SidecarTridge Multi-Device

Multi-Device

Wow, how long has it been since I posted anything in our Hardware section? Well, my dry spell finally comes to an end as I've treated myself to a gadget that plugs into the side of any Atari ST. Yep, no case cutting or soldering needed at all. It's called the SidecarTridge Multi-Device and is based on the Raspberry Pi Pico, designed by Diego Parrilla. I won't pretend to know what that is because it's all black magic to me!

It has many uses, but the main use (for me) is booting floppy disk images as if a real floppy disk were inserted into the drive. Of course, there is much more to this tiny piece of hardware: it can also act as a GEMDOS drive (like in Hatari), features a real-time clock, supports an SD Card storage, and can connect to WiFi to download games and programs on the fly. There's even a USB port to power my Ultrasatan - how cool is that?

This little gadget fits snugly into the cartridge port, and from the moment of power on, you are presented with the option to activate it or boot as normal. Hitting the left shift key takes you into its menu, where you should complete the initial (one-off) configuration for WiFi access (and inverting the screen colours to prevent your eyes from exploding). It's also worthwhile to format an SD Card on your Mac/PC, with three folders...

• An "HD" folder is used by the Multidevice as an emulated hard drive, similar to how Hatari works (GEMDOS). Anything you store within here will be accessed as Drive C by your Atari.
• A "ROMS" folder is for any images you may have.
• Finally, the "FLOPPIES" folder is where you will keep any MSA/ST disk images.

Regardless of what you choose to store within the folders, there is the option to download games and more over WiFi. Yes, on the fly, which is pretty darn awesome!! Anyhow, once you've formatted that SD Card (as FAT16 or exFAT) and created the (above) folders, slide the card inside the device and reboot your ST.

As I mentioned, my primary reason for purchasing this device is to find a more convenient way to use floppy disks again. So, when you have configured WiFi, choose option 5 from the main menu to access a database of ST games. This gives access to thousands of disks by Automation, Medway Boys, and others. All can be downloaded and instantly used, without the faff of using a Mac/PC and manually copying them to the SD card. It’s much quicker, and beats my old method of converting an MSA/ST image back onto a real disk!!

This database is alphabetically listed, and you can filter by letter simply by hitting the relevant key (example: R for Rogue, X for Xenon, etc). Also, you can then use the left/right keys to "quickly" paginate through the list. Sadly, there is no actual search option, so if you wanted to play Dynamite Dux, that means you must wade through several pages listing games beginning with 'D'. That also includes loads of "doc" disks... Not ideal, but hardly the end of the world.

Okay, let's take a break to see the main menu and access the device's game database...

This is the main menu and, as you can see, it's dead easy to use.

Option 5 presents a massive database of programs to download via WiFi.

Compatibility?

I have tested Multi-Device on five Atari computers...

• 520 STM 512Kb TOS 1.00 - I had trouble getting the ST to recognise the cartridge. I had to reboot the device a few times before it worked. Thankfully, things improved afterwards, and I was able to load most disks. Sadly, some still fail, possibly because of the limited RAM or the TOS version.
• 520 STM 1MB TOS 1.02 - Similar to the above, but with much better success thanks to a couple of extra reboots at initial power on. Sadly, it often crashed in the menu with many bombs!! I fear that might be the cartridge port, which felt quite slack. I need to repair this ASAP :(
• 1040 STF 1MB TOS 1.02 - Worked perfectly with floppy images downloaded via WiFi or via the SD Card. However, I was concerned about how reliable TOS would be when used as a 'hard drive'.
• 520 STe 4MB TOS 1.62 - The best of the bunch and remains the computer on my desk. It works like a dream and is fast and responsive when running through different menus/etc/etc.
• Mega STe 4MB TOS 2.02 - Performed perfectly well, just like the stock STe, except that TOS 2 has an annoying feature to keep testing the RAM, which becomes irritating when using the Multi-Device. Nothing major, just my personal feeling, as everything else worked well.

Of course, the compatibility isn't just about the hardware alone. We want this thing to play ST games, watch demos, listen to music, view art, read disk mags, and do everything we did back in the day. Sadly, things get a little sketchy, and I had mixed results. Browsing the games over wifi delivers an enormous list, by many crackers. It's huge, but I'm sure it could be even bigger when you consider 95% of crews aren't included (just look at Atari Legend to see what I mean). I hope Diego finds some way to include more from other archives.

