Megaroids

The oldest ST game?

Asteroids is a true arcade classic that has been converted for every home computer. Not to be left out, Megamax released Megaroids in 1985 for the Atari ST. That's right, 1985 when the ST was a baby. Interestingly, they developed it using their own (and brand new) C programming tool. Now that's fearless!

The gameplay is, obviously, Asteroids and faithful to the original. Shoot the rocks for points but don't forget to blast the alien ships - for lots more points! Joystick controls are dead easy with Z and X rotates your craft and SHIFT to fire. Thrust uses ? key and SpaceBar activates a hyperspace when you're in trouble.

Graphically, it's different from the original; gone are the vectors in favour of bitmaps. The ST's high resolution looks stunning, and Megaroids' framerate is superb. The rocks sweep across the screen like butter off a hot knife. Thankfully, colour systems aren't forgotten, as it's compatible with medium resolution. But this is interlaced to produce 640x400 but with colour. That's right, essentially 640x400 in colour on your TV!!

Sounds are nothing more than you would expect for asteroids. They're nice and work very well. Especially when you remember this is a 1985 game for a 1985 computer. I'm really impressed all things considered.

Megaroids has an authenticity that I admire. The gameplay feels perfect, and I'm shocked that something this good was released the same year as the ST itself. I'm impressed by the silky-smooth framerate and flicker-free interlace support for colour systems. This is a wonderful conversion with bucket loads of rock blasting!!

AtariMania and Atari Legend have

the floppy disks to download.

N.o.B.I. - Racing

Knob Racing??

N.o.B.I Racing was released by Joytrick (1994) and is a 'snake' clone where we guide 'Alfred' through a series of mazes. Always hungry and on the move, Alfred needs our assistance as he munches everything in his path. However, every time he eats, he grows longer and this can become quite embarrassing, especially if he bites into himself. So our task is to help Alfred through the mazes without bumping into his own tale.

Two types of bonus levels appear at frequent intervals, features two-player gaming, DMA audio, and support for multiple resolutions. Simple stuff for dexterous players but soon becomes incredibly fast on later levels against the clock!! NoBI Racing is old school and that means it's extremely addictive and a bucket load of fun!!

- Download from AtariMania -

Mac Pan

Mac Pac, err, Pac-Man? What?

After yesterday's awesome (but mind-blowing!) technical flight sim I needed something less taxing on my old brain cells. I'm taking an easier route today by playing a Pac-Man clone called Mac-Pan. Weird name and there are already many PacMan games but this one is more vanilla, so let's get pill-popping & ghost munching!

Mac Pan was released in 1987 by Richard Beith and works in ST High resolution. There are a few integrated features that I really liked: hold down the fire button and you can temporally increase the yellow guy's speed. Hang on, he's not yellow anymore! Anyhow, the game's speed can be tinkered with in the preference. The graphics and sounds are pretty good plus there is support for simultaneous 2-players.

It's not the best PacMan but I still enjoyed it and being able to choose the game's speed is a superb idea. It's easy to imagine German office workers in the 80s playing Mac Pan during their lunch break. Monochrome users should jump up & down with excitement because this is an excellent clone of the classic.

Downloads are available using AtariUpToDate.

ProFlight

Flight for the pros?

This morning I played ProFlight by Nick Brown of HiSoft - I jumped inside my Panavia Tornado to take it for a spin Maverick style. It runs fine on any Atari ST but will certainly benefit from faster computers: my Mega STE delivered an astounding framerate boost. As you can see from the animation, it's compatible with both display modes (mono shown).

Now, I remember labouring over ProFlight back in the day so wondered how my older (and wiser?) brain would cope with this flight simulator. The main emphasis is on simulated realism so you're out of luck if you thought this was an arcade-style combat shooter. However, that doesn't mean it's all work and no play because, once you've got over the hefty learning curve, there is an enjoyable and rewarding experience to be had. However, that curve is indeed hefty!

Man, this is such a professional product and one that comes in a large box with a thick and weighty manual - it's like something you would expect from a real flight school! Yes, this is an incredible flight sim for techie gurus to drool over and certainly one of the most rewarding sims I have ever played. Please be careful and don't crash it O_o

However, I fear this game might be too big and too complex for the casual game to bother with? The sheer amount of hours that are needed to fully devote yourself to the game are huge thanks to its immensely complex design. However, players without kids and tons of spare time will be rewarded with a fantastic flight sim experience. Tell me if I'm wrong.

