Amstrad Computer User was the official magazine for the Amstrad CPC series of 8-bithome computers. This monthly publication, usually referred to as ACU by its readers, concentrated more on the hardware and technical side of the Amstrad range, although it had a small dedicated games section as well.
ACU ran from August 1984 to May 1992, producing 90 issues in total. Originally a bi-monthly Amstrad User's club newsletter titled CPC 464 User, it was renamed to Amstrad Computer User when the CPC 664 was released in 1985. Its successor was CPC Attack, which was launched in June 1992.
August 1984 to April 1985
Amstrad Computer User started out as CPC 464 User (subtitled ‘The Official AMSTRAD Micro Magazine’) and the first issue was dated August September 1984 and was 32 pages long. Published by Amsoft, a division of Amstrad, the first couple of issues were not made available to the general public, but only to members of the Amstrad User Club. CPC 464 User’s only editorial credit in the launch issue was Consultant Editor Gareth Jefferson. Content in these early months included News, Overview (an in-depth look at the CPC 464), Q&A, Software Reviews, Listings, Programming and more. Early games featured included Roland in the Caves and Roland on the Ropes.
The Jan/Feb 1985 issue 3, with slightly renamed title, Amstrad CPC 464 User, was the first issue to go on sale to the general public costing 95p and 84 pages long. Simon Rockman is credited as editor along with other contributors.
From issue 4 onwards Amstrad CPC 464 User went monthly. Sorcery, from Virgin Games, is the first game to receive 5 stars in all ratings, Graphics, Playability, Addictiveness and Overall.
ACU - June 1985 to January 1986
May 1985's issue 6 features the newly released Amstrad CPC 664 (basically a CPC 464 with a disk drive instead of a cassette deck) on the cover and in depth analysis and features inside.
Following the release of the CPC 664, the June issue is the first to display the renamed title; the familiar Amstrad Computer User. The Gallup software chart is published for the first time. Topping the top 20 chart is Virgin’s Sorcery. Anne Coker joins the magazine as Assistant Editor.
A slight re-design for July’s issue 8. Credits list includes editorial and, for the first time, Production, Design and Advertising staff. Contents still include the regular Programming, Hardware and Software features.
October 1985's issue 10 looks at the new Amstrad CPC 6128; a new computer with a disk drive plus 128k of memory.
December 1985’s issue 12, and ACU’s 1st birthday, a bumper 148 page issue, featuring a re-design of the games reviews, again; which has a new ratings box that has marks out of 20 for Graphics, Sound, polish, First impression, lasting impression, value and a final comment.
A Year of Changes – February to December 1986
William Poel, General Manager of Amsoft and Managing Director of ACU, announced that he will be leaving to run a software company called New Star. A new Adventure feature ‘Seek and Ye Shall Find’ starts in the February issue
March 1986 and another re-design; clearer layout and main content sections include Regulars, Features, Listings, Reviews and ABC (Amstrad Business Computing). The long running column ‘Hairy Hacker’ debuts this issue; a feature that looks into getting the most out of the CPC including game pokes. Also a 5p rise in the cover price; now up to £1.00.
June 1986, issue 19, introduces new Deputy Editor Jeremy Spencer. Also reviews are given a much needed rework; three reviewers, Colin, Nigel and Liz, are credited as giving their views on the games along with their overall score (out of 20).
Starting October 1986, and ACU credits its publisher as Avralite Ltd.[1]
November 1986 issue seems to be a letters page for professional programmers as Graham Blighe, Andrew and Philip Oliver write in to comment on recent ACU games reviews.
The November 87 issue publishes the ACU circulation figures for Jan-Jun 1987; an impressive 63,599. This figure would turn out to be the only ABC figure that would be published.
ACU's January 1988 and another redesign of the magazine layout. The cover logo has also changed along with the general look of the magazine; more colour and neater design. The regular features remain the same for the time being.
Auntie John is the character behind a new programming feature ‘Auntie John’s Machine Code’ which starts in June 1988’s issue.
A special cover feature on David Perry and his CPC game Savage features in the November 1988 issue.
Incorporation – January 1989 to February 1990
January 1989 and ACU incorporates CPC Computing and the magazine goes through a redesign. The games pages get a new look with the introduction of the 'ACU Star Game' awards; 'ACU Gold Star Game' and the 'ACU Silver Star Game'.
