The Micro User

Infobox Magazine
title = The Micro User


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editor =
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frequency = Monthly
circulation = 68,328
ABC, January–June 1984
category = Home computing, information technology, electronics
company = Database Publications
publisher =
firstdate = March 1983
country = Flag|United Kingdom
based = Stockport, Greater Manchester
language = English
website =
issn = 0265-4040
finaldate = September 1992
finalnumber = Vol 10 No 7verify source|date=June 2008

The Micro User (known as BBC Micro User for the first three issues) was a British specialist magazine catering to users of the BBC Microcomputer series, Acorn Electron, Acorn Archimedes and, to a limited extent, the Cambridge Z88. It had a comprehensive mix of reviews for games, application software, and the latest Acorn computers; type-in listings (duplicated on a "cover disk" which was available separately), a correspondence page offering help with computer problems, and approachable technical articles.

The magazine hosted the long-running "Body Building" series by Mike Cook, in which each article introduced a small electronics project that could be built and connected to one of the BBC Micro's I/O ports. The project could be ordered in kit form or fully assembled, or the reader could source the parts and design as the articles contained a full circuit diagram.

There were regular columns on adventure gaming from two successive contributors under the pseudonyms "Alice through the VDU" and "The Mad Hatter". They reviewed the latest adventure releases for Acorn computers, offered hints to some games and scattered mathematical and logical puzzles in their articles. Another regular columnist, using the pen-name of "Hac-Man" (in reference to "Pac-Man") set out cheats and compatibility fixes for popular arcade-style games, in the form of pokes or short type-in programs.

Watford Electronics and Technomatic were prominent advertisers, taking out multi-page spreads in every issue in the mid 1980s. From October 1983 the magazine carried the first four issues of Electron User as a pull-out; this then split off into an independent publication.