Goldrunner

Fuzzy speech, be gone!

I love Gold Runner; it's a technical masterpiece by legend, Steve Bak. He proved when in the hands of a talented programmer, the Atari ST is more than capable of producing wondrous results. Other (lame) programmers would whine and complain, but Mr Bak simply got the job done. Perfectly every time I might add.

Okay, honest time, I'm terrible at this ultra fast-paced shoot 'em up (shock!!). Plus, I was never fond of that dreaded fuzzy speech. It was fine back in the day and is humorously entertaining but it soon wears thin and distracts during gameplay. Perhaps I'm old and grumpy but I've never really liked it. Sorry!

Good news - Peter Putnik has updated Goldrunner for hard drive installation and an option to disable the speech!! All you gotta do is press the F3 key so clickety-click and download this update to the ST classic.

PacMania

Popping pills & chasing ghosts!

Pac-Mania was released in 1989 by Grandslam, a faithful conversion of the arcade classic.  It was generally well-received at the time and offered a fresh take on Pac-Man.  Instead of the familiar overhead 2D perspective, players experienced the game from a spanky new isometric viewpoint, reminiscent of games like Knight Lore.  Furthermore, the expansive play area featured scrolling, propelling Pac-Man into the modern era.

The little yellow pill-popper also received an upgrade with the ability to jump despite lacking legs (work that one out, lol). Sadly, the Atari ST version of the arcade game had a smaller screen due to the absence of hardware scrolling. Consequently, it featured a large status panel that we didn't really need. However, don’t let that fool you; the game still boasted smooth scrolling and was definitely not a lame port.

Here is a screenshot of the original ST game (I've left in the top/bottom borders for a reason)...

It looks great, albeit with that overly large status panel taking up lots of space.

What if there was an STe version?

I’m glad you asked. Samuel (also known as Zamuel_A) has created an upgrade specifically designed to maximise the Atari STe’s enhanced hardware.  The gameplay now takes place in overscan, dramatically expanding the playable area. This silky-smooth 50fps scrolling, thanks to hardware scrolling in all four directions (a much-underused feature of our computer), truly transforms the experience. A jaw-dropping moment!

That’s not all, though. The Blitter manages all the sprites, and the DMA audio hardware plays sampled sound effects while our beloved YM2149 produces wonderful chiptunes – much better than stodgy Tracker MODs. Technically, this is truly impressive, and I’m sure Samuel has utilised every computer component.

Wanna see how it looks compared to the original? Of course, so scroll down a little further...

This is how the game appears on the Atari STe using overscan and all the other goodies!

The CryptO'pinion?

This is what happens when a talented chap takes a great game and reconstructs it in remarkable ways. The results are astounding, and I doubt any software house outside Thalion would have been capable of getting such results. This is one of those sad moments when I ponder Atari not releasing the STe in 1985.

The original PacMania is a great game and a decent conversion. However, Samuel’s upgrade has completely transformed the original. It’s a modernised version of our yellow friend for the 21st-century retro gamer, and it’s impossible not to be impressed by Samuel’s dedication and hard work. It's quite mind-blowing.

This is a captivating revamp of the classic favourite and far more enjoyable than ever. Superb STuff!!

Downloads are available at Atarimania!

YMT Play

Let's bleep and bloop the night away!

What better way to end a great Christmas than listening to cool chiptunes using YMT Play by Peter Jørgensen (aka Bionic Nerd). This program features YM music data streaming, like the typical ST-sound playback using a sound range from 50hz -> 300hz and with very little CPU usage. The quality is outstanding and I'm sure you will find its potential interesting and an exciting concept? Go and download YMT from Demozoo.

What is YMT?

"YMT files are like the YM/AY files. Music files where you sampled data from the sound chip register (YM2149/AY8910) in a certain interval, instead of having a dedicate player.

To my knowledge, there has only been YM/AY player that could play tune/score files, that was sampled at 50HZ, but the YMT player can play files up to 300hz (there are some 50hz+ tunes/scores include in the examples)

The advantaged of AY/YM/YMT format, is that to replay these tunes/scores cost very little CPU power. So, if you need a lot power for a eg. a 3D demo, then it could be a wise choice to use it, because it leaves most of the CPU power for 3D calculations and the graphic etc.

The disadvantaged is that it uses a lot of memory, and it is nearly impossible to make a routine that can capture and use the SID sound and Samples etc. It is also why those files need to be hand made, that is the reason why YMT-Player only support pure YM2149 sound."