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Probably one of the most well known Amiga magazines, and definitely my favourite of all the magazines focused on the Amiga, evident from below, as this is the one I bought more often and read more often, so lets take a look at this one

CU Amiga - January 1992

My first ever Amiga magazine that I actually bought. This was my introduction to the Amiga magazine scene, the Amiga scene in general, and my obsession with Amiga coverdisks

Get in the know with our instant guide to your Amiga...
Plus: Storing data on the cheap
Colour prints from mono printers!
The big games for 92!
Over 100 games reviewed and 60 'serious' products tested
Guy Spy, Realms, Red Baron, Special Forces, Airbus, Space Gun, Heart of China
Videoscope 3D, Star Laser printer 4, Real Things Safari, Director 2, Trojan lightpen

Coverdisk 24

Containing the following two game demos (both playable)

Big Run: this is a nice little racing game, an arcade conversion from the Jaleco arcade machine of the same name - it's far from arcade perfect, but it's a decent racer imo (quite a few have slated it, but I love it)

Space Gun: another arcade conversion, an on rails shooter, kind of like Operation Wolf, but better, and with aliens and a cool sci-fi aesthetic - this plays great on the mouse

This was a decent introduction to the games that the Amiga has to offer (outside of the pack in games I already had)

Coverdisk 25

With the following awesome bits of software:

12 Fonts
Cryptator
Dawn of the Gargoyle (Pic of the month)
Key Map Editor
Long Sample
Power Packer (the well know "de facto standard" packer used on the Amiga, here in it's entirety)
Real Things Demo (Sample Animation from Real Things)
Retcha-Sketch (an Etcha-Sketch style art package)
Tune of the Month (this is a brilliant track btw, a favourite of mine)

CU Amiga - April 1992

Main highlighted features:

Sound advice: create brilliant music on your Amiga. From samples to sequencing, we show you how...
Pro Page 3: reviewed and rated
Math vision: turning numbers into art
Ad Pro: pixel power at your fingertips

But, there was some awesome game reviews, including (but not limited to):

Pinball Dreams
Project X
Turrican 2

So I was already starting to develop my gaming tastes

Coverdisk 30

Containing the following:

Fossilised
Sample Maker
Screen of the month (formerly "pic of the month")
Sys Info
Virus Checker

I never really had a lot of use for this disk tbh, I didn't find anything other that Virus Checker that I actually used regularly - but, it was still a handy disk to have

Coverdisk 31

With the following two game demos

Parasol Stars
Indy Heat

Both of which got a lot of play, alone for Parasol Stars and with my brother for Indy Heat (although, I did have Indy Heat on another coverdisk by this point)

CU Amiga - August 1992

100 serious products and games you won't want to miss
Tips and tricks for graphic artists: step by step guide inside
Free: Gold Disk's Transwrite Junior: the only word processor you'll ever need
The history of computing

Also there was a lot of game reviews here too, some absolute stonkers

Coverdisk 38

With the following:

some Arexx source code
AZSpell
Octamed instruments
Transwrite Junior
Virus Checker

I did use Transwrite Jr quite a lot, so this was a good coverdisk for me

Coverdisk 39

Guy Spy: really lovely graphics, but a very difficult - I wanted to like this, but couldn't get in to it because it was way too difficult, and not the most responsive to control either

Premiere: I love this game, it's a great platformer with a bit of a twist, and the demo had the excellent wild west level

Project X Bonus Level: speaks for itself really, it's the bonus level from Project X, very fast and rather difficult, but still a great demo

CU Amiga - December 1992

The main highlights of the magazine:

Shape shifting on the Amiga: the top 3 morphing packages go head-to-head.
A1200 arrives: is this the ultimate games machine?

