Amstrad Computer User (May 1990)

Source: Amstrad Computer User – May 1990

The Amstrad CPC was a European computer of the 1980s (and early 1990s) and not generally available in North America. I was not even aware of its existence until the Internet came along. However, it’s neat to look back at old magazines for these machines. It feels a bit like a 1980s alternate reality.

The May 1990 issue of Amstrad Computer User includes:

Regulars

Letters – Letters from readers about the “serious side” of computing (meaning non-games), permanently erasing files from disk, a quicker way to load, copying disks, and more.

News – The latest Amstrad and Amstrad adjacent news. A game starring Asterix coming soon; Thomas the Tank Engine games coming soon; Virgin Games releasing World Cup Soccer ’90; Atari’s Klax being released simultaneously for arcade and computer; and more.

Competition – A Cyberball competition in which you can win NFL shirts.

Combat Zone – An overview of the Amusement Trades Show. Some new items on display include Line of Fire (Sega), Beast Busters (SNK), Tetris, Aliens (Konami), Badlands (Atari), Rough Racer (Sega) and more.

10 Liners – Short type-in programs including Rock Dangerous (a game where you avoid the falling rocks), Screen Inverter, Circle (create messages in a circle), Rainbow Scape (graphics demo), The Singer (creates a face with a mouth that moves with your speech), Odd One Out (pick the odd word out of four), and Skulls (a graphics demo featuring skulls).

Hairy Hacker – Maps for Kettle, Dizzy III, and Batman.

Gameplan – A preview of Cyberball plus reviews of Gazza’s Super Soccer, Rainbow Island, Ikari Warriors, Myth, Tusker, Wild Streets and the budget games Pro Powerboat Simulator, The Race, Fighting Warrior, Solider of Light and Super Tank.

Listing – A type-in machine language sound digitizer.

Applications Advice – Questions answered about headphones for the CPC, the Home Finance Program, Ramdos with Protext/Promerge+, printer problems, and more.

Auntie John – Using subroutines in machine language programs.

Comms – A guide to using e-mail on BBS systems specifically as it applies to the Focal Point Bulletin Board System.

Features

Players – Profile and interview with Richard Paul Jones, the young software developer who partnered with Jeff Minter at Llamasoft and went onto Interceptor.