ScuzzBlog: Diaries May 2021
Entry 20th May 2021: Post 1: CU Amiga - May Day Retrospective.
CU Amiga - May Day Retrospective.
May for me is a transitional month and more of a new year kinda
time given that I celebrate my birthday at this time. The month
generally welcomes in the first glimpse of summer and with the
light nights and long days gives more time to do so many things
you planned through the dark winters nights. It is time to throw
open the windows, take in the air and get busy with it.
Today I pulled four years of CU Amiga magazine editions for May
spanning the years of the A1200 up until my moving over to the
PC in 1996. And so here are May 93,94,95 and 96. I remember them
well. Whilst I didn't have an A1200 in May 93 I certainly was
eyeing up the machine , albeit more probably the baby sister A600.
The first couple of years of the A1200 era were pretty fast and
furious and a touch hectic. Whist Commodore had folded the main
Amiga stores were still busy selling the product.
Games for 1993 and 1994 were in good quantity and for the best
part were very good. The stores I visited still retained large
shelves of Amiga produce in a prominent position. Most were very
optimistic of a quick buyer for Commodore and few thought the
platform was doomed. Therefore May magazines for the period reflect
that level of optimism.
Sadly by 1995 , although Escom had entered the Amiga world the
general feeling became a little more gloomy. There was promise
of new products but little was offered. From the 1995 period the
Amiga was very much in the hands of third party developers who
used their imaginative enterprising skills to perpetuate the Amiga
line. In truth nothing came out from the Escom era other than the
sale of the A1200, A4000 and the CD32. [ old models ]
May 1996 felt more like the end of the Amiga year than any new
beginning. I had given up hope of their being any meaningful
purchase of Commodore. Interest in the company waned and with
each passing month there was less and less on offer. Meanwhile
the PC market was booming. It seemed everyone had a PC and was
enjoying the internet and their CDs. Also the games sections of
the stores I visited ejected the Amiga from the prime spots in
favour of the console lines of CD based games.
And so May 96 brought with it gloomy cloud that just hung over
the Amiga. So many false hopes and so many failed promises. For
me I needed a product on a shelf to buy and not a DIY route with
older kit. I needed something that used all the product currently
on sale and I needed a no hassle internet ready computer. I wish
things had been different.
Anyhoo.. here are those May day editions with a sprinkling of
headline articles that caught my eye. In the day the articles were
most mouthwatering and would have fuelled my passion and caused me
to hot foot over to my Amiga stores to purchase the goodies. It
wasn't that the Amiga suddenly died in 1996. But for me she took
more of a back seat as the PC gave me internet and CD games a
plenty.
Onward to the new scuzz year. I'm not promising to be as busy, as
other matters have become more prominent for now. So enjoy.
CU Amiga - May Day Retrospective.
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