Frogger

Turning back the clock to 1981

You know, it feels like I've been beta-testing Frogger forever but, it's finally complete!! Yes, we have the official release of Frogger, by Scott Clifford. Do not expect a cheap knock-off because this is about as accurate as it gets with authentic visuals, sounds and playability. I'm sure every fan of the arcade game will adore this brand-new conversion. Plus it's 2016 and the Atari ST is getting new games released - which is incredible!!

Frogger is such a simple game but let's take a wild stab at the gameplay basics...

Leapin' Frogger! Home may look like it's only a hop, skip, and a jump away, but looks can be deceiving. First, there's a dangerous highway to hop across, full of fast-moving cars & trucks. Then there's a swirling river to leap,  full of frog-eating creatures. How's Frogger going to get home safely? By letting you hop him on his way. Guide Frogger safely through this perilous journey, and you'll jump for joy!

The object of the game is to hop as many frogs to safety as you can - and to score the most points along the way. Each time you bring 5 frogs home, you'll hear a short tune.  Then the game will continue at a more difficult level with your remaining frogs. The traffic will be more difficult to cross. There will be fewer floating objects on the river. Frogger-eating snakes will also appear on the riverbank in progressively more difficult levels. The game ends when no frogs (lives) are left.

Your score is shown at the bottom of the screen throughout the game. Points accumulate as follows:

Jumping Frogger forward = 10 points
Jumping Frogger home = 50 points
Jumping 5 frogs home = 1000 points
Taking a lady frog home = 200 points
Eating a fly = 100 points
Extra points for time left = 10 points (per remaining second)

I always love information screens - plus how authentic is this? Amazing conversion.

2016 and the Atari ST is alive & kicking!

Frogger should work fine with every model of ST computer but it's only been tested on the Atari ST, Atari STe and Mega STe. So please let us know if you have any issues using one of those super-speedy computers that neither Scott nor I could afford. Okay, you can download this amazing arcade game right now from AtariMania. Enjoy gaming like it's 1981!!

It's Frogger. Which is an original classic. Guess what? The Atari ST now has an excellent and authentic version!!

Update: You may be interested to know that Scott is now a member of Effect and has also been interviewed by AtariCrypt!! He has worked on many demo screens that you need to check out, like the amazing Turrican Music Disk. However, he currently has RAIDEN in development specifically for the Atari STe.

Scott Clifford

As many will know, I've been a friend of Scott's for a while now, even though he's from Yorkshire I've never held that against him! Anyhow, I've always been eager to know what he's working on, from those humble beginnings with a Turrican music disk to a near-perfect arcade version of Frogger (and to think he's not been coding for that long... Quite incredible!)

But, then, he decides to take on the immense task of a Raiden conversion for the Atari STe. His plans are to make full use of the Blitter, DMA audio, hardware scrolling, and more. Such fascinating enthusiasm! Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, I asked for an interview in the hope it would be interesting to anyone who doesn't yet know the guy behind Frogger along with the upcoming Raiden project. My thanks to Scott for this interview and I hope everyone will enjoy reading this... just keep on scrolling... :-)

- Scott Clifford - the interview -

Tell us about yourself

Where do I start? Heh.. Let's skip ahead to Christmas 1990, that's where the real fun begins with the introduction into my life of the Atari STe. I never really had any 8-bit systems, this was the first for me, bearing in mind my age. I turned on the STE, stuck in a disk and for the first time in my life was immersed in the world of Indiana Jones. (Kids these days... Tsk!)

From then on, I only really used my ST for games and some school work, but soon started looking into other uses as a teen. One thing I will remark on though was the ease Automation disks were very easy to get hold of... That is another story, by that I mean, wait for the Automation/DBUG DVD ;)

Coding hiSTory?

I only recently started “coding” on the ST, about 2 years ago, roughly 2014/2015 I started messing about in STOS and found it really easy to program and soon enough I was writing small routines, asking for help on the Atari forums, and generally messing about. At the same time, I was trying my hand at everything, music, games, art, programming and getting into the hardware side too. I now have an STe (Of which there is a certain unnamed person I should thank!!! - He knows who he is) and started coding in STOS full time before moving onto ASM for Frogger, which gave me credibility or notoriety.

The Turrican Music Disk was created simply because I am a fan of the game. I just wasn't very good at it, to be honest, and found it far too difficult beyond the “spaceship” levels so that kind of put me off... My music demo started because I did enjoy the tunes but didn't fancy loading the actual game disk each time, and what's more impressive is the fact that this is the first time STOS has used SNDH convincingly I might add. A point missed by a lot of people - the player routine was developed by me and might be the first time STOS has ever used SNDH (note big ego trip here!). As far as music disks go, I did have the idea for a UMD style music player but it never went beyond the ideas stage. 

Frogger for the Atari ST is arcade perfect and possibly the best home computer version ever.

Why the peculiar handle?

