Menace is one of the few Psygnosis games that I respect. It's a good shooter. Okay, it should have been better with a little effort, but that's an Amiga company for you. Anyhow, it's still a decent game, and I enjoy it. But what's with the YELLOW ship compared to that other version? For years, I've hated its bland colour and wondered what they were thinking. And if it was possible to change it for something better?
So I contacted Atari ST wizard Peter Putnik about my dilemma. He's always up for a challenge and open to ideas. It wasn't long until he came back with a solution that worked well. As you can see in both the video and screenshots, our spaceship now has a new paint job!! The caveat is a change to the (badly placed) status pane due to the 16-colour palette. Of course, the game remains the same, but we now pilot a white ship!
You know, folks, this is what makes the Atari ST scene a marvellous place. Think about it, I wasn't happy with a commercial game from 30+ years ago. I asked a guy living in another country for his thoughts. What does he do? He fixes it without hesitation. Incredible. What an amazing community we have.
My sincere thanks to Peter for being gracious with my request. This version of Menace is the only one I will play on the Atari ST. Here's the download to the newly designed AtariCrypt White Star (geddit?).
Please watch the video trailer above and gander at these lovely screenshots...
I made this silly image. Can you tell? lol
Here it is, our brand new white ship!
Just look at it. Much better now, albeit at the expense of the status bar.
Skimming along through space in my spanky new ship!!
It might not be the best shooter, but the graphics are cool.
It has its haters, but this is better than most of the drivel Psygnosis produced for us.
Alien World is a shoot 'em up by Gary Antcliffe (Blazing Thunder/Yogi's Great Escape) and was released in 1992 by Hi-Tec Premier Software. Ignoring the dreadful title tune, the game is a cross between the likes of Menace and R-Type, with a dollop of Venus Flytrap thrown in for good measure. Which is always gonna be ace!
The action is relentless and immediately hits you with a ton of pitfalls like red-hot streams of molten lava that shoot up from glowing pools. It isn't long before you feel a little Blood Money creeping in as the scrolling alternates between horizontal & vertical. I liked the parts that don't automatically scroll, allowing you to move at your own leisure. Gravity plays a part in affecting your movement, think Flappy Bird or SantaFly!
Graphically, Alien World is outstanding with ultra-smooth scrolling, best experienced using a real Atari ST. Everything is exquisite, rich colours, detailed sprites, and fluent movement. Sadly, audio is a different story with no in-game tune and weak sound effects. A few decent chiptunes would have been perfect!
Gameplay is what matters, and I’m impressed with this challenging shooter. While it has an immense learning curve, Blood Money fans will enjoy it. Like many 16-bit games of the era, it’s incredibly tough and requires a cheat. However, it’s a game that keeps you coming back for that satisfying "just one more go".
Alien World is great and will keep you entertained for hours. It’s so challenging, but I absolutely love it.
I had a free hour today, so I entertained myself with Rainbow Arts' Z-Out. Essentially, this is a bog-standard horizontally scrolling shooter with nice graphics and (familiar) sound effects. The controls work well, but it feels like a clone of Menace or R-Type. There is anifty two-player feature which we enjoyed!!
However, I found it extremely difficult at times, plus it didn't really bring anything new to the table compared to shooters already out. Don't get me wrong, this is a very good game, but there are better shoot 'em ups. Am I right? Well, I think so, but let me know what you think in the comments below. Go on, do it.
Downloads and cheats for anyone wanting to experience more of this shooter...
8BitChip has adapted this for hard drive installation with a level skip feature.
> pressing J + K together gives infinite energy. > pressing J and a number between 1 - 6 (on the main keyboard) to skip levels. > pressing K and a number between 1 - 3 (on the keypad) to jump stages.
I remember when I first heard tracker music, it was around 1989, and a pretty cool experience, albeit not on the ST. To be honest, it was something that I never expected to hear from such a small file - I am comparing it to a sound sample that eats the entire space on any floppy disk (and then the Ram).
When I upgraded to an Atari STe, finding a MOD player was one of the first things I attempted. I wanted to ditch chip music for this tantalising new style of computer music. It's weird, but back then, I felt disappointed in my Atari ST and its chip music, but I don't feel that way now. In fact, I find many of those MODs I find poor and often quite irritating, excluding classics like R-Type, Menace, and a few others.
