BYTE was great, sort of a microcomputing version of the more upmarket mini-/mainframe Datamation magazine. But as a hobbyist I was more drawn to Creative Computing [1] and the even funkier Compute! [2] magazine in its exclamation point heyday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Dobb%27s_Journal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/C%2B%2B_Users_Journal
Both of them used to have really solid programming content for quite a while. BYTE, IIRC, became much commercial and ad-oriented in its later years, with less of quality tech content for makers, and more of product reviews and such, instead.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Dobb%27s_Journal#End
http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/farewell-dr-d...
There were also Ahoy! And Ahoy!'s AmigaUser: