In the eye of the beholder

Pleasing pixels

Upgrading to the Atari ST was a monumental moment. I remember seeing games like Dungeon Master, Xenon, The Pawn, and International Karate. I couldn't believe the detail and range of colours - without colour clash! Of course, that feeling happened again when I bought The Union Demo. The joy my eyes and ears experienced with extra colours, glossy fonts, plasmas, parallax scrolling, etc. What a moment that began a new era!!

So where is this yabber taking us? I was sitting here wondering what my favourite ST/e image is. Over the years, I've seen great pictures from people using programs like NEOchrome, Degas, Spectrum 512, and Photochrome. Not to mention the creations of the demoscene, embedded within intros, cracktro, demos, etc.

You can see my choice (at the top) taken from Drone, an Atari STe demo by DHS. It was originally created by Ultradialectics and is horrifically exquisite. Drone is a remarkable demo with an ominous style and presentation yet it remains funky-fantastic! Yes, that's my silly way of describing their hard work!

So what is your favourite pixel art and why? I'm not talking about the technical aspect as it can be anything - monochrome, 16-colour, or feature thousands of colours in overscan! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, the caveat is that the Atari ST/STe must be able to display your choice (not TT/Falcon).

Links

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Original artwork by Ultradialectics [ Deviant Art ] [ Demozoo ]

28-colour STe version [ Dead Hackers Society ]

Drone demo for Atari STe w/ credits and download [ Demozoo ]

Dead Hackers Society [ Demozoo ]

The Union Demo [ Demozoo ]

You know the rule - best experienced using a real Atari STe.

Addendum

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An overwhelming response... So here are a few examples of gaming #pixelart that I admire.

Rambo III.

Starting with an obvious one! The resemblance to the artwork is astounding. Love it!!

Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters.

Jaw-dropping pixel artistry was used for its intro. A truly stunning screen.

Black Lamp.

Perhaps a cheat as it's basically a collection of sprites! A legendary screen!!

Fire And Brimstone.

Of course, this isn't a title screen but just look at that outstanding pixel art!!!!

Laser Ball.

Technically not the best but the exotic toon results are superb.

After The War.

Wow, a surprisingly good beat 'em up and this screen is mind-blowing!!

Spikey in Transylvania.

Not a title screen, but a scene from the game I absolutely love. Gorgeous expressions!

Dungeon.

So bad, it's actually good. I love the dripping flesh. Amazing!!

A Prehistoric Tale.

I wanted to keep this to just games but the demoscene had to sneak in! ;) #SUPERB

Doom Slideshow by Effect

DOOOOOM!!

As a huge Doom fan, I was shocked and saddened I had never previously seen this slideshow. Perhaps because it was released in 1996 - ST's dark age! Who knows but I do know that this is a belting slideshow.

It begins with the Doom title screen, tracker music, and a scroller that we must always read. I must admit, the olde ST sounds great which is high praise from me - as I'm not a "MOD" fanboy. When you're done reading the scroller and listening, hit the spacebar to hear a fantastic Mad Max chiptune. The slideshow begins and is powered by one of my favourite programs, Deluxe SlideShow v2.0 by the late John Brochu.

There are over 30 Doomy pictures which, might only be of interest to fans. For me, it's never a dull moment seeing ID's legendary game displayed on an Atari monitor. Now I feel the need to play Dread/Grind!!

I shouldn't need to end without saying this but, I will anyhow... Nothing beats using real hardware. Enjoy.

Slideshow Credits

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Cyrax - Code, Text, Other (Compilation)

Jochen Hippel - Music

Liquid - Music

Trantic - Code

Links

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Doom Slideshow download - https://demozoo.org/productions/69265/

Effect's profile page - https://demozoo.org/groups/2181/

Deluxe SlideShow - https://www.atariuptodate.de/en/4678/deluxe-slideshow-20

Merry Christmas

Catnap is a wonderful animation by Gary Johnson of Atari USA that makes the perfect Christmassy post! Apparently, the cat & dog are the pets of Ralph F. Mariano, publisher of the online diskmag ST Report. Personally, I've never read an issue but it lived long into the 90s. Yep, this is something I must research over the Christmas holidays.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our Patreons for their support over the year: Mind-Blowing support from our ST community!! Plus, there are many friends in my little ST world who help: Tom, Dale, PeterJ, Marko, PP, Paul, Karim, Michael, Maarten, and Seb. Finally, my greetings to those who regularly visits my little ol' website to get their fix of Atari :-)

Merry Christmas to all ST Nutters

I wish y'all the very beST †

Silent Night Atari ST chiptune by Chris French

Merry Christmas

We're almost at the end of yet another year so here is a cute Christmassy slideshow I found whilst digging through the AtariMania archives. It's from a disk magazine by Effect and is stuffed full of text and even features the most annoying rendition of "The 12 Days of Christmas" I've ever heard - but at least it supports the STe audio!!

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their help and ST commitment over the past year. Once again, I've met some great people and seen things which I thought would never happen after the ST "died" in the mid-90s. There are so many awesome games and demos recently released but my personal favourite is, of course, Manic Miner which is a fantastic remake of Matthew Smith's ZX Spectrum classic from 1983. Absolutely brilliant.

Also, I'd like to thank: Tom/Karim for all their sharing across various social media. Peter for adapting these merry ST games (and my requests for more!!). AtariMania for always being my go-to place. Atari Legend for being ace and getting me addicted to Ultima V. And, course, every one of you guys visiting my website throughout the year :-)

All the beST and Merry Christmas †

Scanners

I was going through old video recordings and found this which is an absolute classic!!
Download available on Demozoo - just make sure you turn up the volume

Credits: "Alan, Bill and Dave"

(I wonder who these people were because there's little information out there!)

Merry Christmas

It's that time again when I find something Christmassy from within the Atari ST archives. However, this time I didn't want a game so opted for a demo. I think I've found a belter: Xmas '88 which was released by Kenrick Productions. I hope you like this? I find it endearing with cute animations and a few appropriate chiptunes to get you in the festive mood.

Merry Christmas everyone and I wish you all the very beST †

Lights, Camera, Action! (take 2)

Update: I've long since lost these videos. Has anyone got copies to share?

Following on from a previous posting, here are the remaining videos being played using a program called ST Video Player. Just like last time, these are running on a stock 8MHz Atari STe w/ a hard drive, of course.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Update: I've long since lost these videos. Has anyone got them to share? Thx

ST Video Player is one of those programs that will drop your mouth wide open with amazement. You just won't believe that your humble 512kb 8Mhz Atari STE (with a hard drive) can produce such amazing high-colour movies.

This piece of magic was written by Cyg of BlaBla (the creators of some of the best Atari ST/e demos that I've ever seen). Movies come in the format of .CAV files so just drag & drop one onto the program and prepare to be amazed. I hope to see more videos released for the Atari STe - very soon! Download from Demozoo and Pouet.