shooter.prg

When nerds play

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.

Title-Designer

I made a demo screen!

By sheer chance, I found a demo/intro maker the other day, which is something I've never actually seen before. It was released in 1987/89 for the Atari ST by Hans-Conrad Stamm. That's right, The Blade Runners! Just when you think you know your ST stuff, something appears out of the blue. Well, new to me!

Creating your demo screen is a cinch because this is a remarkably easy program to use. The intro can feature scrollers, colourful rasters, music, etc. It's up to you to decide what and how to make your screen appear. Those with the skills to make their own images/sampled music will get the most from Title Designer.

( Note, there are minor visual issues on anything other than the original Atari ST )

Over the last few days, I have made several intros, and what's immediately impressive is how effortlessly I could make screens bursting with colour - I only wish it supported traditional YM tunes with samples utilising the STe DMA hardware. Regardless, this is a belting program stuffed with loads of features, and I love it.

Come on, ST folk, get the program downloaded as I would love to see your creations - let me know in the comments below. I'll upload my demo screen to Demozoo for those wanting to download it!

Okay, here are a few cool Title-Designer screenshots to check out...

Remember reading those menu disk scrollers? Well, now you can write your own!

Choose their colours. Yes, that is colours rather than one single colour.

Why not add a couple of visual effects to your drawings?

I thought this was a powerful feature to have before loading another program.

The result after mere minutes. Yes, minutes! (credit to unknown for the superb image)

I personally think this is a great piece of software. Try it!!