.jpg) The cover of the final issue ofAmiga Format (May 2000) | |
| Former editors | Editors |
|---|---|
| Categories | Amiga,Video games |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Circulation | 161,256 (Jan – Jun 1992) |
| First issue | August 1989 |
| Final issue Number | May 2000 136 |
| Company | Future Publishing |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Based in | Bath |
| Language | English |
| ISSN | 0957-4867 |
Amiga Format was a British monthlycomputer magazine forAmiga computers, published byFuture Publishing. The magazine lasted 136 issues from 1989 to 2000. The magazine was formed when Future splitST/Amiga Format into two separate publications (the other beingST Format).
The magazine's coverage extended to hardware, software, as well as video games. It is known to have provided each issue with acover disk containing an assortment of demos and usually free-of-charge software and games, popularising the concept among its rival magazines. At its peak, in the first half of 1992, the magazine's circulation averaged 161,256 copies per issue.
The magazine would encourage the user to back up, in other words, duplicate the magazine cover disks in case there was a problem with the master disk later on, for example, disk errors. The magazine cover disk is bootable and loaded exactly like commercial software on the Amiga, although there were some disks that required the user to load Workbench to access them or a specific program.[1]
ST/Amiga Format was a monthly magazine that covered theAmiga andAtari ST operating systems, created and published in July 1988 byFuture Publishing founderChris Anderson. The two operating systems were seen as rivals, and because of growing competition between them, in the wake of Future's sale of the video game magazineACE toEMAP, it was decided to split the magazine intoAmiga Format andST Format in July 1989. As a result, the former dual-format title lasted only 13 issues, and the first issue ofAmiga Format was published in August that year.[2][3][4][5]
Amiga Format covered all aspects of Amiga computers, both hardware and software, bothapplication andgaming uses. Future decided to spin off the magazine after reader demands for magazines with narrowed interests. Two magazines resulted:Amiga Shopper, which dealt purely with the hardware and "serious" software side of the Amiga scene, andAmiga Power, which was strictly games-only, and both were launched in May 1991.[6][7]
The magazine was published on a monthly basis[8] and offered various multi-issue tutorials on different application software, such asC programming orLightWave graphics rendering. The last tutorial was cut short in the middle because of the cancellation of the magazine.[citation needed]
Each issue ofAmiga Format was provided with a cover disk containing an assortment of application software, public-domain (i.e. free of charge) games, and new game demos—a practice pioneered by Future Publishing[9] and which it inherited from its predecessor,ST/Amiga Format[2]—popularising the concept amongst its rival magazines.[5] Most of the programs distributed on the disks were public-domain software,shareware, or demos, often available through other means such asmodems andbulletin board systems, but they occasionally included full-price commercial titles. Three such examples were the full versions of the gamesArchipelagos andVaxine and the word processor Wordworth for the July 1991 issue. This practice drew ire from software publishers, andAmiga Format and its competitors agreed to halt it.[9] In another example, a version ofBlitz BASIC was mounted to the November 1993 cover disk, along with a zombie apocalypse game written in that language. Blitz BASIC subsequently overtookAMOS as the preferred way to program games.[10] Later in its lifetime, the magazine turned to theCD as a medium for storing vast quantities of software, which benefited users who lacked Internet access.[11] With its January 1997 issue, it became the United Kingdom's first computer magazine to attach two cover CDs to a single issue, the second in this caseAGA users.[12]
During Marcus Dyson's time atAmiga Format as editor (1993–1994), a competition was run to find the best game developed by a reader using Blitz BASIC. A game calledTotal Wormage was entered byAndy Davidson. AlthoughTotal Wormage was overlooked by the magazine's judges and thus did not win, Marcus Dyson, who was editor when the magazine held the competition and had departed publishing to join developerTeam17, persuadedAmiga Format to transfer rights to the game to the studio (all demos submitted to the competition became property of Future Publishing). Team17 would complete the game and release it commercially asWorms.[13][14]
Amiga Format spanned 136 issues in its lifetime, achieving peak circulation at an average of 161,256 copies distributed in the first half of 1992,[15] with the final issue published in May 2000.[16] At the time ofCU Amiga Magazine's closure in late 1998, it was the only regularly issued print magazine about the Amiga in the United Kingdom.[17]
Marcus Dyson, whom the magazine hired in 1990 as an art assistant, became editor in 1993 before departing the magazine the following year for Team17.[13][14] Another writer to become editor was prolificSteve Jarratt.[18] Contributors included Nick Walkland, previously a staff writer for theadventure games magazineConfidential and later part of the television programmeGames World,[19] and Richard Burton and David Crookes, both of whom who would later write forRetro Gamer.[20][21] Other writers included Andy Nuttall and James Leach, both of whom also wrote for other video game magazines before enteringBullfrog Productions.[22][23]
Amiga magazines | |
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