Fred

Let's get medieval

Ubi Soft's Sir Fred (aka Fred) was released in 1989 and is a platform/beat 'em up. It was programmed by Tuan Do Cao and Philippe Villain, who were inspired by older games I played back in my Spectrum days.

Our adventure begins with an intro animation depicting our fearless knight tragically zapped into a midget by an angry dwarf. Shocked by this, he shakes his fists at his foe, but they cannot help themselves and burst out laughing. Adding salt to his wounds is a gnome who completes Fred’s mockery. A brilliant intro!!

That's the basis of the game: we need to heal our wounds. Wanna see some screenshots...

Now come on, who would have ever expected rude gnomes to be our enemy?

Hang on, these are armed. They might be little, but they're evil little b4s@£@s!

A garden centre platformer?

As a miniature warrior, we first explore the spooky forest to battle those garden gnomes. Other beasts lurk in the woods and castle grounds - skeletons, snakes, headless axemen, and ghosts. Everything wants you dead! So kill them with your arrows - these will even reach the baddies off-screen, which is kinda cool.

Fred is a nimble chap who can walk, leap and roll his way through his quest. However, these controls often got me into trouble: turning around reminded me of Black Lamp feeling laborious and lethargic. This cumbersome method of turning around spoils the action because our ability to react is hampered by that speed.

The graphics are interesting beyond looks, using a multi-layer arrangement. This effect is used to climb steps and bypass obstacles, to represent a 3D feel. At first, this feels odd when too high/low (behind/in front of objects). It's a good idea, but awkward in battles because both parties need to be on the same level.

Energy levels are indicated by three apples, and once they're gone, you're dead as a dodo. These don't last long, but your death produces a hilarious effect as our hero drops his sword in agony. This is just one more aspect of the visuals that is brilliant. As you can see, there are some cool ideas implemented for Fred.

Enough reading, let's see those graphics! Yes, it's screenshot time...

I love the details and the murky palette, which is perfect for the creepy scenario.

Check out that headless axeman and the gnome's facial details are astounding.

Aesthetics

Jean-Marc Torroella and Jerome Guerry should be forever proud of what they created. This is one of the best-looking games for the Atari ST, with colourful landscapes and stunning attention to detail. The palette is as eerie as it is comical with its superbly animated sprites. Even the rude ones who stick out their tongues!!

The audio is (almost) as good as the visuals, with a crunchy sampled tune on the title screen and intro. Charles Callet did great, but I'm more of a chiptune guy. In-game sound effects are sampled, and I love these. From the firing of arrows and clanging of swords to the silly screams of your enemies. Absolutely superb.

We've just enough time left to see a couple more screenshots. Keep on scrolling...

Those darn gnomes are a pest, even the rude ones lol

Oh no, is that a skeleton or a zombie? Whatever it is, I should run away!

The CryptO'pinion?

Fred is a good game, but it's difficult thanks to the fudgy controls that need to be quicker. Also, more checkpoints were required to prevent restarting from the beginning (so annoying). Don't get me wrong, this is a good game, but it looks better than it is. Am I right? Let me know in the comments what you guys think.

Grab a sword and boot this up on a floppy disk or on your hard drive.

Portal To Xenithor

Another STosser!

Portal To Xenithor is a flick-screen platformer currently under development by Michael Keenleyside. The adventure begins with us having survived a crash landing on a monster-infested moon colony. Our job is to kill the nasties and search for a replacement spaceship before piloting through to a victorious escape.

It's early days, but the storyline and map designs are taking shape. End-of-level cutscenes are planned to be used as the adventure unfolds. The visual style is dark and moody, and soon to be enhanced by eerie music. Michael is about six months into the project and is considering the possibility of a different engine for other parts of the game. These will use the hardware scrolling and DMA Audio of the Atari STe.

Michael is nuts about STOS Game Creator and wishes to pay homage to Francois Lionet, so development will be done using this and Missing Link/Maestro. The estimated requirements are a 4MB Atari ST with support for hard disk installation. Personally, I'm reminded of Stryx and Baal and can't wait to see it completed!

Update: Michael has started a STOS Coders group with Francois Lionet

Zaptastic

Crazy gaming time!

When I first loaded Zaptastic, I assumed it was a cheap Robotron rip-off, but it's actually based on an old Jeff Minter game called Ancipital. Lee Burrows not only coded this conversion but also did all the graphics and sounds. It runs on both models of ST but is intended for the Atari STe, as it uses the Blitter for the sprites and DMA effects. Sadly, I couldn't get it to work on my STFM without getting two nasty bombs popping up!