HiSoft is trusting you with their precious plane that can be enjoyed using either a floppy disk or hard drive.

Diamond Edge

I loved Hi-Soft!!

Isn't Diamond Edge a brilliant program? One of its features is 'Test Disk' which scans for potential problems. Only the other day, this saved my bacon because Drive C (a 32MB partition) suddenly reported itself as 22MB. Why I do not know, but Diamond Edge came to the rescue and fixed several serious errors!!

I have found it particularly useful to optimise (defrag) the partitions in order to better stream audio for (storage) demanding games (Cannon Fodder / Xenon II) or other programs like ST Video Player. I defrag the drives on a monthly basis. Don't get me started with Undelete, another superb part of the Diamond Edge suit.

Diamond Edge is one of the most fundamental utilities for all Atari computers equipped with a hard drive. Anodyne has Diamond Edge freely available to download along with the manual too.

Which is simply excellent!!

Bolo

Brick Blast in STyle!

Tons of Atari ST games run in high resolution and one of the best is Bolo, a Breakout clone. It takes the familiar concept and improves upon it tremendously with lots of extra features, like the ability to move the bat almost anywhere. There are also gravitational effects that are cunningly effective, different brick types, and the ability to change the physics of the ball's speed/direction. Bolo is an awesome brick-blaster. It's brilliant!!

Grab it from Atari Legend who has many menu disks to choose from.

SysInfo

In need of tech support?

SysInfo is a useful utility that can display a whole raft of details about your Atari ST (it recently helped me diagnose a problem with my Mega STe's audio!). It can diagnose everything from TOS/GEM details to the more technical aspects like the Cookie Jar, VBL, traps & other mind-boggling jargon.

Helpful and perfect for geeks! You can download SysInfo at Atarimania.

Maggie

Can you believe this?

After FAR too long, Maggie 25th Anniversary issue was released this weekend!!!

Wow, a lot of time has passed since the previous issue but, the latest edition is now available to view off/online. I'm about to download myself a copy and spend some time reliving my older ST days by reading this ace diskmag. Yes, it's been far too long and I'm incredibly excited!! My congrats to everyone involved!!

Download Maggie #25 for your Atari computer (I prefer this). Or download an HTML version to browse anytime. Also, you can find everything over on their website and the Maggie Team are featured on Demozoo.

Credits

---

CiH CiH [main editor, compiling]

Felice [deputy editor]

havoc [graphics]

mrpink [articles]

DBA_Slimer [articles]

ggn [articles]

dml [interview]

Video Games 1

A game for Spock!

Andrei Ellman of Wacko Software created a game made from three classic genres: Pong, Space Invaders, and Pac-Man. This release is different because all three games are playable at the same time. Yep, you heard correctly!

Pong is controlled by holding the fire button and moving up/down.
Pac Man is initially quite confusing so read the docs within the download!
Space Invaders is easy, left/right moves and pushing up/down fires the gun.

The controls are odd and things get very weird when trying to play everything at once! However, there's only so much my tiny brain could cope with and I found that I could play two games at once. But not three, I had no chance!! Visually, it works well but, if you're struggling to see things properly, then you can alter each game's appearance using the numeric pad. Also, there's an option to invert colours which makes everything look ugly but it's much better on the eyes.

I think Andrei was one crazy, mixed-up kid who had a good laugh when coding this. Don't take it too seriously and practice with the controls because Video Games 1 is ridiculously entertaining. You will love this maddening nightmare!!

- Downloads are right here -

Universal Item Selector

Let's patch a bland part of GEM...

The excellent Universal Item Selector by Application & Design Software was released in the UK by ST Club. The Atari ST is blessed with a small, but great, selection of replacement file selectors and UIS is the best. Only this weekend, I trudge through a folder containing over 100 tracker mods, deciding which ones to keep or delete. It was mad so I installed UIS which made the job 100x easier because of its integrated tools.

Click here to download this program with its PDF manual available via Atari Document Archive.