Wikipedia:Peer review/Amiga Format/archive1

Amiga Format

Amiga Format was one of the largest magazines dedicated to the Amiga brand of computers. However, not terribly much third-party information about the magazine exists, and I have made all the changes I could think of in the article, the few places needing citations notwithstanding. That said, I feel like there are gaps to fill in, such as style of reporting, more editor info, notable stories, etc., and I am not sure where to look. Note that the article largely consists of the History and Staff sections, and I have removed a large chunk about the regular features for not having any independent sources about them and lacking notability. I do know I can find more about the magazine in issues of Amiga Addict, of which I will have to ask others on this site to send PDFs to my email account. I will probably need someone much more familiar with this subject, or at least have access to the Amiga Addict articles, to reply. Thanks, FreeMediaKid$ 14:32, 12 June 2024 (UTC)

Kusma

I never read this particular magazine, but I grew up with an Amiga and remember how print magazines like this one shaped much of the home computing culture of the 1980s and 1990s. Nostalgia aside, here are some comments, mostly suggestions for improvement:

• Lead: I would prefer to first say where the magazine came from and then how long it was published.
• History: "the Amiga and Atari ST operating systems" these were not just operating systems, better to say something like "computers" or "computer families". Amiga and Atari ST were not just rivals, but also shared some hardware, most notably the Motorola 68000 CPU (and there were a few magazines covering something between "both" and "all " 68000 systems).
• "in the wake of Future's sale of the video game magazine ACE to EMAP, it was decided to split the magazine" what is the relevance of the sale of ACE?
• "Future decided to spin off the magazine after reader demands for magazines with narrowed interests" clarify / improve: they decided to create spin-off magazines in response to reader demand for magazines with narrower interest / after readers demanded magazines ...
• Do we know how long Amiga Shopper / Amiga Power existed? Were they merged back into Amiga Format after they ended?
• "The last tutorial was cut short in the middle because of the cancellation of the magazine" uncited and sad, but a bit trivial.
• "Each issue of Amiga Format was provided with a cover disk containing an assortment of application software, public-domain (i.e. free of charge) games, and new game demos—a practice pioneered by Future Publishing and which it inherited from its predecessor, ST/Amiga Format—popularising the concept amongst its rival magazines" split long sentence and try to organise it more chronologically. As this seems a central claim of fame for this magazine, it should be explained properly.
• "This practice drew ire from software publishers, and Amiga Format and its competitors agreed to halt it." er, why? Did they illegally publish these games without a license?
• "Blitz BASIC subsequently overtook AMOS as the preferred way to program games" whose preferred way to program games? A few years earlier, C+Assembly was popular especially for anything serious.
• "the United Kingdom's first computer magazine to attach two cover CDs to a single issue, the second in this case AGA users" what about the AGA users? I don't understand this.
• I would suggest to split the "history" section into "history" and "content".
• The "circulation" graphic is nearly unreadable at this size and still hard to read on the image description page. Perhaps you can move the sources to the description page instead of making people zoom in on the file?
• Generally, you could consider starting the History section with a little bit of context on the Amiga (and the Atari ST) and their rising popularity in the late 1980s/early 1990s
• As you say, "style of reporting" and similar things could be helpful to discuss in terms of content. How serious was the writing? Were the contests a regular feature? How was the split between hardware/application software/games? (You would not need to cover all of these topics to get the article to GA status, but it certainly is worth trying to address these points).

Thank you for working on this computer magazine! These magazines are an important part of computing culture that is in danger of being forgotten. Let me know if you want me to clarify anything (or even if you want more suggestions). —Kusma (talk) 22:18, 20 June 2024 (UTC)