From its launch until June 1986, Dragon User appeared on the shelves of major newsagents such as WHSmith in a full-colour glossy picture cover.

A number of different editors were involved during this initial period, including Brendon Gore, Martin Croft and John Cook.

From July 1986, the magazine was available only by subscription and the cover changed to a simple red and black print with a contents listing on the front.

Dragon User followed a fairly standard model for computer magazines of the time: news, software and book reviews, technical Q+A, a number of regular columns and many program listings (in those days it was common for magazines to print the text of programs written in BASIC to be laboriously typed in by the reader).

Various writers contributed reviews from then on, most notably Jason Orbaum, but also established Dragon programmers like Pam D'Arcy and Roy Coates.