The beST Game Ever?

There can be only one

You know, I hate silly questions like, "What's your favourite game". That is an impossible question to answer because it doesn't take into consideration the genre or even my mood at that moment. Plus my answer changes daily! However, people still ask me now and then which is understandable but also quite infuriating too. Or am I in a grumpy mood?!!

Possibly, but today I'm actually wondering just what might be my favourite Atari ST game! We have a ginormous library so how can I answer? Well, here goes: I'm ignoring ratings. I'm ignoring genre. I'm ignoring my mood. I'm ignoring everything to make this the most pointless article ever. Wait, it's too easy to pick Dungeon Master, right?

That's the one I cannot choose because it's the game everyone automatically plumps for. Rightly so, but...

Argh, too many!

Anyhow, what about Defender of the Crown? What about Stardust? What about Rogue? Then there is Prince Of Persia, Gauntlet II, Joust, Magic Boy, Borodino, Zero-5, Stunt Car Racer, Speedball, Populous, Golden Axe, Time Bandit, The Secret Of Monkey Island, Death Chase, Rick Dangerous, Hostages, Kult, Resolution 101, Stormlord, Midwinter, Hunter, Legends Of Valour, Carrier Command, Mr Do! Run Run, Captain Blood, North & South, Starglider, Oids, Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters, Turrican, and Out Run. The list goes on and on and on... (I was joking about Out Run!)

So, with my back against the wall and a loaded gun held against my empty head, the dreaded question is asked. I'm starting to sweat. What game might come out trumps? Well, after great thought (honest) I've made my decision - knowing full well this is a pointless venture that makes no sense. Nobody will read this rubbish so I'm perfectly safe from ridicule.

Okay, I've picked the best Atari ST game. Do you wanna know what it is? Really, are you that bored? Right, scroll on...

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The CryptO'pinion?

I've picked Domark's Shadowlands as the best Atari ST game because not only was this ahead of its time but it was created, designed and produced to near-perfection. It offers the player a fascinating, atmospheric and captivating world to enjoy exploring. What, you completely disagree with me? Well, there's a shocker!! Am I really that wrong?

I don't care :p but why not click the above link to read my old review? Hang on, is it okay if I change my mind? lol

Yes, this was silly but, if you had a gun held to your head and I forced you to make the stupid decision - what Atari ST game would you choose? It can be anything except Dungeon Master so let me know in the comments below. STay Atari.

Downloads for: Floppy Disks | Hard Drive

The title screen is superb and nicely animated too, which this screenshot fails to show!

The opening level outside is quite lame but don't enter the dungeon without looking around first...

Once inside, the game perfectly introduces you to the lighting, puzzles, and monsters.

The first baddie is this fella but, don't worry because he's really easy to kill.

Another baddie and some pick-ups too. Hang on, is that a key I see?

Replaying this game again, from scratch, is proving to be fantastic. What an ace RPG it is!!

Make sure you read the manual. There are more than enough helpful hints to get you started.

Geeky memories

The biggest games club in the world

Today I was going through a few games from my collection, deciding what I should keep or (sigh) get rid of. Apparently, there's only so much space a married man is allowed for this "old junk", as she calls it. She's a cruel woman!

Anyhow, inside one of my game boxes was a flyer from Special Reserve - these guys were superb and sold many discounted Atari ST games. I've not seen this advert before so it was an exciting find for this old man. I remember joining them and getting many great deals that our one-and-only local computer shop couldn't compete with. I think I was a member until the mid-90s when our gaming era was drawing to a close. A sad time but, with many mega-cheap deals!

You know, I absolutely love finding geeky stuff like this! It makes my day and is going up on my ST Wall because it's something to treasure! Does anyone else remember this catalogue company? Let me know in the comments below.

Oddly, there were two copies of the same flyer inside my game box - I'll freely send the other to anyone who is interested in this tiny slice of ST history (sorry, UK only). I've taken a few photographs...

Can you imagine ringing their helpline for a game like Dungeon Master or another RPG?

Rubbish! All games worked on the Atari STe. Well, if you used a menu disk hehe!

Even the then-new Atari Lynx gets a little support. I miss my Lynx...

The prices are pretty darn good. I'll take North & South, please!

The mega blaster sounds cool, especially with its steel shaft. Stop it!

Friends Reunited!

Miniature hard drives!

Look what I've just found at the bottom of my cupboard!! After many moons, here is a tiny plastic case that contains two SD Cards I thought I had lost: one features MagiC and the other is a raw ST MiNT image (this is created by Marcello running Cripple MiNT due to the ST's 4MB Ram limit and you can read about that here).

For me, MagiC is where it's at because this is such a powerful and versatile operating system albeit at the expense of some awkward incompatibilities. Unlike MiNT, I've actually got some RAM left over to make this a usable operating system replacement. It's superb but the default desktop is lame so I've got to find a copy of Ease online. Now, I know most will probably scream "Jinnee" but I feel Ease is the better alternative desktop for me.

Sadly, I've yet to find another SD card that I remembered has my Geneva/NeoDesk installation (it's now free!!). Anyhow, it's funny what you find when least expecting it. So which is your favourite or do you prefer good old TOS? Let me know in the comments below while I stuff this card with programs and my chip music archive...

Marcello's ST MiNT https://subsole.org
MagiC v6.20 https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?p=327914#p327914
Gribnif Software http://www4.pair.com/gribnif/

My ST shelves!

Let's peep into the inner world of the Crypt

A long long time ago I had an ST shelf and I was very happy. But then along came a woman who wanted to redecorate and the idea of an old games shelf didn't quite fit in with her plans. Not having a backbone, I obliged and I endured a shelf-less life with all my lovely ST games boxed away, probably never to be seen again.

