Mac Pan

Mac Pac, err, Pac-Man? What?

Mac Pan was released in 1987 by Richard Beith and works in ST High resolution. There are a few integrated features I really liked: hold down the fire button to temporarily increase the yellow guy's speed. Hang on, he's not yellow anymore! Anyhow, the game's speed can be tinkered with in the preferences. The graphics and sounds are pretty good, and there is support for simultaneous 2-player mode.

It's not the best PacMan but I still enjoyed it, and being able to choose the game's speed is a superb idea. It's easy to imagine German office workers in the 80s playing Mac Pan during their lunch break. Monochrome users should jump up & down with excitement because this is an excellent clone of the classic.

Downloads are available using AtariUpToDate.

ProFlight

Flight for the pros?

ProFlight by Nick Brown of HiSoft - puts us inside a Panavia Tornado. Fancy taking it for a spin, Maverick style? It runs fine on any Atari ST but will benefit from faster computers: my Mega STE delivered an astounding framerate boost. As you can see from the animation, it's compatible with both displays (mono shown).

I remember labouring over ProFlight back in the day, so I wondered how my older (and wiser?) brain would cope with this flight simulator. The main emphasis is on simulated realism, so you're out of luck if you thought this was an arcade-style combat shooter. That doesn't mean it's all work and no play because, once you've got over the hefty learning curve, there is an enjoyable and rewarding experience to be had.

Man, this is such a professional product and one that comes in a large box with a weighty manual - it's like something you would expect from a real flight school! Yes, this is an incredible sim for techie gurus to drool over and certainly one of the most rewarding sims I've played. Please be careful and don't crash it O_o

I fear this game might be too complex for the casual gamer. The sheer number of hours required to fully devote yourself to the game is huge, thanks to its immensely complex design. However, players without kids and with tons of spare time will be rewarded with a fantastic flight-sim experience. Tell me if I'm wrong.

HiSoft is trusting you with their precious plane, which can be enjoyed on a floppy disk or hard drive.

Diamond Edge

I love Hi-Soft!!

Isn't Diamond Edge a brilliant program? One of its features is 'Test Disk', which scans for potential problems. Only the other day, this saved my bacon because Drive C (a 32MB partition) suddenly reported itself as 22MB. Why, I do not know, but Diamond Edge came to the rescue and fixed several serious errors!!

I have found it particularly useful to optimise (defrag) the partitions in order to better stream audio for (storage) demanding games (Cannon Fodder / Xenon II) or other programs like ST Video Player. I defrag the drives on a monthly basis. Don't get me started with Undelete, another superb part of the Diamond Edge suit.

Diamond Edge is one of the most fundamental utilities for all Atari computers equipped with a hard drive. Anodyne has Diamond Edge freely available to download, along with the manual, too.

Which is simply excellent!!