We're in control of a Dolph Lundgren dude with spiky hair and shades who must frantically clear 64 rooms infested by an array of nasties. He gets around using the screen's four sides and can escape the horde by leaping to the opposite side - but be careful because your shield won't last forever! Firing is constant and in the direction last used, but can be temporarily frozen by holding down the fire button <cough> Llamatron.

Visually, things are amateur, but it works great with lots of silly sprites filling the screen. The audio is insane thanks to the DMA coprocessor pushing out funky samples to keep everything loud and exciting. Overall, this is one incredibly addictive and psychedelic shoot 'em up, and I loved every zany minute of it!!

Zaptastic can be downloaded at ST Format (disk #81)

Half-Life II Slideshow

Half-Life 2 on Atari ST!

No, but this is the next best thing. Well, maybe! You guys might like this if you appreciate slideshows of digitised/pixel art? After last year's mega-hit, ZombieCrypt [sarcasm], I've made another slideshow. Of course, this time for the Half-Life II games using the slideshow engine created by Peter Jørgensen.

I've added a superb chiptune by TAO called Line of Fire, which suits the theme perfectly with a fast upbeat feel. Each picture is a screenshot from my gameplay - I converted these to Degas format using Imagecopy 4. The entire process took me about six months to compile. I hope you enjoy my lame release. [download]

If you wanna see more of my Atari ST creations, then there's a link on the right and also back there 👈

- A Few Sample Images -

Sadly, a couple didn't make the cut as I ran out of floppy disk space... Doh!

PP's Enhanced Games

New game updates!

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.

  

Impossamole

Monty Mole made it onto the Atari ST!!

I loved Monty Mole on my ZX Spectrum, so I had high expectations of Impossamole. I was soon shocked to see a number of critical changes had been made and not always for the better. Why do they do that?

There are five huge levels to explore, and you can begin on any of the first four; the fifth is locked until these are completed. Each is very different with its own unique environment, bad guys, and cruel traps. Weirdly, this is now a scrolling platformer rather than the original flick-screen as seen in most games from that era.

However, the most shocking of all is that Monty can now fight back using karate kicks and weapons. It's a nice idea if the kicks were effective, and the weapons were plentiful and fun to use. Guess what, they're not. Monty suddenly turning into a version of Chuck Norris doesn't fit with the original theme anyhow.

At least there's no Arthur Scargill

My first game began as an exciting stroll through memory lane with many familiar sights in a mining environment. However, my fun ended thanks to the basic mechanics, which failed miserably. Things might appear nice, but each level is impossibly tricky with enemies that know your every move - before you make it.

Monty only has one life, and it's not long until a couple of monsters have zapped your energy and "Game Over" comes all too soon. Sure, Monty can try to fight back with his kicks, but those legs are way too short to be useful. The weapons are a neat idea, but they're too few and far between. Nice idea, badly executed.

My thoughts? As I said earlier, fighting back doesn't work, and it goes against the grain of what makes a Monty Mole game. The weapons are rubbish and his kicks are too short - well - moles have little legs! This whole concept feels like an idea bolted onto the game. It does not work!

Impossible Mole!

It doesn't matter which level I played; the name Impossamole lives up to the expectations of being literally impossible. Every level will need to be pre-played to learn the unfair and irritating traps that make no sense. Not to mention the enemies, which are often impossible to kill and can appear from nowhere, too.

That might sound 'fair' for a platformer, but it doesn't work; the weaponry isn't good enough, and the difficulty is constantly off the scale. Terrible, and incessantly far too tough. Whoever beta tested this game and then thought to themselves, "Yes, it's ready", needs to be shot. Okay, I'm 30 years late - but shoot him anyway!

Can you tell I am absolutely gutted that I'm whinging about this? I was really excited too.

Graphics and Sounds?

Visually, this is beautiful, with each level looking absolutely incredible. The attention to detail is stunning, with highly detailed areas and sprites, plus everything moves along smoother than a hot knife in soft butter. To say it's impressive is an understatement because it's brilliant in every respect. I have zero complaints.

The scrolling... Well done @Andy Green!! Nailed it. No lame Amiga port here, folks.

The title music is a rendition of the Rob Hubbard classic and is chiptune magic. This is something I can leave playing in the background all night long. The same cannot be said for the sparse sound effects!

The CryptO'pinion?

I don't know what to make of Impossamole. Technically, it's well-programmed with great visuals and interesting levels. It appears to have it all. However, it's far too difficult, thus infuriating without enjoyment. Fancy doing the opposite of what was needed and releasing a game that's no fun? Ugh, what was Core thinking?