A nickname was given by a dear friend who is no longer with us, referring to my overuse of the colour black, right down to the nails and eyes. Yeah, I was a goth, but I'm now more immature than anything. :) I suppose I tend to lean on the darker side of life, metal music, Gothic architecture (Prague is awesome, need to go there!) and other such “out of the light” topics. But there is the bonkers side of me too, the sort of person that is bubbly but not annoying... by that I mean I can jump down the stairs backwards when I'm bored!

You must be proud of Frogger?

Frogger, to me, is the epitome of a decent arcade game - full of colour, noises, damn hard gameplay, and it doesn't involve rescuing a princess or collecting gold. I wanted to write Frogger initially in STOS because as I was playing it on #cough MAME I realised that the ST was the perfect platform for it. The game itself is simplistic enough but not rubbish AND didn't require some glorious technical ability - there is no scrolling, no bullets, and nothing beyond the ST capabilities.

The fact that I got really close (using STOS) to releasing it just goes to show how easy, in terms of computing, the game was handled by the ST. Unfortunately, like all simplistic programming languages, BASIC was eventually thrown out and I started (with the huge help of Xia!!!) the process of writing the game in assembly - faster code, closer control over the ST and I could use the computer more reliably. STOS is great, but not for this due to too many things on the screen.

I'm so proud of Frogger. It might not be F1 by Geoff Crammond or Anarchy by Psygnosis but it's mine, and it's my first assembly program that works. At this point, I must thank all the people involved in its creation, there are so many who gave support, ideas and actual assets I could use, like music and SFX from Zerkman and Dma-SC. Immense support and patience from XiA too .. I did get some criticism for not making it 21st-century, but I always wanted to replicate the original and never to out-do it.

You gotta check out this music disk, especially using the Atari STe!!

Raiden is humungous

It is!! I had the idea again from playing it on mameUi64 (Plug right there folks!) and looking at it, I wondered if it was possible. I wrote some routines, originally in STOS, and found it far too slow (this is before I started with assembly language and Frogger). So, after Frogger and after I'd gained some knowledge in ASM, I went back to it. I wrote some routines in assembly language and started to learn about the STE specific hardware scrolling. 

All of the music and sprites you see in Raiden are taken directly from the arcade but, because of the 16 colour limitation, I've had to look at the Megadrive version for the level's graphics. This means the levels are quite dark in colour and maybe a little too washed out - at the moment. As far as technical difficulties go, the oddest thing... the tanks are actually the most complicated, after the player, to write code for.

What games do you play?

I'm kind of notorious for it in my house haha! Although I've recently been putting myself through the Forza experience on the Xbox One (a close second to pride and joy, the Atari STe). I do love the ST and Shadow Of The Beast 2 I have been playing a lot of lately, cant seem to get very far though lol. I'd say I'm not a huge fan of RPGs or fantasy stuff like Ishar, could never get into it, although it's very pretty. But certain consoles for me hold certain games, so for instance, Shenmue on the Deamcast, the Lotus Trilogy (yeah I have the actual boxset) for the Atari ST. I need to get some friends with STs and have a four-way … hahahaha obviously in Lotus :P

Raiden, a WIP conversion for the Atari STe... Will it ever see the light of day?

Who inspires you?

This is a strange one because most of my inspiration for coding comes from, not the current scene but from the days gone by. People like Wayne Smithson who, at the time, were cutting edge and mostly “on their own” releasing games like Anarchy. Even its title “it cant be done” says it all lol. The bedroom coders also hold a certain nostalgic feeling too, like the guys over at DMA or even some of the pirate groups like Automation and the Pompey Pirates, what they DIDN'T do for games, they did FOR the ST … if that makes sense? 

I think nowadays it should be looked back on as part of the ST and not the reason for its downfall, Atari did that themselves. I also like niche programmers, those that don't tend to conform to whats expected, Excellence in Art is a prime example of what I'd consider coding for yourself and NOT for the masses. It's probably one of the reasons me and the leading guy there get on so well, even if we do disagree about binary - haha (in-joke)

Any future plans?

Haha, where Do I begin... Flashback (Delphine) is another do-able game, despite reservations from the “scene” ;) I'm also thinking Mortal Kombat... However, whatever I do, I think it will definitely be game related. I don't consider myself a demo writer and although I've put some code into demos I don't think I'd actually write my own. I'll leave that to the pro's like DHS, their “Sea Of Colour” demo is awesome!! Games require a slightly different process to demos and I feel like I'm more suited to the games really.

The best of Dave Munsie VOLUME 1 :)

A lucky find!

I'm always on the scrounge for Atari ST goodies, especially floppies - who knows what gold is still out there waiting to be rediscovered? I see many tempting auctions of Atari ST disks but most are silly prices! Or the disks have degraded due to poor storage - I went through a box recently and only two floppies still worked. That wasn't a good week!

