Amiga Format

Amiga Format

The cover of the final issue of Amiga Format (May 2000)
Former editors	Bob Wade Damien Noonan Marcus Dyson Steve Jarratt Nick Veitch Ben Vost
Categories	Amiga, Video games
Frequency	Monthly
Circulation	161,256 Jan - Jun 1992
First issue	July 1989
Final issue — Number	May 2000 136
Company	Future plc
Country	United Kingdom
Based in	Bath
Language	English
ISSN	0957-4867

Amiga Format was a British computer magazine for Amiga computers, published by Future plc. The magazine lasted 136 issues from 1989 to 2000. The magazine was formed when, in the wake of selling ACE to EMAP, Future split the dual-format title ST/Amiga Format into two separate publications (the other being ST Format). At the height of its success the magazines sold over 170,000 copies per month, topping 200,000 with its most successful ever issue.

Amiga Format can be thought of the "mother" or "big sister" magazine of Amiga Power, which it both predated and outlived. Whereas Amiga Power was strictly games-only, Amiga Format covered all aspects of Amiga computers, both hardware and software, both application and gaming uses. A further spin-off was Amiga Shopper, which dealt purely with the hardware and "serious" software side of the Amiga scene.

The magazine was published on a monthly basis and offered various multi-issue tutorials on different application software, such as C programming or LightWave graphics rendering. The last tutorial was cut short in the middle because of the cancellation of the magazine.

Amiga Format pioneered the concept of putting complete application software on a magazine coverdisk as a response to a moratorium on complete games titles being cover-mounted.

The magazine's most infamous moment was in issue 36, July 1992. The coverdisk featured a demo of Paint Pot 2, an art package for children. Page 7 of the magazine described how to use this package, however an oversight resulted in the placeholder heading "Type some shit in here please" appearing on the page, leading to a sheepish apology in the following issue.

Amiga Format was the second-to-last regularly issued print magazine about the Amiga in the United Kingdom. The last was Amiga Active, which ran for 26 issues from October 1999, although Amiga Format was the only such magazine after CU Amiga Magazine's closure in October 1998 until the launch of Amiga Active.