Focus Magazines Ltd takes over the publishing of the magazine from March 1989.[2] All change for the April issue as ACU has moved to a new publisher and new office. Mark Evans and Andrew Banner are the new editor and assistant editor respectively. Many new reviewers are credited on the games pages, including Matt, Adrian, Colin, Paul, Billy, Tony and Rik.
May 1989 - As quick as the new editorial staff arrived the quicker they left. New Editor and staff writer are Duncan Evans and Richard Henderson. Another redesign sees a new 'Neon Zone' section where the latest arcade games are featured. The games section is changed again; going under the 'Meltdown' title the games are rated by percentages; Grafix, Sonix, Gameplay and Overall.
July 1989 and a completely redesigned magazine with a new front cover logo. New credits mast (including new Editor Carlo Jolly, Sub Editor Harold Mayes, Designer Simon Pipe and contributor Mark Ulyatt. Even contributors have been credited for the first time. The Arcade feature is renamed 'Combat Zone'. 'Gameplan' is the new name for the games section and games are rated by using a bar indicator. The higher the indicator went along the bar the better the rating. Published, again, by Avralite Publications Ltd.
More changes for the October 1989 issue; Guy Matthews is the new editor while the games ratings change back to percentages.
The Forever Changing Face Of ACU – March 1990 to November 1990
March 1990 and one of the largest Gameplan sections yet including, for the first time, a Budget Basement section.
April and the inconsistent game ratings are changed again. The overall rating has changed from the percentage to a picture that represents the score; e.g. Laser Squad gets a sparkling smile rating.
June 1990 and, after a longer than usual stint of stability in the editorial line up, there are more changes; Chris Knight moves up to editor and Marc Jones is the sole reviewer credited.
The publisher changes over to MCM Ltd starting August, still under the MCPC Ltd division as before.[3]
A Turrican comic strip/players guide begins in the November 1990 issue.
The Final Incarnation – December 1990 to May 1992
December 1990 and a completely revamped design; new main logo, a re-established 'ACU Gold Award' accolade which is given to Electronic Zoo’s table top game conversion Subbuteo.
ACU continues unchanged until August 1991 when the games section is renamed 'Bomb Alley'.
The last issue in May 1992 of ACU is published by HHL Publishing.[4] In the issue, ACU announces that this will be the last issue.[citation needed]
ACU’s successor, CPC Attack from HHL Publishing, which even advertises for staff in this issue and has a two-page preview slot, will concentrate more on the games playing scene.
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and the German-speaking parts of Europe.
Amstrad was a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 1980. During the late 1980s, Amstrad had a substantial share of the PC market in the UK. Amstrad was once a FTSE 100 Index constituent, but since 2007 has been wholly owned by Sky UK. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business was manufacturing Sky UK interactive boxes. In 2010, Sky integrated Amstrad's satellite division as part of Sky so they could make their own set-top boxes in-house.
The Multiface was a hardware peripheral released by Romantic Robot for several 1980s home computers. The primary function of the device was to dump the computer's memory to external storage. Pressing a red button on the Multiface activated it. As most games of the era did not have a save game feature, the Multiface allowed players to save their position by saving a loadable snapshot of the game. Home computer software of the early 1980s was typically loaded into RAM in one go, with copy protection measures concentrating the loading phase or just after it. The snapshot feature could be used after copy protection routines had been executed, to create a backup that was effectively unprotected against unauthorised distribution. Later models of the Multiface mitigated this by requiring the device to be present when re-loading the dumps into memory, making the dumps useless to people without a Multiface. Software producers also reacted to the threat by using routines that would prevent execution of the product if it detected that a Multiface was present and by loading the software in multiple parts, thus requiring the presence of the original, copy-protected media.
Amstrad Action was a monthly magazine, published in the United Kingdom, which catered to owners of home computers from the Amstrad CPC range and later the GX4000 console.
Newsfield Publications Ltd was a British magazine publisher during the 1980s and early 1990s.
GamePro was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video game consoles, personal computers and mobile devices. GamePro Media properties included GamePro magazine and their website. The company was also a part subsidiary of the privately held International Data Group (IDG), a media, events and research technology group. The magazine and its parent publication printing the magazine went defunct in 2011, but is outlasted by Gamepro.com.
Emlyn Hughes International Soccer (EHIS) is a soccer computer game first released in 1988 by Audiogenic Software Ltd. The game is named after the popular English footballer Emlyn Hughes. It initially appeared on the Commodore 64, with other versions produced for the Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST and Amiga.