There's also a supplement Amiga Guide with 150 game reviews, which was nice, as this game me a really good look at what the Amiga had to offer from a gaming point of view

Coverdisk 46

Galaga '92
Picture Box
Project X Cheat (Patch for the original game)
Sounds
SysInfo
Virus Checker

I was drawn to this disk seeing that pic of Arnold as the Teminator on the bike, on that disk label - but my experience of using Picture Box was that it was a bit slow on my stock A500+

Coverdisk 47

BC Kid: this is a nice little platformer, but I'm very sure this is also a PC Engine game (possibly under e different name?) but I enjoyed this one, I put quite a bit of time in to it

Bill's Tomato Game: an intriguing little puzzler, I didn't really understand this as a kid, but I like it now, and it still holds up

Street Fighter 2: this was a "non-playable" rolling demo of the game, and let's face it, the Amiga version of SF2 turned out to be a steaming 💩 of a game. I think we were saved by this being not playable tbh, as if I'd actually played this, I might've been put of SF2 completely (the game itself, not just the Amiga version)

CU Amiga - October 1993

Cover Story: Star Trek: intergalactic exclusive

A few good game reviews in this edition too, but not as much as previous magazines that I had before, however, the below were highlights

F17 Challenge
Fist Fighter
Hired Guns

There was also previews of Cannon Fodder, Mortal Kombat and T2 Arcade in this issue too, which was definitely worth a read, alongside solid selection of more serious content and some PD games & utilities that the team took a look at.

Coverdisk 66

Flexidump: the main feature of the coverdisk - although designed a s printing package foremost, it's also useful as a general image processing program - I didn't have a printer at the time, but got a printer for my Amiga later, and then this utility suddenly got a lot more uses

Virus Checker: I used this quite a bit, as by this stage, I understood the importance of computer viruses, and as I also used to swap disks with others, I knew I needed to check them

Zerberk: a superb PD "Bezerk" clone for up to 4 players and with 4 different speeds - this got a lot of play by me

AMOSteroids (source code): I didn't have AMOS at the time, but, this came in handy later once I did get AMOS

Coverdisk 67

Wonderdog: a really nice looking game, but, I don't think they provided the best level for the demo on this one - it didn't seem to "grab me", but I loved the style

Mean Arenas: this is superb, I played this a lot - the style is brilliant, and the humour was good (well, for me at the time, it's doesn't hit the same now) - I still enjoy this game now - it's like Pacman meets Gauntlet, what's not to like - also, the demo is generous, there's 4 levels here, all very varied

AMOSteroids (compiled): this is the same game as the source code on the other disk, but playable for users who don't have AMOS - it's quite basic, but nicely presented and very playable - has a "one more go" factor on it

CU Amiga - November 1993

Frontier: Elite 2: now docking at an Amiga near you
Amiga maintenance: what to do when your Amiga breaks down
Amiga Guide Part 3: supplement with some awesome PD reviews of over 100 reviews

Two of the three games on the second coverdisk have full reviews in the mag, which is great to see, and there's quite a lot of reviews here in the mag. Definitely a value for money magazine to have bought, but see below, as the disks were also decent.

Coverdisk 68

Expert Draw: a superb vector drawing package, however, this forces you to use Hires-Laced mode and I only had a TV, so it was a migraine waiting to happen - I wanted to use this more, but the interlace flicker put me off

Virus Checker: the latest version of Virus Checker, got quite a lot of usage, as I was into "disk swapping" with other Amiga owning friends, so understood the importance of checking them

Two MOD files: Extravaganza and Alahia - both of which I really like (and sometimes you can catch me humming the Extravaganza to myself, even now)

There's also a "pic of the month" that's not listed on Amiga Magazine Rack, and another utility (called Alert)

Coverdisk 69

Frontier Elite 2 (rolling demo): I loved watching this sequence and thought it was so cool, but it's proper framey on a stock A500+

Magic Boy: a cutesy platformer that's amazingly playable, I really enjoyed this one and played it a lot - oh, and the music in this game is such an earworm

Qwak: another cutesy platformer, and I played this a lot, even with my brother in 2-player sometimes - this has turned out to be one of my favourite Amiga games to ever exist ..... also, I've met Jamie Woodhouse, the guy who made this game (many many years later at a retro event)

CU Amiga - December 1993

The main highlighted features on AMR are the following:

Special Xmas buyer's guide
Microcosm: CD32 review

A lot of reviews in this one, including some looks at games that were previously just "previews"

