registration fee, and lasted about a week. Each day consisted of computer programming
Computer programming

Computer programming is the process of writing, testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in a programming language....
 classes taught by the magazine staff. In the beginning, the class used various 8-bit computers such as the Commodore 64
Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer released by Commodore International in August, 1982, at a price of United States dollar595. Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore MAX Machine, the C64 features 64 kilobytes of Random-access memory with sound and graphics performance that were superior to IBM-compatible computers of tha...
 and the MSX
MSX

MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s. It was a Microsoft-led attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers, conceived by one-time Microsoft Japan executive Kazuhiko Nishi....
, but these were later replaced with Amiga
Amiga

The Amiga is a family of personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. Development on the Amiga began in 1982 with Jay Miner as the principal hardware designer....
 computers. In the evening, the camp offered common summer camp outdoor activities. The last summer camp was held in 1991. Jyrki Kasvi
Jyrki Kasvi

Jyrki Jouko Juhani Kasvi is a Finland politician and member of Parliament of Finland, representing the Green League. In the Parliament he has been most active in the Committee for the Future, which he represents in the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment network , which relates to technology assessment....
, a long time contributor to MikroBitti, has mentioned having found many summer camp attendees at executive positions in Finnish IT companies.

Later, when the magazine grew more popular, its orientation and style became more mainstream. During middle 2000s the magazine has branded itself more as a technology than a computer magazine. One of the latest moves was the complete removal of games section, and putting the remaining few game reviews and news among other hardware tests and news sections. For gamers this is unfortunate, because MikroBitti has always given large support to unusual games and independent publishers. The game section returned in the December issue, but the amount of games reviewed is significantly lower than before. All the changes are related to HIFI-magazine and Mikrobitti merging.

MikroBitti also produced two spin-off magazines: C
C (magazine)

C was a Finland computer magazine targeted specifically at Commodore International computers.C was started in 1987 as a spin-off of MikroBitti and was published roughly every two months....
 (defunct) and Pelit
Pelit

Pelit is a Finland video games magazine published 11 times a year by Sanoma Magazines, a division of the SanomaWSOY Group. Being by far the largest of its kind in Finland and covering both Personal computers and Video game consoles, it has for a long time lacked serious competition and is thought by many to be the magazine of its k...
.

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