CPC Attack! was a magazine dedicated to Amstrad CPC gaming. The magazine was a successor to Amstrad Computer User magazine. It was characterised by a strong comic-like graphical style featuring a recurring mascot - a Tank Girl-like character called Amy Strad. Funnily enough this same character featured in C+VG magazine under the name Sadie. Originally, Amstrad Computer User had been a much more serious magazine than its main rival Amstrad Action. The radical redesign to CPC Attack! was probably an attempt to appeal to Amstrad Action readers.
Jet Set Willy II: The Final Frontier is a platform game released 1985 by Software Projects as the Amstrad CPC port of Jet Set Willy. It was then rebranded as the sequel and ported other home computers. Jet Set Willy II was developed by Derrick P. Rowson and Steve Wetherill rather than Jet Set Willy programmer Matthew Smith and is an expansion of the original game, rather than an entirely new one.
Ghost Hunters is a platform game written by the Oliver twins for the Amstrad CPC and published by Codemasters in January 1987. It was also converted and released for the ZX Spectrum (1987) and Commodore 64 (1989) platforms. The game combines platform-style action with shooting gameplay similar to that found in the game Operation Wolf. It was conceived as a sequel to Super Robin Hood, although it has little to do with this game other than using a modified version of its engine. The twins have credited the film Ghostbusters and the cartoon series Scooby-Doo for influencing the game.
Amsoft was a wholly owned subsidiary of Amstrad, PLC, founded in 1984 and re-integrated with its parent company in 1989. Its purpose was to provide an initial infrastructure of software and services for users of Amstrad's range of home computers, the Amstrad CPC and, from 1986, the ZX Spectrum. Many people's first contact with software on an Amstrad home computer would have been an Amsoft title, as several titles were included in the sales bundles.
War in Middle Earth is a real-time strategy game released for the ZX Spectrum, MSX, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MS-DOS, Amiga, Apple IIGS, and Atari ST in 1988 by Virgin Mastertronic on the Melbourne House label.
Oh Mummy is a video game for the Amstrad CPC models of home computer. It was developed by Gem Software and published by Amsoft in 1984. It was often included in the free bundles of software that came with the computer. The gameplay is similar to that of the 1981 arcade game Amidar.
ACE was a multi-format computer and video game magazine first published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing and later acquired by EMAP.
Alligata Software Ltd. was a computer games developer and publisher based in Sheffield in the UK in the 1980s.
Fun School is a series of educational packages developed and published in the United Kingdom by Europress Software, initially as Database Educational Software. The original Fun School titles were sold mostly by mail order via off-the-page adverts in the magazines owned by Database Publications. A decision was made to create a new set of programs, call the range Fun School 2, and package them more professionally so they could be sold in computer stores around the UK. Every game comes as a set of three versions, each version set to cater for a specific age range.
Formula One is a Formula One racing management video game published in 1985 by CRL Group PLC. It was developed by G.B. Munday and B.P. Wheelhouse for the ZX Spectrum, and converted to Amstrad CPC by Richard Taylor.
Roland was a game character developed in 1984 by Alan Sugar, CEO of Amstrad, and Jose Luis Dominguez, a Spanish game designer. The character was named for Roland Perry, a computer engineer who worked for Amstrad. The idea was to have one recognizable character in a number of different computer games in a bid to have the Amstrad CPC compete with the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64.
Roland Goes Digging is a 1984 computer game for the Amstrad CPC series of home computers. It was distributed by Amsoft, on cassette tape for CPC 464 and Amstrad's proprietary 3" disk format, for CPC 664 and CPC 6128 users. The game was developed by regular Amsoft contributors Gem Software and featured Amstrad's CPC mascot Roland, who also appears in other games in the Roland Series, such as Roland in the Caves, Roland in Time and Roland in Space.
The Amstrad CPC character set is the character set used in the Amstrad CPC series of 8-bit personal computers when running BASIC. This character set existed in the built-in "lower" ROM chip. It is based on ASCII-1967, with the exception of character 0x5E which is the up arrow instead of the circumflex, as it is in ASCII-1963, a feature shared with other character sets of the time. Apart from the standard printable ASCII range (0x20-0x7e), it is completely different from the Amstrad CP/M Plus character set. The BASIC character set had symbols of particular use in games and home computing, while the CP/M Plus character reflected the International and Business flavor of the CP/M Plus environment. This character set is represented in Unicode as of the March 2020 release of Unicode 13.0, which added symbols for legacy computing.
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