October Magazine

etro
Lights, Camera,
Amstrad Action!
Computer magazines have been
around since the dawn of computing
itself. Often dreary affairs with
lots of text and very little to keep
your attention, the magazines of
the late 70s and early 80s could put
even the most stubborn insomniac
to sleep. In 1981 EMAP’s multi format
‘Computer and Video Games’
magazine emerged and was a stand
out publication. With a strong focus
on games and having fun with your
computers, what followed was a revolution
in video games journalism,
with publishers worldwide following
in EMAP’s footsteps. While many of
them would fail, some of them would
eventually become publishing empires!
The Amstrad computer had been
around since mid 1984, with the official
publication “Amstrad Computer
User” being released by Amstrad to
support the machine. It was a thick
magazine with plenty of articles
(some contributed by Top Gear’s
Jeremy Clarkson), though there was
little for the gamer to get excited
about. There were some game reviews
in the back, with the odd feature
when a big name game was going
to be released, but most of the
pages were filled with articles for the
serious user.
Founded by established computer
magazine journalists Chris Anderson
and Bob Wade, Future Publishing
released their first magazine,
“Amstrad Action”. Anderson felt that
the Amstrad CPC was deserving of a
good magazine, but that the current
official mag was pretty ordinary. After
some back and forth with Amstrad
over the rights of using the company
name in the title, as well as countless
other problems, the magazine
was launched this month, 30 years
ago.
What issue one lacks in design, it
makes up for in character. Early issues
were partially created on the
Amstrad CPC computers, and while
a lot of effort was put into them they
do come across as slightly amateurish.
Initially the magazine sold poorly,
but the team’s vision and expertise
bought it back from the brink, and it
continued for another 116 issues.
So 1+116=117! At 117 issues Amstrad
Action was the longest running
dedicated 8-bit magazine, ending
its run in June 1995. The surprising
thing about it was it had been a good
couple of years since the final commercial
game was released for the
computer. The magazine was surviving
on coverage of public domain
software and programs released by
Amstrad enthusiasts who wanted to
keep the computer alive.
While other mags wrote articles,
Amstrad Action was a magazine that
spoke to its reader. It engaged you
in a one sided conversation that you
still felt you were part of. There were
side notes from the editor in brackets
(you what now? - ed), letters
columns where arguments between
readers and writers would emerge,
and ‘tell it like it is’ comments from
the staff writers. If a game was terrible
it wouldn’t be reviewed, but the
staff writers would openly tell you
that they couldn’t be bothered wasting
pages on it. Same too, if a game
wasn’t supplied by the company for
review, it wouldn’t be reviewed! With
this level of honesty it’s hardly a surprise
that Amstrad Action maintained
such a close connection to its readers.
While not the first, it was one of the
earliest magazines to feature a covertape
that contained software and
games. In Australia, after interest
in the computer had died, Amstrad
Action was the only way you could
get software for your CPC. Well, you
could import it from the UK, but as a
12 year old boy I couldn’t afford to do
that. My first issue of the magazine
featured “Pang” on the cover, and
had a demo of “Switchblade”, and
the full game of “Future Knight” by
Gremlin Graphics. I was excited and
I read that magazine cover to cover
several times until the next issue
came out.
Amstrad Action was the magazine
that made me want to get into video
game journalism. The longest serving
editor, Rod Lawton, was the man
who made me want to write about
games and I would love to interview
him about his time with the magazine.
During his editorial reign the