Previews of "Fury Of The Furries" (a favourite of mine) and Lunar C were decent reads

Lots of PD reviews and productivity reviews

Coverdisk 70

Aegis Animator: a brilliant animation package, but a bit complex to use - it's awesome, but also, "Aegis Images" is included on this disk, which is not mentioned on either the disk label or in the mag
Aegis Spectracolor: this was the first time I discovered an art package that can use the 4096-colour HAM modes of the Amiga, both in still and animation. I did use this quite a bit, but, I'm no artist, it was just fun to mess about with

Coverdisk 71

Turrican 3: a brilliant demo that I enjoyed, but, I was surprised with the following
1. there's no title screen
2. when you reach the end of the demo, the screen goes black and that's it, you have to reboot your Amiga
The Settlers: I really enjoyed this one and played it a lot, there was something so cool about controlling the little guys and building stuff, watching my little society grow

This was one of my favourite demo disks

CU Amiga - June 1994

Amiga graphics and video special: the turtle and more on page 24 plus: complete buyers' guide
Reviewed: James Pond 3, Image FX 1.5 and more
Exclusive: Pagestream 3 preview
Frontier 2 revealed

Quite a few decent game reviews in this one, but, not many of them, so its "quality over quantity" this issue, but there's more previews than we normally get, so it's a bit more balanced

We also have the normal regular features, some productivity reviews, PD games & utility reviews and much more.

Coverdisk 83

Jam packed with 3 versions of VideoTracker:

a version for any Amiga, compatible with Kickstart 1.2/1.3 and above
a version for Kickstart 2.0 above but non-AGA
an AGA version

there's also plenty of example graphics routines etc., but only one complete demo

Coverdisk 84

Tactical Manager: a superb football management with a really good algorithm that's very accurate to real life football score predictions, so, this might also be handy if you play the pools
Statix: a decent puzzler that I really like, but I also had this on another Amiga Power coverdisk

Coverdisk 85:

Sierra Soccer: seems like it was a football extravaganza this moth - now Sierra Soccer is impressive to look at, but I'm rubbish at these games, so didn't play this a lot

OctaMED samples: tucked away on the disk are some samples for use in OctaMED (or any other audio app on the Amiga)

CU Amiga - April 1995

Gorgeous!: animation made easy
Power CD-ROM: super fast CD for A600/A1200

Includes a lot of reviews, including the awesome Shadow Fighter

There's also a really good guide to upgrading the A500, which was really appreciated by me (although, I had an A500+, which is not to different to the original A500 in reality)

We also got a supplement guide for the included MovieSetter coverdisk

Coverdisk 104

MovieSetter: an awesome program for making animations and home movies on your Amiga, including a manual for how to use it
Directory Opus 4 Config: if you had Coverdisk 100 from a few issues back, you had Directory Opus, and they included a config here to add some extra features

Coverdisk 105

Included is a demo of FIFA International Soccer which is a pretty decent football game, but, I'm not good at these, so it didn't get a lot of play.

Still, I remember playing this on my mate's MegaDrive as well.

CU Amiga - May 1995

Hardware: 10 printers on trial for DTP, WP and graphics; plus: fitting a hard drive: save money by following our step by step guide
Creating pictures: which art package is really the best?
ECTS: we report from Europe's biggest games show
Commodore shock: new European bid revealed: what will happen to the Amiga?

The game reviews were a bit hit and miss here, but on the preview side, we had Virocop, which ended up being a favourite of mine later on

Coverdisk 106

Included on this disk was ProDraw 3, but only having a stock A500+ with 1MB RAM, I did not have the ability to run this, so it didn't get a lot of usage.

