Compute! (), often stylized as COMPUTE!, was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's PET Gazette, one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET computer. In its 1980s heyday, Compute! covered all major platforms, and several single-platform spinoffs of the magazine were launched. The most successful of these was Compute!'s Gazette, which catered to VIC-20 and Commodore 64 computer users. History Compute!s original goal was to write about and publish programs for all of the computers that used some version of the MOS Technology 6502 CPU. It started out in 1979 with the Commodore PET, VIC-20, Atari 400/800, Apple II+, and some 6502-based computers one could build from kits, such as the Rockwell AIM 65, the KIM-1 by MOS Technology, and others from companies such as Ohio Scientific. Coverage of the kit computers and the Commodore PET were eventually dropped. The platforms that became mainstays at the magazine were the Commodore 64, VIC-20, Atari 8-bit family, TI-99/4A, and the Apple II. Later on the 6502 platform focus was dropped and IBM PC, Atari ST, and the Amiga computers were added to its line-up. It also published a successful line of computer books, many of which consisted of compilations of articles from the magazine. ABC Publishing acquired Compute! Publications in May 1983 for $18 million in stock, and raised circulation of the magazine from 200,000 to 420,000 by the end of the year. Compute!'s Gazette, for Commodore computers, began publishing that year. Compute! claimed in 1983 that it published more type-in programs "in each issue than any magazine in the industry". A typical issue would feature a large-scale program for one of the covered platforms, with smaller programs for one or more platforms filling the remainder of the issue's type-ins. Most personal computers of the time came with some version of the BASIC programming language. Machine code programs were also published, usually for simple video games listed in BASIC DATA statements as hexadecimal numbers that could be POKEd into the memory of a home computer by a 'stub' loader at the beginning of the program. Machine language listings could be entered with a program provided in each issue called MLX (available for Apple II, Atari and Commodore hardware, and written in BASIC). Early versions of MLX accepted input in decimal, but this was later changed