It was first published by EMAP in October 1988 and initially covered computer games aimed at the Atari ST, Amiga, and IBM PC compatible markets.

for including "filler" content such as articles on Arnold Schwarzenegger with the justification that an upcoming film had a computer game tie-in.

With Commodore's Amiga and Atari's ST starting to gain more and more coverage in the multi format titles, EMAP decided it was time for a dedicated magazine aimed at the user of these 16-bit computers.

[1] Produced by editor Gary Penn and a small team of contributors, the magazine went on to gain a circulation figures of over 40,000 readers.

[2] The ST and Amiga had reached a larger market by 1991 and there were several single format magazines catering to these users.

Because many features fell into the general computing category, content remained similar between the two magazines.

The new editor Jim Douglas and his team produced the new magazine from May 1992, with its shortened logo THE ONE, with the subtitle "Incorporating all the best of ACE".

Just eight issues later and the cycle repeated itself, Simon Byron left, and Deputy Editor, Andy Nuttall replaced him.

Despite the new editorship and optimism the magazine page count decreased to 84 - partially as a result of Commodore going into liquidation, making the Amiga market uncertain of what would happen next.