What drew you to the Amstrad Action (AA) Magazine?

[AMSDOS]

Initally I brought it for the Type-ins, my brother brought AA43 which I remember having this funny Train Simulator type-in which was all sound effects and text across the screen, simple though fun demo! I started with AA44, the type-ins from that mag were interesting cause they either worked or they didn't (in them days all we had was a CPC464 with BASIC 1.0) - so the Abstract Art Program had things like GRAPHICS PEN <whatever> become PEN <whatever> and FILL commands were deleted completely!    Still it made some nice Circles and other shapes!    The Game of Life was a new experience for me at the time, at the time I thought it was some Graphical Feature you could watch, typing it in featured all these DATA statements, I had no idea I was typing in a program done in Assembly Language! 

Over time I got into:

   
• Reaction
• Forum
• Programming Tutorials (Assembly, Video & BASIC guides)
• Cheat Mode
• Action Test
• The Covertape

The Type-ins on the Covertape was interesting, I had mixed emotions, large type-ins were good for the covertape, small ones obviously were taking up tape, but then the large programs were taking up tape as well! I remember one month add had put on an additional program which wasn't in the Type-ins at all, but felt it should go on the tape! It was sad when Type-ins left AA in Issue 108, cause it was one of the last Interactive things where you could play someones game or demo. The Covertape kept me going until Issue 115, mainly cause that was the last Issue my Newsagent got here in Australia cause they were a couple of months behind. 

[Gryzor]

My private english tutor, in a moment of infinite wisdom, asked me what I'm interested in. I told her "computers", so she said, "go out and buy a computer magazine. Then we'll read it together". AA was the only Amstrad action the shop downstairs was carrying, so that was that.

Of course she did have some issues with terminology, but it got me off to a good start

[AMSDOS]

My private english tutor, in a moment of infinite wisdom, asked me what I'm interested in. I told her "computers", so she said, "go out and buy a computer magazine. Then we'll read it together". AA was the only Amstrad action the shop downstairs was carrying, so that was that.

Of course she did have some issues with terminology, but it got me off to a good start

Do you remember which issue that might of been or something you recall from it Gryzor? 

[Gryzor]

Nope, but I reckon it must have been around 85 or 86...

[MacDeath]

I wasn't.

In France we had Amstrad 100pour100.

[SyX]

I wasn't.

In France we had Amstrad 100pour100.

Yes, i remember Miss X, ai oma ke rica 

OT: I've always wondered... why the 80s computer french magazines are loaded with sexy women and a lot of boobs? It's the only thing that have in common magazines for Amiga, Atari, CPC, Mo5,... even multiformat magazines how Hebdogiciel.

Don't thing bad , i love them (it's the only reason why i'm going to buy a tablet )... but in Spain (except a few pictures in Amstrad Semanal), the CPC magazines were designed for children mainly.

[MacDeath]

You know...France in the 80's was Mitterands era (supposed to be left), we had not as many traditionnal catholic or Franco past in our society...hence perhaps a little bit more liberty on this round and generous matter (boobs).

I the 80's, they put boobs in almost every advertisements ... be it for soap, (normal), orange juice, perfum, yogourt, clothes...


And Computers were not really supposed to be toys...

The computer magazines with "boobs" were more "programation" oriented than generic multicomputer or official magazines from the manufacurers...

Or were overtly RockandRoll spirit oriented.

[Gryzor]

Yeah, we have discussed this before; once I did buy CpC and I was amazed at the sexiness in seemingly irrelevant articles...

[AMSDOS]

Instead of the usual Naked Chicks (with plenty of Milk Jugs to go around), AA did little Cartoon Character figurines, though when I first started collecting AA a lot of those Cartoon Figures had disappeared, that was particularly a feature from the Beginning, I've got Issue 17 which has those figures in it too, you can check out AA on CPC Oxygen for those animations from them early issues!    In terms of style it made AA look like a little kiddies magazine, they probably got rid of them later on when the Audience got older! Too bad for the person who animated them! 

[MaV]

We had Amstrad International in German speaking countries. The type-ins in that magazine usually were much better than in AA.

What sold me to AA were the demo tapes and the more detailed game reviews; usually of games I was sure never to see in my stores back in the days.

I had to chuckle when I read the ad to the game "Vixen" since it sounds a bit naughty in German, but the meaning fit the game's cover. ( I think it was AA where I've seen it ...)

[Gryzor]

Ah yes, the cover tapes... I had never seen something like that before, so it was a "wow" moment when I encountered my first. Like, Whoa, a free tape! With programs! Whoa!

I spent countless hours with that Eclipse demo (?) they gave away...