Well, sometimes you get lucky and, this week, I feel I've hit the jackpot. Within a slim envelope were 7 disks and one was by PD Library, Goodmans. I loved that company and remember buying tons from them over the years. However, there was a disk in their collection that I had previously never heard of - "Dave Munsie Game Collection Volume 1". Thankfully, the disk still worked 100% so I quickly made an image of it, because I noticed a carbon copy didn't appear to exist.

On it are a staggering nine Munsie games: Bugs, Kid GP, Evader, Kaboom!, Frogger!, ST Invaders, Dark Pearl, Kid Kong, and Bobble! Now that's some hefty gameplay just waiting for you to boot up. So let's check 'em out...

1. Bugs - Think Centipede/Millipede and you get the idea for this cracker!
2. Kid GP - Rainbow Islands meets Bubble Bobble for kiddies. Well, I know I loved it :)
3. Evader - this is kinda like a weird mash of Galaxians, Phoenix and Space Invaders. Great fun.
4. Kaboom! - I remember playing this on a mate's 2600 as a kid. Infuriatingly frantic action!
5. Frogger! - It's good, but possibly the weakest of the bunch, especially compared to Black's version.
6. Invaders - Once again, Dave messes with the original to produce something new and exciting.
7. Dark Pearl - I've never liked these games if I'm honest. However, this is well-programmed, I'll say that.
8. Kid Kong - Another game I'm not too keen on but it's fun - for the Kong fans!
9. Bobble - It's Tetris, kinda interesting for those who enjoy that. I guess?

Okay, this long-lost floppy disk is now safely stored within the archives of Atarimania so go and grab yourself a copy. It's impressive just how many great games are on this disk plus they're all by Mr Munsie (sounds creepy doesn't it). He certainly knew his stuff and this floppy disk proves just how much fun he must have had making games.

There are more Munsie games for the Atari ST that you should play with several already on AtariCrypt - Asteroidia, Frantick, and Berzerk. Righto, before rushing off to download this disk here are photos and screenshots to gawk over...

This is the disk! The photo makes the disk look nicer than it is - thanks to Instagram for that lol.

Did the world ever get to see Volume II?

I wasn't too impressed with this Centipede clone at first but it's excellent!

Plain, blocky but with tons of colour and cute sprites. It's still a ripoff but a great one at that!

Framerate could be better but this is a superb shoot 'em up of mixed genres.

Oh yeah!! This takes me back to playing the old Atari 2600 game. Simple yet fantastic fun!

2016 saw the definitive Frogger but this older version from 1993 is a great release!

Another game of Dave's that I wasn't umm totally sure about but is yet another exciting blaster!

Ugh, it's not you, it's me (that line, eh). You guys might like it but it's not a game I personally enjoy.

Donkey Kong fans are gonna love this one but is it better than Crash Time Plumber? :o

One for fans of the Tetris genre. Not for me, I'm sorry to say!

Ironman Challenge III

Running The Gauntlet!

A couple of years ago, I asked Mike (of The New Retro Show) to play some Atari ST games. An alternative selection that I knew would push this bloke to his limits - it was especially fun watching him endure Fire And Brimstone!!

Two years is long enough, so I challenged him to a third "Ironman" video which he agreed to! So I picked games from the PD/Shareware scene, four platformers and three conversions of arcade classics: Clod Hopper, Crapman, Frogger, Hector vs The Mutant Vampire Tomatoes From Hell, Hoog, Space Monsters and Winglord.

I would like to thank Mike for this fun challenge, which I have really enjoyed. Oh, and this video is actually an early screening just for Atari ST gamers and it will not be made public until this Wednesday!! One more thing... Mike, I've got some cool (and cruel) ideas for a fourth challenge if you're interested? Go on, I dare ya!

  
Three belters: Winglord (Atari STe), Crapman and one of the latest games released for the ST, Frogger!

 
Hoog is one mightily impressive jaw-dropping platformer and Clod Hopper feels so authentically 8Bit.

 
Hector... must be one of the best titles ever and who doesn't love a fantastic conversion of Panic?

Crash Time Plumber

New game alert!

Crash Time Plumber is a conversion of the Gamopat original which was released at Silly Venture demo party. The Atari game was developed by none other than Sebastien Lucas of Cerebral Vortex and it will work on any Atari computer with a Blitter Chip: check the Options screen in GEM but all late models of STfm, Mega ST, Atari STe, and Falcon should be a-ok. Many STfm computers have an empty socket just waiting to be used:

* Many newer STFMs have an empty Blitter Chip socket so head over to the EXXOS webSTore.

At first, I wasn't sure how this was gonna go as we've been burnt by so-called 8-bit conversions before. However, this booted up great with a neat intro and looks the business! Based on Donkey Kong with a dollop of Popeye, it's set in 1983 as the gaming industry crashed (which I was completely unaware of being a Spectrum kid then!)

Anyhow, an Italian plumber has teamed up with an angry-looking monkey and kidnapped ten gaming heroes: Pac-Man, Pitfall Harry, Q-Bert, Frogger, and others. They are all preparing for a hideous death at the hands of these criminals from the East so go and rescue them all to foil Mario's plan and stop this invasion.

