During the next two years the magazine grew in parallel to the Amiga market, rising to a whopping 164 pages in the December 1990 issue. The Amiga games boom had arrived bringing a new generation of gamers. To cater for this market, the magazine introduced an irregular coverdisk in issue 13 (October 1990), to compete against their coverdisk-enhanced rivals. Response to this was favourable, selling 6,000 more issues than previous, resulting in it becoming a regular feature in January 1991 (AA16). The year (1991) became a time of upheaval for the Amiga Action staff. The February 1991 issue marked the departure of editor Steve White, and the promotion of Steve White in the April edition (AA19). Paul McIntyre became assistant art editor and Peter Lee took the place of Alex Simon (who had moved to the recently launched Games-X).
 

These changes were followed by the magazines' first new look in the February 1991 (AA17) edition. The cover design was more professional, replacing the cartoon imagery of previous issues. The layout became cleaner with greater use of columns and colour to define different sections. The general magazine theme followed American football, with high-rating games received the 'Super League Accolade'. This was restricted to games that left a mark on the software industry and would act as a yardstick for years to come. The game would also be entered into the games Super League table. However, its frequent use devalued the award over time. The scattered rating system was replaced with a traditional 'Action Info' box. This gave basic information on a game-title, publisher, price, and programmer. The graphics and sound rating were also reeling into the rating box. At this point Amiga Action was at its peak, with a circulation figure of 58,404 (ABC July-Dec 1991). This meant it sold more copies than any other Amiga games magazine, beating its nearest rival, Amiga Power, by over 3,000. However, competitors were beginning to amass and would begin to challenge the magazine's control of the market. The gloss was about to fade..

1992 - 1993: The Gloss Begins to Fade
For those who can remember it, 1992 was a time of hope - the European Union was taking centre stage and the UK economy was beginning to recover from recession. However, for Amiga Action the year was associated with a gradual slip in standards. Criticism was leveled, in particular, at the reviews - these were were purely descriptive with little effort to evaluate the title. The Super League was also coming under increasing attack from readers who did not understand the system. These events came at a time when the magazine's market share was being attacked from all sides. The recently launched Amiga Power and The One for Amiga Games had begun to challenge the established order and had begun to claim a sizable portion of the market. It was clear that the magazine had to change in order to survive.
These events unleashed a series of changes , beginning with an improved design & layout in the April 1992 (AA31) issue. This simplified magazine navigation and gave more room for the review itself. The rating system was changed, abandoning the graphics and sound scores, to concentrate on a single overall rating. Regular sections were being given a spring clean, redesigning the letters page and morphing the 'Project Inspection' preview section into the more familiar 'Blue Print'. To pacify readers, the Super League table was also dropped in favour of the 'Action Guide'. This was an 8 page regular that provided a brief description and screenshot of the game. Finally, the magazine became spine-bound and stretched the mast head to fill the cover (September - October 1992).
Despite the many changes, readership continued to fall. The promotion of Alan Bunker to editor resulted in the magazine undergoing another new look in the February 1993 (AA41) issue. The Public Domain section was given a much needed revamp and the rating system completely overhauled to give the complete 'low down' on the game. The graphics and sound ratings returned, and were joined by the addition of a score evaluating playability and difficulty, The team also re-awoke to the need for a second opinion in game reviews to give a balanced rating. This would be followed by the addition of a third opinion in 1994. However, some things remained the same, the Boggit continued to turn Atari ST jokes into an art form, encouraging readers to write 'amusing' poems on the subject. Rivalry between the two machines would remain heated until the death of the ST market in 1994.

1993 - 1996: The Roudell Years
The Bunker editorship lasted just a few months, announcing his departure, along with deputy editor Nick Merritt, in the September 1993 issue. The gap was quickly filled by Paul Roundell and Steve McNally, who took the respective roles of editor and deputy editor. The Roundell period bought a sense of stability to the magazine, gradually moving away from the childish image to aim for a more mature reader. However, while circulation figures had stabilized, the magazine would never regain the number one position that it had previously held. The magazine was still plagued by numerous problems and new mistakes were being made that would gradually alienate the reader.
Roundell's first issue in command saw the return of the Super League. This represented a philosophical return to the magazine's roots and what had made it great. However, there had been little effort to understand why the feature had been canceled in the first place, leading to repeated criticism from readers. Even the writers quickly became tired of the column, and no one was entirely sure how the league status actually worked. In addition, the column's American football metaphor had began to look increasingly out of place. The editor later commented that he regretted bringing the column back. This mistake was followed by the introduction of 'Over the Edge', written by Brad Burton. This was a brief attempt to change Amiga Action into a lifestyle magazine, covering sports and a range of non-computer subjects. The section was universally criticized and was canceled after the June 1994 (AA55) edition.

The Commodore liquidation in April 1994 struck deeply at the magazine. It is likely that Amiga Action would have continued to evolve to a new state if the event had not occurred. However, the growing uncertainty in the market had a dramatic effect upon the magazine, causing its writers to give up hope. Rather than evolving the magazine to better reflect the shrinking market, the writing became sloppy and the page count began to drop. In the absence of Amiga news, the childish humour that had plagued the magazine began to take over. The repeated in-jokes and childish cover banners quickly became an annoyance and further degraded opinion of the magazine. The January 1996 (AA78) edition highlighted this, announcing a 'special no sarcasm issue'. The tendency further degraded the Amiga market fulfilling the stereotype that the Amiga was a child's game machine. The magazines' only attraction during this period was the coverdisk, that provided a regular stream of PD games and demos. The magazine regularly increased to three cover disks, and on the Christmas 1995 edition even beat that, with a cover-buckling four disks.

During 1995 the magazine further courted controversy by reviewing incomplete and PC versions of many games, a fact that Amiga Power used to its advantages. It was clear that many writers had began to view the Amiga market as a sinking ship and were eager to dessert the vessel. This resulted in a continued loss of pages and a rise in price during its final year, becoming a mere shadow of its former self. Ironically, the magazine became number one again, out-living its popular competitor, Amiga Power by two months, becoming the last of the Commodore-Amiga game magazines. The December 1996 edition, its 89th and final issue as an independent publication, consisted of just 36 pages and retailed for 4.50UKP.

The closure of Amiga Action was not the end of the story. As was common practice by many Europress/IDG magazines, the dying title was incorporated into another. This had already happened a few years previous with the incorporation of ST Action into Atari ST User. It was therefore unsurprising that Amiga Action was incorporated into sister-title Amiga Computing. The new incorporated version retained the basic Amiga Action design but little of the writing style that had made it popular. The arrangement continued for another ten issues during which the market and the AA section continued to shrink. In September 1997 the final issue of Amiga Computing went on sale, featuring the even leaner looking Amiga Action games section. Ironically it was the 99th edition of Amiga Action, a fact that was commemorated by its death.
 

Subjectively, Amiga Action had never been the best Amiga games magazine, but in its youth it had been a pioneer and a trendsetter to the Amigas uncharted games market. By 1994 it had evolved into a balanced title that had a loyal following of die-hard gamers. However, the untimely death of Commodore led to growing uncertainty in the market. The games developers were the first to go, along with the game players whom were the magazines' core readership. The loss of its parent sounded a death knell and the writers lost all hope of the Amiga ever regaining its former glory.

BACK