And the 3 4 issues Tech E d One of the longest serving members of the AA staff, Adam Waring served as Technical Editor, Reviews Editor and Consultant Technical Editor. We managed to coax him into telling us about his time at AA and everything else.
Tony Warriner. We had a terrible work ethic and it used to take us months to write a game. Admittedly, the games were pretty crap looking back, and it was never going to be a sustainable career. You worked on AA for 34 issues. What was it like working on the magazine? It was a great experience and a huge change in my life and launched my subsequent career as a journalist. At the time, Future Publishing was a very closeknit place to work, and it was much more fun than doing a real job.
What are you up to at the moment? I'm currently freelance. One of my regular gigs is working on Death Ray magazine, a science fiction title launched by my old friend (and ex-Your Sinclair editor) Matt Bielby, who has started his own company You had reviewed Rick Dangerous 2, after launching many important magazines. the highest rated game, at the time, with 97%. How did the ratings work How did you initially get involved with out? Were they decided on as a team or by the individual reviewer? Amstrad Action? Blimey – did we give it that much? For I was writing budget games back in the most reviews, the individual would decide late-’80s. When Steve Carey, the thenon the score, but for anything as important editor of AA, needed a new Technical as that there would have been a team Editor, he contacted Codemasters to see discussion. whether they could suggest any programmers. They put my name forward You had worked on Your Sinclair as – I guess they thought I was expendable. well during this time, writing on the 'Spec Tec' section. How did this come You had written several CPC games like 'Lost Caves', and 'Ninja Massacre'. about and was it any different to How did these come about and how did working on AA? I was equally knowledgeable about the you feel about the finished games? Speccy as the CPC, having programmed I'd taught myself to program on the both machines, and as I worked just Spectrum, and my first job was for Artic across the office from Your Sinclair, I Computing where I worked on some decidedly dodgy games. I left and set up a guess it was easy to ask me to do the column. The main difference was, company producing budget games with although AA had a humorous streak, YS guy I'd worked with from Artic called was first and foremost about the jokes. The actual computer coverage was secondary. It was great fun writing in character, though.
n AA Team (circa Christmas 1989). Back left to right: Adam Waring, Ollie Alderton, Trenton Webb, Paul Morgan. Front: Elaine Brooks, Rod Lawton.
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You left Future Publishing to travel the world, as AA put it at the time. Can you give us any more details on what happened? I did indeed travel the world, and ended up spending nearly four years in Australia, where I edited a Sega games console magazine called Megazone. Did a fair stint editing a PlayStation mag for Future a couple of years ago. I also edited a magazine about Spain for a couple of
n AA 51, February 1990. Adam featured on a few front cover shots, this one focused on the cover feature of CPC hardware upgrading.
years. AA ended after issue 117 even though AA118 was mentioned in the next month box. What were your feelings upon hearing about the sudden closure of the magazine? To be honest, it would have folded when I was overseas, so I didn't really know about it closing at the time. But it had a very long innings for a games magazine – almost ten years, far longer than the life expectancy of a games mag today. It far outlasted the life of the machine, which is testament to the appeal of the magazine to its readership. What is your favourite CPC game of all time? Laser Squad. A brilliant strategy game... Someone should do an internet (or even mobile phone) version. What's your opinion on the current videogame/computer industry and magazines? I've got a Nintendo Wii at home and an Apple Mac, so I keep my hand in, but nowadays I try to do as much travel writing as I can. Do you keep in touch with any of the other ex-AA staff? Bump into them occasionally in pubs around Bath, and have a few friends from the old days.