Monday, August 19, 2019

Ironman Challenge III





Running The Gauntlet!

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

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

Watch the video of Mike torturing himself playing these games!

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


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


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


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

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Gameboy





Taking a break from the norm

Handheld console fans rejoice, for the "Gameboy" has arrived on the Atari ST thanks to a piece of cool public domain software by Ingo Linkweiler. Well, umm, no it hasn't really but, instead we have a program that features three games: Tetris, Pacman and Snake. It runs in GEM - any resolution - and can be installed as an ACC (which I preferred).

Open the ACC and hit any key to begin. The cursor keys can be used to control all three games: in Tetris, Left/Right moves the falling blocks, Up turns them around while Down drops 'em to the floor. Pacman uses these keys to make haste around his maze of weird 'ghosts'. Whereas Snake is quite the discrepancy but, I oddly enjoyed it. A lot!

The Atari ST has hundreds of nifty ACCs and many of which are games. That's kinda cool when you think about it and I love finding little nuggets of ST history like this. Gameboy is a fantastic ACC and I think Ingo created something of a good idea here, especially with Tetris. Sadly, Pacman's controls are quite tanky and Snake is certainly an (ahem) challenge! But, what did you expect in 20Kb? Exactly. So this program is worth checking out because I loved it and my opinion rules. Ahem.

Click here if you're dying to make GEM cool again. Let me know what you think!



Gameboy Emulator


Wait, don't go!! The fun doesn't need to stop if you're willing to reboot your Atari ST and quit its little green desktop for something different? If so, then The Untouchables have something rather neat for you. It's called the "Gameboy Emulator" and it looks the part with a version of Space Invaders and Tetris which includes a sampled background tune.

Okay, their Space Invaders is harsh and hardly complete but it's smooth and very likeable, at least for the one game. Yes, I said one game (hit ESC afterwards). Tetris is excellent and very impressive. It reminds me of what I saw on a friend's Gameboy back in the day. Yup, definitely a nice albeit fake emulator and I liked a lot.

Clickety-Click to see more and download the Nuntundu Uboy.



Nesulator


Hang on? Were you just about to leave this amazing Atari ST website? Shame on you... Okay, for those brave enough to stay, you may be interested in an emulator by Ed Cleveland? To be honest, it's very power-hungry and requires a lot of processing power - a lot more than the stock 8MHz ST can deliver. Also, it's beta and wasn't ever finished so there's a lot to be desired. However, it's fun and my Mega STe performed well but I am wondering how a Falcon or TT would be... sigh!

Take a look at NESulator and remember to check out the "Emulation" section on this cool website :)

Random ATARI ST articles from the archives