Impossamole could easily have been another Rick Dangerous, but alas, it's the weakest Monty game in the entire series. I'm tempted to add Impossamole to my list!! Arrrgh, I hated it, but I hated hating it.

If you're curious, then floppies can be downloaded with a hard disk version by D-Bug.

The One (magazine)

Violent disks

I've got quite a collection of Atari ST magazines and coverdisks, but this disk has to be the best of the bunch. The text is something that I didn't really take any notice of at first. Subtle wording. But I've been giggling to myself over it today: "Visit interesting places, meet new people... and then kill them!". So funny!!

Doubt they'd get away with it today, which sums up today's woke world. Sadly.

Pacman On E's

Pac-Man? Again? Yawn... boring!!

There are already many examples of cracking Pac-Man games for the best 16-bit computer on the planet. This one really needed to bring something extra special to the table. Well, the game has been developed specifically for the enhanced Atari STe and, unlike so many lost shareware titles, this download is actually the legit registered version! This comes with lots of cool gameplay/aesthetic extras, which will impress you!

This genre is timeless, but this version takes the familiar theme to a new level thanks to its furious speed. There are 100 levels, zany visuals, funky music and a range of stereo samples: like the Road Runner's "meep meep" and the buzzer from Family Fortunes. Digital Dreams utilises the STe's extra colours, Blitter and DMA Audio. Interestingly, the Function Keys can change the bass, treble, volume (and more).

Credits

Stuart Innes - Programming/Graphics

Robert Thompson - Graphics/Sfx

Alasdair Macmillan - Graphics

Come on, play the game

PacMan On E's can be fully enjoyed solo for the most hilariously challenging take on the original concept. It's tripped out and stuffed with colourful visuals and a bucket load of wacky sound effects. The action is fast and exciting, so it's never boring, which is how the original becomes. Well, after a while.

Best of all is the simultaneous two-player support, especially when hunting for the power-ups. There are a variety of silly effects, and my recording shows my daughter and me playing it together in coop. Absolutely superb!! (When she lost, she decided to cheat by covering my eyes with her hands. Hmm!)

Download me!

You can grab this belting Pac-Man game from most ST websites, but Peter, aka 8BitChip, has adapted the registered version, which you can download from my Dropbox (while his website is offline as I type). My personal greetings to Stuart Innes, Robert Thomson and Alasdair Macmillan for this wonderful game!!

Wait, don't go just yet!! Let's see some screenshots before you download this fantastic game...

An iconic opening intro. Love it!!

Oh yes, lots of STe-only features that you can tweak.

Super-duper colourful graphics to jazz up boring old Pacman.

Fine design spruced up using fantastic colour work.

What? This screenshot looks kind of dull. But the action is furious!

The final screenshot will send your eyeballs crazy with its psychedelic design!

Central Cavern

Welcome to the caverns!

This is a short video of the Atari ST emulating the ZX Spectrum and running Matthew Smith's classic platformer. Please note that this emulator struggles on a stock 8MHz ST when the music is playing (or the screen scrolls). Of course, this particular game doesn't scroll, but the background tune pushes its luck, so turn that off for much better performance (then it's almost at the speed of the original).

You can find out more about Speccy Emulator by clicking here. Enjoy my video recording :)

Virus

My computer caught a virus

When playing with fractals the other week, I recalled David Braben's Virus. A complex game I've not played since the shops stocked Atari ST games. The original is best, but that's like comparing the STFM to a Falcon! So we should stop right there, because our version is a 16-bit classic running on a 16-bit computer!

Going for a test flight over its chequered landscape is an incredible experience. The mouse controls are tough to master, but soon become intuitive. Stick with it because once you've got the feel of how it handles, there's an amazing game waiting for you. Check out my animation above, I did quite well ;)

Visually, this game is a gem with an excellent style using smooth 3D that is fast. There are lots of neat touches, and I've gotta say, I love the ship's exhaust as it spurts out those lovely particles of thrusting power. The audio is great with crisp sound effects that are refreshing, thanks to the YM2149 doing us proud.

Virus is a fantastic 16-bit conversion of the original 32-bit masterpiece. Sure, it has a cruel learning curve (so be prepared for that), but after beating that, you've found yourself a killer game that's gonna eat away the hours. This game rocks, and I found it really enjoyable and extremely addictive. What a game!!

This infectious shooter provided me with hours of fun. Ignore the reviews. Play this game now.

- Download Virus -

Fullscreen Construction Kit

I've a thing for overscan!

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

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

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

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

This is a belting program to enjoy dabbling! Let me know what you think of it in the comments below.