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© 1997-2006
Gareth Knight
All Rights reserved

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CU Amiga Logo
In 1990 the magazine went through another change dropping C64 support altogether to become CU Amiga. It was a time of rebirth for the magazine becoming one of EMAP's premier titles. The Amiga was at its peak as a consumer machine, beginning to beat the Atari ST in the computer market. The A500 was wowing the low-end while the A2000 was showing the Amigas power at the high-end of the scale. 1991 was a prosperous time for games, beating the consoles with a range of fantastic titles, including Robocop 3, First Samurai, and Populous 2. Games that would become classics. In terms of readership the magazine was not quite at its peak with a circulation of of 78,266 over the period January- June 1991. This jumped by almost 12,000 during July - December and broke the 100,000 barrier reporting sales figures of 101, 923 for January - June 1992. Over 22,000 more readers than the previous year! It was a prosperous time for the Amiga with a string of highly successful bundles and TV advertising campaign in the UK (selling the A500 as a game machine). The magazine increased its page count to a whopping 292 pages in the December 1991 issue, as well as doubling the number of cover disks. This was an irregular occurrence at first but soon became standard every issue. The 'CU Collection' provided a mix of game and utility software. In face of increasing competition from Amiga Format and other magazines, CU Amiga made a series of changes to the cover disk. The 'Collection' title was dropped with the introduction of commercial game demos and serious software.
CU Amiga February 1991 CU Amiga October 1991 CU Amiga December 1991
The increase in circulation and a price rise of 20p allowed the magazine great freedom to develop some of the magazine design layout. The pages increased in width by 2 CM, adding an extra column to most pages. This was a fairly popular practice at the time that EMAP were late to capitalize on. Older titles had a difficult time converting from the established layout designed for A4. This inevitably had an effect on the number of pages found in an issue, dropping from 292 (December 1991) to 180 during 1992. The layout had also become much simpler- the contents page actually became useful for navigating the magazine (the 1991 issues were plagued by a sense of being lost trying to find a review).

Throughout CU Amigas' history it was always interested in showing the readers how to be productive, proclaiming the magazine 'the complete guide to the Amiga' on the cover of every issue. This creative impulse covered both software and hardware projects. The October 1991 cover explained 'HOW TO INVENT AMIGA GADGETS'. A topic that would be picked up again during 1995 in CU Amiga Magazine.
The software side was supported by a number of tutorials, ranging from Octamed to ARexx. These were divided from the rest of the magazine in a familiar layout (for anyone that read the later issues), comprising of Screen Scene (game reviews), Get Serious (technical software), and the Blue Pages.

The Blue What!?

The Blue Pages were a separate section at the back of the magazine set aside for tutorials, technical questions + answers, BackChat letters page, buyers guide and Points of View. These, as the name  suggests, were printed on cheap blue paper.
The pages were particularly influenced by the design of the recently purchased multi-format magazine, A.C.E. from Future Publishing. The Blue Pages were more technical orientated than its replacement 'Amiga Workshop', covering subjects such as electronic surveillance and dyslexia education. The style treated the Amiga as a tool rather than the final word in computing.

As 1991 rolled into 1992, changes were afoot that would change the magazines course. Steve James left the editors chair and was replaced by Deputy Editor, Dan Slingsby. Nick Veitch moved to the magazine to become technical editor, replacing Mat Broomfield who took an advisory role, spending less time on the magazine. Steve Merrett became deputy editor for a short time only to join a Sega magazine a few months later.
CU Amiga June 1992
The new Amigas were revealed in the June 1992 edition of CU Amiga giving them an opportunity to have their very own cover girl. Announcing 'Commodore's Double Whammy', the link was almost as tenuous as PC Format's insistence on putting beautiful women on their magazine. The boxing metaphor was used to introduce the Commodore A570, a CD-ROM drive that allowed CDTV software to be used with the Amiga, and the A600.

Building upon the development if 1992, the next year was very successful for CU Amiga with a series of guides to the technical side of the Amiga, covering RAM expansion (August 1993), animation packages (September 1993), monitors and an investigation of Full Motion Video. Although the quality of games were improving, the number of classics seemed to have dropped in comparison to the year before. Many will be remembered for the wrong reason. The review of Frontier (November 1993) received a lot of criticism from readers accusing CU of overrating the game, citing various problems with docking and autopilot. After the mammoth increase in circulation the previous year it was hoped that influx of people would increase sales again. The results were not quite as dramatic as the previous year but CU Amiga had still managed to increase its readership by almost 100,000, totalling 111, 408 (ABC Jan - June 1993). Circulation peaked towards the second half of this year with 112,780 (July - December 1993). The magazine regularly included over 180 pages per issue. The magazine gained quite a reputation for its CD32 coverage, with a section dedicated to the console, titled CD32 Zone. This was soon killed off when it became apparent with the demise of Commodore came the death of the Amiga as a competitor to the console market. The year has been described as the Amigas greatest moment, with a string of fantastic software behind it and bankruptcy ahead.
CU Amiga January 1994
It does not take a genius to remember what happened in 1994! The January edition reported the rumour that Commodore would be broke up and sell the Amiga to the highest bidder. Jason Holburn interviewed Commodore UK regarding its financial situation, as well as an interview with Jim Sachs. CU Amiga was going from strength to strength but cracks were beginning to appear in the magazine defence. Whilst Amiga Format focussed a specific market, CU Amiga became even more wide ranging. In an attempt the beginners market, tutorials covered DPaint (one of the longest running tutorials, lasting 12 issues), Aegis Animator, Blitz Basic 2, and video titling. Many readers felt turned off by the simplicity of the tutorials in comparison to earlier issues.
The year saw the first decline in software releases. The blame cannot simply be associated with the death of Commodore. A lack of advertising by the parent company, attack from the console market, and the PCs movement into the home market. The PC threat that Amiga users had recognized during 1992 had moved onto the home ground. CU Amiga did not ignore the threat, turning the PC market to the Amigas advantage. The November 1994 issue began a PC conversion series on using PC software and hardware with the Amiga.

Over the years CU always had a good relationship with Commodore. Even back in February 1985 they were the Amiga users ears to the words of the parent company. Both CU Amiga and Amiga Format featured columns written by David Pleasance. This continued towards the end of 1994 with an investigation of the future under the renamed Commodore UK company, Amiga International in the November issue. The times were changing but CU Amiga were not changing with it.

The departure of Dan Slingsby and his replacement Alan Dykes gave the magazine a much needed update. During the last few months of 1994, CU began to experiment with designs to use the best to its best. For the first time in years CU Amiga were forced to reduce the number of pages from 180 to 164. The magazine redesigned itself in its final phase. Regular readers would notice little difference but the changes for the next few years as the magazine focused upon technical issues, in contrast to Amiga Format's game coverage.

CU Amiga entered its fifth and final phase as it refocused upon its audience, beating its old enemy Amiga Format in the circulation wars. The Amiga market was in decline. The Amiga was without an owner and without a hope. The next few years would be a time of decline, but out of defeat, CU Amiga would grasp victory.

Back to CU Index
Back to CU Amiga/64
Forward to CU Amiga Magazine

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