Many disks worked great, but some didn't, as they weirdly still attempted to access the hardware directly. So, rather than loading data from within the virtual drive within the Multi-Device, you will instead hear the floppy drive spin up. These disks are the ones that won't work, no matter what I try. Of course, if one crew's disk fails, you can always source another, as numerous games are listed more than once.

Generally speaking, Automation disks are a safe choice and work about 90% of the time. Some disks still fail as they attempt to access the real floppy disk drive, for example, Rick Dangerous II on disk #362. Thankfully, the SidecarTridge lists many games multiple times, and Rick Dangerous also appears on Flame of Finland #49, and that works a treat. Also, Terry's Big Adventure is featured on three different crews' disks - it's fine with the Automation and Pompey Pirates disks, but the Medway Boys let us down. It's not all bad news, as Dan Dare III appears on Pompey, FOF, and Automation, and works flawlessly on all.

Sadly, some games fail no matter which crew you choose to try: Golden Axe as both the Pompey Pirates and the Automation disks attempt to access the floppy, which results in BOMBS. Also, Fire & Forget II has the same crashes from both the Automation and FOF versions. So disappointing :(

Of course, some games that fail are listed only once: Alien Storm (D-Bug), Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Pompey), Lemmings II (Adrenalin), Chaos Engine (D-Bug). However, many work a treat: Sabre Team (Superior), Galaxy Force (Automation), Ballzone (D-Bug), Warlock The Avenger (Medway), War In The Gulf (Adrenalin), Hero Quest (Superior), Moonfall (Cynix), Z-Out (Pompey), etc/etc. This means you should manually download another crew's disk from Atari Legend and manually copy it over to the SD Card to playtest.

Additionally, games on two disks cannot be played unless you download the disk images and mount them manually (using menu option 3). It's not a big deal downloading two disks, but it is a bit of a faff. Of course, the game itself still needs to support Drive B, which is often another issue altogether!! ie, Domark's F1, Cannon Fodder, Cadaver, Ghostbusters II, Magic Boy, and others do not recognise the virtual Drive B.

This has been a lot of work, but somebody's got to do it lol. Hey, it's screenshot time...

Option 3 displays all the floppy images I've copied onto the SD Card.

If you have some hard drive-adapted games, then option 4 is for you!

CryptO'pinion

The Multi-Device is a marvellous piece of kit and only costs around £40 incl. postage. Incredible value for money when you think about it. This offers us a wealth of functions without much initial configuration. So it's a matter of simply powering on and pressing the Left Shift key to begin. It's that simple. And having access to loads of ROMS and floppy disks via the WiFi is a killer feature! Thankfully, no internal soldering or case cutting is required, which is ideal for people like me who are dangerously inept at that sort of thing!

Once again, I know this is a "multi-device", but my main reason for buying this is to access floppy disks, mainly menu disks. I cannot tell you the joy I feel in easily flipping between disk images. It can mount anything (ST/MSA format), which means you could download everything from magazine cover disks to PD Disks to Menu disks and relive the 1990s, which is absolutely amazing!! However, it's not perfect as I've previously mentioned. Plus, the menu is missing a few basic features, like an option to delete unwanted MSA/ST images.

Of course, the device provides those alluring extra features - mounting ROM images and having an alternative type of hard drive are interesting. However, I have my Ultrasatan, which is better than any GEMDOS/GEMDRIVE. Again, I bought the MultiDevice to use ST floppy disks. Have I mentioned that already? :-)

This is a fabulous piece of hardware, which has provided me with the opportunity to relive my cracker days and enjoy menus. No more impaired emulation, or converting disk images into real floppies, whilst hoping that the disk is free of bad sectors. Yup, I cannot recommend this device enough: it's easy to install/setup and provides access to squillions of menu disks with more games than you can shake a stick at. Marvellous.

• SidecarTridge's Mult-Device is awesome, so click here to buy one yourself.
• They have loads of other cool gadgets you'll love right here.
• Why not follow Diego's ST passion over on X/Twitter!!
• Check out my 'Hardware' section for other goodies I've bought.

Lethal Xcess

Play fast, die faster

Certain games, I am never going to bother reviewing here on AtariCrypt because everyone already knows them. For example, Eclipse's amazingly sadistic shooter, which is the 1991 sequel to Wings of Death. So, instead, I've created a gameplay video to showcase the levels (I tried to last as long as possible without dying!). Okay, I know that there are already squillions of video recordings out there, but I feel I must add my own. Plus, this gives me the perfect opportunity to add Lethal Xcess to this ever-growing list of enhanced games.