Sounds cool, right? It is and so is the intro too which begins in Alamogordo (I've been here!)...

The intro is sweet and tells a good story. Also, I've been to Alamogordo, NM. #tidbit

Hang on, this looks familiar?

Taking place on the Donkey Kong construction site, we run along girders collecting love hearts given away by a damsel in distress. She floats by in her hot air balloon and, when enough are collected, we begin a steroid-jumping rescue to the top of the screen and save a trapped hero. Once he's free, we can move on to the next level.

This isn't easy because, not only is Mario rolling barrels downhill, but King Kong is hanging about throwing deadly killer bananas at us with annoying accuracy! Some levels have weather conditions affecting your movement and there's even a harsh 120-second time limit. This makes things quite difficult after a few levels!

The game ends once each and every gaming hero has been rescued. Easier said than done...

Watch out for angry monkeys throwing their killer bananas or you're DEAD!!

One smooth looker!

The graphics are fantastic! A gorgeous 80s retro theme with cute sprites and the Blitter delivers a smooth 50fps display. Heck, the Atari STe even adds enhanced colour fading and Falcon owners get to witness a huge Zeppelin flying by - which I cannot help but wonder why that's missing on the STe? Ignoring that moan, this game is ace!!

The audio is also superb with lovely sound effects and a simple chiptune that is also totally suited to the ye olde style. A lot of effort has gone into both the visuals and sounds and I dare that jingle not to stay in your head all day!

Everything is just dandy and perfect in with a retro and comical design...

Beautiful girl blowing kisses? Come back, my love!

The CryptO'pinion?

Don't be fooled by the humble 8-bit appearance. From the start, you're tricked into thinking this is going to be easy but the combination of fantastic controls and tough mechanics will catch you out. I'm sick of being smacked in the face by a killer banana... but I keep on being dragged back for more of this torment... Am I insane, no this game is!!

Crash Time Plumber is extremely hard but it manages to drag you back for more - kicking and screaming.

Download for FLOPPY / HARD DISK

Harris Went Skiing

Horace?

Let's rewind the clock to 1982 for a skiing adventure with an 8-bit hero, Horace. Developed in STOS by a couple of brothers calling themselves OllySoft and released a decade after the ZX Spectrum original. However, for his Atari ST appearance, he didn't want to upset Psion and changed his name to Harris to avoid confusion!

Anyone old enough to remember the original will feel at home with Harris who is once again looking to enjoy a skiing trip. However, it's not started off well... Harris finds himself in a pickle as he didn't bring along any skis so must hire replacements from the resort - who built their shop on the wrong side of a busy highway.

The Frogger part is way too easy in comparison to what I remember! Simply waiting for a large gap in the traffic allows Harris to run all the way across the road! The skiing part is great with many obstacles to avoid. Once the skiing is finished, somebody robs your skis so you head back to the hire shop to repeat everything.

OllySoft has done a great job with Harris Went Skiing and "Horace" brought back lots of warm and fuzzy feelings of nostalgia. The Atari ST game is simple and very silly so is highly recommended if you're bored.

Grab the download of Atari Legend and game like it's 1982!!

There are more OllySoft games but looking at these makes me think that the boys had serious issues! Or a belting sense of humour? I'll go with the latter so let's take a quick look...

Who Maimed Roger Rabbit

Imagine Operation Wolf but set in President Trump's backyard which is overrun by weak rabbits! Aka lefties. So grab a gun and let's fix this problem once and for all. Gameplay is as you might imagine; successful hit turns the rabbits into a bloody mess of gore. I'm sure animal lovers will appreciate this game!

Overall, it's a humble take on the famous title but quite enjoyable, if repetitive.

SubHunt

A pointless two-player game without much enjoyment. Playing solo is even worse and I didn't like this game whatsoever. However, it does feature a fantastic hidden easter egg and that's worth the download!!

 

Ayatollah Invaders

An endless supply of ayatollah chaps running down your screen - straight into the path of your tank. It's actually mind-numbingly repetitive but, I gotta admit, darn good fun. Very enjoyable for a couple of games but boring afterwards. It's worth booting up once just to witness the superb somersault deaths.

Motorway Death

Perhaps we can lower the bar even further? Hmm, how about a game of hit and run? Yep, you heard me right!! And, on this road, people appear glued down so drive into them and watch their bodies turn into blood splatters. It's a sick Carmegeddon and so funny... well... for a few minutes!

Raiden

Grab a joystick!

It's been almost a year since I first mentioned news of Raiden under development for the Atari STe by none other than our favourite Frogger dude, Scott Clifford. Sadly, his commitments forced the project to be put on ice temporarily... But, good news, he has now restarted it and is making good progress (keeping my fingers crossed here!)

