The One | Code Like It's 198x

The One was EMAP’s bet that the 8-bit years were ending. Its first issue, dated October 1988, told readers that “the established 8-bit machines seem to be on the way out, making way for the new breed of games machines — and new magazines”. It covered the Atari ST and Amiga, with PC versions noted alongside, and it came with a disk on the cover: a level of Hewson’s Nebulus made specially for the ST, and a level of Electronic Arts’ Fusion for the Amiga. Over the next seven years it followed its readers as the ST faded, became an Amiga magazine, absorbed ACE, and outlived its own publisher’s interest in it.

Fast facts

Publisher: EMAP, London, October 1988 to July 1995; Maverick Magazines, Oxford, from August 1995.
First issue: October 1988, “Issue One”, with a cover disk of playable previews.
Editors: Gary Penn (1988 to early 1991); Ciaran Brennan (1991 to early 1992); Jim Douglas (1992); David Upchurch (September 1992 to March 1994); Simon Byron (1994); Andy Nuttall (acting from December 1994, editor to July 1995). In the Maverick years Toby Gunton was editor by November 1995.
Editions: The One for ST Games and The One for Amiga Games from May 1991; Amiga only from May 1992, “incorporating ACE”.
Sales: 39,219 copies a month for January to June 1989 and 39,247 for July to December 1989, by the Audit Bureau of Circulations figures printed in the magazine.

A magazine by ZZAP! people

The first team came largely from Newsfield, the Ludlow publisher of CRASH and ZZAP!64. Gary Penn had joined ZZAP! in 1985 and “over a year later he was in the editor’s chair”; in 1987 he had launched The Games Machine with the former CRASH editor Graeme Kidd, then moved to Commodore User as deputy editor before “taking the helm of The One in August” 1988. The contributing editors listed in issue 1 were Steve Jarratt, Graeme Kidd, Julian Rignall, Graham Taylor and Gary Whitta. The magazine introduced Jarratt as a chemistry graduate who had left industrial chemistry in March 1987 to join ZZAP!, and Rignall, who had “recently joined C&VG as its Deputy Editor”.

Issue 1 explained how the reviews would work. Each would “invariably occupy two or more pages”, using screenshots with “detailed captions or annotations” so that “the games then begin to speak for themselves”, with separate comments and ratings for the ST, Amiga and PC. Graphics, Sound, Playability and Value led to an Overall mark, and the scale was stated plainly: “We take 50% as a strict average, with anything good around 60%, very good 70%, great 80% and brilliant 90% or so upwards. 100% is perfect, and we won’t be dishing out too many of those…” There was no letters page yet: “that’s for you to provide.”

It found stories early. In February 1989 it wrote that there were probably only seven kinds of computer game, “but Bullfrog Productions’ Peter Molyneux reckons that his company has just invented the eighth”: Populous. On 18 December 1989, at the industry’s awards evening at London’s Portman Hotel, The One was named Magazine of the Year, and its deputy editor Ciaran Brennan won Journalist of the Year, “taking over from last year’s winner”, Gary Penn.

One becomes two

In April 1991 the magazine announced that “from next issue onwards, The One will become two”, each “completely dedicated to bringing you the best games coverage possible for your computer”. A coupon asked newsagents to reserve either the ST or the Amiga edition. From May 1991 there were two magazines, The One for ST Games and The One for Amiga Games, at £2.95 each, with Ciaran Brennan as editor of both.

The split lasted a year. In May 1992 the Amiga edition explained why it had dropped the longer name: “only one magazine called The One will be on the shelves. The One for ST Games has now been incorporated into ST Action”. The same issue carried “Incorporating ACE” on its cover, because “The One is now produced by the team that brought you ACE Magazine”, which EMAP had closed the month before. Jim Douglas, ACE’s last editor, became editor, with David Upchurch as deputy and Gary Whitta as staff writer, and from then on the magazine was “100% Amiga”.

