MANDELST

Let's mess about!

MandelST is a fractal generator developed in GFA Basic by Manos Kantzos (thanks to GeoAnas for the heads-up). I love messing about with funky fractals and this program is a cinch to use - which is a good thing for me!

Mandelbrot/Julia productions can be generated within moments but faster computers will benefit from their extra grunt. Of course, emulators are an excellent idea, unless you prefer leaving your ST on for long periods? Images can be exported as Degas PI1 or TIFF - which is superb. Also, basic animations are possible and these take us deep into an infinite mathematical world like nothing I've seen before. A stunning idea with great potential.

I've enjoyed creating many peculiar and wonderful images and animations - which I'm quite proud of. Also, it's fantastic to see something new being developed for the Atari ST so I'm hoping Manos continues on and improves his work in the future. This is a great program, so have yourself some geeky fun zooming in on infinite!!

My Funky Creations

   

   

    

   

    

Fullscreen Construction Kit

I've a thing for overscan!

The Atari ST/e might not officially support overscan but that hasn't stopped many games, demos, programs and more from making use of it. There's a lot out there with many already featured here on AtariCrypt not to mention the ability to activate overscan within GEM. Yep, the Atari ST is a versatile machine and often underrated.

Anyhow, Fullscreen Construction Kit is a cool utility program developed by FMC Connexion to display high-resolution pictures using this same overscan technique. It works by piecing together four Degas images which ultimately join up to generate the finishing picture. This image can be viewed on your ST using the program provided.

The process is simple but I had difficulties with the palettes because I'm not gifted when it comes to art!! Hence the reason Milla is in greyscale and the dog is red, not brown. Also, it's worth noting that I found it easier to create the blocks using my Mac but there are online tools available to split images.

Six test images are already on the floppy plus you also have the ability to create your own. This set of image blocks [by Killer D] should give you an understanding of what's expected from budding artists? But even those without any skills (me!!) should be fine, so why not give this program a playtest to see what overscan goodies you can create?

This is a belting program and I've enjoyed dabbling! Let me know what you think of it in the comments below.

Fractal Landscape Generator

It's time to be creative!

Fractal Landscape Generator was developed by David Billington who gave us an opportunity to develop mountainous worlds. Now, it's worth stopping to read the doc file on the disk before you do anything else - because there is an excellent mini-guide included. I know, I know, nobody reads the manual... but you should this time!

Making a brand new rugged landscape is extremely easy thanks to the fantastic user interface. Not only that but results can be produced and viewed very quickly, even on an 8MHz computer. Thankfully, the program made great use of my 16MHz Mega STe which is superb and the versatile speeds of Hatari will be a huge bonus!

The 3D part was initially difficult to grasp but don't give up - keep on tinkering and you'll grasp it. Once you're happy, you can then add light-shading, alter various colour parameters, and increase the detail level. Heck, you can even animate a fly-by through your newly created world.

Dabbling in 16-bit creation was fun and it's impressive to see what wonders I could knock out and to think I found it by chance: Floppyshop ART-3647. It's a nice feeling to find something "new" and this is a great program to get started in fractal landscaping. Give it a go and let me know what you think in the comments below! Enjoy...

- My Own MEGA STE Creations -

The Fractal Engine

 

It's time to get psychedelic

ST Format #42 featured The Fractal Engine by Daniel Grace and Mike Harris. I love programs like this and, after a couple of hours of tinkering, I began creating some rather funky images. What a superb program it is and so capable of creating impressive images using tripped-out colourful effects - if you have the spare time?

Features of The Fractal Engine v3.0

17 different fractal types, including 11 Mandelbrot/Julia pairs and Lindemayer Systems

Divide and conquer algorithms, with fixed-point arithmetic

Zoom animation and Julia Set morph batch processing

3-Dimensional Mandelbrot and Julia landscapes

480, 16 colour palettes

Simple but effective image compression

The Fractal Engine delivers superb results and is easy to use and what's more fun than creating trippy images? Oh no, does this mean I'm turning into a groovy hippie? I hope not!! Anyhow, I hope you like my images which were all calculated using my own Atari STe. (Thanks to Michael Keenleyside for this link to the latest version)

Brace yourself for images of 8MHz power!

Check out my creative weirdness :-)