Amtix! was Newsfield’s monthly magazine for the Amstrad CPC. The Ludlow publisher had made its name with CRASH for the Spectrum and ZZAP!64 for the Commodore 64, and in the autumn of 1985 it brought the same recipe to Amstrad owners: three reviewers per game, a percentage for everything and an award for the best. The magazine lasted eighteen months. Its last issue, in April 1987, told readers that the title was being handed to another publisher.
Issue 0
Amtix! first appeared as a free sample. Newsfield took a stand at the 1985 Personal Computer World Show, its first, and CRASH reported that “thousands and thousands of AMTIX Issue Zeros were given away to visitors to the stand”. Issue 0, dated October 1985, was a “16 page taster”. It explained its number with a programmers’ joke: it was called “issue zero” in keeping with “the odd mathematical notions of programmers who always think of the first item in a sequence as being 0”. It introduced its publisher from “the south Shropshire town of Ludlow — a strange place to find a computer magazine you might think”, and announced that issue 1 would go on sale nationwide on 17 October.
The taster promised the CRASH approach to reviews: “CRASH pioneered in the computer magazine market the notion of using three reviewers per game. The policy was continued in ZZAP! 64 and AMTIX! will be no different.” Each review would finish with seven ratings, from Presentation to Value for money, and an Overall percentage. A year’s subscription cost £15.
Issue 1 followed, dated November 1985 and priced £1.
The team
The masthead of Issue 0 names two editors, Jeremy Spencer and Roger Kean. Kean had launched CRASH; Spencer had been Newsfield’s software editor. Robin Candy, known to CRASH readers for its playing tips, was the staff writer. Oliver Frey was art editor and painted the covers, and his brother Franco Frey, one of Newsfield’s founders, was technical editor.
In March 1986 the editorial page announced a change at the top: “Malcolm Harding has joined as Editor. Roger Kean, the founding Editor, now becomes our publishing executive.” Harding, from Oswestry, drove a daily round trip of 96 miles to Ludlow. He started a club page for Amstrad user groups and edited the magazine for the rest of its life. In August 1986 Harding welcomed three newcomers: Lee Paddon, until then deputy editor of Your Computer, as software editor; Anthony Clarke, 18, as technical editor; and Richard Eddy.
The Accolade
CRASH gave its best games a Smash and ZZAP!64 a Sizzler. Amtix! gave an Accolade. In March 1986 the magazine had to apologise to Firebird, who were “stunned that their game, Elite, didn’t get an accolade — and so were we”. Space had been left on the page for it, and for another on Gargoyle’s Sweevo’s World, but the Accolade badges had come off the page artwork “while it was in transit to London”.
The end
Amtix! shared its birthday with a competitor. Future Publishing’s Amstrad Action, from Somerton in Somerset, also put October 1985 on its first issue, and it was still being published in 1995.
Amtix! stopped long before that. Issue 18, dated April 1987, opened with “The End of the Road for AMTIX!”:
“After nearly eighteen months of hard reviewing, the AMTIX team is disbanding – and the magazine you have come to know and love will be no more. This is the last issue of AMTIX!”
Newsfield was “passing the title on to Database Publications”, which planned to fold “the best features of AMTIX!” into its own Computing with the Amstrad, starting with the May issue. The page ended with goodbyes from “Malcolm, Richard, Massimo, Tony and Saffron”. The issue does not say why Newsfield let the title go.
Sources
- Amtix! issue 0, October 1985, p. 3: the “16 page taster” and its name, the on-sale date of issue 1, Newsfield and Ludlow, the three-reviewer policy and the seven ratings, the masthead (editors Jeremy Spencer and Roger Kean; staff writer Robin Candy; art editor Oliver Frey) and the subscription price.
- CRASH issue 21, October 1985, p. 19: Newsfield’s first stand at the Personal Computer World Show and the giveaway of Issue 0.
- Amtix! issue 1, November 1985: cover (No. 1, £1); staff profiles of Jeremy Spencer, Roger Kean, Robin Candy, Oliver Frey and Franco Frey.
- Amtix! issue 5, March 1986, p. 7: “Welcome Malcolm”; the club page; the apology for the missing Accolades on Elite and Sweevo’s World.
- Amtix! issue 10, August 1986: editorial by Malcolm Harding introducing Lee Paddon, Anthony Clarke and Richard Eddy.
- Amtix! issue 18, April 1987, p. 3 (masthead, editor Malcolm Harding) and p. 5: “The End of the Road for AMTIX!”.
- Amstrad Action issue 1, October 1985 (Somerton address and cover date); issue 117, June 1995.