ScuzzBlog: Diaries January 2022
Entry 31st January 2022: Post 2: Amiga User International
Amiga User International
During my years buying Amiga magazines from the various newsagents
I was not always in the position of being able to afford the purchase
of all that was on offer. My favourites were always CU, Format and
Amiga Computing. And so with any number of other magazines to buy
I generally would pass on Amiga User International.
Why?
I found AUI to be a very stylised publication that took a little
effort to work the vocabulary. They could be very black and white
and then very colourful. Their choice of colours really didn't
work for me. Red writing on blue just burns my eyes out. It was
the same with the disks where colours would contrast badly with
say a green background. With so much writing it was often very
difficult to read.
The layout of the magazine followed the old 8 bit paper rags of
the early eighties. The articles are often broken into a number of
columns each individually styled and sometimes coloured. I had
difficulty perceiving the main thrust of the discussions.
I do like images, loads of images. I don't mind reading but as
they say a picture tells it all. I would have preferred a little
more clarity from the editorials and more support with images.
Each of the other major publications tended to be a little more
to the point and their editorials easier to consume. CU Amiga was
a dab hand at producing informative guides and Format tried more
to entertain, and were very good at it. Amiga Computing was a
little more subtle in their approach but text was easy to read
and always well formatted and presented. They also did try to
maintain a certain style vocabulary that they maintained with each
publication. AUI just trips out various formats, some varied on
even the same page.
I do wish I had persevered more with AUI. I regret not buying more
of their magazines. For some reason I do have all of their cover
disks. Strange that. It is possible to download most of the mags
in PDF but it really is not the same as having the magazine in
your hand. And so I have been purchasing a few to fill the voids.
I will attempt to get more, and you never know I may just learn
to read print on yellow, green and blue. I sense these guys liked
their snooker... dunno why.
Interestingly AUI was the first dedicated Amiga Magazine in Europe.
It ran from November 1986 as a give away with Commodore Computing
International. In January 1988 it became an independent magazine.
They finally stopped publication in May 1997 having produced 127
issues of the magazine.
My comments here in no way are meant to be derogatory of the content.
Quite the contrary as AUI was a serious publication and took its
editorial content with a thorough and objective outlook. I just have
a view that it could have been presented a little differently.
Just me I guess. I still miss the magazine, and would love to have a
full set for reference purposes.
Amiga User International
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