Today, I'm a chip guy. That doesn't mean I'm completely against MODs. I just prefer chip. I see videos on YouTube and read people's comments about how they wish a particular ST game sounded more like the Amiga. I get that, but imagine IF our computer did sound the same. Would that be a good thing? I don't think so. The ST is its own entity with the ability to sound its own way using gorgeous chip music. If the ST had the same music capabilities as the Amiga (in games), then why not just buy the Amiga and be done with it?
No other computer out there has to justify itself like the Atari ST, and that ... annoys me! Think about that, and it's why I started AtariCrypt. I want the ST to be an ST and not pretend to be something else. The YM is part of what makes the ST an ST, and that's a good thing and shouldn't be thought of negatively.
With that off my chest, here is a selection of excellent MOD players for the Atari STe...
Atari STe MOD / Tracker Players
BackTrack - I wasn't too sure about this at first, but I cannot deny its quality, and the selectable frequencies are a brilliant idea that will be useful on every model of Atari. The audio playback sounds great, especially at 50KHz - but you might need a Mega STe for that!! (v4.04 - released 1993 - by Wizzcat)
CD Player STE - This is like a CD player from the 90s. Just copy the MOD files into the same folder as the program and boot it up. Obviously not a GEM program, but something that works well, is very effective, and has a fantastic interface. Cracking program - leave it running while you work! (released 1990 - by Light)
DBE Player - Another GEM program to punch out your favourite MODS. The quality is excellent and has a decent playlist feature. However, I thought that it's pretty demanding of the basic model STe compared to the others (v2.0 - released 1999 - by Sector One)
The MusicPlayer - Ignoring its quirky GEM interface (which is odd), I thought this program produced good sound quality and even supports 50KHz / 8 channels! (v1.0 - released 1994 - by Christian Dahl)
Sirius Player - This is another that refuses to use GEM and replaces it with its own beautiful UI. The sound quality is Grade A with support for 50KHz, thus proving GEM can be a beast. Also, 8-channel MODS can be played using features like presets /etc/etc. Don't forget to press the HELP key for all of the options. This is my favourite program; its playback quality is mind-boggling!! (v2.0 - released 2001 - by TSCC 2001)
Paula - A great program that makes you wish you'd have bought a Mega STe for that extra grunt! This is yet another example of the sound quality an Atari STe can produce - and in GEM too. Great programs. My thanks to Pavel Puchala for alerting me to the freeware release! (v2.6 - released 1999 - by Pascal Fellerich)
JAM - A true jack of all trades that works either in GEM or using its own frontend GUI. It features a neat plugin architecture, so lots of different file types are supported - not just MODs but various chiptunes. This is absolutely fascinating, and JAM always produces excellent sounds! (v1.0 - released 2000 - by Cream)
The CryptO'pinion?
This page proves nothing. Well, except that the Atari STe can easily handle Amiga MODs with quality playback, no matter what program you decide to use. They're all great. It just depends on your own needs: if you need a GEM player, then any of the above is a good choice to install onto your hard drive/ultrasatan.
Yes, they are all great in their own way, but I loved how the CD Player can be stacked and left to play while you're doing something else. JAM is great and can handle a variety of different formats, too. Ultimately, I think Sirius is best (for me) with its astounding 50Khz playback, so I tend to prefer this above all others.
What says you? Let me know in the comments below...
Everyone knows Peter Putnik has adapted hundreds of games for hard disk installation. These include extras, like bug fixes, TOS compatibility, 4MB patching, Mega STe/Falcon support, etc. However, some are also super-charged with cool coding that utilises the Blitter coprocessor and DMA for audio that will blow your mind.
Are you interested in games being better on your Atari STe? You should be!
I thought it would be a nice idea to compile a brief overview of his enhanced games here on AtariCrypt. Oids and Uridium are particularly impressive as they significantly improve on their original versions. I also enjoyed playing my own music during a game of Xenon 2 (you can convert your own music).
There is something here for everyone, and I hope you find this useful. Let me know what you think.
Let's play.
Let's take a look at some of these enhanced games that you can download and play right now...
Xenon II - updated for the Atari STe and features DMA-streamed music. Turn up the volume!
Cannon Fodder - enhance this lame port with your own DMA-streamed music.
Prince of Persia - the DMA hardware is used to replay the game's sound effects.
