SNDH Players

Chipmusic

I love listening to SNDH chiptunes on my Atari STe but it recently occurred to me that many didn't understand which player to use. Here are four fantastic Atari ST/e GEM programs to play your toons.

There could be more lurking within the archives but these are the four I enjoy using for different reasons. The last one I usually use when I'm writing on my Mac! My greetings and all credit to the people who made these superb programs. Okay, all links are included and I hope you find something here you enjoy...

~~ JAM ~~

Quite possibly the most well-known of all the players and deservedly so because it's brilliant with a modular design to handle a wide variety of file formats. It sounds great but looks rather plain jane. Thankfully, there is also a version which doesn't use GEM and is far prettier. (download)

JAM never ceases to impress with massive versitility and capability.

~~ SND Player ~~

It might look ugly in the 4-colour medium resolution but I like this program and it sounds just dandy. I found this to be a reliable player and it looks best in Low/High resolutions. (download)

I love using SND_Play and it's such a sexy looker in ST High. 

~~ GEMPlay ~~

is a "Lite" version of YesCREW's Falcon player. Some features are removed because the ST/e has no DSP Processor but it plays SNDH tunes perfectly fine. It's another program that proves how ugly ST Medium is so I recommend Low/High resolution! (download)

Once again, another beauty that plays your tunes perfectly. 

~~ KrapSNDH ~~

Such simplicity. Set it up as an Application for the .snd file format within GEM. Now double-click any sound file for instant play. No fancy interface but it's fast and a great player! (download)

Ignore the look. This is simple and works like a dream. So fast, I use it all the time.

Flip-O-Demo

I'm starting my weekend with the exquisite Flip-O-Demo by Oxygene/Diamond Design because it's just been updated to support hard drive installation. Originally, it was released in 1993 and contains some of the best artwork and visual fx you could imagine - all whilst playing lovely audio by one of my favourite musicians. A fabulous demo!

Flip-O-Demo is certainly one of the best examples of Atari ST creativity. Grab it from Demozoo right now.

Credits
Jess - Music
Leonard - Code
MoN - Graphics
Niko - Graphics
Oxbab - Code
Scavenger - Music
Spiral - Graphics
Wilfried - Graphics

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.