United Kingdom · 1987–1992
A multi-format British magazine that scored games out of 1,000 and drew each one a "Predicted Interest Curve" showing how long it would hold a player's attention.
ACE — Advanced Computer Entertainment — was launched by Future Publishing in October 1987, co-edited by Peter Connor and Steve Cooke with a staff drawn from Amstrad Action and Personal Computer Games. Where most British magazines of the time served a single machine, ACE covered them all: the Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC, plus new systems as they arrived. It also looked beyond games to computer graphics and music, presenting home computing as a broader entertainment medium. Its review section, Screen Test, was unusually structured. Games were scored on visual effects, audio, an "IQ Factor" and a "Fun Factor", and given an overall rating out of 1,000 rather than a percentage. Most distinctive was the Predicted Interest Curve: a line graph estimating how a player's interest in the game would rise or fall over the following months, an attempt to judge lasting value rather than first impressions. EMAP bought the magazine from Future in mid-1989, with issues 21 and 22 marking the handover. ACE closed in April 1992 after 55 issues. Among its writers was Gary Whitta, who moved on to The One and later to PC Gamer.