In the beginning... there was MSX Computer Magazine. One of the first MSX magazines in The Netherlands. I am writing 1985. After about 22 issues, they included pc-support, changing the name to MSX/MS-DOS Computer Magazine. But they were not really satisfied, so they changed it back in issue 36, to MSX Computer Magazine. The editor in chief of MCM — as it is often referred to — since issue 8 or so, is called Wammes Witkop. He has played an important role of course in MCM history.

Listings...
A funny detail is that in the first issue of MCM Wammes had to make some letters up for in the mail-page. He told me he typed those letters and other articles on a Commodore 64... As I said above, the first 8 issues or so, Wammes was not the editor in chief, but the program-editor. He was responsible for all the programs that were published in the magazine. At that time people liked typing those programs over to extend their program collection. Later he switched positions with Ronald Blankenstein, the editor in chief.

     There’s by the way a nice story about these listings in the time of Wammes Witkop being the program editor. It illustrates that at that time, people indeed really liked typing over those listings! The story goes as follows.
“The gentleman studdenly stood next to Wammes! He had just ringed at the door of the publishing company and was sent through to the old kitchen on the first floor, where the MCM had its office. The man wanted to talk to Wammes about a remark he made in a previous issue: ‘We always have a lot more programs sent to us by readers that we can ever publish.’. Well, this man was very disappointed... He’d like to have more programs!
Wammes told him that it would be an almost impossible job to type over listings without the use of the ICP, the check-program of MCM; he would get terribly stuck in all kinds of errors! The published programs had all been checked and optimized for readability: adding spaces, indentation, that kind of things.
But the man wouldn’t listen! And above all, he wanted to type them over, he didn’t want them on disk or tape! So what do you do then?
... One hour later he left as a very happy man... He was carrying a big load of printing paper. The MCM staff just printed about 30 raw listings for him. Programs that were not good enough for publishing.
Wammes never heard again of this man. We assume he is still typing and above all: finding all the errors...”

The other magazine
But in the same period, a group of members of the international DAI-club also started a magazine, called MSX Club Magazine. The first 21 issues or so are only for the members of the Club. After this issue the magazine is also sold in the shops. The Dutch — he had a Belgian collegue — editor in chief of MSX Club Magazine — which was not referred to as MCM but as Clubmagazine; a relief for the Dutch MCM! — is Frank H. Druijff. The funny thing is that the MSX Club Magazine was hardly ever mentioned in the MCM, because Wammes thought he shouldn’t ‘advertise’ for free for other magazines. MSX Club Magazine was never really commercial. MCM was. When MCM had reached issue 57 they realised they could not continue with the magazine on a commercial basis. MSX Club Magazine also experienced the decreasing interest for MSX computers, so something should change.

The merge
The result was that MSX Computer Magazine and MSX Club Magazine merged to MSX Computer & Club Magazine in 1993; Frank H. Druijff became the editor in chief and Wammes Witkop became the publisher. It was called MCCM and was on a non-profit basis. In this way the spirit of both magazines could live on for a couple of years. Wammes Witkop was and is by the way not only the publisher of MCCM, but also of another couple of magazines, of which PC-Active is the most well known one; one of the biggest pc-magazines in The Netherlands. They agreed to continue with issue number 58/45, the number the next MCM would have had if they wouldn’t have merged. After this issue they continued with only the first number.

The end of MCCM
As we all know, the interest in MSX decreased and decreased even more. At some point MCCM stopped being sold in the shops and became a subscribers-only magazine (again). It could go on for a while again. When reaching number 78 — I think — the layout was changed for the last time — it changed in the merge, of course! It was a mix of both old layouts — and that’s also the layout these pages were based on.

     But, after a while, the expenses increased and the number of articles decreased so much, that Frank and Wammes had to decide to lower the frequency from eight issues per year to six issues per year. Otherwise there was not enough quality per issue. They’d rather have less issues in the same quality than giving up quality standards to get the same number of issues.

     In the end the magazine became so expensive for Wammes Witkop, that he had to decide to stop publishing the magazine. For all exclusive subscribers who stayed with MCCM untill the end — issue 90 — there was a special surprise: Millennium. A set of two cd’s full of legal MSX software, pictures and other interesting things. This was in the end of 1997 and then the final professional MSX magazine in the Netherlands was gone.

MCCW!
A long time no-one ever heard about MCCM anymore, except for one or two updates of its website — see [1] — on which there was support for the cd-set, the MSX4PC emulator — a product of MCCM — and some other things. The editor of this website simply didn’t have enough time to keep it updated. Was this the MCCW Frank was talking about in MCCM number 90?

     Then, in 1999, after some e-mails to Frank H. Druijff, we decided something should change. I offered to help them with the website, together with some other people like Arnaud de Klerk. Wammes, Frank, Arnaud and I made some agreements at the bar on the International MSX Fair in Tilburg that year. But, due to some personal problems of Arnaud — e.g., he was moving to a new house — and a lack of time we could only update the linklist of the site. Frank was not satisfied of course — and so did he let me know on the Bussum meeting last year! — and neither were Arnaud and I. Then I had an idea: why not continue MCCM in a web-format? This idea was accepted enthousiastically by Frank and Wammes, but only if I — and the other members of the MCCW staff — could guarantee quality and continuity. So we started gathering texts and designing the website. And here is the result: the web version of MCCM, now called MCCW: MSX Computer & Club Webmagazine!

     Don’t think this was an easy job, though! We have been working really hard to get it all done. You could/can read more about it in the Preface. Okay, I hope you liked this little story. Now go ahead and read this Webmagazine’s first issue!