Easy Like Sunday Morning

Wakey Wakey!!

I woke up early today - in the mood for demos and chipmusic. No idea why, but I started watching a few whilst suppin' my coffee. It's a weird way to spend the early hours when the family is sleeping, but... I am weird. There are so many great demos for the Atari ST and even a few for the STe, too. (I never understood how the STe had all that extra graphical hardware, yet its demos pale considerably compared to the STFM)

I ended up watching a few more - Punish Your Machine never fails to impress my old eyes and ears! Brace, by Diamond Design, is simply jaw-dropping. These got me in the mood - for another coffee!! Then I grabbed the headphones and enjoyed a few fave tunes by Scavenger, Nemo, and TAO. A golden trio there!!

Sadly, time was running out, and this "noise" woke my girls, who halted the fun!!! But what a great start to the day, and everything mentioned is within the above two [ST/e] playlists I've linked above.

I'll end my silly post with the groovy Sexgames by Christian Källström (Crazy Q), which is exceptional.

Line of Fire

We're going to war, bring a mouse!

Line of Fire was converted from the arcades in 1990 by Creative Materials for US Gold and is basically a "crosshair" shooter. It begins behind enemy lines as we're trying to escape never-ending hordes of angry bad guys. They're annoyed because we've sneaked in and pinched their brand-new toy - a Rapier Gun. Of course, we have no intentions of returning it, so we must now escape in a blaze of glory. A-Team style!

The gameplay is simple: move the mouse over the enemy soldiers and hit fire to send 'em to hell. Kill anything nasty, including the hardware that they use: a truck, plane, boat, or even their incoming missile attacks. Well, that's about as technical as this shooter gets - lots of frantic killing and explosions. Great stuff!

Oh yeah, let's start by looking at the first screenshot...

The map shows our escape route through the base, jungle, rocky canyon, town, etc.

And bring a friend too!

One or two players are supported for a single or a (much-needed) co-op onslaught of pure adrenaline. Solo is controlled using the mouse, which is precise, but I feel the crosshair should have been bigger because it sometimes got lost among the explosions. Try it - hit the SHIFT key to spark a nuclear explosion (aka grenade), but be thrifty because these are best left for the end-of-level bosses. Trust me, you'll need 'em all.

We begin trapped inside the enemy compound with baddies lining up the corridors, ready to kill us! The display shows our health and the number of grenades - both of which can be topped up by shooting the corresponding supply boxes lying on the ground. There's a boss waiting at the end of every stage, be it two ugly brutes firing missiles, a plane stuffed with a cargo of airmen, or a ghost train and its endless supply of soldiers.

Okay, shall we take a stroll through the many levels of this crazy game? Yes, a good idea...

- Eight Stages To Freedom -

Level 1 - The Enemy Camp

This is where we broke into the enemy camp, kicked in their sandcastle and made the bad guys cry. However, tons of smurf-looking soldiers were alerted (very odd), and they're mean and sneaky - some even hide inside the floor panels and ceiling vents. Once you reach the end, it's time to battle two enormous bad guys who are just asking to eat those grenades.

Overall, I really enjoyed this opening stage, albeit very short. Should have been much longer!

Level one kicks in with an assault of Smurf soldiers!

Level 2 - Destroy The Enemy Jungle Base

Those smurfs failed to stop us, and we made it outside to jump into our jeep and head for the jungle. Lots of enemies are lurking in these muddy waters, along with choppers and planes dropping bombs of mass destruction! The action feels unbalanced for solo gamers, but the helicopter boss is pretty cool and a good fight without being too complicated.

This stage proves the developers used ST Basic (and had no beta testers!). Let's take a look...

Be quick and get blasting everything you see on the screen. Gun love time!

Level 3 - Exit By Speed Boat

Pretty much more of the same as the previous level - but this time we're riding through the soggier parts of the massive jungle. Watch out for the soldiers hiding on the river banks, and you might even see the odd Rambo impersonator. The two bosses are back, but this time they've brought some help for what is quite a fatiguing battle.

This level is more of the same, which isn't great unless you have a faster computer.

The two guys have brought in some help. It's very tough, so expect to lose lives.

Level 4 - Fighting In The Canyon

Like the jungle, this time the graphics have changed to an odd-looking rocky canyon. Hmm, those walls don't look right, especially when you see soldiers hovering in mid-air! Anyhow, this level is another which is stuffed full of gun love, and there's even an aeroplane boss that launches rockets at your face.

