KLAX

Another ST game gets updated

Jamie Hamshere (aka junosix of Droid fame) has released an upgrade of Klax for the Atari STe. This new release uses the arcade game's sampled sound effects, which beats the original's chirpy chip by miles.

The game is basically a 3D Tetris that Domark released in 1990. Once again, we're stacking piles of coloured tiles but this time they are travelling towards us and need to be dropped into a bin, making sure they stack vertically, horizontally or diagonally. It sounds simple, but this is brutal and demands lightning-fast reactions.

What a fabulous upgrade to replace the drab effects with super-duper arcade sounds using the audio coprocessor. I'm sure Tetris and brainteaser addicts will love Klax even more now that it sounds this good!!

Nice work Jamie. Please don't stop and enhance other ST games.

AtariMania hosts the STfm original and this spanky new Atari STe update.

Need help? I know I did... just hit the '4' key to play to the final level. Good luck! ;-)

Quartet

No, this is a game

ST Survivor asked me for a video recording of Quartet, a new game based on the original, by Photonstorm. The task is to place pieces of four faces into four slots, in four separate areas, with bonuses awarded for a whole face. Watch my video recording, and you will see that it's simpler than it reads - and very addictive!

BeGEMeD

Dear puzzle fans, brace yourself...

Forget playing Candy Crush on your phone because something better is out on the Atari STe. It's by Alexander de Vries and called BeGEMeD, and is a twist on the Bejewelled theme. It's a new game for the Atari STe with 16 beautiful colours and DMA sound effects. Those familiar with the genre will love this because it plays brilliantly and is challenging - without irritation or frustrating mechanics. You'll be playing for hours!

The graphics were designed by Carnivac, and it's difficult to believe that he used only 16 colours. The quality is superb, so it appears there are far more on-screen. This talented use of colour is impressive. Accompanying the lush visuals is music by Dma-Sc, one of my favourite musicians, and it's mesmerisingly awesome. We also have familiar sound effects as we play. This includes samples letting us know how awesome we are.

Hey, let’s check out the readme…

Nice of you to visit this text, it will give you all the basic information you need to know to get started. Don’t worry it's easy so you will get the hang of it very soon!!

We are visiting Jack Bright, the castle lord of a medieval castle. He has already lived there for a lot of years and the castle needs some work. But his cash flow is a little bit on the downside so to earn some cash he has to swap gems for it.

He has lots of them hidden in his castle but it is a real mess. They are just piled on top of each other in no order at all. To swap them for cash he has to sort them out! But he can only do so if he has 3 or more of the same collection.

How does he do that? Well simple, just align 3 or more gems horizontal or vertical. For every successful swap, he earns those coins. Click the gem you van to swap with one of its neighbours and then choose the one you want to swap. Or even better just drag it over the other one by holding the mouse button, it both works...

As the coin meter reaches the top you have earned enough cash to go to the next level. The aim of the game is to reach the biggest high score of course.

The CryptO'pinion?

I contacted Alexander to thank him for developing this, and we got chatting! It was only a short time before I was beta-testing a new version - I'm thrilled to report numerous bug fixes and extra features.

This has been a blast because Alexander is a cool chap and I'm honoured to have played a (tiny) part in producing a fantastic and addictive puzzler. I'm confident with the following statement: BeGEMeD is one of the best Bejewelled games there is. A fantastic puzzler that looks and sounds as good as it plays.

Don’t waste any more time and click the link below this text. NOW!!

AtariMania has the latest download

The first screenshot... what a nice display with lovely colour and design!

The second screenshot... It kinda looks the same as the first, doesn't it? lol