The initial work behind the scrolling, backgrounds, and sprites is all coming together. Also, the enemy sprite routines and placements are now being coded. Quite incredible for a one-man effort and it's a very exciting project to see in progress. I wish Scott well and cannot wait to see the next update (hurry up mate - I can't wait). Watch this space folks!

Okay, here is Scott's feature plan...

- Hardware scrolling is used for the entire screen - no status panel.
- DMA hardware for the playback of authentic arcade music.
- The Blitter will be utilised for the larger sprites.
- YM chip will be used for the sound effects.
- Support for the JagPad controller can be implemented.
- Please note that my video was recorded using emulation (better on my Atari STe)

TRS-80 emulator

Let's go back to the days of Starsky & Hutch and Asteroids!

Most people might think it's pretty stupid to emulate a retro computer - using a retro computer? Thankfully, not me because I have found something rather incredible called 2nd Life. It's a TRS-80 Model III emulator by Sander Berents and is something I stumbled on purely by chance. What luck! So, I figured I should give it a good playtesting.

I've never actually owned/used a TRS-80 and I imagine few made it outside of the US? Anyhow, Tandy and RadioShack released the first model in 1977 and it was a huge hit for those wealthy enough to have lots of spare cash burning a hole in their pockets. Back then, I would have been six years old and too young to care about something like this :-)

Okay, let's begin with a screenshot of the credits. Oh yeah, it's screenshot time...

It's sadly impressive that something this good wasn't released earlier in the ST's life.

What's a RadioShack?

Like you, I love my Atari ST, even when it pretends to be something else, be that a Sinclair, Commodore or even a peculiar clunk of hardware by RadioShack (I used to love the Tandy stores). Anyhow, a TRS-80 emulator sounded far too tempting not to boot up so I read the docs and hit the web to learn how to operate this ancient beast.

First things first do read the docs and take a look at the FAQ text file to understand which options to enable/disable for the best performance and compatibility settings. You will also find two more disk images with compiled and BASIC games but you'll be best with a 16MHz computer to enjoy something close to native speeds.

2nd Life requires ST High resolution and is very easy to use. Along the bottom of the screen, are four floppy disk drive icons - click to highlight Drive 0 and use that as the TRS operating system boot drive. The second drive icon can be used for anything like games or other images that you may have downloaded from the net.

Lots of features and is very versatile. Plus it can play many different games too which matters more...

One of the first things I booted up was Donkey Kong. Okay, it looks terrible but plays well.

Old but not that much different

Using the TRS-80's DOS commands feels a little quirky but is fairly easy to learn. For example, DIR will display the directory of a disk and it can be expanded with extra options and filters, as you'll see in the video:

DIR 0 - will produce the contents of Drive 0

DIR 1 - will produce the contents of Drive 1. Easy, right?

DIR 1,/BAS - this displays the same list but filters for BAS files.
CAT 1 - this provides an alternative way to load programs!

We're gonna get a little more complex now but it's worth it to watch the dancing alien:

BASIC RUN "DANCING/BAS,1"

The command looks worse than it actually is. Breaking it down, it simply instructs the computer to load up the BASIC program. Then that will load/run the file "DANCING/BAS" which is stored on Drive 1. Easy!

This is starting to be fun so I went searching for a game like Menace or R-Type. Ahem, screenshot time...

Sea Dragon is a terrible mess of ZX81 blockiness but it is a brilliant shoot 'em up!

Get to the games already!

Ultimately, we're here to play some TRS-80 games and I gotta tip my hat to this old piece of 70s kit. There are some great games in its library and there's a good reason I chose Sea Dragon as the video thumbnail. Like any old computer, there's a wealth of vintage games from the era: Pacman, Invaders, Frogger, and so on. I'm a geek, so I enjoyed the thrill of playing with something that's almost as old as me. No rude comments, please!

Performance-wise, the humble 8MHZ Atari ST will successfully emulate and run everything you throw at it. However, it's going to struggle with the games as it's simply not fast enough. Personally, my Mega STe is the basic and minimum requirement and produces near-perfect speeds, generally speaking. So, 8MHz will be fine but 16MHz will get you gaming. Hardly a shock and just the same as with other emulators we have within our library...

Don't forget to read the docs as README.TXT is there for a reason... Okay, I'll nag no more! 

Yes, this really is Frogger. Hopper has awful collision detection but is a pretty good game.

Games! Give me games!

One of the best games I played was Sea Dragon, which is a fantastic scramble through watery canyons. Sadly, I wasn't impressed with Penetrator I struggled with jerky graphics and twitchy controls. It was a shock to see a chunky version of Donkey Kong with huge black and white blocks but the gameplay is superb and that's what matters. However, the blocks worked great for Armored Patrol and the wealth of PacMan games!

There are a few games bundled with 2nd Life and many are great but sooner or later you will want more. Thankfully, there are some great websites with disk images stuffed full of games and I managed to find racers, lots of different Space Invaders, Zork and even Temple of Apshai - which is nothing at all like the Atari ST version and its "turn-based" element caught me off-guard, in a nice way. But boy, is it slow - even on a real TRS-80. Yikes!

