Amiga joker

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Amiga joker

description Computer game magazine
Area of ​​Expertise Amiga
language German
publishing company Joker-Verlag (Germany)
First edition November 1989
attitude November 1996
Frequency of publication monthly, lastly every two months
Editor-in-chief Joachim Nettelbeck
Richard Löwenstein
editor Michael Labiner
ZDB 1278920-3

Amiga Joker was one of the first computer game magazines in Germany for the Commodore Amiga . It was published from November 1989 to November 1996.

editorial staff

The editors and editors-in-chief were Michael Labiner and his wife at the time Brigitta Labiner , the best-known editors Carsten Borgmeier and Richard Löwenstein . Manfred Kleimann (formerly editor-in-chief of ASM ) worked as a freelancer for a few months at the beginning of 1992. The magazine was published by Joker's own publishing house in Haar and from 1993 in Grasbrunn . There were ten issues a year, and two double issues in the summer.

Since the end of 1991 a "sister magazine" for PC games has been published with the PC Joker (r).

history

The Amiga Joker (originally planned under the name Amiga Zocker ) appeared for the first time with the 11/1989 issue. For cost reasons, some pages were initially black and white. Initially, the magazine sold sluggishly, but as the level of the magazine rose, so did the sales figures from issue to issue.

At that time, the Amiga Joker differed from other magazines such as the Amiga-Magazin mainly in that it was conceptually tailored to the young player. The writing style was very relaxed and humorous, and the readers were always used. In addition, the editorial team often made humorous allusions to themselves in the texts and appearances of members of the editorial team in the Brork and Joker comics, which could be found in almost every issue. Another special feature were the lavishly designed cover pictures by graphic artist Celâl Kandemiroğlu . This helped the Amiga Joker to become very popular among Amiga users and to identify the readership with the magazine, which was particularly evident in letters to the editor.

At the end of 1992 a competing magazine came on the market, the Amiga Games , with which one was in tough competition for readers and sales figures from now on.

In 1994, in addition to the monthly magazine, a one-time paperback was published with the title Amiga Joker Hits , which presented the best 50 games on the platform in book form, was published by SYBEX-Verlag and sold for 39.90 DM. Existing material from the Joker Verlag was primarily used and processed. The editor of the book was Carsten Borgmeier. In addition to the first edition of the magazine, the book is now a sought-after collector's item.

With the Commodore bankruptcy in 1994, the games market for the Amiga computer system also shrank. The game companies therefore gradually turned away from the Amiga, which is why it became more and more difficult to fill the game magazine with test reports on current games and meaningful content. Out of this emergency, sometimes very curious test reports (e.g. for Amiga games that were never released) and advertisements appeared. The last issue of the Amiga Joker was published in October / November 1996 . It announced that in future the magazine would only be published every two months instead of monthly, which, however, no longer happened. The Joker-Verlag then concentrated entirely on the PC platform with the remaining PC Joker .

Due to its special style, the Amiga Joker has retained a cult status among Amiga players and computer freaks to this day.

As part of the Amiga 32 Germany event  in the Rheinisches Landestheater Neuss on October 28, 2017, a one-time "comeback edition" of the Amiga Joker with the number 1/17 was published with the help of former editors. For Amiga 34 Germany on October 12th and 13th, 2019, a second "comeback edition" of the Amiga Joker with the number 1/19 was published as part of the 30th anniversary.

Trivia

In a late edition of the PC Joker (issue 11/2000) there was the "last Amiga Joker" - a six-page report, which should be a tribute to all fans who always wanted an official last edition of the Amiga Joker .

Rubrics

In the print edition, the Amiga Joker was mainly concerned with the reviews and previews of the new releases of Amiga games. In addition, there were also the following categories:

  • Newsflash: Here was the latest news about the world of the Amiga
  • PD Box: Presentation of current public domain software
  • Crack: In the crack area, an editor under the pseudonym Dr. Freak light into the darkness of the black copier scene that was widespread at the time . Not infrequently there were interviews with the greats of the black copier scene or other information from the underground.
  • Up and Down: Various Amiga game charts showing the most popular games of the time.
  • Interview: Interviews with big names in the Amiga business such as Chris Hülsbeck or Factor 5 .
  • Know How: Always in the middle of the issue there were cheats and solutions for Amiga games.
  • Demo Gallery: The demo scene section of the magazine. Here demos from the Amiga demo scene with screenshots and short text were presented.
  • Power failure: rather unusual for a computer game magazine, board games were presented here.
  • Coin-Op: Studied the latest in arcade machines .
  • Joker Shop: In the in-house Joker Shop there were many fan articles for everything to do with the Amiga Joker. The Jotch, a wristwatch with an Amiga Joker motif, was popular.
  • Kicker Cup: A letter post soccer simulation. A fun league was simulated by the Bundesliga Manager program . The FC Joker's coaching decisions were made by the readers by means of a postcard with a majority vote. In each edition there was another game day.
  • Budget stage: There was space on the budget stage for a new test of so-called budget games, former full-price games that have now been reduced in price.
  • Computer ABC: Every month, computer terms were explained in the Computer ABC. This was how you learned the meaning of terms like dial-up or computer .
  • Girl page: Here Brigitta Labiner addressed the female readers directly.
  • Brork comic
  • Joker comic

Web links