www.atarimania.com wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 11:03 am
Well, let's take the example of
Arcade Adventure again. Actually, I didn't even know the game was part of the Page 6 Library before I saw it listed under that publisher on the site. I got this file from a user in the US who decided it was time to archive his software "collection" from the mid-eighties. The title was just on a disk with other cracked BASIC programs and that's how it ended up on our site. Sometimes, it's more a matter of guesswork to find out the origins, you don't necessarily have a reliable source to work with because of the way games circulated from user to user back in the day. In short, the fact that
Blah Blah Blah Adventure ends up in a PD collection doesn't mean much.
Well, we're always happy to review and amend any listings to correct them or add additional sources... so please feel free to flag up anything you think needs investigating further. In the case of the two Ray Wilmott games, it is useful to have the Page 6 disk references on there, as additional information on the notes, but I agree that having "Page 6" listed as the publisher is potentially confusing. I've changed the publisher there to "Ray Wilmott" at the moment, in the absence of any other publisher to credit.
It seems like Ray, who hailed from Spotswood, New Jersey, was a very active Atari user in the US, particularly on GEnie, and a keen collector of software (particularly PD titles) for the 8-bit machines. There's mentions of him in issues of Current Notes, Atari User, Page 6 and Atari Classics. He put together a nice list, in
1992, of various Atari PD companies and magazines still supporting the machines...
He mentions Page 6 in the Space Newsletter of November 1991: "Just thought that with the lack of 8-bit magazine coverage these days, some of you out there might appreciate me passing along this info. I just recently stumbled across a nicely done, slick British mag covering the 8-bit Ataris. lt's called New Atari User by Page 6 Publishing."