If, like me, you are struggling to successfully play this zappy shooter, then check out my previous page for Wings of Death (linked below). Many of its gameplay tips apply here, and it's not always a case of rushing to collect every power-up dropped by these ferocious enemies! Switching weapon types will only get you into trouble - so I stick to the same weapon and upgrade it rather than switching to something else.

Grab a coffee, sit back, and watch my talented gameplay video before clicking on these links...

• Floppy disks are best sourced from Atari Legend, and I used Fuzion #128.
• Both PP and D-Bug have hard drive installable versions.
• Hey, check out my Enhanced games list for the Atari STe :)
• The original Wings Of Death is slightly easier and definitely worth playing!

The first level is a killer, and here I am - dying!!

The second stage feels easier, but, oddly enough, I still die.

The difficulty cranks up for the third stage, and it looks rather Xenon'y too!

Guess what? Yep, that's right, the fourth stage is rock hard.

Call me daft, but the fifth stage is less painful compared to the others. I still died.

Using the cheat on Fuzion #128 allowed me to finally watch the end sequence.

“The ST Can’t Scroll”

Really?

One of the things we have all heard time and time again, both now and even back in the day, is that the Atari ST cannot scroll. But I’ve never really understood where that came from. Because when I unwrapped my ST on Christmas morning back in 1988, I was straight into games like Xenon, Beyond the Ice Palace, Black Lamp, Return to Genesis, Thundercats, Wizball, and Zynaps. All of them scrolled - and they scrolled well. That was just the start as the months passed, I got to play R-Type, Robocop, Baal, Pac-Land, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Custodian, The New Zealand Story, Jug, Blood Money, StarRay. And that list goes on (and on, and on...).

Sure, there were some proper stinkers - lazy ports that got the quick ‘n’ dirty Amiga-to-ST treatment, with zero care and even less optimisation. Especially in the 1990s, and when that happened, some developers shrugged and blamed the hardware. “The ST can’t scroll,” they’d say. More likely: the programmer didn’t have the time or the talent to do the job properly (ouch!). I'm still waiting for someone to Blitterise Cannon Fodder!

However, it's deeper than a handful of poorly converted games. So, where did this myth come from? Well, the standard ST was never going to churn out loads of games running at 50fps because it doesn’t have hardware scrolling, after all. But does that automatically mean anything running slower is rubbish? Not at all, but somehow, that excuse stuck - and even now, decades later, people still repeat it like it’s a fact.

Since I’m clearly not bored of moderating the abusive comments after posting about STDOOM & DOOM8088ST, I figured it was time to put this tired old myth to bed. I’ve made a 'gameplay' video showing several ST games that scroll fine – and yes, I could’ve included many more, but I think the point’s been made.

When the ST is in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing and actually gives a TOS, it delivers. So you might say, a bad workman blames his tools... Just STay Atari, and enjoy my recording! :-)

In the eye of the beholder

Pleasing pixels

Upgrading to the Atari ST was a monumental moment. I remember seeing games like Dungeon Master, Xenon, The Pawn, and International Karate. I couldn't believe the detail and range of colours - without colour clash! Of course, that feeling happened again when I bought The Union Demo. The joy my eyes and ears experienced with extra colours, glossy fonts, plasmas, parallax scrolling, etc. What a moment that began a new era!!

So where is this yabber taking us? I was sitting here wondering what my favourite ST/e image is. Over the years, I've seen great pictures from people using programs like NEOchrome, Degas, Spectrum 512, and Photochrome. Not to mention the creations of the demoscene, embedded within intros, cracktro, demos, etc.

You can see my choice (at the top) taken from Drone, an Atari STe demo by DHS. It was originally created by Ultradialectics and is horrifically exquisite. Drone is a remarkable demo with an ominous style and presentation yet it remains funky-fantastic! Yes, that's my silly way of describing their hard work!

So what is your favourite pixel art and why? I'm not talking about the technical aspect as it can be anything - monochrome, 16-colour, or feature thousands of colours in overscan! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, the caveat is that the Atari ST/STe must be able to display your choice (not TT/Falcon).

