The 1980s were turbulent times socially, economically, politically, musically, and… electronically! The decade saw the introduction of SMD, file up- and downloading over private telephone lines (!), 1200/75 baud BBSs, and the invasion of the microcontroller into DIY electronics. Elektor magazine’s English language edition was at the forefront of it all, publishing an estimated 1,000 pages of brash but high quality electronics printed in glorious black & white except the covers of course. Of these, the net editorial content should cover about 800 pages. In the 1980s the magazine reached tens of thousands of readers all over the globe via bookstores and on paper-only subscriptions.

After a long and troublesome production spell starting last September we have succeeded in ripping apart the editor’s 1980-1989 bound volumes of Elektor magazine, scan the resulting 1,000 or so pages (complete with editor scribbling), classify and categorize all individual articles, and finally program a user shell around the lot so the information is easily accessible from a DVD disc. Do not expect crisp fonts, HTML, live urls, or internet downloads here — our 1980s article productions simply weren’t digital as we know them today. Besides allowing you to experience a good deal of nostalgia our main aim of releasing the Elektor 1980s DVD is to help all of you stuck for a back article from that great period. In publishing this DVD we add another 10 years to the Elektor archive on DVD, which we’re proud to say now covers 1980 to the present date in three decade volumes (80-89, 90-99, 00-09) and four annual DVDs (11, 12, 13, and 14).

The Elektor 1980-1989 DVD is now being beta tested and scheduled for releasing in the Elektor Store by the end of February 2015. Thanks to our sponsoring partners Labcenter Electronics en Pico Technology you can now pre-order the Elektor 1980s DVD at almost 30% discount, meaning you only pay €49.00 / £42.95 / US $67.00. The Pre-order discount is valid through February 28, 2015, 0.00 CET.

Click here to pre-order this DVD