Page 6

Page 6 (subtitled Atari Users Magazine) was a British magazine aimed at users of the Atari 8-bit family and Atari ST home computers. The first issue was in 1982, and it was renamed to Page 6 Atari User and then New Atari User before ceasing publication in 1998.

This article is about a computer magazine. For the gossip section of the New York Post, see Page Six.

Page 6
May/June 1987 issue
EditorLes Ellingham
CategoriesAtari 8-bit
Atari ST
FrequencyBi-monthly
PublisherPage 6 Publishing
Founded1982
Final issue1998
Based inStafford
LanguageEnglish
ISSN0952-4967

History

The magazine had its origins in the newsletter of the Birmingham User's Group, an independent Atari club based in England. Les Ellingham was appointed to be the editor of the newsletter, but decided to produce a magazine with broader appeal instead. He remained editor of Page 6 throughout its entire run of 85 issues. Although subscription-only for most of its life, it was available through newsagents during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

When Database ceased publication of the original Atari User magazine in 1988, Page 6 bought the rights (and subscriber list),[1] and renamed their magazine, firstly to Page 6 Atari User in February 1989[1][2] and then to New Atari User in June of the same year.[3] The latter was simply Page 6 under a different (and more newsagent-friendly) name,[3] and had next to no continuity with the original Atari User. The editor Les Ellingham had declined the offer to edit the original Atari User when approached by Database Publications in 1985.

Due to "high interest rate, reluctance of the news trade to support smaller circulation magazines and reducing advertising income", New Atari User had to be withdrawn from retail sales and become subscription-only with issue 59 (December-January 1993).[4][5]

Title

The magazine was named after the area of memory in 8-bit Atari computers covering locations 1536–1791. Memory is divided into pages of 256 bytes (the first being page 0). The sixth page begins at 256×6, or 1536. Page 6 is neither used by the operating system nor by Atari BASIC and so can be used to safely store short machine language routines to speed up BASIC programs.

References
  1. "Stop Press". Page 6 (35): 5. December 1988. Literally in the last couple of days before this issue went to press PAGE 6 completed discussions with Database Publications which resulted in an agreement for PAGE 6 to take over the Atari User title [..] Look out for the new PAGE 6 ATARI USER on sale 19th JANUARY
  2. "Editorial: Ringing the Changes?". Page 6 Atari User (36): 4. February 1989. This issue I have to welcome a lot of new readers to PAGE 6 ATARI USER [..] The major change that you will notice is a change in the name of the magazine
  3. Les Ellingham (June 1989). "For Better or Worse". New Atari User (38). So here we have the first issue of NEW ATARI USER or rather the 38th issue of PAGE 6! [..] those who have been with us a long while can still call us PAGE 6 [..] nothing's changed except the name on the front cover.
  4. Page 6 (58): 4. October 1992. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. Page 6 (59): 4. December 1992. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.