Most (all?) disk images found on the internet won't be compatible with the Atari ST. Thankfully, Sander has a utility to convert these for 2nd Life and it works a treat from what I've seen so far. Hence, how I got to play Hamburger Sam, Berserk, erm Robot Attack and the sluggish Temple of Apshai.

He might not be yellow but he's on the TRS-80 as Gobbler!

The CryptO'pinion?

I initially expected the TRS-80 to be nothing more than a cumbersome piece of ancient hardware that I wouldn't particularly enjoy. I couldn't be more wrong, this is a machine that appears to have more power and versatility than I would ever imagine. It's a great computer and it's no wonder those plucky Americans snapped it up!

2nd Life is an equally fantastic piece of software and I'm impressed with how well it runs in terms of its speed and compatibility. The inclusion of a utility to convert disk images into a format that 2nd Life can recognise is a wonderful addition and opens up the possibility of playing everything there is. Techies can go further: font editor, altering the keyboard layout, linking computers via parallel ports and even tinkering with a disassembler debugger...

The TRS-80 is a great machine and it is so impressive to see the Atari ST flip back in time so easily and reliably. This is a fantastic emulator - however - you will need a >16Mhz computer to start gaming like it's 1977 and my Mega STe felt close to the speed of a real TRS-80 (from what I've seen online). I have really enjoyed using 2nd Life and I'd love to hear what hardware and performance you guys are getting, so let me know in the comments below.

GitHub has the download which includes the source code for those uber-geeks amongst us :-)

- MORE SCREENSHOTS -

Look what I found and it's quite different to the Atari ST game. Quick, kill the Ant Man!!

This is Astro and it's a BASIC game. No, I mean it's written in BASIC and it's good.

Hamburger Sam, based on BurgerTime but felt more like Mr Wimpy to me. Love it.

This is Speedway and it's kinda like an early Spy Hunter or Major Motion. Hmm...

Runner demands quick control action - you'll regret not reading the FAQ text file!

I only ever played Penetrator on the ZX Spectrum... and this isn't as good!

Hang on, is that Berserk? No, it's Robot Attack and completely different. Honest.

Limit Zero is absolutely superb and something you should play!!

ScarfMan? Okay, it's getting silly now...

Lunar Lander is a cracking conversion but too slow for an 8MHz ST to handle.

ATORIC

Tangerine Dream

It's often a pointless venture, without any real-world use, but I still enjoy emulating other computers on my Atari ST. Yes, I'm a geek! If you're as weird as me, check out our Emulation section here on AtariCrypt and watch as I painstakingly try to suss out how to emulate computers like the PC, ZX Spectrum, C64, Tandy, and ZX81 (plus other silly stuff).

I love finding programs like these and today, I shall turn my Atari ST into an Oric Atmos. The "Oric computer" is actually two machines - the older Oric 1 looks futuristic but (from what I've read) had many bugs. The Oric Atmos followed a year later and was basically the same computer with many of the bugs ironed out (more information online if interested).

I recall seeing the Atmos in Rumbelows (remember them!?) which they featured on a pedestal in the middle of the shop. Perhaps they had high hopes? Anyway, I still remember how cool this computer looked with a great design and proper keyboard. I wanted one but all my friends had ZX Spectrums and, that was that. What a fool I was? Unless a time machine is invented - very soon - I might always regret not choosing computers like this and the 8-bit Ataris.

Anyhow, I might not need that as there may be light at the end of the tunnel thanks to a program called Atoric...

The later release of Atoric boots to a Microdisk default with many different options.

ATORIC

So, here we are in 2024 emulating the Oric using my Atari ST thanks to this program developed by Christian Peppermueller. I managed to find a few different versions online but, for most of this article, I was using v0.3 until (ahem) I remembered that I had already downloaded v0.9 ages ago. But, somehow forgotten about it... Doh!

Actually, all versions work much the same with surprisingly accurate emulation albeit very slowwwwwww. Yes, the stock 8MHz Atari ST oddly struggles compared to the other emulators I've used. I would estimate its performance is about a tenth of the speed of the original Oric - which is shocking compared to the speed of the Spectrum emulator. Even the Falcon/TT don't perform well so I can only imagine (and hope) that the modded Atari computers do better.

Anyhow, enough whining! Atoric is an excellent piece of software and very easy to use. Depending on which version you try, it's easy to load games. Later versions can simply use the command CLOAD"" which uses the ST's file selector. Although you can also enter the command in full: CLOAD"MANIC" (for example, to load Manic Miner - which I renamed).

The latest version (that I found) of Atoric is v0.9 and it comes with Microdisk/Sedoric disk operating tool that features many functions. Use it to boot up in Atmos mode and "begin playing". Interestingly, there is a tool to amend the Atoric configuration file. This can alter how Atoric performs and more: default path locations can be chosen along with ST/Falcon displays (colour and high-resolution). It can use overscan which makes up for the Oric's resolution.

