CU Amiga | Code Like It's 198x

CU Amiga spent fifteen years changing its mind about which Commodore it was for. It began in 1983 as Commodore User, a magazine for owners of the VIC-20 and the Commodore 64. Over 1989 and early 1990 it renamed itself in stages until only the Amiga was left on the cover. It outlived Commodore itself by four years, and when EMAP closed it in 1998 the last issue still claimed to be the best-selling Amiga magazine in the world.

Commodore User

The first Commodore User was a pilot issue, produced for the Commodore Show at the Cunard International Hotel in Hammersmith on 9 to 11 June 1983 and carrying the official show catalogue. Its editor, Dennis Jarrett, explained that the magazine came “from the Paradox Group — small, independent, but above all specialised”. Its bias would “naturally be to the mass-market sellers like the Vic and the Commodore 64”, though it would not neglect Commodore’s business machines. From the autumn it would be on sale every month for 85p, with around 70,000 copies printed. The first monthly issue was dated October 1983.

Within a year the magazine had a new owner. The October 1984 issue called itself “An EMAP Publication” and, in the small print, said “Commodore User is published twelve times a year by EMAP Business and Computer Publications Ltd”, at Priory Court, 30-32 Farringdon Lane, London. The same building produced Computer and Video Games and, after EMAP bought it that year, Sinclair User.

Editors

The mastheads name a run of editors, several of whom worked their way up on the magazine:

Dennis Jarrett, from the pilot issue; he was managing editor by August 1984.
Bohdan Buciak, acting editor in October and November 1984.
Eugene Lacey, from December 1984 to January 1988, with Buciak as deputy.
Mike Pattenden, from February 1988 to February 1990. He had been production editor in 1984 and staff writer under Lacey.
Steve James, from March 1990, and managing editor from April 1992.
Dan Slingsby, from May 1992 to early 1994.
Alan Dykes, from April 1994 to November 1996.
Tony Horgan, from December 1996 to the last issue. He had been the magazine’s assistant technical editor in 1994.

From Commodore User to CU Amiga

The name changed in steps, and the covers record each one. In December 1988 the magazine was Commodore User, “Nº1 for games”, with cover lines for both the 64 and the Amiga. From February 1989 the cover read CU over Commodore User, with “Amiga • 64” beneath. In July 1989 it became CU Amiga-64, and the strapline changed from “The Nº1 Commodore mag” to “The Nº1 Amiga mag”. From the March 1990 issue the cover said only CU Amiga. The publisher and the address stayed the same throughout.

Coverdisks

In May 1990 CU Amiga promised that “each month CU will be bringing you the very best in all-Amiga cover disks”, and began with two complete games, ST Bash and Gravattack. Readers who found the disk missing were told, on the cover of the next issue, to “demand one from your newsagent now!” By 1991 an issue often came with two disks, mixing playable demos with full programs. By 1992 the disks carried commercial software that had been sold at full price, such as Gold Disk’s MovieSetter, and in February 1995 the cover celebrated “coverdisk no. 100” with Directory Opus 4.

November 1995 brought a choice of two editions, one with floppy disks and one with a CD-ROM. The magazine numbered its CDs: CUCD9 came with the April 1997 issue, and the last issue still had a CD on the front.

The magazine did well out of it for a while. In October 1993 CU Amiga announced “its highest ever ABC”, the audited sales figure: 111,408 copies a month.

The last issue

The October 1998 issue opened with a warning: “Make the most of this month’s CU Amiga as it’s the last you’ll ever see.” Its news pages explained that EMAP had closed the magazine “in light of its recent financial performance”. Falling sales meant it no longer made a profit, and EMAP had decided it would be “laid to rest with dignity rather than starved of resources and run into the ground”. The closure had been announced on the internet on 17 August 1998, the same day that the circulation figures for the first half of the year came out. Those figures, the magazine said, showed that CU Amiga was “still the world’s best selling Amiga magazine”. The cover called the issue “The biggest, the best… the last”.

Sources

Commodore User pilot issue, June 1983: welcome page by Dennis Jarrett (the Paradox Group, the VIC-20 and 64, 85p, 70,000 copies, monthly from the autumn) and the Commodore Show catalogue (Cunard International Hotel, Hammersmith, 9–11 June 1983).
Commodore User vol. 1 no. 1, October 1983: colophon (the Paradox Group, Enfield Road, London N1) and masthead (Dennis Jarrett). July 1984: subscription form (“published monthly commencing with the October 1983 issue”). August 1984: masthead (Dennis Jarrett as managing editor; Mike Pattenden as production editor).
Commodore User October and November 1984: contents page (“An EMAP Publication”), colophon (EMAP Business and Computer Publications, Priory Court) and masthead (Bohdan Buciak as acting editor).
Commodore User mastheads: December 1984 to January 1988 (Eugene Lacey); February 1988 to January 1989 (Mike Pattenden). Commodore User and CU Amiga-64 mastheads, February 1989 to February 1990 (Pattenden). CU Amiga mastheads: March 1990 to March 1992 (Steve James), April and June 1992 (James as managing editor), May 1992 to February 1994 (Dan Slingsby), March 1994 (Tony Horgan as assistant technical editor), April 1994 to November 1996 (Alan Dykes), December 1996 to October 1998 (Tony Horgan).
Covers: Commodore User December 1988; Commodore User Amiga 64 February and June 1989; CU Amiga-64 July 1989 and February 1990; CU Amiga March 1990.
CU Amiga May 1990, p. 3 (the first all-Amiga coverdisk); June 1990, cover; July 1991 (two coverdisks); September 1992 (MovieSetter); October 1993 (ABC of 111,408); February 1995, cover (coverdisk no. 100).
CU Amiga October 1995 (the CD-ROM edition announced for November), December 1995 and March 1996 (the first cover CD in November 1995), April 1997 (CUCD9).
CU Amiga October 1998: cover, contents page, masthead and “CU Amiga Closes” (p. 11).
For Commodore’s collapse in 1994, see the sources for Amiga Computing.