Amiga Power (AP) was a monthly magazine about Amiga video games. It was published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing and ran for 65 issues, from May 1991 to September 1996.
History
thumb|right|Chart of Amiga magazines by average monthly circulation. Amiga Powers average of 55,000 copies per month "was a medium-high figure for an independent magazine of its sort at the time".
The first issue of Amiga Power was published in May 1991 after Future Publishing decided, in response to feedback from readers of its magazine Amiga Format, to launch two further magazines with narrowed interests, the other being Amiga Shopper. Whereas the latter would focus on the "serious" side of Amiga computers involving programming and productivity, Amiga Power would be wholly tailored to the gaming audience. Joining the magazine were Matt Bielby and Gary Penn, previously editors of Your Sinclair and The One, respectively, with Bielby being its first editor and Penn as a consultant.
Amiga Power had a section at the front of each issue listing other magazines' scores for games, some with a star next to them indicating that they "appear[ed] as an exclusive, cover disk or a cover", the purpose of the section being to dissuade their readers from subscribing to those magazines concurrently. According to Campbell, those magazines tended to score games along the pattern of "70%, 70%, 70%, 99%". Amiga Powers methodology proved controversial amongst game publishers, including, in particular, Team17,
There were two games that held an iron grip on the #1 spot in the list. The first was Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2, a coin-op conversion platform game that the magazine controversially deemed their favorite Amiga game for the first two years of its existence. The second was Sensible Soccer, which took over the top position in the first AP Top 100 after its release (the game came out too late for the 1992 chart), and never relinquished it (except to its own sequel Sensible World Of Soccer) for the rest of the magazine's existence.
{|class="wikitable"
!First
!Number
!Final
|-
|Rainbow Islands
|1
|Sensible World of Soccer
|-
|Lemmings
|2
|Gravity Power
|-
|Speedball 2
|3
|Guardian CD32
|-
|Sim City
|4
|Sid Meier's Colonization
|-
|Zarch
|5
|Dyna Blaster
|-
|Populous
|6
|Cannon Fodder
|-
|Kick Off 2
|7
|Syndicate
|-
|Falcon
|8
|Exile
|-
|Indianapolis 500: The Simulation
|9
|Speedball 2
|-
|Stunt Car Racer
|10
|Knights of the Sky
|-
|Buster Bros.
|11
|Chaos Engine
|-
|Prince of Persia
|12
|Alien Breed 3D
|-
|Spindizzy Worlds
|13
|Slam Tilt
|-
|Nebulus
|14
|Micro Machines
|-
|Carrier Command
|15
|Rainbow Islands
|-
|Dungeon Master
|16
|Rod Land
|-
|Rick Dangerous 2
|17
|Zeewolf 2
|-
|Ultima 5
|18
|Gloom
|-
|New Zealand Story
|19
|Monkey Island 1 & 2
|-
|The Sentinel
|20
|Shadow Fighter
|-
|Damocles
|21
|Dune II
|-
|Paradroid '90
|22
|Super Tennis Champs
|-
|Plotting
|23
|Pinball Illusions
|-
|Typhoon Thompson
|24
|Super Skidmarks
|-
|Laser Squad
|25
|Settlers
|-
|Klax
|26
|Super Stardust
|-
|SWIV
|27
|F1GP
|-
|Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
|28
|Jetstrike CD32
|-
|F-19 Stealth Fighter
|29
|Stunt Car Racer
|-
|E-Motion
|30
|Overkill
|-
|Captive
|31
|Wizkid
|-
|Powermonger
|32
|Head Over Heels
|-
|Xenon 2
|33
|Sim City
|-
|Puzznic
|34
|Super Foul Egg
|-
|Super Off Road
|35
|Car-Vup
|-
|F29 Retaliator
|36
|Empire Soccer
|-
|Vaxine
|37
|No Second Prize
|-
|Interphase
|38
|Tetris Pro
|-
|Castle Master
|39
|Banshee
|-
|Car-Vup
|40
|D/Generation
|}
F-Max
In its later years, Amiga Power started advertising a fictional refreshment beverage called F-Max, the lightly sparkling fish drink, with the slogan an ocean of refreshment.
Amiga Power: The Album With Attitude
In early 2019, an Amiga Power fan launched a Kickstarter campaign to create an officially licensed AP tribute album containing remixes of assorted Amiga game tunes, accompanied by a booklet featuring contributions from former members of the magazine's team. The campaign was successful, and in July 2020 the finished album was officially released.
Most of the remixes were created by the original composers; among those who contributed to the album were Alistair Bowness, Allister Brimble, Fabio Cicciarello, Mike Clarke, Adam Fothergill, Olof Gustafsson, Jon Hare, Chris Huelsbeck, Carl Jermy, Barry Leitch, Jogeir Liljedahl, Alex May, Anthony Milas, Jason Page, Matthias Steinwachs, and Tim Wright.
The physical album took the form of a small hardback book, with two CDs attached to the inside of the front and back covers, and the 100-page Mighty Booklet sandwiched between them. The first CD – subtitled AP's Pick Of The Pops – featured remixes of music personally selected by AP team members (including former editors Matt Bielby, Mark Ramshaw, Linda Barker, Stuart Campbell, Jonathan Davies, Cam Winstanley, Tim Norris and Steve Faragher, plus others), while the second CD – subtitled The AP Bonus Coverdisk – featured remixes inspired games and demos that appeared on the magazine's cover-mounted disks over the years. The Mighty Booklet contained detailed information about each of the tracks featured on the album, including interviews with the musicians, behind-the-scenes facts, anecdotes and asides from the AP team and full song lyrics; a special The Last Resort section written by Rich Pelley; adverts for F-Max and a Canoe Squad movie; a feature entitled The Bum Line, based on The Bottom Line, listing other albums of interest; and an ongoing storyline (following on from the events of AP65) in which the AP team are restored to life by The Four Cyclists Of The Apocalypse, so they can attend a concert in their honor.
As of August 2020, the album remains available to buy via the original Kickstarter homepage and is also on the websites of C64Audio.com and 010101 Music.
See also
- Amiga Force
- Amiga Survivor
- Digitiser
Notes
Works cited
External links
- AP2 - An Amiga Power information site created by AP writers Jonathan Nash and Stuart Campbell, with a wealth of behind-the-scenes stories about the magazine.
- World Of Stuart - Stuart Campbell's extensive website, which includes an archive of Amiga Power and other articles.
- House of Nash - Jonathan Nash's website, which included a selection of Amiga Power and other articles, now taken down, but which may put back up in the future.
- Need to Know - The fortnightly tech update for the UK, co-written by AP Production Editor, Dave Green.
- Games Press - A one-stop PR resource for the games industry run by AP's Gentlemanly Editor, Jonathan Davies.
- The Weekly - Created by Jonathan Nash and Mil Millington. Now ceased, though a return is promised.
- Kieron Gillen's workblog - By AP's Walking Tips Machine, C-Monster, that previously existed here
- Amiga History Guide: Amiga Power - an alternative history of the magazine.
- "It's a skull", a famous OctaMED music file sent to the magazine by a reader
- Interview with Amiga Power staff, May 2016
- Archived Amiga Power magazines on the Internet Archive