It's worth reading the documentation before attempting any changes...

The configuration tool is enhanced somewhat in the later releases and is very easy to use.

Let's get straight to the games!

In terms of the emulation, fantastic is the word because almost everything worked well. Sadly, in terms of speed (when running on my STe) I can only say that poor is a better description. My old 8MHz computer doesn't have the grunt and the emulation speed is shocking. Which I find odd, especially compared to the Speccy emulator. After all, the Oric is similar, with a slower processor, so I'm quite bemused by the sluggish performance. But, what do I know...

Okay, I booted up about 40/50 random games - I've never used an Oric so didn't know anything about its library. However, the Oric has Manic Miner so that was obviously the first game I tried. The quality of the emulation is superb and everything looks great. However, it's running at less than 1fps which means it's totally unplayable.

Booting into Hatari and configuring as a 32MHz ST improved things - but only slightly. The Falcon/TT configs didn't improve matters. Not that much - so I can only wonder what type of Atari computer would!

Okay, let's see some more games. Almost everything works perfectly, if you ignore the speed! There were one or two issues with a few other games where the overscan failed - so I couldn't see the bottom of the screen. Also, a couple of games appeared to work except the keyboard stopped accepting input. Very handy. Not!

It's now we declare defeat and admit that the Atari ST will never run an Oric game properly (I really need a Medusa). So, with that in mind, I plodded on and "playtested" a few games with the first being Manic Miner (emulated in both colour & mono). As a Willy fan, it's surreal to see the Oric version running on my ST!! What a shame it plays like a slideshow!

(low-res) Manic Miner on the Oric on my Atari ST. Fantastic stuff!! #geek

(hi-res) I thought the performance might be better without the stress of colours. It wasn't lol.

And it's now that I must plug the incredible Atari ST version of Manic Miner developed by Fede Pede in 2018. It's 95% complete and downloadable so give it a whirl. It's a cracking repoduction of the 8-bit original!!

Donkey Kong

This was actually called Honey Kong - to avoid the usual Nintendo troubles - and is a fun conversion. Visually a bit bland so I thought the performance might be better. It wasn't. Although not as slow as Manic Miner, it was still unplayable. Additionally, the display is quite fluffy with a few glitches - so make sure you enable the overscan option for better results.

Forget this one dear ST people. Has anyone got an Atari TT they want to donate? Hmm

Credit: V. Nicolas for Sprites.

https://www.oric.org/software/honey_kong-1200.html

I later enabled overscan and everything worked dandy. Except way too slowly!

Football Manager

Yes, Kevin Toms' famous face has even managed its way onto an Oric cassette. I'm not a footie fan but - stop the press - this was actually playable!! Well, with the acceptable performance expectation. So, with that in mind, it is playable. Yes, I use all of these terms lightly but, always positively. Forget the official ST game and play this one instead! ;-)

Credit: Addictive Games

https://www.oric.org/software/football_manager-43.html

I reckon Football Manager came out on every computer?

Zaxxon

This isn't a game I had high hopes for but, I tried it anyway. I was shocked when I first booted it up as I thought the graphics had screwed up because it looked nothing like the US Gold release. But this game was programmed in BASIC so, I guess, the look and performance are as expected. Great results considering its BASIC but, it's best we move on...

Credit: Richard Juhel

https://www.oric.org/software/zaxxon-1777.html

I wasn't impressed but then I learnt it was programmed in BASIC!

Driver

This is a weird one that reminded me of a mix of Motor Massacre & Bugziacs. We drive around a maze looking for flags whilst avoiding enemy cars. The graphics are screwy (especially without overscan) and the scrolling is probably the reason for the poor performance. You know the story, it's one of those games that makes me wish I had an upgraded ST.

Credit: Francois Lionet (whaaaaat?)

https://www.oric.org/software/driver-37.html

The sprites look odd unless that's normal? As ever, far too slow to play...

Galaxians

This shooter is by one of my favourite 8-bit companies, Softek. It's another game that is fully playable and emulated extremely well with decent graphics and sounds - albeit only for the original Oric computer. Okay, I'll now stop mentioning the lack of speed when using an Atari ST because I'm sick of repeating myself. If only my ST ran at 128MHz lol.

Credit: Gordon Russell

https://www.oric.org/software/galaxians-45.html

I had a few issues with this game but it eventually worked with overscan enabled.

Ghost Gobbler

Hey, it may have a bizarre name but it's still Pac-Man and a great version too! However, I'm not sure what Ian was on when he developed this game. After all, those lavish colours will drive anyone insane after a few games. Perhaps that was his plan? Who knows!! Anyhow, I do know that this is a great version of the classic arcade game.

Credit: Ian Hothersall

https://www.oric.org/software/ghost_gobbler-47.html

Who doesn't love Pac-Man? This is a great version for those with the hardware to run it!

