Flip Through History: 9 of Our Favorite BYTE Magazine Covers

No editors chose this as their favorite. It was the first though. — None of the editors chose this as their favorite. It was the first though.

Today, like most days, our office was filled with the clickety clack of furious typing as we were all hard at work. The silence was interrupted by David, one of our technical editors, sharing a link to all the covers of Byte magazine, going back to the first issue in September of 1975. There was a brief moment of silence, and then the comments began. “Oooh, I love this one, look at that!” and “That would make a great poster!”

In the spirit of sharing, since we know you’re going to want to see these, we gathered our favorites from the staff around the office.

Jason Babler Creative Director – “Speaks to the type nerd in me, and beautifully illustrated.”

Mike Senese Executive Editor – “Around the time that this issue was published, my family got our first computer, a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. In between learning to program BASIC, my dad and I played hours of TI-Invaders on it, with spritely characters much like the ones on the cover of this BYTE. We still talk about our high scores.”

Alasdair Allan, Contributing Editor — “Everyone always thinks that future technology is just going to be today’s technology, only smaller. But there really isn’t anything new under the Sun.”

Tyler Winegarner Video Producer – “This looks like the first computer I ever touched, and every adventure they have taken me on since then.”

David Scheltema Technical Editor – “This is basically an image of my apartment: Tons of books and a computer.”

Jordan Bunker Technical Editor – “Great simple depiction of old tech (bunsen burner) and new tech (computer). The thought of computers in the laboratory being novel is pretty funny, since they’ve augmented/replaced just about every piece of equipment in the lab with some computerized version.”

Sophia Smith Editorial Intern – “A clever juxtaposition between modern and old world tech. Reminds me that innovation shouldn’t just be for the sake of newness, but for efficiency, beauty, and fun.”

Hep Svadja Photo Editor – “I appreciate both the 2001 reference and the programming, and it has to do with space which is always a plus for me. Also the colors are gorgeous, as is the nebula and planet surface detailing.”