Thankfully, those dark years have finally come to an end as I've been granted an opportunity to display my prize positions once again. I admit that my little corner of the bedroom is hardly a man cave, but it will suffice. Well, for now! She doesn't know that I've got some posters and I'm talking Vixen, Game Over and Barbarian ;-)

I love my new shelves but I've been ordered to keep 'em dust-free and that will be tough because I'm a bloke and that means I don't do housework!! Ha. Anyhow, I better try because I'm going to push for a couple more shelves soon - so wish me luck as I've got more ST GEMs that need to be displayed for all to admire. Well, me really!

Isn't it funny when something as simple as a shelf can actually make you happy? Hmm.

Of course, it's so much more practical to boot ST games this way. But that's not as much fun, right?

Okay, let's have some feedback?

What does your ST world look like? Let me know in the comments below as I would love to hear about it. Sadly, I cannot accept photos in the comments (blame google!) and nobody uses email, right? So why not pop over to our (lame) Facebook page and send me some photos? (I really should remember to update that more)

Okay, let's take a closer look at some of my favourite Atari ST games and a few gorgeous new books...

Three classic books and some lovely games. Especially, the Elvira box. Work-of-art that one!

The same shelf, different angel - I'm getting creative. Here you can see two fantastic new products.

My little box of working floppies - that I use over and over to playtest my Crypt games :-)

Oi, stop drooling over your keyboard. Yes, this is a fine selection alright. Boy, I love the ST!!!

And today I get a new bookshelf donated to the Crypt from my beautiful wife. More ST games!!

Yep, I'm now surrounded by my collection of Atari ST games and they all work too, which is nice.

Merry Christmas

Well, it's certainly been a peculiar year, hasn't it? Sadly, it doesn't look likely to get better any time soon but I hope everyone remains in good health. I wanted to thank each and every one of you guys for visiting my humble website throughout another year and I appreciate your comments and messages. Actually, I can't believe how long I've been working on AtariCrypt, but the Atari ST is a beautiful computer and dear to my heart - so worth it :-)

I would like to thank each of our patrons, both past and present, for their immense support which is something I cannot express enough. I do hope you guys are still enjoying your Patreon gifts from earlier in the year? I'm using the mug right now!! Anyhow, that was an exciting project and something I would love to try again sometime.

STay safe everyone and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas †

Coffee, Beer & Gifts

Thank you, friends!!

Hello fellow ST Nutters. As you might have guessed, AtariCrypt has a Patreon page for those who wish to support me in my endeavour to continue this Atari ST website. At first, it wasn't something I was particularly comfortable with doing. But I've been blown away by the kind members of our ST community and having their support means a lot!!

So, I wanted to arrange a selection of gifts for these folk: mouse mats, keyrings, coasters and coffee mugs. The first package has already been sent to a guy from Finland who we all know for his brilliant work over at Atari Mania. Of course, one of the mugs is staying here with me - I'm drinking coffee out of it right now. Mmm, lovely.

These are quality made products, and I'd like to thank Rhayader Computers for their friendly service. There are still several gifts left in stock - waiting for new supporters - so come on board and help the best Atari ST website on the planet. (What? A bit much? lol). My sincere gratitude to all our backers past, present and future. Thank you so much :-)

Update Jan 2022

I've dropped Patreon as I felt I wasn't updating the website enough (due to personal reasons) so I later started an account on 'Buy Me A Coffee'. I'm more comfortable using that as it feels better and more casual, so less of a permanent commitment. Oh, and if you are wondering - all the goodies are available to our supporters using this platform.

Click here if you are interested in supporting AtariCrypt... https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AtariCrypt

        

   

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!!

NeST, AtariNet, Modems... Whaaaat???

Well, my 2020 seems to have kicked off nicely because I've just taken delivery of four awesome Atari CDs and it's all thanks to winning the monthly prize draw over at Darkforce BBS. Now, I never win at anything so this was the biggest Mega ST shock ever!! All I need now is a CD ROM drive. Yup, eBay here I come...

For those who still don't know, Darkforce BBS is a bulletin board service run by a fine Atarian called Ron Hall, aka DarkLord. A great BBS for all the usual stuff like news, messaging, chat, downloads, games, etc/etc. You can access it freely using any terminal program supporting the Telnet protocol, and I prefer using SyncTerm myself.

The CDs are mainly for the Atari Falcon, a grand machine - that I'll probably never be able to afford - unless I win the lottery. However, there is tons of other stuff and I'm eager to see what's on the Moving Pixels disk - lots of ST/STe stuff on that!! Greetings Ron - as you can probably tell, I'm excited to explore these archives :-)

Wanna know more? Wanna experience this fine throwback to a magical time in computing? Of course, you do so ignore the internet and travel back in time and boot up SyncTerm or any other preferred Terminal emulator and then visit this address using the telnet command: telnet darkforce-bbs.dyndns.org 1040

I hope you all enjoy this amazing BBS. My thanks to Ron for this great gift :-)

Don't you dare fall for Ron's trickery? I expected beer and a room for the night... but... NOTHING!!

Check out the main menu!! Time has stood still and is also STuffed full of Atari goodness!

Ahh, I feel all nostalgic now. It's like I'm back in the 90s dabbling in NeST...

Heck, you can even play games. It's like having an Xbox in your terminal!

The downloads area is huge and also complimented with a CD Rom section too!

I love the range of jokes and other random quotes that can be installed to pop up!!