━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
RETROBLOG #003 — NEWS · HISTORY · 04/03/2026
★ RETROBLOG · POST #003

MICROMANÍA RETURNS: THE TABLOID THAT DIDN'T FIT IN YOUR ROOM
OR HOW THE 80s KEEP REFUSING TO DIE

NEWS HISTORY RETRO PRESS
MICROMANÍA
◄ FOURTH ERA · 2026 ►
THE MAGAZINE YOUR MUM HATED FOLDING IS BACK
1ST ERA · 1985 2ND ERA · 1989 3RD ERA · 1997 ★ 4TH ERA · 2026 ★
TECH SPECS
Micromanía Fourth Era Issue 1 Cover
MAGAZINE Micromanía
ERA Fourth (2026)
PUBLISHER Hecho con Pixels
FORMAT Tabloid · 25×35 cm
FREQUENCY Bimonthly
FOCUS Retro · 8 & 16-bit
EDITOR José Luis Sanz
WILL YOU BUY IT?
💳 Already subscribed
0
🤔 I'm thinking about it
0
📱 Digital only
0
😔 Not for now
0

Some things you assume are gone forever. The magic of Christmas morning. That summer girlfriend from 1991. The peseta. And Micromanía. Well: it turns out at least one of those things has decided to come back — unapologetically, in tabloid format, ready to take up space on your bedside table and in your heart.

Yes. Micromanía has risen from the dead. Fourth Era. Paper. Big. Retro to the bone. If at this moment you haven't felt a lump in your throat or let out some kind of exclamation I'd rather not transcribe here, you may have landed on this site by mistake. Welcome anyway.

Hecho con Pixels — the same people who not so long ago brought Microhobby back from the dead — have once again opened their bag of miracles and resurrected the most iconic name in Spanish microcomputer press. And not in just any format: they've gone with the tabloid format of the Second Era. The one that fit on no shelf, crinkled if you looked at it wrong, and that your mum hated with a passion because there was no human way to fold it properly.

CHAPTER 1 WHERE WE COME FROM: THREE ERAS AND A FUNERAL 📰

For those new to this — or for those whose memory has been treated by the years with the same cruelty the Datasette showed cheap tapes — a quick history recap. Micromanía was born in 1985 under Hobby Press. Its early issues covered the 8-bit microcomputer scene: the Spectrum, the Amstrad, the MSX. And yes, the Commodore 64. I won't mislead you: we weren't the house favourites, but we got a look-in.

FIRST ERA · 1985
Conventional magazine format. 8-bit microcomputers rule the world. The C64, the Spectrum and the Amstrad carve up the Spanish market one full-page ad at a time.
SECOND ERA · 1989
The big leap. Micromanía adopts the tabloid format that would make it legendary. More pages, more colour, more content. The newsagent's was never the same again. Neither was your schoolbag.
THIRD ERA · 1997
Back to small format. The PC has won the war. The 8 and 16-bit era fades into memory. Micromanía survives for decades as a PC and modern console magazine, until it closes for good in January 2024.
★ FOURTH ERA · 2026
The comeback nobody expected and everyone needed. Hecho con Pixels rescues the brand, returns to tabloid format and gives it back the retro soul it had when we were young and nothing hurt.
Fun fact: Behind this Fourth Era are names many of you will recognise. It's edited by José Luis Sanz, who previously ran Hobby Consolas. He's joined by Marcos García, who headed Superjuegos and Revista Oficial Playstation. Contributors include Jesús Martínez del Vas of El Mundo del Spectrum fame and Juanjo Muñoz, founder of CAAD in 1988. This isn't cheap nostalgia — these are the people who actually lived it.
CHAPTER 2 WHAT'S IN ISSUE 1 🕹️

The first issue of the Fourth Era already has confirmed content and, frankly, it looks like they've been listening to our Telegram group chats. Monkey Island on the cover, Turbo Girl, Out Run, exclusive demos of Maldita Castilla Requiem for Mega Drive and Dreamcast... If this doesn't win you over, you simply don't have a retro soul.

🐒 MONKEY ISLAND
Cover feature dedicated to the saga. Ron Gilbert, Guybrush Threepwood and everything you wanted to know about the three canonical adventures.
🏎️ OUT RUN
A classic-style review of the kind they don't make any more. The kind that scores with numbers, not star emojis.
💃 TURBO GIRL
The game that starred in the first tabloid cover is back. With an interview with the creators included, 38 years later.
🏰 MALDITA CASTILLA
Exclusive review of Maldita Castilla Requiem. And to keep you wanting more, two downloadable demos for Mega Drive and Dreamcast.
🎁 TWO POSTERS
Centre-page posters as a gift with every issue. Just like the old days. To hang where you no longer have wall space.
📸 HISTORIC EDITORIAL TEAM
Reunion of the original Hobby Press editors. Microhobby, Hobby Consolas, Nintendo Acción... A family photo thirty-six years late.

And more: arcade features, news from the current retro scene, walkthroughs with hand-drawn maps like the old days, and reviews of new games for old platforms. Because it turns out that in 2026 people are still developing for Mega Drive, SNES and, yes, for 8-bit microcomputers. The world is a wonderful place when you're not watching the news.

CHAPTER 3 THE TABLOID FORMAT: THE MUSCLE MEMORY OF THE NEWSAGENT'S 📐

The tabloid format deserves its own paragraph, or several. For those who never experienced it: Second Era Micromanía was big. Really big. About 25 centimetres wide by 35 tall. It wasn't just a magazine; it was a statement of intent. It was unmanageable, awkward, impossible to read on the bus without elbowing the person next to you. And it was absolutely glorious.

This Fourth Era recaptures that spirit. It doesn't quite reach the brutal size of the original, but the philosophy is the same: more space, more breathing room for the pages, more visual impact. In a world where all content fits on a phone screen, receiving something physical, large and full of love for the pixels of old has a value that's hard to quantify but very easy to feel.

A thought: We live in a strange era where print video game journalism has practically disappeared — and what remains turns to retro content to survive. Which, if you think about it for two seconds, makes perfect sense. The people who used to buy Micromanía at the newsagent's are now in their mid-forties, they work, they have disposable income and they miss something the internet can't give them: the weight of paper in their hands. Welcome to the most beautiful niche market on the planet.
CHAPTER 4 HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RELIVE THE 80s 💰
★ AVAILABLE EDITIONS ★
📱 DIGITAL
5,99€
PDF · Bimonthly
For those without shelf space
📰 PRINT
11,99€
Physical tabloid
For those with shelf space
⭐ COMBO
13,99€
Print + Digital
For the true fans

The magazine is bimonthly, so it comes out every two months. On the Hecho con Pixels store you can buy individual issues or subscribe. My humble recommendation: the print plus digital option at €13.99 is the most sensible choice if you're genuinely interested. The PDF to read on the commute, the print copy to leave on the bedside table and have it stare at you with nostalgia every night before you sleep.

★ C64ZONE VERDICT ★
WELCOME BACK,
MICROMANÍA!
Some projects are born from marketing, others from love. This one is clearly the latter. Hecho con Pixels has been proving for some time that Spanish retro press isn't dead — it was just taking a nap for a few years. First Microhobby, now Micromanía in tabloid format. If they keep this up, by 2027 we'll have the full coming-soon section back and none of us will want to leave home.

May the 80s last another forty years.

► BUY MICROMANÍA ISSUE #1

★ YOUR OPINION · C64 ZONE COMMUNITY
What do you think of Micromanía's return?
Loading community rating...

Leave a comment — Will you buy it? Did you buy it as a kid?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━