Xenon II - STE - Megablast!

In-game real music!!

Xenon 2 is pretty much Marmite - it's a love/hate thing. Well, I love it. It's one of my favourite shooters with fantastic power-ups and freaky baddies. Plus, it's a technical masterpiece with outstanding aesthetics that proves the power of the Atari ST - when in the hands of developers with talent and commitment in equal measure. We need no custom chips nor those horrendously lame Amiga ports from the 90s!!

Okay, rant over. Here is a new Xenon II upgrade for 1MB+ Atari STe computers with an UltraSatan or decent hard drive. This new version streams 25KHz music, during gameplay, thanks to the DMA Audio hardware. There is no CPU hit whatsoever, so it's as good as ever, but with your choice of music :-)

Convert any song into: 8-bit @25033Hz using a program like Audacity. I've a massive selection of rock/metal songs stored and ZZ Top is playing in my game!!

Xenon II just got even better, and I hope Peter converts many more games to make use of the DMA co-processor. The possibilities are endless... Hmm, perhaps I should send him a wishlist? LOL he'll block me!!

Atari Mega STe

Mega Hertz

I asked Peter Putnik, from over on 8BitChip, if there was a program that allowed the Mega STe to flip between 8 and 16MHz - but without having XControl preloaded. He basically said yes, no reason why not. And a couple of days later, he had created it!! What a great Atari community we have - my sincere gratitude to Peter.

The download link is available via the AtariAge forums.

Well 'Ard

Wanna be a thug?

Well, today is your lucky day because we are a fierce-looking dude who loves to jump on all kinds of nasties. This violent act kills and splatters the baddies, and they fall off the screen dead. Sound familiar?

Released in 1994 by Cybernation Software, it was developed by Simon Scott and is a platformer created using GFA Basic. Well Ard is a cracking game, and to think it was developed in GFA Basic is incredible. Earlier levels are easy, but it certainly becomes challenging later on - some of those jumps are insanely tricky!

The scrolling is smooth, with fast action and large sprites - I love the snowman. Controls are accurate and responsive, with many tight jumps on interesting levels. Strangely, there are no optional methods to kill enemies - no weapons. Instead, reap violence by leaping and using our red booties. It's weird, but who cares?

This is one of the most enjoyable platformers I've played in a long time. Addictive gameplay that has you coming back for more, so put on your red boots and play it. Downloads can be found for floppy or hard disk.

Here are some more screenshots to whet your appetite...

Look at those teeth. This guy is a beast, so don't mess with him!!

Jump up and down until they're all dead - not violent at all. Honest.

Well 'Ard features some odd critters, but don't waste time looking - squash them.