Page 6
Encyclopedia
Page 6 was an independent
British
publication
aimed at users of Atari
home computer
s. It was published between 1982 and 1998. The magazine supported both the Atari 8-bit family
of computers (400/800/XL/XE) and the Atari ST
range.
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), and renamed their magazine Page 6 Atari User, and then New Atari User. The latter was simply Page 6 under a different (and more newsagent-friendly) name, and had next to no continuity with the original Atari User. Ironically, the editor Les Ellingham had declined the offer to edit the original Atari User when approached by Database Publications in 1985.
notation). As memory was divided into 'pages' of 256 byte
s (the first being page 0), locations 1536 (256×6) to 1791 were known as 'page 6'. Page 6 memory was neither used by the operating system
nor by Atari BASIC
programs
and so could be used to store the user's own short machine code routines without them being overwritten. In a similar manner, the publishers of Page 6 magazine wanted readers to contribute useful programs and articles.
Independent business
In business, an independent business as a term of distinction generally refers to privately owned companies . Independent businesses most commonly take the form of sole-proprietorships...
British
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...
publication
Publication
To publish is to make content available to the public. While specific use of the term may vary among countries, it is usually applied to text, images, or other audio-visual content on any medium, including paper or electronic publishing forms such as websites, e-books, Compact Discs and MP3s...
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. It was published between 1982 and 1998. The magazine supported both the Atari 8-bit family
Atari 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...
of computers (400/800/XL/XE) and the Atari 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.
History
The magazine had its origins in the newsletter of the BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
User's Group, an independent Atari club based in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. 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
Subscription business model
The subscription business model is a business model where a customer must pay a subscription price to have access to the product/service. The model was pioneered by magazines and newspapers, but is now used by many businesses and websites....
-only for most of its life, it was available through newsagents during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
When Database
Europress
Europress was a British magazine and software publisher. Their magazine publishing business was previously known as Database Publications.-History:...
ceased publication of the original Atari User
Atari User
Atari User was a British computer magazine aimed at users of Atari home computers, and published by Database Publications between 1985 and 1988....
magazine in 1988, Page 6 bought the rights (and subscriber list), and renamed their magazine Page 6 Atari User, and then New Atari User. The latter was simply Page 6 under a different (and more newsagent-friendly) name, and had next to no continuity with the original Atari User. Ironically, the editor Les Ellingham had declined the offer to edit the original Atari User when approached by Database Publications in 1985.
The title
The magazine's name derives from the area of memory in 8-bit Atari computers covering locations 1536–1791 ($600–$6FF; "$" was the standard prefix on the Atari assembler for hexadecimalHexadecimal
In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal is a positional numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16. It uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols 0–9 to represent values zero to nine, and A, B, C, D, E, F to represent values ten to fifteen...
notation). As memory was divided into 'pages' of 256 byte
Byte
The byte is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the basic addressable element in many computer...
s (the first being page 0), locations 1536 (256×6) to 1791 were known as 'page 6'. Page 6 memory was neither used by the operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
nor by Atari BASIC
Atari BASIC
Atari BASIC is a BASIC interpreter for the Atari 8-bit family of 6502-based home computers. The interpreter originally shipped on an 8 KB cartridge; on later XL/XE model computers it was built in, with an option to disable it, and started when the machines were booted with no other cartridges...
programs
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
and so could be used to store the user's own short machine code routines without them being overwritten. In a similar manner, the publishers of Page 6 magazine wanted readers to contribute useful programs and articles.