Did you enjoy that? Well, here are three enhanced FTL games that are nicely improved...
Dungeon Master - far cleaner samples are heard thanks to the DMA hardware.
Chaos Strikes Back - again, the DMA hardware allows cleaner sample playback!
Oids - double framerates deliver a smoother experience when rescuing the stickmen.
Let's take a peek at three more that aren't exactly favoured well by the average ST gamer...
Jinks - this jerky game is weird, but at least it now uses the smoother STe scrolling.
Menace - I cannot thank Peter enough for replacing that horrendous yellow ship!
Uridium - Blitter-boost that sluggish ship and add DMA-streamed background music while you're at it!
Now let's take a little run-around with these three you might never have expected to boot up...
Giana Sisters - this Zamuel_a enhanced game now comes with optional DMA streamed music!!
Hard 'n' Heavy - gone is that embarrassing flip-screen, thanks to the Blitter.
Road Runner - Improved and Blitterized for faster scrolling for this funny game.
Okay, let's end in style! Here are two ST classics and a PC classic, too! Ooh, nice...
Goldrunner - Some might not like this, but I hit the F3 key to disable the fuzzy speech!
Gauntlet - this sluggish hack 'n slasher gets big improvements, but still needs extra CPU grunt.
Wolfenstein 3D - Ray's jaw-dropping FPS now has bugs removed with decent save game support.
I'm not big on social media, but one of the reasons I remain on Twitter is to follow people like Jonathan Thomas. Yep,
that same dodgy fella who developed
Pole Position
for the Atari STe and then dared to update
Lotus Turbo II
in ways we never thought possible back in the day. Okay, I guess he's not a
bad lad...
His tweets are often fascinating because he pokes deep within the
depths of ST code. It's here that weird techniques are discovered or he
experiments with probable improvements. He also enhances code by utilising the Atari STe hardware. All this coding talk is way
over my head, but intriguing nonetheless.
So, onto his latest 'project', a horizontally-scrolling shooter for the Atari
STe, not too dissimilar to Menace, R-Type, etc. Jon’s using hardware scrolling while the sprites and particle effects are handled by the Blitter. There are no DMA sound effects, but I cannot complain as he was
generous in sending me an early beta lol
I asked Jon for his thoughts and prospects for what might eventually be an Atari STe game. Although he replied that he had no concrete plans, he did hint toward several promising short-term goals:
A title screen (we will need a name for this!).
16x16
sprites for a selection of individual enemies.
Each sprite will use
10-15 predefined attack moves.
A couple of (2-3 minute) stages with
increasing difficulty.
A "game completion" screen.
Multiple DMA
sound effects.
Chipmusic hopefully by (fingers crossed)
Dma_Sc.
Having "played" the beta, I must say it's impressive, along with the
prospect of what's already been achieved in a short time. I liked the
feel of the joystick controls, and collision detection is spot-on. Border
rasters indicate the remaining CPU time for future additions and demonstrate the potential. You might say, I'm excited!
If, like me, you love hearing what other people are doing with their Atari
STs, then take a look at Jon's
Twitter stream. It's amock with weird programming gizmos (that I shall never understand) as he enjoys dismantling ST games. I can imagine the
dorky entertainment Jon has with his Atari STe!! I hope that continues.
Update: Jon has started a source
repository
for those interested in helping him out.
Sophelie was once a goddess of heaven, but has since been vanquished and left to roam the lands searching for her body. What? Why? Well, some kind soul has turned her into an albatross, so she now spends time flying through worlds looking to find her original appearance. As storylines go, this is silly, to say the least!
This is a horizontally scrolling shooter, not too dissimilar to Menace. This time, we're not killing monsters or aliens, but some of the weirdest things you might never have expected: planets, snowmen, wolf heads, eyeballs, and even trees. The landscapes are lush with colour, and even angels will regularly appear to help.
Sounds great, right? Well, let's take a look at some screenshots from the first level...
Yep, giant eyeballs are coming for you and are actually tough to kill, too!
Now, this is getting silly! What have the trees ever done to you?
Let's kill the planet? No, literally by shooting down the rotating planet Earth!!
Spit, don't shoot!
We begin with the hand of God safely delivering us, ready for battle. The levels are split into segments, with each having its own brand of baddies all too eager to see you dead. The controls are fast and responsive, and a joy to control without any lag. The gameplay is fast and exciting as each enemy will swarm onto the screen using its unique attack pattern. Some shoot at you, like the Earth enemies firing mini-planets. Cool.