Coverdisk 107

OctaMED 6: the latest (at the time) version of this amazing music package, however, it's only a demo version and some features are disabled - but, it was cool to mess about with
Baldies: a demo of what ended up being an unreleased game - I did enjoy this at the time but I have not revisited this in a long time

Not a bad disk, but, a bit underwhelming, however, the OctaMED 6 disk archive came in useful, as it had some Workbench 2.1 files on, as well as the AmigaGuide files, so I could finally view those AmigaGuide help files properly, so for me, this disk had a secondary usage

CU Amiga - June 1995

Image FX: we show you how to manipulate scans and clip art like this: all the software you need on this months coverdisks
Plus: RAM speed test: Blizzard 1230 III; OctaMED 6 reviewed
Amiga rescued: the long wait is over

A few reviews here, nothing noteworthy, but there's a preview of Super Street Fighter II, which I was all over

There's some cool workshops in the mag for some well known applications of the time and some other similar hardware articles - definitely a useful mag

Coverdisks 108 & 109

I never experienced this at the time, I didn't have enough RAM to run it, so these ended up getting re-used as blank floppies

Coverdisk 110

Decompressing on to two floppy disks, I found use for the ImageFX disks above 🤣

It's not a bad football management simulator, but I've played better ones

I doesn't help that you're limited to managing "Brighton & Hove" in this demo

CU Amiga - September 1995

Babe-watch: Art or pornography?: sex sells on CD-ROM and Internet ... but has it gone too far?
Exclusive: the Zip: 100MB 3.5" floppies for under a tenner!

Not a lot of a game reviews here, but, there's some really good ones here, Super Street Fighter II and ViroCop (A500 Version) were highlights for me

There's also a preview of the up and coming Worms game, which was a decent read too

Coverdisk 115

OctaMED 5.04 - the complete program

I liked messing around with this, even though I never really made anything all that good. This disk disk get a of usage though, and I appreciated the full program, especially as I missed out on the OctaMED 4 giveaway a long time back on CU.

However, being a later version, and being from the "intuition based" era of OctaMED, it didn't have the same appeal as older versions, and was a bit heavier on system resources than the older versions

Coverdisk 116

The Speris Legacy: it's a lovely looking game, but very RPG like, and I'm not really in to those games
Time Keepers: This is a cool little game with a lovely graphical style but also quite a bit of strategy in it - I did play this a bit

CU Amiga - December 1995

Wow, it's Worms! First review and exclusive cover disk
Free! Full program and 132 page startup guide: Learn to program your own applications with Amiga E
FinalCalc: The Amiga's best spreadsheet?
Blizzard 1230 IV: High speed accelerator for A1200
Demo Maniac: Create demos the easy way
Plus: Leading Lap, Flight of the Amazon Queen, DM 2 and more

Some great game reviews here with Flight Of The Amazon Queen and and Worms

We also got a supplement booklet for using Amiga E

Coverdisk 121

It's Worms, and it's fucking cool .......... I dunno what else to say here, this is a brilliant game

Coverdisk 122

This needed to decompress to three floppy disks, but it's the full program, completely unlimited,

There was an included guide book too, which was really in-depth.

Anyway, I spent a lot of time trying to get in to this, but never really progressed from a couple of small utilities.

Either way, this was a decent inclusion on the coverdisk.

CU Amiga - April 1996

Outbreak: protect your Amiga from the new threat of virus attack...
The all new SX32: turn your CD32 into a 1200!
Sound Studio: the new high spec OctaMED
On disk: exclusive game!: Leading Lap SE
Inside: The Chaos Engine 2 revealed!
Wallace and Gromit in: the right computer

Quite thin on the ground with the game reviews and previews, this was "the beginning of the end" for the Amiga for me, unfortunately, but, Chaos Engine 2 was previewed in this mag.

The mag itself was a little disappointing

Coverdisk 130

AmiFileSafe: featuring the complete floppy disk version and a demo of the hard drive version - it's an alternative file system that provided a more reliable storage option for the Amiga, but, it didn't get a lot of usage as it required one to boot the Amiga off a normal disk and mount the file system, but it was cool to have.
VirusZ: a decent virus killer for the Amiga, which got quite a bit of usage from me

Coverdisk 131

I didn't have an AGA capable Amiga (a 1200/4000/CD32), so this was unusable by me - became another "blank disk" that got formatted and reused

So that's my look at CU Amiga - probably the best magazine for the Amiga imo, with lots of content both serious and gaming, decent readers' letters columns and a really good style to it, often having the best coverdisks too.

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