Amiga Shopper | Code Like It's 198x

Amiga Shopper was an Amiga magazine that left the games out. Future Publishing launched it in the spring of 1991, when its own Amiga Format was selling more than 100,000 copies a month, and aimed it at the owners who used their machines for work: desktop publishing, video, music, programming, business software and hardware. “There are no expensive colour games pages,” its first editor promised, “because there are no games pages at all!” It ran for 71 issues, from May 1991 to January 1997.

Launch

The magazine was announced with a sneak-preview issue, numbered 0, given away free with Amiga Format in April 1991. It introduced itself as “the only monthly magazine totally dedicated to the serious side of the Amiga”, with “over 75,000 words and at least 116 pages every month for just 99p”. Issue 1, dated May 1991, went on sale on 4 April.

The editor was Bob Wade, who had edited Amiga Format since 1989. “Having spent 18 months editing our sister magazine Amiga Format,” he wrote, “I’m confident we can give you the serious Amiga magazine you’ve been asking for.” His team was Karl Foster as production editor, Cliff Ramshaw as technical editor, and three consultant editors, Jeff Walker, Phil South and Mark Smiddy. The consultants and Ramshaw also formed the panel for Amiga Answers, the readers’ help pages.

Future was confident enough to offer a guarantee. Readers who sent in the mastheads of the first three issues and the launch issue to the “I Honestly Don’t Think AMIGA SHOPPER Is Worth 99p Dept” would get their £2.97 back, up to 30 June 1991.

Made on an Amiga

The preview issue showed off the machine it covered. Its review of the desktop publishing program Professional Page 2 ended with a note on how the page itself had been made: laid out in Professional Page 2 and printed on a Canon BJ-130 bubble-jet printer at 360 dots per inch, with every picture scanned on a Golden Image hand scanner. The Future Publishing logo had been scanned and “touched up very slightly in DPaint before being imported”. “The whole page,” it said, “took a mere 30 minutes to prepare.”

What it covered

Most of the magazine was buyers’ guides, reviews of hardware and serious software, and tutorials. The preview’s main feature was a test of floppy disk drives, “the first of many indispensable buyers’ guides”. Regular columns covered AMOS, public domain software, video, comms, desktop publishing and programming. In January 1995 it started a 3D tutorial series by Mojo Seffa of Foundation Imaging, the company making the effects for the TV series Babylon 5, built around LightWave 3D. Its news pages followed the piracy raids on bulletin boards, and in 1996 it reported the day Aminet became the largest software archive on the internet.

It never sold like Amiga Format. Its masthead gave an audited circulation of 45,209 copies a month for July to December 1991 and 48,799 for the first half of 1992. Amiga Format sold 130,143 and 161,256 in the same periods. The price rose too: the October 1991 issue still cost 99p, but by January 1992 the cover price was £1.25.

The cover disk

For its first 20 issues Amiga Shopper had no disk on the cover, while most Amiga magazines had at least one (see Magazine cover disks). The December 1992 issue announced the change: “Next month Amiga Shopper will be appearing with a cover disk. They said it couldn’t be done, but we’re going to bring YOU a disk packed with the latest and greatest in shareware and public domain utilities.” The disk with the January 1993 issue was The Amiga Shopper Shareware Collection Volume One, and that issue cost £2.25. The disk stayed. By 1996 the magazine had a “Coverdisk Editor”, David Taylor.

Editors

The mastheads name the editors:

Bob Wade, from the preview issue to July 1991 (issue 3).
Stuart Anderton, from August 1991 (issue 4) to December 1991.
Andy Storer, from January 1992 (issue 9) to January 1993. The February 1993 news page reported that he had “left to edit a brand new magazine”.
Cliff Ramshaw, the launch technical editor, from February 1993 (issue 22) to at least July 1994 (issue 39).
Richard Baguley, from October 1994 (issue 42) to February 1995.
Sue Grant, from March 1995 (issue 47) to May 1996 (issue 62).

From June 1996 the masthead named no editor. David Taylor, as deputy editor, ran the magazine, with Amiga Format’s editor Nick Veitch as consultant editor.

The last issue

Issue 71, dated January 1997 and priced £4.50, announced itself on the cover as the “Final Issue!”. The editorial explained that “rather than create a morose last issue looking back at former glories”, the team had filled it with reviews of new printers, accelerators and software as usual. “The death of AS by no means signals the end of the Amiga,” it said. “All your favourite people will still be around in Amiga Format.” A letter from the publisher, Alison Morton, told subscribers that they had been moved to Amiga Format for the issues they had paid for.

Sources

Amiga Shopper issue 0 (sneak preview, free with Amiga Format), April 1991: p. 3, introduction (the serious side of the Amiga, 99p, “no games pages at all”, on sale 4 April, Bob Wade’s welcome); p. 8, Amiga Answers panel; p. 19, Professional Page 2 review and the note on how the page was made; p. 25, the money-back offer; p. 28, the team’s biographies.
Amiga Shopper issue 1, May 1991: cover.
Amiga Shopper mastheads: issues 1–3, May–July 1991 (Bob Wade); issue 4, August 1991, to issue 8, December 1991 (Stuart Anderton); issue 9, January 1992, to issue 21, January 1993 (Andy Storer); issue 23, March 1993, to issue 39, July 1994 (Cliff Ramshaw); issue 42, October 1994, to issue 46, February 1995 (Richard Baguley); issue 47, March 1995, to issue 62, May 1996 (Sue Grant); issue 60, March 1996 (David Taylor, coverdisk editor); issue 63, June 1996, to issue 71, January 1997 (David Taylor, deputy editor; Nick Veitch, consultant editor).
Amiga Shopper issue 22, February 1993, p. 7: news, Andy Storer leaves and Cliff Ramshaw becomes editor.
Amiga Shopper issue 6, October 1991, p. 10: “it only costs 99p”. Issue 9, January 1992: cover price £1.25.
Amiga Shopper masthead circulation (Audit Bureau of Circulations): issue 12, April 1992, p. 5 (July–December 1991, 45,209); issue 18, October 1992, p. 5 (January–June 1992, 48,799). Amiga Format’s figures for the same periods: see the Amiga Format entry.
Amiga Shopper issue 20, December 1992, p. 7 and p. 178: the cover disk announced, The Amiga Shopper Shareware Collection Volume One, £2.25. Issue 21, January 1993: the first cover disk.
Amiga Shopper issue 45, January 1995, pp. 28–29: Mojo Seffa, “The Three Ds of 3D”. Issue 46, February 1995: news of the Krypt bulletin board raid. Issue 65, August 1996, p. 12: Aminet the biggest archive.
Amiga Shopper issue 71, January 1997: cover (“Final Issue!”, £4.50), p. 3 editorial, and the subscribers’ letter from Alison Morton, publisher.
Amiga Format issue 20, March 1991, and issue 30, January 1992: Bob Wade’s move to Amiga Shopper, and the April 1991 launch; see the Amiga Format and Future Publishing entries.