Some of the nasties are easy to kill, whereas others are impossible, thanks to the slow rate at which we can shoot. This makes killing certain enemies tough because they move too quickly in comparison to our fire rate. Dying can be a bit troublesome, especially when you materialise close to an enemy and therefore instantly die once again. A simple invulnerability effect could have been utilised for a second or two!!
Angels visit after each segment with power-ups, which are essential from the start. Miss them, and the following swarm of enemies is quite impossible to defeat. Also, dying baddies might sometimes throw out an extra power-up, but these fall off the screen before you've had a chance to even think about collecting them. Finally, there is a time limit ticking down to kill each wave of baddies. Very peculiar, to say the least.
Let's end the whining and take a look at some screenshots from the second world...
Some of the sprites are freaky... freaky-cool!
I can't make out whether these are balloons or floating severed heads!
Damn snowmen, they all deserve to die!! O_o
Aesthetics?
Visually, I like the colourful palettes, funky sprites racing across the screen, and smooth parallax scrolling running at a brisk pace. I love the level of detail that's gone into the sprite's artwork. Sophelie's animation is superb, and never have I played a game with such a wacky variety of different enemies. They're quite insane!!
Sadly, the audio is disappointing with a fuzzy tune and near-silent gameplay. Well, apart from the death-killing sound effect and a strange background whistle. It's shocking because the YM is far more capable.
Well, that was a mixed bag, alright, so let's take a peep at the third world...
These are insanely difficult to kill, if not impossible, without losing all your lives!
He's big. He's bad. He's about to be brown bread!!
Hey, a power-up appears from a dying beast, yet you have no chance of collecting it!
The CryptO'pinion?
This isn’t a terrible shoot 'em up. The colourful levels and impressive baddies zipping across the screen create a constant action-packed experience. Plus, the occasional appearance of angels with gifts to boost your chances of victory adds a nice touch. Sadly, it’s also one of the most boring shooters I’ve played. While the graphics might change, the gameplay constantly remains the same. And then there's the audio... Ugh, terrible!
Technically superb, but it’s an understatement to say there are better Atari ST shooters. Sophelie looks nice, but sounds awful and is very repetitive. While there are boobies, I’m not convinced it’s worth playing.
If you're curious, then grab the floppy disk at Atari Legend. Enjoy...
Oh no, another grisly death beautifully laid out. Interesting artwork!
Let's go back to the days of Starsky & Hutch and Asteroids!
Most people might think it's stupid to emulate a retro computer using a retro computer. Thankfully, not me, as I've 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. So, I figured I should give it a good playtest.
I've never used a TRS-80, and I imagine few made it outside the US. Anyhow, Tandy and RadioShack released the first model in 1977; it was a hit for those wealthy enough to have lots of spare cash burning a hole in their pockets. Back then, I would have been six and too young to care about something like this :-)
Let's begin with a screenshot of the credits. Oh yeah, it's screenshot time...
It's sad 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 - 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 too tempting not to try! I read the docs and hit the web to learn how to operate this ancient beast.
First things first, read the docs and 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.
Lots of features and is versatile. Plus, it can play many different games too, which matters more...
One of the first things I booted up was Donkey Kong. It looks terrible, but it 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: Pac-Man, Invaders, Frogger, etc. 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. It will struggle with the games as it's simply not fast enough. Personally, my Mega STe is the essential, 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 it's a good game.
Games! Give me games!
One of the best games is 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 Armoured Patrol and the wealth of Pac-Man games!
There are a few games bundled with 2nd Life, and 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. 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 machine 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! I'm impressed with how well it runs in terms of speed, ease of use, and compatibility. The inclusion of a utility to convert disk images into a format that 2nd Life can recognise is wonderful. That opens up the possibility of playing everything there is. Techies can go further: font editor, keyboard alteration, linking computers, and even tinkering with a disassembler debugger...
The TRS-80 is great, and it's impressive to see the Atari ST flip back in time so easily and reliably. I have really enjoyed using 2nd Life, and I'd love to hear what hardware you guys are using to run this software.
GitHub has the download, which includes the source code for those uber-geeks amongst us :-)
- MORE SCREENSHOTS -
Look what I found!! It's 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.
