LoadStar Magazine for the Commodore 64
There once existed a very popular digital publisher for the Commodore 64 known as LoadStar. They were under the management of a company called Softdisk Publishing. As I learned recently they produced a magazine in the early 80’s. I can still remember picking up a Commodore Run magazine and seeing the advertisement for LoadStar inside. That was how I first learned about them and made my first purchase. At that time in my life, it was around 1992 and I was really into my Commodore 64 and giving my Atari computer a backseat then.
So with my purchase came two packaged 5 1/4 floppy disks in the mail each month. They contained their own covers for protection. The disks were dual density, which meant that programs were copied on both sides of the floppy disks. Each issue came included with a start up menu that launched a fancy title screen for LoadStar. The normal also was seeing a new picture that would preload before the main menu appeared. The floppies at that time contained their own labels and were printed in a purple color. The diskettes also had the programs listed on them and also you could see what was on Side 2 in a separate panel.
Packed with Programs
The cool thing about receiving those disks and still owning them to this day is that they included tons of Commodore 64 software programs. One of the first disk subscriptions I received from them was #97. Once the menu loaded I was greeted instantly with a fanfare music. This can be turned off by pressing the S key. In the main menu on this disk, I have the following categories:
- GEOSware
- Brainware
- Grafixware
- Helpware
- Funware
- Utilityware
When you clicked on a menu at the top that said ‘The Loadstar Files’ you often received access to several listed categories, such as Diskovery, Table of Contents, New Users, Subscriptions, LOADSTAR Forum, and much more. These allowed you to keep up to date with current news in the industry regarding Commodore in general and each month I could read messages from the editor Fender Tucker and often Jeff Jones chimed in. Those were great times!
Anyway I have been wanting to share this with my readers for the longest time, but got too focused on other projects. Also because I don’t use my Commodore 64 personal computer so much, I didn’t bother talking about the hundreds of disks I already own from this amazing company. I am happy to finally be sharing this with you. I decided enough was enough and I really need to sit down and write a good article about this disk publisher because they changed my life in so many ways. I also spent over a year working on a text adventure program many issues later and after some prodding they accepted my submission, had me add some disk I/O procedures to it, and much later it appeared on issue #136. My game was called Quest for the Mad Bomber.
LoadStar All Disk Issues
Several years ago I was in communication with Fender Tucker and wanted to see if he still had access to the LoadStar software. It turned out he did, and soon I ordered a CD that contained every issue printed to date. This CD tracked everything from issue 1-199 (something like that), including some extra surprises. I have misplaced the CD, but made several copies of the issues on my hard drive during that time. My goal is to start sharing with you some of the amazing ‘secrets’ that are packaged within. You can learn everything about the Commodore 64, the best tools used during that time, news gallore, and tons of software (utilities, games, art, assembly language tips, etc.). I have decided to include a link to their website at Ramblehouse.
The CD is called Loadstar Complete. It includes everything listed below:
- All 199 issues of LOADSTAR in .d64 and .d81 format
- All 42 issues of LOADSTAR 128 in .d64 format
- TXT files of all of the text on the issues for fast searching on your PC
- All 21 issues of UpTime (a rival disk magazine that LOADSTAR soundly defeated and bought)
- JPGs of all of the color covers of the issues when LOADSTAR was sold in stores
- PDFs of all 73 issues of The LOADSTAR Letter, Jeff Jones’ excellent newsletter companion to LOADSTAR
- MP3s of selected Knees Calhoon songs
- .d64 files of every LOADSTAR product published separately from the monthly issues: the Compleat Bible, the Compleat Programmer, all five LOADSTAR Extras, Barbara Schulak’s puzzles, etc.
- All of Dave Marquis’ SID and MIDI music
- All of Walt Harned’s artwork — Walt is the most prolific artist ever for the Commodore computer
- and whatever else I could find from the historic LOADSTAR archives.
[…] due to exploring a countless amount of floppy disk titles from a magazine company by the name of LoadStar, managed by Softdisk Publishing. At that time, I was receiving a monthly disk subscription and […]
I’m living with no computer, so am using my smartphone to look up stuff about the C64 and Loadstar. In 2000, Fender turned the publication over to me and my wife. If you are interested, I will write more when I have a real keyboard. rev.dave.moorman@gmail.com
Hi Dave,
I was a long time fan of Loadstar for many years when I subscribed to the mailed disk magazine service back in the 90’s. I would like to connect with you more. I will also be in contact with you through my yahoo email address. I really only published one subscription, which was Quest for the Mad Bomber on issue #136. I hope to hear from you. You have done so many amazing things for LoadStar back in days and I really appreciate you keeping the Commodore 64 alive even after the company was liquidating at that time. I’m excited to make your acquaintance. Please contact me soon and let me know more about the subscription service and what your goals are for the company as a whole.
Nice to meet you,
Steve Morrow (admin of C64 Brain)