Welcome to this special issue of ABBUC magazine for Sillyventure Summer 2023

(which is the first of our English magazine issues that got printed, others are available as PDF for members of ABBUC)

Ever since I’ve joined the board of ABBUC a few years ago, I found myself explaining the concept of ABBUC to international members. This is not as easy as it sounds, ABBUC is an „eingetragener Verein“ (or e.V. for short – english „registered organisation“), which is a very German thing that does not exist in the same way in other parts of the world.

When ABBUC e.V. was founded in 1985, the world was different. The average Atari user did not have access to the Internet (and the „web“ did not exist), so joining a user group was a common thing. But ABBUC is more than just a user group where like-minded people will meet and exchange information: one purpose of ABBUC is to enable projects that a single person or a small group could not realise.

A modern analogy to ABBUC e.V. is Patreon, where people give money to creators for their work. ABBUC receives membership fees from it’s members and because of it’s size is able to produce hardware projects, sponsor software development, organise the annual software and hardware competitions, print new Atari books and much more.

As with Patreon, some content created is free for the Atari community, while other content is exclusive to ABBUC members. Members do not pay directly for the goods they receive. The membership fee helps to create the new content, and then the magazines, books, music CD-ROMs, stickers, disks, etc. are free to all members.

Unlike Patreon, ABBUC members are creators themselves. Any ABBUC member can ask for support (money, infrastructure, work) to get help with a project. Want to organise a user meeting? ABBUC will give you money to cover some (or all) of the costs (like we do with Sillyventure). You want to print a book but you cannot afford the printing costs – ask ABBUC.

ABBUC is strictly „non-profit“, nobody receives money for working on ABBUC projects, the magazine or the board. The services of ABBUC and the magazine are only as good as the participation of the members. If you want to read different content in the magazine – write an article. You don’t like the layout of the ABBUC website – join the web-team and change it. ABBUC’s slogan is „Der User-Club zum mitmachen“ which (roughly) translates into „The user-club to participate in“.
The world needs more Atari!

This special issue of the ABBUC magazine contains articles from the ABBUC magazines 151/152/153 and shows the wide range of activities within ABBUC. We love to get your feedback, please write to
magazine@abbuc.de.

Enough from me for this time, I now have to pack my Atari stuff and head off to Gdańsk for another wonderful Sillyventure Party. See you there (now or next time)!

Carsten Strotmann
Summer 2023