AMIGA POWER's Official Birthday
19/1/91
When the story of AMIGA POWER comes to be written, one of the, er, hang on, there's some kind of bulletin. (Puts finger to earpiece.) We're supposed to be what? Really? How long has this been going on? And it's advanced how far? I see. (Removes finger.) Well, readers, you'll have to excuse me a moment.
(Light music plays for a while.)
Um. Hello. As the previous paragraph takes some time off to do something that appears to involve crashing around in a cupboard and making trombone noises, let's inspect the moment of AP's conception with... Aghk. The shaming impropriety.
(Different light music plays for a while.)
Hello again. That's better. I've no idea where the substitute paragraph has got to; the credits page says it rushed past, its stately purple crimsoning with embarrassment, so perhaps it remembered it had left the gas on. Anyway, the first ish of AMIGA POWER appeared on Thursday, April 25th, 1991, but obviously the mag did not leap fully formed from the head of a passing deity;* nor can those who purchased that original ish recall the editorial staff hanging around while they read it, scribbling each page over their shoulder as it was turned and eating all the crisps in the house.
In fact, work on AP had been underway for quite some time before the inaugural issue appeared in shops. The straightening crawl from original idea to confirmed mag, possibly involving a fight in an arena, is a misty fog, but we can say with certainty that, to all intents and purposes, AP sprang into (mighty, o-ho) being when the office was secured, the Ed possessed a chair which didn't fall over backwards when you leaned in it and the junior, freckle-faced staff were hired. This, by carbon dating,* can be precisely traced to
Saturday, January 19th, 1991
(Yes, Saturday. The pleasing bestowal of a glittering palindrome is completely a coincidence, unless you want a punch up the bracket.) This, then, is AP'S OFFICIAL BIRTHDAY and is celebrated every year by a parade in which the mightiest computer games magazine ever conceived by human beings rides a horse in stately procession and is ceremonially shot at from the crowd.