CU Amiga Magazine

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CU Amiga Magazine
The cover of CU Amiga Magazine (October 1996)
Editor	Tony Horgan (At Closure)
Categories	Computer and video games
Frequency	Monthly
First Issue	1990
Final Issue — Date — Number	Nov 1998 201 (Including Commodore User)
Company	EMAP
Country	United Kingdom
Language
Website	http://www.cu-amiga.co.uk/
ISSN	0963-0090

CU Amiga Magazine was a monthly computer magazine published by EMAP in the United Kingdom. The last issue was published in October 1998 when EMAP opted to close the magazine due to falling sales and a change in focus for EMAP.

[edit] History

CU Amiga Magazine's roots stretch as far back as October 1981 when under its original guise of Vic Computing the publication concentrated on the Commodore Vic-20. In 1983 the magazine was renamed to Commodore User and from this point included coverage of the new Commodore 64. As the years progressed the magazine became more computer games oriented and eventually dropped the legacy Vic-20 content.

By 1989 the C64 was covered by a lot of competing publications and a need to move forward was established. At this time the C64 was a significant player in the personal computer market but Commodore had already released a succeeding range in 1985 called the Amiga, which was followed by more models in 1987. As such, a transition name was used for the following few years, CU Amiga - 64.

A new decade had arrived and with it a successor of the C64, the Amiga 500 (A500). The A500 was the little brother of an equally successful A2000 (aimed at businesses) and had successfully penetrated the home computer market. In 1990 CU Amiga - 64 dropped the "64" from its name and relaunched as CU Amiga. CU Amiga dropped all coverage of the C64 and concentrated on the new highly popular Amiga platform, which expanded to include: A3000, A500+, A600, A1200. A4000 and CD32. The magazine was hugely popular to the delight of EMAP.

By 1994, it was obvious that the Amiga's popularity was in decline. CU Amiga had a final name change to help distinguish itself from other competing magazines in an increasingly small market, it became CU Amiga Magazine. In its remaining years under the control of editor Tony Horgan, the magazine became highly technical but also gained a professional edge. The final issue featured a memorable upside down cover with a foot imprinting on the logo, intended to be reminiscent of the imagery used by Monty Python.

The magazine came to an end without the preceding page, staff or quality cuts that had afflicted some other Amiga magazines. CU Amiga Magazine's closure meant that the only remaining monthly Amiga newstand magazine was its closest rival, Amiga Format.

A year after CU's closure, in October 1999, the magazine Amiga Active was launched, which had several of the same staff and was competition for Amiga Format, which it ultimately outlived.