Links

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Original artwork by Ultradialectics [ Deviant Art ] [ Demozoo ]

28-colour STe version [ Dead Hackers Society ]

Drone demo for Atari STe w/ credits and download [ Demozoo ]

Dead Hackers Society [ Demozoo ]

The Union Demo [ Demozoo ]

You know the rule - best experienced using a real Atari STe.

Addendum

---

An overwhelming response... sigh... So here are examples of gaming #pixelart that I admire.

Rambo III.

Starting with an obvious one! The resemblance to the artwork is astounding. Love it!!

Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters.

Jaw-dropping pixel artistry was used for its intro. A truly stunning screen.

Black Lamp.

Perhaps a cheat as it's basically a collection of sprites! A legendary screen!!

Fire And Brimstone.

Of course, this isn't a title screen but just look at that outstanding pixel art!!!!

Laser Ball.

Technically not the best but the exotic toon results are superb.

After The War.

Wow, a surprisingly good beat 'em up and this screen is mind-blowing!!

Spikey in Transylvania.

Not a title screen, but a scene from the game I absolutely love. Gorgeous expressions!

Dungeon.

So bad, it's actually good. I love the dripping flesh. Amazing!!

A Prehistoric Tale.

I wanted to keep this to just games but the demoscene had to sneak in! ;) #SUPERB

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.

Richard Davey

I'm always excited to meet people from the ST world, both past and present. I'm especially thrilled about this interview as it transported me back to the ST's later days, including my emulator years after migrating to the Apple Mac (PPC/1997).

So far, I've interviewed 16 incredible ST guys, which has been an absolute honour. So, let me present the 17th with great pleasure. Yep, it's Rich who you will know as the brains behind the Little Green Desktop! Not only that, but he's also the fella behind those cute visuals in Stario, a gorgeously cute (cough) Mario ripoff.

I found it interesting to discover his motives and passions for the Atari ST. He knows his games and favours some crackers too (do you remember me playing Color Clash?). Not only that, it was fascinating to discover how he came to love the demoscene and its culture. Hearing of his history concerning the MSX and Speccy +3 was fascinating. At least this lead the way to the mighty Atari ST and its Super Pack.

I found Richard kind and enthusiastic although I was shocked by his "modesty" regarding those pixel skills I admire so much. Especially when you consider the Calvin and Hobbes factor. My gratitude to Richard for his time and I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I have? Hey, after you've finished reading this, check out even more interviews?

Richard is featured within the Demozoo archives where you can view more of his excellent work.

 Richard Davey ~ The Interview 

Hello Richard, tell us all a bit about yourself

I was born in 1975 and for as long as I can remember, if we went around to friends or family and they had a computer or console. That would be me lost to the sirens' call of the devices :) We'd travel to the seaside on holiday, and I'd vanish into the arcades until my money was exhausted. Once it was so I'd just stand there mesmerized, watching others play. They were captivating to me in a way nothing else was.

To this day, I can remember visiting a friend who owned a BBC. He ran a program on it, which was an animated demo featuring dancing skeletons. They would take their heads off, roll them down their bony arms, and flick them back on again, all in time to music. I was enamoured that a computer could do this. I pestered my parents for a home computer. I didn't care which one. I just wanted one!

They relented and bought a Toshiba MSX. It had many wonderful games, including lots of Konami cartridges such as Antarctic Adventure, Hyper Rally, and Yie Ar Kung Fu. It also came with several books on BASIC programming, which I devoured. The first program I entered, I didn't realise you had to press RETURN at the end of each line, so I just moved the cursor down. Strangely enough, it didn't work :)

However, I didn't know any other kids who owned an MSX, and I was frustrated at being unable to swap games at school. So we "upgraded" to a Spectrum +3, with those crazy expensive disks. Of course, in retrospect, it wasn't an upgrade at all. The MSX is significantly more capable, with a great keyboard and some staggering games that load instantly thanks to the cartridge. The +3 was a technical step down, but the volume of games available to me exploded. Interestingly, MSX content is extremely collectable these days, with good-quality items going for hundreds! And I sold ours just to get a Speccy. Ahhh, the joy of hindsight.

It's a shame that no MSX photo was ever taken. At least we have a later capture with his Falcon!

Tell us about the years that followed

It was less than a year after getting the +3 when I started seeing the Atari ST appearing in anger in magazines like C+VG. To this day, I still remember the C+VG issue that had Xenon on the cover (issue 77, March 1988) and the screenshots inside of it. The graphics were like nothing I had ever seen before. A world apart from the Spectrum and even the MSX.