It's probably better than the jungle stages, but just as crazy, with too many enemies eating away at your credits.

Enemies everywhere! Shoot - quicker - shoot some more. No, be quicker!

Level 5 - Do Or Die Battle In The Desert

Landscape graphics are gone, and the display is reduced to objects and sprites. It's now that I noticed the odd blue background - it really stands out because there's nothing else. Looks very strange. However, the benefit of this sudden change is a decent framerate, which means it plays better than all the other levels. The boss stage is a train, which is something solo players should fear!

Overall, a great level, and I wish the others were as fast and responsive as this one. I enjoyed it :o

It looks... odd... but fear not, there's a bunch of fun to be had here!

Level 6 - Foes Await In The City's Ruins

Finally, we've made it into a rough shantytown for a terrifying urban siege. Terrifying because that horrendous framerate has returned with a vengeance - I think this stage is the most sluggish of all? To be honest, it's a bit boring and also far too tough in solo. Where's the boss stage?

Overall, it's okay, but also a bit... meh because of the dreadful framerate.

The idea behind this stage is actually very good, but poorly implemented.

Level 7 - Evade the Enemy's Aircraft

We're on the runway and zoom off into the skies for aeronautical hell. However, this stage is tacky with a lame submarine boss, which is rubbish. Overall, this feels like a stocking filler and is the worst level so far.

Wow, I said that after playing the previous stage? Dang!

I've really had enough...

Level 8 - Fly To Your Base By Helicopter

Glad I didn't throw in the towel because Howling Mad Murdock would have loved this stage! The enemy chucks everything at you for one final attempt to get their fancy gun back! Don't get defeated because the end is very near. Sadly, I did, because it's insanely difficult! Which means I failed to save the Western World from the dreaded Terrorists.

Ah well, at least I tried...

That blue background might look daft, but imagine it black...

Graphics and Sounds

Visually, Line of Fire is an oxymoron as it impresses and shocks in equal measure. Overscan is utilised with top and bottom borders removed to provide tons more pixels. I loved the comically bold palette, the sprites are huge, and those explosions are ginormous! Sadly, the sprites look like I've drawn them, and the framerate is shocking. It's possibly the worst performance I've seen from an Atari ST, which is a sad thing to type.

To me, this comes across as a lazy Amiga port, showing no real optimisation whatsoever for the Atari ST or STe hardware. While it is admittedly commendable that overscan was implemented, that choice likely robbed the game of even more precious speed. Perhaps dropping the overscan would have been the wiser option if proper optimisation for our machine wasn’t going to be done. As it stands, a half-hearted port combined with overscan effectively killed any real potential the game might have had. Bit of a shame really...

The audio failed to impress. It begins with a nice title screen chiptune with a humorous intro, but it's all downhill afterwards. The sound effects are your gun and grenades. So it's your gunfire that you're constantly hearing, which sounds like a room full of dancers shuffling their feet. Ugh, turn down the volume.

A mixed bag of goodies, alright, but the Blitter would have helped a lot... sigh...

Gotta take my hat off to the developers for using overscan, albeit at the expense of framerate? :/

CryptO'pinion

I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of crosshair shooters, but Line Of Fire shocked me. There's no 2D landscape with pop-up cardboard soldiers; instead, we have a first-person perspective similar to something like Narco Police, but in overscan. Which is kinda cool for a machine with only 512k RAM.

However, this conversion is screwy and appears to do everything to make the Atari ST perform like a Vic-20 (cough, cough, lame Amiga port). I don't understand what Creative Materials was thinking. Then again, aren't these the guys that gave us Street Fighter 2 and Days of Thunder?

I enjoyed Line of Fire because it's different from what I usually play. It's best with a friend as it's not balanced for solo play, but at least it provides a few continues to keep you interested. I'm glad I didn't buy this terrible game, but I still enjoyed rampaging through the levels. Worth playing, but only in coop with someone.

- DOWNLOADS -

Floppy - Bad Brew Crew #33 (Stonish)

Hard Disk - 8BitChip (w/ extra credits)

Silly Dabbles Demo

Oh no, I've been creating again...

I love finding Atari ST programs that do something silly or unexpectedly cool. There are lots already within our Software section, like Full Screen Construction Kit, MandelST, and I even got to play in overscan. Yep, I love to dabble in hiSTory so I was pleasantly shocked to find an intro maker I had not heard of before.

