A bit about me and my hiSTory :-)
I thought it might be "interesting" to provide some background information about myself for you folk living on the remote island of TOS. If you don't know it, my name is Steve and I have been an Atari ST nutter since 1987 when I first started to see screenshots in magazines. Pure next-gen quality that I'd never seen before.
It was love at first sight and eventually, I got an ST for Christmas 1988 (thanks Mum & Dad!). It was the 520 STfm, a fantastic machine I still regard as my first real computer. This wasn't just for games, it was powerful and versatile with a GUI and mouse. A whole new world opened up. This was something else.
My 520 ST helped during my college years as I learnt skills like word processing (boring), pixel art, programming, DTP, and even a bit of networking. I used it for a year before upgrading to the new Atari STe in 1989. I had no enhanced games but I finally got to hook up my stereo speakers and hear MOD tunes properly.
By this time, I was working so could afford to venture deeper into Atari paradise. I bought a brand new Mega 1 ST that, admittedly, I had no real need for. However, this "office computer" came with a monochrome monitor and helped me with DTP using Easy Text Professional. Hardly Calamus but, a great application. It was also the computer I used "online" with Keith's Point BBS via dial-up. I miss those days greatly.
By the mid-90s, I was living the dream and bought a Falcon and TT (second-hand). This was the era of fascinating programs like Apex Media and playing Doom without having to sell up and join the Darkside!!
Mac days
As the mid-90s evolved, I reached my Atari end. The Atari ST had already died and the Falcon thing never happened. So, sometime around 1996/7, I finally gave up and bought an Apple Mac 7600/120. What a computer that was! A whole new world had opened up to me. It was like a Falcon but, successful.
In terms of Atari, these years were spent running the last odds and sods using MagicMac. However, that lessened over time as I found better Mac programs. Soon after, the Atari was a distant memory.
Around 2003, Apple released the Power Mac G5, the most expensive computer I have bought (it was pre-kids). This powerful beast opened up opportunities that my ancient 7600 found impossible. Yes, games!
Over the years, I played Dungeon Siege, Doom3, Quake4, Soldier Of Fortune II, Call Of Duty, and Medal Of Honor. My favourite was Battlefield 1942. What was fascinating were the third-party mods and maps. Sure, we could use some of the maps but hardly ever the mods. I hated that fact because they looked so cool.
So I started a website/server that hosted Mac versions of mods for all the games listed above (and more). This included documentation, Terminal and AppleScript Apps that ran as launchers. Some of the more complex required recompiling source code which was done alongside the developers. I enjoyed that a lot!!
However, all this came to an end, because of the Intel Mac. PPC Macs began their decline and that was that.
Full circle
Fast forward to around 2012, and I began to feel the pull of my old Atari addiction after discovering a wonderful program called NoSTalgia. Without realising it, I was spending more and more time playing ST games. Not only that but I was starting to watch demos and read scrollers. This was weird as I was in my late 30s!
By 2012/13 I thought to myself, "Why not start a YouTube channel and record my favourite demos". This led to the idea of a blog/website to promote these amazing demos and games. And here we are today :-)
AtariCrypt
What is now "AtariCrypt" actually came from that humble beginning of wanting the share the ST love. I treasure the Atari ST computers and have always tried to make my website a fun place for our community. Also somewhere that proves to the world that there's more to #retrogaming than the Spectrum, Amiga, or whatever.
I enjoy running with AtariCrypt and have met lots of fantastic people along the way. I hope to continue writing my silly articles for many years to come. I love to hear back from y'all - every page has a comments option - please use it. Your feedback makes all this "work" worthwhile so say hello. One last thing... STay Atari :)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . it's time to WRRRAAAAAAAAAP!!!!
You might be interested to know, this is me in Doom. Fame at last!!!
I have made (and helped with) several Atari ST productions over the years.
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