I knew I had to have one. I saved money from my paper rounds and odd jobs, and combined with a birthday, I took the bus into the city with my Mum one weekend, visited a large department store, and bought the Atari ST Super Pack. I carried it home on the bus, beaming from ear to ear. My life had changed forever.

The Super Pack came with a large bundle of games, including Xenon, Thundercats, Buggy Boy, and Ikari Warriors, all of which sucked-up hours of my life. It also came with a few real duffers like Chopper X and Road Wars! But even those were graphically way beyond the Spectrum I was used to.

Using a mouse was great, and I enjoyed the power of GEM and the loading speed from disk compared to tape. In August 1989, I bought issue 1 of ST Format, and the cover disk contained a demo of Bloodwych, GFA Basic, and what I thought was an amazing sampled sound demo: Stringray.

That, combined with menu disks from the likes of the Pompey Pirates, introduced me to the demoscene. It felt like the disks could hold so much content back then. In terms of actual bytes, of course, they couldn't, but if you look at it from the point of view of the variety of content you could fit on them, they were absolute gold mines.

Previously I had been all about playing games on the MSX and Spectrum, with a little artwork and coding - but the ST represented something different. A new computing era for me. Perhaps it was my age? Perhaps I was just mature enough to be able to explore the creative side of computing now? I was growing as a person, the ST was there, growing with me, showing me all of these great new avenues and communities I never even knew existed. And I dove head-first into it.

The power and versatility of the Atari ST must have been mindblowing at that time.
It eventually led to projects like Stario and many more throughout the 90s.

This is a games website, so what are your faves?

Like lots of gamers, I struggle to maintain a consistent list of favourites. Remembering one title sparks off the memory of another, and soon that list has grown beyond its original bounds. So instead, here are some games that sit very fondly in my mind for several different reasons:

• Buggy Boy - this came with my ST and I played it for hours! It's a superb racing game and one of those rare titles that I feel has aged well.
• Bloody Money - there's something addictive about this shooter. I think it's the slow pace, it's almost sedate in nature but dials up the challenge little by little.
• Turrican 2 - the raster sky effects! The music! The speed! That final level, when you're escaping the exploding thunderball in your spaceship! Just perfection.
• Dungeon Master - do I need a reason? It's Dungeon Master, for goodness sake!
• Oids - this game is sublime. A wonderful take on Thrust with a brilliant level editor and great animations. The way you can melt the poor oids with your thruster still makes me grin.
• Dynabusters+ - this PD game is a brilliant take on Bomberman with great sampled sounds.
• Flood - this sits alongside Captain Dynamo as one of those often overlooked but sublime to play platform games.
• Golden Axe - there aren't many arcade conversions I rate on the ST, but this is up there with the best of them.
• Hunter - definitely responsible for my love of sandbox gaming. Who can forget all of those great vehicles at your disposal?
• Nitro and Super Cars 2 - they are in the same camp of great overhead racing games. I like my cars to have guns, otherwise I'm just not interested.
• Special Forces - a tactical espionage/infiltration game from Microprose. I lost hours to this when I should have been doing my GCSEs!
• Robotz - if you own an ST, you know how great this PD game is.

Me - how odd that he didn't mention Stario ;)

Richard has great tastes and we share many favourite Atari ST games.

Let's talk about Stario and how this came about

I was talking to James (of Top Byte) one day, and he told me about this game he had been sent. It was a complete rip of the NES Mario Bros, right down to the graphics! He wanted to release it but knew he legally couldn't. I said I'd be happy to look at the graphics, and we took it from there.

I received a few disks and set about making sure it wasn't entirely Nintendo's pixels that Atari players would see on screen. I used Deluxe Paint ST because it was (and remains) my favourite art tool on the ST, although I actually did the graphics on my Falcon running under ST emulation. It was a real challenge to maintain the speed of the original, the sprites used dramatically limited bit planes. For all of them, I had 3 colours maximum I could use (from a fixed palette of 16).

Going legit...

I was a big Calvin and Hobbes fan, so I redrew Mario to look like a little pixel version of Calvin. The other creatures I modified as best I could. Strange spikey monsters, frogs, etc. You can tell I was losing steam when it came to the tiles? Because those are very similar to the Nintendo originals. All in all, it only took a few weeks to do. I shipped them back, and that was that.