It's by Deviant Designers, called Letter And Intro Maker (L.A.I.M.), and is simple to use. Just select the various fragments of what actually makes an intro: a picture, fonts, chip music, and a text file used for the scroller. There are already lots of fonts on the disk and dozens of chiptunes to choose from - the hardest part is writing the text (read the docs) and finding an image to use - unless you're talented in NeoChrome?

Once you're happy, save your production to disk, then quit into GEM to load it. Yep, you've created your first demo screen in mere seconds! This is what I've done and named it "Silly Dabbles". It features an image from Beastlord and music by An Cool. Try this program - I'd love to see what you guys create.

I've recorded a video, and the disk image can be downloaded. It's good using an emulator, but best when run on a real Atari ST. I hope you like my Silly Dabbles Demo and enjoy using the program.

Credits and Download Links:

Deviant Designers for Letters And Intro Maker (LAIM)
https://demozoo.org/groups/38004/

Picture was taken from Beastlord by WJS Design/Grandslam
http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-beastlord_8696.html

Music by An Cool used in The Death Demo for 2-Life Crew
http://sndhrecord.atari.org/mp3/AN_Cool/

- Screenshots from L.A.I.M -

Nothing flashy here, but it works great and never crashed on me once!!

Oodles of fonts to choose from, and a preview is shown before you decide.

Dozens of awesome chiptunes to choose from, but sadly no preview. Can't have it all...

Randomazer

Thomas has been busy again!

It's always exciting to hear of a new game in development for the Atari STe, and I have been given an early release of Randomazer, by Thomas Ilg. That's right, the fella who gave us a fantastic conversion of Frogs. The excellent graphics are designed by none other than STS, with sweet tunes by xFalcon.

Like those old Christmas presents, we guide colourful baubles around this maze, trying to guide them safely home. That sounds simple, and the idea is, but the gameplay isn't, especially when there are multiple balls! That's when things get incredibly frantic!! Randomazer features randomly generated isometric mazes, and there are four gameplay modes, tutorials, buckets of levels, and special actions. These can be used and applied to particular needs, like destroying walls or teleporting elsewhere on the (large) map.

Tilt-guide the ball home, it's that simple. Can you handle this?

These type of puzzlers aren't really my cuppa tea because I simply haven't got the patience for something like this!! However, I have surprisingly enjoyed Randomazer, which is something that both Thomas and I are probably shocked to hear!! Why, I hear you scream?

Well, after suffering through Marble Madness, I wasn't initially keen with Randomazer. At first, I struggled, and it destroyed what little patience I managed to muster! But the tutorials are helpful, so I managed to get a grip of this intriguing puzzler, which has elements of Lemmings in some respects. I still find it infuriating (sorry Thomas!) but it's unique and oddly very addictive!

It's incredible that a new Atari STe game was born from what was a maze generator only a couple of months ago. I wish Thomas much success with this, but please remember that it is currently a Work-In-Progress. Any feedback, help, or ideas will be appreciated. So click the link and get this playtested right now.

Update: the game is almost finished, albeit marked as a beta (as I write). You can freely download it from Thomas's website, and the final release is only hours away. Please note that the boxed version is available to pre-order!! Also, it's worth checking out Stickhead's fantastic new video showcasing the game. Enjoy!!

* UPDATE *
Buy the BOXED version!

Use those green arrows to safely guide your ball home (the green square)

I never thought I'd see "perfect" when I first started to play this tough game!!

Things are getting difficult, and what are those buttons at the bottom? Hmm...

Hang on, I can blow up walls? Let's try that for starters!!! :D

The Galactic Miner

We dig for diamonds, we dig for gold...

Galactic Miner was developed by William Anderson of Willie Wonka And The Software Factory. How ludicrously funny is that? This started life on the TI-99 4/A and is basically a Digger developed in STOS. However, it doesn't appear to be compatible with many models of the Atari ST/f/e; more on that problem later.

We begin with a terrain map that details the quality of possible mining locations: white areas are the best, brown is good, whilst green will yield poor results. Sadly, travelling costs money, and we don't have much to begin with, so it's best to keep things local. Once a decent spot is found, a fantastic animation shows us driving a cool truck before we stop to erect a mining shack. From here, we can lower ourselves into the mine.

Choose the location of our shack wisely. Here is a screenshot of the mining map...

We're the red block, and this is the map used to pick fertile lands for ourselves. In theory!

Shack Attack!