The Amiga years

The team changed often, and the magazine enjoyed reporting it. In September 1992 Douglas “left to head up the launch” of a new magazine, Upchurch became editor and Whitta deputy editor. Upchurch said goodbye in March 1994, complaining that his deputy Simon Byron had “staged a South American-style coup d’etat” and that EMAP was moving him to “a relaunch of Sinclair User”. Byron left late in 1994, and his deputy Andy Nuttall became acting editor, then in February 1995 editor, “at last editor of this noble tome”.

Programmers wrote for it too. Andrew Braybrook, whose Paradroid diary had run in ZZAP!64, kept a monthly diary of Uridium 2 for The One in 1992.

The end came from EMAP. The July 1995 issue reported that The One, “eight years old”, was “handing over control to sister mag, CU Amiga”, whose next issue would, “allegedly”, incorporate many of its features. Its news page played the closure as a joke: EMAP had decided that “until uncertainties about the future of the Amiga games market were resolved”, readers “would be better served” by one magazine, CU Amiga.

The Maverick Edition

The title did not stop there. The August 1995 issue, now “The One Amiga”, told readers that it was “not dead, but it has changed somewhat. The previous writers and publishers have moved on to better things, and the magazine now lies in entirely new hands, at Maverick Magazines”, 16-17 Hollybush Row, Oxford. Its covers called it “The Maverick Edition”, and it still carried a cover disk; the January 1996 issue cost £3.95. By November 1995 the masthead named Toby Gunton as editor. According to Wikipedia, a secondary source, the Maverick Edition shrank in its last months and stopped without an announcement after its August 1996 issue.

Sources

The One issue 1, October 1988: cover (“October 1988, Issue One”, the cover disk); masthead (Editor Gary Penn; contributing editors Steve Jarratt, Graeme Kidd, Julian Rignall, Graham Taylor, Gary Whitta; Priory Court, 30-32 Farringdon Lane; back issues from EMAP Frontline); the introduction (“The One is about 16-bit games”, the review format and marking scale, “There’s no letters page”); staff profiles of Penn, Kidd, Jarratt, Rignall and Whitta; the cover disk page (Nebulus for the ST, Fusion for the Amiga).
The One issue 5, February 1989: Populous preview (“just invented the eighth”).
The One issue 13, October 1989: masthead, “ABC Jan-Jun 1989 39,219”; issue 19, April 1990: “ABC Jul-Dec 1989 39,247”.
The One issue 17, February 1990: the awards of 18 December 1989 at the Portman Hotel (Magazine of the Year; Ciaran Brennan, Journalist of the Year).
The One issue 28, January 1991: letters addressed to Gary Penn; issue 30, March 1991: masthead (Editor Ciaran Brennan).
The One issue 31, April 1991: “The One will become two”, £2.95, and the newsagent coupon for the ST or Amiga edition; issue 32, May 1991: the first separate ST and Amiga editions (Editor Ciaran Brennan).
The One April 1992: co-editors Heather Turley, Paul Presley and Jools Watsham; “New look! New team!” (Jim Douglas, “Last post: Editor of ACE Magazine”).
The One May 1992: masthead (Editor Jim Douglas, Deputy Editor David Upchurch, Staff Writer Gary Whitta) and the questions page (“incorporated into ST Action”, “Incorporating ACE”, “100% Amiga”).
The One September 1992: news and staff pages (Douglas leaves; Upchurch Editor, Whitta Deputy Editor).
The One December 1992: Andrew Braybrook’s Uridium 2 diary.
The One March 1994: David Upchurch’s last editorial; April 1994: Simon Byron as editor; November 1994: Byron’s farewell; December 1994: Andy Nuttall as acting editor; February 1995: Nuttall as editor.
The One July 1995: editorial (“handing over control to sister mag, CU Amiga”) and news page.
The One Amiga (Maverick Magazines) August 1995: “The One Amiga you have known and loved is not dead”; November 1995: masthead (Editor Toby Gunton); January 1996: cover, £3.95.
Wikipedia, “The One (magazine)” (web, secondary): the Maverick Edition’s last issue, August 1996. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_(magazine)