I did have a little interaction with Adrian (the developer), via his Dad, who requested a few changes. But what you see in the final game is largely the first pass at it all.

Looking at it now, the graphics aren't very good. A real pixel artist could have done a much better job, even with the bitplane limitations. Thankfully, when people play it, they mostly focus on how fast and smooth it is - and because it feels responsive and moves well, they can forgive the amateur graphics.

Any regrets about making the change?

No, it would have been taking the piss to release it with the actual Mario graphics still in it! Plus, I don't think any magazines would have reviewed it. So it was sensible to change the graphics. I'm glad I found the old disks with the Mario graphics on, though, so they eventually got released anyway.

Top Byte/Top Dollar

I liked James (who ran Top Byte). He was an enthusiastic guy and had a knack for cultivating a good little community. That is what the Atari was all about at that point. The big commercial companies had left, and it was the grassroots communities that held it all together. I'd talk with him for ages over the phone.

On the downside, I never saw a penny for my work on the game :) So I've no idea how many copies it sold. I doubt it was big numbers, but it did review well, so likely a few hundred copies at least.

Me - I see you have a boxed version. Wanna donate it to the Crypt?

Rich - It sits proudly on my gaming shelf, where it will remain :)

 

Of course, I tried bribing Rich, but sadly, he had none of it. Damn!!

What about other games?

I've never done any serious commercial games. Although to be honest, I never tried to either. I was too fascinated by the PD and demo scene. Games were more just for creating and throwing out there fast, to share with friends, not for 'making money' with them.

Robert Annett, a friend from the Storm / STOS days, and I worked on a couple of games - with me on the graphics. We released Super Tet and Shockwave. He did most of the heavy lifting. I just pixel-pushed for them. Shockwave was a good Asteroids-style game and published as licenseware by New Age PDL, whom I traded disks with a lot at the time. Super Tet was released in 1992 and was a standard Tetris game, although even now, I still like the graphics I did for it. DPaint fills for the win.

Fun fact: the digitised face in the middle of the playfield is Sting. I didn't even like Sting's music, I just had his head on a disk for some reason, and it slotted in well.

I've also worked on other games over the years, including Dopewars, some graphics for Biohazard 2, and a strategy game called Outrider. I was clearly stealing other people's art there! The title screen is obviously a scan from White Dwarf magazine, which I then drew a logo over. And the lady on the credits screen was nicked from an art disk. The 3D intro was taken from the PC. I don't actually remember which game, but I stole the cockpit and 'mini-screens' animation - and then I coded the star field effect and the planet appeared.

The game itself was a fun little strategy title. I did the in-game graphics, which was a nice change of style. Small buildings, tanks, UI, etc. Again, it's not exactly great. I'm absolutely not a good artist! Even so, I enjoyed making it. If I remember correctly, the game was actually called Battle for the Stars. We renamed it to Outrider for Top Byte. There are other silly games, too, like Octopod and GoSub! I still have the graphics lurking around.

All images are kindly supplied by Rich. The middle two are of the unreleased game Blasto.

Tell us about the demos!

I adored the demoscene, and I still do. Storm was never a serious demo group. It was more just a collection of friends, both in school and people I traded disks with. We all used STOS and wanted to make demos with it. So, we did. There are only really two megademos to our name, and I use that term very loosely as the first one didn't even have a proper menu system!

The second demo, Cor Blimey, was mostly the work of Robert Annet and his older brother, who developed a number of the screens and compiled the whole thing together. There were a few STOS crews back then, such as the Radioactive Hedgehogs, and it was a fun rivalry. Although the release of the Misty and Missing Link extensions kind of put paid to that.

The demoscene was and still is all about the community. Sure, there were the technical challenges and one-upmanship, of course. Bragging rights were a big part. But I think most would agree it was the friendships built up and within the demo groups that endured long after the machines fell out of grace.

Storm pushed STOS quite well and Richard created the face image using Crackart (1999).

You appear to enjoy diskmags?

I loved disk magazines! I loved reading them, and I loved helping create them. The ST had loads of great mags: ST News, Maggie, Ledgers, Power Mag, STOSSER, Ictari, etc. They fascinated me, and I spent many a fun evening reading and writing for them.

