Atari User
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
computer magazine aimed at users of Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
s, and published by Database Publications
Europress
Europress was a British magazine and software publisher. Their magazine publishing business was previously known as Database Publications.-History:...
(later known as Europress) between 1985 and 1988.
Atari User was a general-interest computer magazine, containing games reviews as well as type-in program
Type-in program
A type-in program, or just type-in, is a computer program listing printed in a computer magazine or book, meant to be typed in by the reader in order to run the program on a computer....
s, tutorials and hardware
Computer hardware
Personal computer hardware are component devices which are typically installed into or peripheral to a computer case to create a personal computer upon which system software is installed including a firmware interface such as a BIOS and an operating system which supports application software that...
projects. As with Database's other publications, its appearance was somewhat conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
in comparison with its more games-oriented contemporaries, such as Computer and Video Games (C&VG)
Computer and Video Games (magazine)
Computer and Video Games is a video game magazine and website published in the United Kingdom.- History :...
. The editorial style was equally restrained and relatively formal.
Support
Early editions primarily focused on the Atari 8-bitAtari 8-bit family
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...
computers (400/800/XL/XE) and the newly-launched 16-bit
16-bit
-16-bit architecture:The HP BPC, introduced in 1975, was the world's first 16-bit microprocessor. Prominent 16-bit processors include the PDP-11, Intel 8086, Intel 80286 and the WDC 65C816. The Intel 8088 was program-compatible with the Intel 8086, and was 16-bit in that its registers were 16...
ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
range (although they included news of other Atari products such as the relaunched 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
and 7800
Atari 7800
The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a video game console re-released by Atari Corporation in January 1986. The original release had occurred two years earlier under Atari Inc. The 7800 had originally been designed to replace Atari Inc.'s Atari 5200 in 1984, but was temporarily...
consoles).
As the popularity of the ST increased, it was given its own pull-out section called Atari ST User
Atari ST User
Atari ST User was a British computer magazine aimed at users of the Atari ST range. It started life as a pull-out section in Atari User magazine...
. From the April 1987 issue onwards, Atari ST User was spun off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
as a magazine in its own right and went on to outlive its parent by a number of years.
Following the split, Atari User was almost entirely oriented towards the 8-bit computers (with brief 2600 coverage). Until late 1987, when Page 6
Page 6
Page 6 was an independent British publication aimed at users of Atari home computers. It was published between 1982 and 1998...
magazine became available on newsstands, Atari User was the only British magazine with dedicated (or even significant) support for the 8-bit Ataris to be sold in shops.