Amstrad Action
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Amstrad Action was a monthly magazine for the Amstrad CPC range of home computers. It was the first magazine from Future Publishing, who are also responsible for PC Format, PC Plus and Amiga Format amongst many others.
Amstrad Action (commonly referred to in the CPC community as simply AA) was possibly the first magazine to covermount software. It was also the longest-lasting Amstrad magazine, going strong well after the others had ceased publication. The magazine ran from October 1985 until June 1995, and produced 117 issues. The magazine was still being published long after the CPC machines had ceased production and games were no longer available in the shops.
Memorable staff include Rod "The Beard" Lawton and Adam Waring, who had written quite a few games. When one of them was re-released, he would write the "Second Opinion". Any game that received 90% score or more in a review was awarded an "AA Mastergame". Any game that received 80 to 90% was called an "AA Rave". CPC game software houses would often proudly refer to these awards on their packaging to make the game seem more desirable.
Long-running features included the technical "Forum", "Action Test" for games reviews, and "Cheat Mode". Interactive fiction was covered by "The Pilgrim" in earlier issues, and "The Balrog" in later ones.