ST Format | Code Like It's 198x

ST Format was the magazine Future Publishing made for owners of the Atari ST once it decided the machine could support a title of its own. It ran for seven years and 86 issues, from August 1989 to September 1996, and within eighteen months of launch it was calling itself the best-selling ST magazine in Britain. In the first half of 1991 it sold an audited average of 70,258 copies a month. It carried a disk on its cover from the first issue, and its last issue was a farewell.

Out of ST/Amiga Format

From July 1988 Future covered both 16-bit machines in one magazine, ST/Amiga Format. The July 1989 issue, its thirteenth, announced that from the next month two magazines would replace it, each with its own 3.5-inch disk. Publisher Greg Ingham told readers they would get “twice the number of relevant articles inside the magazine and consequently twice the value for their pennies”. Amiga Format went on sale first, on Thursday 13 July. ST Format issue one followed a week later, on Thursday 20 July, dated August 1989.

That first issue came from 4 Queen Street, Bath, edited by Richard Monteiro, with Greg Ingham as publisher. His news column was headed “Monteiro’s Month”. The feature list matched what the split announcement had promised: a history of Atari “from Pong to the Portfolio”, a do-it-yourself hardware project, and an interview with the band Cassandra Complex, who used MIDI and 1040 STs on tour.

Future also produced a special edition of ST Format that welcomed readers to their new machine (“Congratulations; your choice of machine will not disappoint”) and told them that the monthly edition “stretches to over 100 pages” and “comes with a cover disk every month”.

The cover disk

The disk mattered from the start. Issue 1’s double-sided disk carried a playable demo of Mirrorsoft’s role-playing game Bloodwych, a full working copy of the GFA BASIC version 2 interpreter with example programs, a RAM disk and a disk formatter that squeezed more onto each floppy. The same issue had pages on STOS, the game-making language.

Filling the disk became a monthly struggle of its own. In the last issue the staff remembered “trying to fit 850K of compressed files on to a 780K Cover Disk every month”.

Best-seller

In its review of 1990, ST Format told readers that it had become “the bestselling magazine serving the ST owner in Britain”. It gave its audited sales as 43,246 copies a month for July to December 1989 and 50,007 for January to June 1990. Its rivals were having a harder year: one ST magazine, Stampede, had gone bust, ST World had gone quarterly, and Atari ST User had dropped its audited figures and “crowned the year by putting a virus on its December Cover Disk”.

The masthead figures kept rising for a while, then levelled off:

Period	Average monthly sale
July–December 1990	55,455
January–June 1991	70,258
July–December 1991	65,202
January–June 1992	69,059

Like Future’s other titles, ST Format printed the house rules in its pages. Its editors worked under two “golden rules”: “Understand your readers’ needs” and “Satisfy them and then head for the pub”.

Editors

The mastheads name these editors:

Richard Monteiro, from the first issue to at least November 1989.
Steve Carey, by February 1990 to February 1991.
Mark Higham, games editor from the first issue, from March 1991 to July 1992.
Andy Hutchinson, formerly the news editor, from August 1992. He introduced himself as “a brand new Editor” and promised that the forthcoming Atari Falcon would “put Atari back at the top of the league”.
Paula Richards, the former production editor, by April 1993 to April 1994.
Trenton Webb, by July 1994 to December 1994.
Karen Levell, by March 1995 to April 1996.
Nick Peers, the disk editor, who was editor by June 1996 and saw the magazine to its end.

The last issue

Issue 86, dated September 1996, announced its own closure on the cover: “As ST FORMAT closes its doors and rides majestically off into the sunset, we take a minute to say goodbye and thanks.” Inside, a feature called “All good things…” let the staff and contributors look back. One writer remembered his first review, “half a page of pure joy seeing my name in print for the very first time”. The music columnist Andy Curtis signed off with “Use your Ataris with pride!”, arguing that they were still “the cheapest and most effective route into MIDI sequencing”. A photo caption recorded how the last three members of the office team marked the magazine’s passing by dressing up and sharing “a bottle of champagne. Well, New Zealand sparkling wine, anyway.”

Sources

ST/Amiga Format issue 13, July 1989: “Magazine splits” news item (the two magazines, their disks, Greg Ingham’s quote, the on-sale dates), and the “Don’t miss” notices for Thursday 13 July and Thursday 20 July.
ST Format special edition for new ST owners, 1989: the welcome to new ST owners, the monthly edition’s size and cover disk, the Queen Street address and Richard Monteiro as editor.
ST Format issue 1, August 1989: masthead (Richard Monteiro, editor; Greg Ingham, publisher; 4 Queen Street, Bath), contents, “Monteiro’s Month”, the disk contents and the STOS pages.
ST Format mastheads: issue 4, November 1989 (Monteiro); issue 7, February 1990, to issue 19, February 1991 (Steve Carey); issue 20, March 1991, to issue 36, July 1992 (Mark Higham); issue 37, August 1992 (Andy Hutchinson’s first editorial), to issue 41, December 1992; issue 45, April 1993, and issue 57, April 1994 (Paula Richards); issue 60, July 1994, and issue 65, December 1994 (Trenton Webb); issue 68, March 1995, and issue 81, April 1996 (Karen Levell; Nick Peers as disk editor); issue 83, June 1996 (Nick Peers, editor).
ST Format issue 19, February 1991: the review of 1990 (best-selling ST magazine, the 1989 and 1990 sales figures, the fortunes of Stampede, ST World and ST User).
ST Format masthead circulation figures (Audit Bureau of Circulations): issue 21, April 1991 (July–December 1990); issue 31, February 1992 (January–June 1991); issue 36, July 1992 (July–December 1991); issue 39, October 1992 (January–June 1992).
ST Format issue 38, September 1992: Future Publishing house page (“two golden rules”).
ST Format issue 86, September 1996: cover, the final cover disk, Andy Curtis’s farewell, and the “All good things…” feature (the 780K disk, the staff recollections, the photo caption).