Everyone's gone out!

Me Time

It’s been a wild couple of weeks playtesting two incredible versions of DOOM - STDOOM and DOOM8088. Honestly, I never thought I would see the day when I could even think about booting up id Software’s classic shooter on my Atari ST. Sure, it’s early days and there’s plenty of optimisation ahead (and much hopeful expectation), but I’m absolutely buzzing with excitement and wish Jonas/Frenkel all my beST.

That said, I figured it was time to get back to something a bit more “normal”. So today, the family are out so I decided to re/re/re/relive the glory days, 1990s style. As the familiar thrilling effects swirled and scrolled across my screen, a few others caught my eye and I couldn’t resist sharing them with you...

• StarPlayer is a MOD player that I've never booted up in my entire life! I thought I knew every type of tracker player for the ST/e, but alas, no. So this was a super-nice shock. It's actually a good program, with a nice design, and the mod's name is used as an adjustable sine wave. We can even alter the volume, balance, bass, and so on. I really like this player and should add it to this list I made a few years ago!! https://demozoo.org/productions/96029/
• PlaySID is something I've used loads over the years, yet sadly, not so much lately. And I've no idea why. The good'ol Commodore 64 has some crappy tunes but tons of fantastic ones also. Somehow, I actually forgot it has stereo playback, which is excellent. Cream nailed it once again for this brilliant chiptune player. https://demozoo.org/productions/65441/
• DBA #06. A legendary release. Not only was DBA a fantastic diskmag, but this particular one marked a change in how the ST sounded. At least for me. The disk's intro features music by Scavenger, one of my favourite musicians. It's mind-blowing, not only the music, but the visual effects help to produce something that is nothing less than iconic. https://demozoo.org/groups/13045/
• We Were @ is a favourite demo of mine, and arguably one of the best demos ever made. So stylish with many full-screen effects to blow you away. If you are one of the few 4MB STe owners that's never watched this demo, then rectify that right away. https://demozoo.org/productions/151600/
• Next up is Out A Time, which was released at Silly Venture by Baky, Jade, MiKRO, Sedma, Vasyl, and X-Ceed. The storage demands are huge, but everything worked fine for me. Thankfully so, because this is a stonking production! https://demozoo.org/productions/362494/
• It's about now you're probably wondering why only music and demos? How strange of you! Well, I ended with a game, and it's a belting platformer too. But I boot it up now and then for another reason. I'll leave you to fathom what that is, but I have a bigger grin than the Cheshire Cat's whenever I watch this awesome intro by the mighty Replicants!! https://www.atarilegend.com

So yeah, what started as a peaceful moment in the house turned into a full-blown blast through some of the best sights and sounds the Atari ST/e has to offer. Productions like these aren’t just eye/ear candy – they’re living proof of how much talent the ST scene has. Oh, and if you're wondering about the title image, it's from Yrasters by Extream. A wonderful screen that I've never seen before, and thoroughly enjoyed!

So that concludes my silliness for today. It's been fun reliving my youth, watching demos and listening to great chip music. Hang on, what am I saying - I do that most days with my Mega STe <gloating emoji>. I hope you have enjoyed this pointless posting of demoscene wonders. Have you got any favourites of your own - demos, music, intros, diskmags, etc/etc. Drop a comment below. I would love to check 'em out...

StarPlayer is superb, I loved the visual effects and superb 25 KHz playback.

Oh yeah, good old Commodore 64 tunes on the ST/e. Fantastic!!

One image does the DBA #06 intro no justice. Download it.

Leonard blows me away time and time again. An outstanding production.

This one was totally new to me and is an incredible showcase.

What a platformer, and now fully playable for the first time in decades!

Doom8088: Atari ST Edition

Updated new page here: https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/2025/05/doom8088st.html

DOOOOOOOM

After my shock and awe of finally getting Doom running on the Atari ST, another surprise comes along that I never expected. Frenkel recently dropped me a message about his hack of DOOM8088 for any Atari ST/STe with only 1MB of RAM. To get an acceptable framerate, something had to give - no 16 colours, a lower game resolution, etc. Massive hits, but these sacrifices make Doom playable on the 8MHz Atari ST/e.

Here's the bit taken from Frenkel's page before the all-important download link...

Doom was originally designed in 1993 for 32-bit DOS computers with 4 MB of RAM. It's mostly written in C code with very little assembly code. It has been ported to all kinds of systems. Usually, these systems are 32-bit or more and have a flat memory model.

Doom8088: Atari ST Edition is a port for Atari ST computers. It's based on Doom8088, a port of Doom for 16-bit DOS computers.

What's special (first release)?

• Supports only Doom 1 Episode 1
• Rotating overlaid automap
• Only demo3 is supported
• 2 colour mode
• No sound effects
• No music
• No texture-mapped floors and ceilings
• No light diminishing
• No saving and loading
• No multiplayer
• No PWADs
• No screen resizing
• No mouse and joystick support

I must admit, I still can’t fully believe how this is happening. Here I am, playing DOOM8088 on my Mega STe, and it’s incredible, albeit at the expense of aesthetics. But gameplay matters more! I’ve tested using Hatari, and the game works on every configuration of ST/STe except the 520 models. Quite staggering!!

My thanks to Frenkel for getting in touch; I hope this project is only the beginning :)

Go on, grab the download right away https://github.com/FrenkelS/Doom8088ST

Did you ever think this day would come to an 8MHz 16-bit computer??