The ads were much more than just "new version of the old thing" (motherboards, RAM, sound cards, video cards). About every issue, there would be something (or more than one) that I never even imagined you could do with a computer (or, usually, make into a computer peripheral). It was mind blowing to see, over and over, here was something completely new (or at least new to me). And there was something I'd seen before for less money, and something I'd seen before with better performance. Over and over, month after month. It was like watching the future on fast-forward.