Krillys

The file I found gave the impression this was a Defender clone but it's nothing like Jeff Minter's wondrous release. In fact, it's more of a Scramble, which is excellent news to this fan! It appears to be very good but the graphics are a little messed up. It plays well and I can imagine a faster Atari computer would be fine booting this up for a quick blast.

Credit: John Cumming, Gary Munroe, Ian Marshall

https://www.oric.org/software/krillys-63.html

Something wonky has happened to the graphics but it plays well enough.

Road Frog

I wasn't expecting this to beat the ST's 2016 release of Frogger but I was expecting to play ... something. Sadly, this is one of the few games that crashes! Right after the loading screen, it pops up with this: "Syntax Error 500". Ah well!

Credit: Philip Hulme

https://www.oric.org/software/road_frog-87.html

This looked great but it's one of the few games that produced an error message.

Velnor's Lair

An adventure game released by another of my favourite 8-bit companies, Quicksilva. Originally a Speccy game from what the link tells me, although I have never previously heard of it. Now, don't expect graphics as this game is purely text and, as a result, is fully playable on the bog standard 8MHz Atari ST. Yippee, I am one happy bunny!

Credit: Derek Brewster and John Airey

https://www.oric.org/software/velnor_s_lair-574.html

There are no flashy graphics and it's still slow lol. Thankfully, it's not that (hmm) bad!

The Warlock's Mountain

Believe it or not, this game was originally a Your Computer type-in from 1984 (remember that magazine?). Of course, being programmed in basic means it worked well in the emulator and was playable, to a degree. Well, I'm being generous but you get like that after so much constant disappointment. Of course, play it on a supped-up ST for best results.

Credit: A.J. Edgington

https://www.oric.org/software/warlock_s_mountain__the-590.html

This is a game I'm keeping to play using the Mac emulator. It's different and I love that.

Hunchback

Yet another game by the mighty Ocean and it's a cracker too. I loved playing the Speccy game and the ST has some odd remakes. Sadly, like their Road Frog, this game had troubles. It froze right at the start of a new game. Bugger!

Credit: Philip Hulme

https://www.oric.org/software/hunchback-57.html

I was looking forward to this one as the Speccy game is a favourite of mine. Sadly, it froze!

Xenon 1

Don't even think about it!! This shooter is nothing like the Bitmap Bros' ST game. No, it's more of a Phoenix clone from what little I managed to see. Yeah, it really needs a beefy computer to run properly - and is better when overscan is enabled.

Credit: John Sinclair

https://www.oric.org/software/xenon_1-105.html

It's slow and impossible to play but I imagine it's great on a real Oric.

Wizard's Lair

Like our Atari ST, the Oric is getting new games released and, by sheer chance, I stumbled upon a #roguelike by Rax & Iss. This game is incredible but, arghhh, I couldn't get the controls to work. I don't know why because it appears to be running fine. Anyhow, I had to see more, so I booted up an Oric emulator for my Mac to take this screenshot.

(credit to Defence Force for the find: https://forum.defence-force.org)

I dare anyone not to be impressed with this Rogue game. It's a belter!!

The CryptO'pinion?

Oric computers are great and better than I expected. I mostly used the Atmos model as it's the same spec as the original computer but with many bugs ironed out. In many respects, the Oric is much like a ZX Spectrum, but, better. I wouldn't say it's as good as the C64 or Atari 8-bits but it's close. What a massive shame it flopped (outside of France).

Atoric is a wonderful piece of software and I've enjoyed tinkering with it. It's obvious that Christian put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into its production. The end result is impressive and complete - so it emulates the Oric remarkably accurately. He also included a configuration tool providing access to different features and basic defaults for hardware, paths, etc. The overscan ability is brilliant and eliminates the flickering due to the different resolutions.

Sadly, it's the speed that will disappoint. Oric games might be emulated accurately but are unplayable on an ST. In fact, the Falcon/TT machines I set up in Hatari faired only slightly better. If I'm honest, I don't understand why that is as the Oric runs at 1MHz, slower than the other computers we can emulate. Yet, the results are terrible by comparison.

However, that's not the point of playing with old software like this. A program like Atoric proves how vibrant and energetic the Atari ST scene was back in the '80s/'90s. Plus I've had a blast wading through the Oric's gaming library. Okay, I played very few games, but it was an adventure. And one I've thoroughly enjoyed. Yes, I am insane. I know I am!!

Atoric is a magnificent program that I've thoroughly enjoyed. I only wish I had a faster Atari ST :/

I expect somebody out there wants to try Atoric for themselves? I genuinelly hope so!! I have bundled together everything that I've been using which you can download off my Dropbox.

Additionally, if you're after a bundle of Oric games, then grab 'em from Emu-Land.

If you're mad like me and enjoy using emulators on the Atari ST, let me know how you got on using the comments below. My options were limited by my humble 8MHz Atari STe and also Hatari. I would love to hear from you guys with better Atari computers regarding the performance.