United Kingdom · 1985–1995
The first magazine from Future Publishing, launched by Chris Anderson in 1985 for Amstrad CPC owners. It ran for 117 issues and established the cover-tape habit British readers came to expect.
Amstrad Action was the first title published by Future Publishing, the company Chris Anderson set up in the mid-1980s. Issue 1, dated October 1985, went on sale in September 1985, and the magazine served owners of Amstrad's CPC computers for almost ten years. Its early staff came from Personal Computer Games and Zzap!64, and Bob Wade rose from software editor to deputy editor to editor before leaving after issue 34; Rod Lawton later became its longest-serving editor, in charge for 39 issues. Reviews used a two-tier award system: games scoring between 80 and 90 percent received an "AA Rave", and higher scores earned the title of Mastergame, a system the magazine dropped by 1992. Anderson had already had success with cassettes attached to magazine covers, and from issue 67 in 1991 Amstrad Action carried a cover tape every month, largely because readers asked for it. The magazine's circulation peaked at 38,457 in mid-1988 and was still above 37,000 in April 1992, but the CPC market faded in the early 1990s. The final issue, number 117, appeared in June 1995. Future went on to become one of the largest magazine publishers in the world.