Skrolli is a mainly volunteer-based computer culture magazine – as such, we get asked a lot of questions. Here we answer some of them.

Who are you? What is this project about?

We are a group of hackers, computer hobbyists, gaming enthusiasts and journalists from Finland. We grew up reading about computers, programming, games and computer culture in magazines. They taught many of us how to do things ourselves instead of only consuming ready-made products. They raised the generation that gave birth to innovations like IRC and Linux and companies like Supercell, Remedy and Housemarque.

One by one, these hacker magazines disappeared from the mainstream and died off – in Finland and everywhere else. We felt sorry that they were gone. The Internet is great, of course, but it will never be permanent like print is. Articles on websites tend to disappear, but we can still read magazines from a hundred years ago.

Back in 2012, we decided to start making a magazine ourselves. We were fascinated with the idea of making something that we used to love, but writing about the topics of the present day. It turned out that this was a good idea, since a lot of people in Finland wanted to join us in making such a magazine. Skrolli and its community were born, and dozens of issues have been published since then.

In 2016, the time had come to present Skrolli to an international audience. With the help of a successful crowdfunding campaign, we printed our first issue in English. In 2017, we followed up with a second International Edition.

Since then, Skrolli has released four Finnish language magazines annually.

Why would you make a print magazine these days?

Because we want to make a beautiful object that you can browse at your own pace, store on your shelf and come back to later on. We want to write stories that stand the test of time, stories that are good enough to be permanently written on paper.

Skrolli is printed in a high-quality print shop in Finland and the paper we use is certified with the Nordic Eco Label. Our magazine is a sustainable premium product.

Who is Skrolli made for?

Skrolli is for anyone interested in the maker culture around computing and gaming. If you want to learn about how computers and operating systems work, hone your programming skills, gain practical insight into the latest technology, or simply read in-depth articles and columns from these fields, then Skrolli is the magazine for you.

Skrolli is made for the community and by the community. Many of our articles are written by fans of the magazine who are also experts in their field. This is a magazine unlike any other.

Here are some of the topics we have written about:

• A time traveller’s guide to building a computer in the past
• Why are demos so dull?
• SQL injections – attack & defence
• Doomsday machines – Cold War computers
• Easy soldering: build your own joystick tester
• Dumpster diving: how to salvage viable hardware
• FAIL! How Sega dropped the ball
• Dust off your Amiga 500

To get a further overview of the magazine, see our translated list of Finnish articles.

Is this another ‘retro’ magazine?

No. You will find stories about old computers, game systems and other hardware in our magazine, but we are not only here to write about the past. We want to write about interesting topics in the field of computing, regardless of when they took place. Skrolli features programming tutorials for modern systems alongside stories of the very first graphics chips and historical articles about the game industry.

Will all of the content of the English version be translated from Finnish?

The first English issues are a compilation of what, in our opinion, has made Skrolli great. But if/when we end up making more issues, we will naturally be looking for contributors who write in English. This content will, in turn, also be used in the Finnish version of Skrolli.

Who handles the translation of the English version?

The translations are assigned to language professionals who work together with the original authors. A native speaker of English proofreads each article.

I want to write for Skrolli. How can I help?

Fantastic! Drop us a line at info@skrolli.fi and we’ll take it from there.