Our shack wouldn't be complete without a credit-munching Vendomatic! This device not only has the best name I've heard for a machine, but it's also used to restock dynamite for clearing a path through the mines. Also, Droids can be bought to help protect us from sneaky thieves, and Clones (what??) aid with extra lives. The final option is another shack, which will be used at the next dig site. Sounds expensive, right?

Wait, that's not all the magical shack offers! There's a copy machine used to exchange mined ore for credits. Eagle eyes will notice a save game feature - which you should use regularly - please remember this! The doorway represents an exit to other sites, but I haven't used the computer, as I've never earned enough credit. Finally, use the hatch to return to the mine, but don't forget to turn out the light on your way out!!

Let's take a peep inside our shack, it's pretty cool actually...

Not your typical mining operation, but everything you need is available from inside your shack.

Too scary for Miner Willy!

Once we've built ourselves a shack and have a fistful of dynamite, get inside the mine. Instantly, the gameplay feels familiar but with a few differences. Freely moving through the dirt is only possible when something collectable is within your grasp. Use dynamite when thick dirt or rocks block the way to the goodies. Dynamite has no effect on the larger rocks, which are too strong, so look for another way.

Beware of ugly creatures lurking within the depths! There are monsters that will roar onto your screen at intervals in random areas. Thankfully, these can leave behind a present to pick up. Also, it's a good idea to protect your shack from thieves by purchasing a Droid - it's expensive but has security. There's nothing worse than being underground whilst someone's on the surface robbing you blind (great to watch!)

Check out these fantastic screenshots that detail my busy route while looking for stuff...

What's wrong with the world today? I'm working, and that no-mark turns up to rob me blind!

The attention to detail is pretty cool, and I love my truck. I want one!!

As you can see, each mine is always different, as is the quality of your dig with gold, gems, etc...

Grab as much loot as you can and run!

Each of our Dig Dug screens is randomly generated, including item locations, monsters and cave-ins. It's also possible to run low on dynamite, but you can return to the shack to cash in and restock. Deciding whether and when to do that is entirely up to you, based on how much of the good stuff remains. Also, bear in mind that detonating a stick of dynamite costs us money. There is more to this game than I first thought!

So, it's decision time: should you restock and return to the mine to collect what's left or move on to new pastures? It's up to you based on your finances and what remains to be collected, but if you do go back, then I advise using a Droid. Yup, there is actually a lot more to this game than just digging.

It's time for more screenshots, so keep on scrolling, ST Nutters...

I've pretty much cleaned out the mine!

Wait, a monster... at least he didn't bite me!

I forgot to clone myself... How often have I said that? And then this screen mocks you!

Aesthetics?

Graphically, this feels oldskool and appealing thanks to its landscapes, good use of colour, well-drawn decals, and funny sprites. It's the cartoon animations that steal the show, and it's a blast watching your Ford Ranger (I'm daydreaming!) drive along the landscape before stopping to build a shack. Heck, even the truck's suspension rises as its cargo is removed!! So much effort obviously went into this, and I love it!!

The title screen has a neat chiptune, and in-game sound effects are all made from rough, crunchy samples, which I really enjoyed. Okay, I'm gutted that the STe hardware wasn't utilised (1992!!) as the samples sound rather STFM-y, but I love what there is. Watch out for those roaring monsters!

Sadly, I couldn't get Galactic Miner to work on my Atari STe (TOS 1.62). It booted up fine but then appeared to hang on the title screen. Sadly, things didn't improve with Hatari on my Mac - using my usual default ST/STe configurations (TOS 1.02/1.04 and TOS 1.62).

I had better success using an ST (Hatari), but the miner lost his position on the screen, which got worse with every movement!! So, I went back to the basics and emulated the original ST (TOS 1.00) and everything worked. Looks like this game only works with that, but YMMV?

I love the neat touches, like being able to collect a dead clone's loot.

I never did get why the old shack needed to be blown up.

...but then I'm eaten alive. What a great day!

The CryptO'pinion?

Ignoring the need to emulate with TOS 1.00, Galactic Miner has a couple of other issues I didn't care for. The cash/credit system feels unbalanced. Everything is far too expensive compared to the rewards earned through mining. Also, we get charged for detonating dynamite and then charged again for supplies... Ugh!

Ignoring my sneaky plea for a credit cheat (any hackers reading this??) Galactic Miner is one of the silliest and most addictive games I've played in ages. Enjoy digging in the mud like a kid from the '70s.

Download here and become a Galactic Miner