Acorn Action was launched in mid-1994 as a glossy A4-sized full-colour magazine. It was published by 32-bit Action, a subsidiary of BEEBUG Ltd, and was edited by Sam Greenhill.
The first issue of Acorn Action was dated July/August 1994, but was preceded by the Acorn Action Games Guide, a small 'sampler' version of the magazine.
Acorn Action was a valiant attempt to boost the Acorn games market, which appeared to be picking up in 1994. Unfortunately the market was too small and the magazine was not a commercial success, and was cancelled almost immediately. Work on the second issue was started but did not progress very far; a single article was produced for issue 2, and is published here for the first time in HTML format.
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The Games Guide was labelled Spring 1994 and was 36 pages long. It contained news, hints & tips, a feature about Simon the Sorcerer, and games charts listing all available commercial games, the best and worst in each category, and the all-time top fifty. A screenshot of the cover as it appears in QuarkXPress is available; click the thumbnail to the left to see it. | |
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Advertising flyer A QuarkXPress screenshot of an advertising flyer for Acorn Action subscriptions |
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Basic cover artwork JPEG-format artwork used as the basis of the Game Guide's cover. Note: these are very large images (2516×3543 pixels). |
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Acorn Action issue 1 was labelled July/August 1994 and was 52 pages long. It contained news, letters, hints & tips, a competition, nine reviews, features including a visit to US Gold, and a more serious 'Infotainment' section for parents. A QuarkXPress screenshot of the front cover is available; click the thumbnail to the left to see it. |
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Acorn Action Disc A copy of the floppy disc that accompanied issue 1 |
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Basic cover artwork JPEG-format artwork used as the basis of issue 1's front cover. Note: this is a very large image (2516×3579 pixels). |
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Early cover design An early attempt at the front cover design (QuarkXPress screenshot) |
| Acorn Action issue 2 never got beyond the planning stage. However, a single article was produced for it and finished, so it has been converted to HTML and is presented here as a novelty item. | |
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Acton Man: Dave Acton interview An interview with Dave Acton, who converted US Gold's Scrabble to RISC OS. Dave Acton worked for Acorn User magazine for many years, and as well as his interest in Scrabble, in this interview he mentions that he likes Channel 4's Countdown quiz show. Interestingly, a couple of years after this interview took place, Dave Acton appeared on Countdown, where he won the 32nd series. He reappeared on the programme later, in a Champion of Champions contest. |
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Acton Man page layout A QuarkXPress screenshot of the layout of the above interview. The interview was conducted by Sam Greenhill, who also took some photographs, but these have unfortunately not been preserved. The single photo caption reads: "Look, he's even got Eagle Eyes... Acton Man can take on the computer but can he win the battle of the swearwords? Only time will tell." |