I bought one of the first Atari Falcon 030s on the market. It was crazy expensive. I had worked for months to save up for it! Yet it was and remains the pinnacle of Atari home computing. I enjoyed many years with my Falcon, running the Falcon Owners Group, a big PD library, publishing a magazine, and squeezing every last drop of love out of that machine before the PC finally took over the world. I still have a Falcon today, which I recently renovated (recapped, new parts, etc) - but perhaps that's a story for another day?

The first 3 (maybe 4) issues of Falcon Update were printed. I've sent you issue 1 and some pics from 2 and 3, but I have not scanned the whole of issue 2. I did scan the whole of issue 3 but don't have the time to convert it to a PDF right now.

The diskmag used a magazine shell that I coded in GFA Basic 3 on my Falcon! I bet it would work on Hatari, might be worth trying. I worked with Anthony Jacques to create a Falcon-specific shell, which was based on the Windows 95 concept of using a start menu. It was nicely coded, lovely for the time - but sadly never used and never released. I did release the prototype shells years ago, but no actual magazine was made using it.

Me - I cannot wait for Rich to complete PDF issues 2 and 3!!

Again, I think it all comes back to the social aspect. I know I keep harping on about this, but for me, that is what made the ST and Falcon special. It wasn't the machines themselves (although that did play their part). It was the people I met while using them. Some of which I'm still in contact with today.

Richard is right, the ST/Falcon has an incredible community to this day!

I couldn't end without asking Rich questions about LGD

Ahhh, good old LGD :) I created the first version of the site back when emulation was really taking off. PaCifiST had been released, and I loved it! I still had most of my Atari disks and a few CDs or burned games, and I was working for an ISP, helping look after their servers and working on web development full-time. So it was the perfect marriage at the perfect time.

When it came to creating the site, I knew it had to look like GEM. I also had all of the Pompey, Automation, Medway, etc. disks available. So I stuck them on my PC in the office of the ISP I worked for and ran an FTP server. When I put the site live, it utterly saturated the bandwidth on our line! So I had to introduce some rate limits, but the ball had started rolling, and visitors to LGD spread like wildfire.

Lots of other ST sites were popping up at the time: Demonburps ST Emporium, Lunar Jetmans site, etc. It was fun to be part of all of this. Like the old community was coming back together again, this time via the web and emulation. I contacted the developer of PaCifST, and LGD became its official home. After which, we added WinSTon (one of my all-time favourite ST emulators), and it grew from there.

LGD itself went through a few variations over the years, adding in the games database, the magazine scans, the YM player music, the TOS ROMs, and more. You have to remember back then, most people were still connecting via dial-up, so a nice speedy site was important. It was a wonderful few years, and I met a lot of famous ST legends thanks to it. I'm pleased with the role it took in bringing the Atari ST back into the public consciousness. Plus, I still believe it did it elegantly, much more so than most other sites at the time :)

And yes, I really ought to get around to fixing it one day. I've gone into the ancient PHP code and had a look a few times over the years, but wow, it's really old. I mean decades old. And I've never justified the time it would take to redo it so it could run on a modern server. One day, perhaps...

An iconic moment and website for many of us back then. Much loved!!

What are you up to these days?

I run my own company, Photon Storm (named after the classic Jeff Minter ST game!), and my day job is the creation/maintenance of the game framework Phaser. This allows developers to create games in and for the browser, although you can take them out to Steam and mobile stores. It's open source, heavily inspired by my love of the Atari, the demoscene, and all things retro, and is financially supported by its great community.

It may be 4 decades later, but that excitement and thrill I got from computers and gaming back in the 80s has never left me. And I'm very happy that I can bring this to fresh new developers today. It's like everything has come full circle. I guess some things just never change :)

Rich - Photon Storm Ltd.

Tipbit: I collect ARC games and Photon Storm

is the only one I've left to buy! #spooky

One more thing...

Hey, before you go, how about some insider photos from Richard's years throughout the 90s? These photos are excellent but the PDF of Falcon Update is unbelievable. My gratitude to Rich for everything and thank you for taking the time to answer all my Qs over such a long period of time - we eventually got it done! :)

• The exclusive PDF download - Falcon Update issue #1 (including covers of issues 2/3)

Don't rush off just yet! Check out this final run of images kindly donated by Rich...

Richard's room at university was taken around 1993.

This photo was taken during his Falcon Update years - around 1994/95.

Check this out, the original Stario with that annoying Italian plumber Mario!

Now this is a cool image!

Does anyone remember this remarkable image?

Taken from issue 7 of Falcon Update.

Unreleased shell from FOG issue #10.