Pommitus

Pomm...what?

I recently read a post on social media by Tatu Salmela, the creator of Pommitus, which he developed back in 1996. It turns out he learned programming by reading ST Format, and he’s still actively working on and improving Pommitus to this day. Since then, it has been converted from Finnish into English.

Pommitus is a multiplayer strategy game where you use calculated tactics to bomb your opponent. Initially, I wasn’t impressed with the user interface as I often clicked outside the control box and accidentally fired. However, it quickly became second nature and was a blast blowing up my neighbour with great ease. The sound effects are minimal but effective, and the monochrome graphics are sharp and detailed. Of course, you’ll need a monochrome monitor for the best experience. Being GEM-based, it should work on all Atari computers and even supports those fortunate enough to have a maths coprocessor.

Oddly, an emulator like Hatari might run Pommitus slower than a real Atari ST, but that is easily fixed by flipping the CPU setting to 16 or 32MHz. Erm, nothing ever beats the real hardware...!

I’m incredibly impressed with Pommitus and so grateful Tatu shared his work with me. Here’s a bit of exciting news: he’s developing a new Atari ST game similar to Pommitus that will run on ST Low. It’s still in the early stages, but I’m thrilled to see another Atari ST game in development. Watch this space, folks. :-)

• Grab the download over at AtariMania

Spontaneous Compression

A brand new album

Say hello to the third album by YM-Digital, Spontaneous Compression which was released yesterday and features nine tracks of awesome audio for us all to enjoy. Of course, each track was created using Atari ST computers!!

01. AdraSTea Orbit (16,61 kHz)

02. Cell Synthesis (16,40 kHz)

03. The Lost Confidence (50 kHz)

04. Aomi - The ST Version (16,40 kHz)

05. Yellow Leaves Are Falling (16,40 kHz)

06. Neutralizer II (16,40 kHz) / original composer: Rudolf Stember

07. Digiloo Digiley (50 kHz) / original composer: Kemal Ezcan

08. Draconus - The ST Cover (22,75 kHz) BONUS TRACK / original composer: Adam Gilmore

09. Aomi - The STE Version (50 kHz) BONUS TRACK

Total Time: 32:33 min.

All songs (except "Aomi - the STE version") have been recorded from an ATARI 520ST computer with YM2149 chip.

BeGEMeD

Dear puzzle fans, brace yourself...

Forget playing Candy Crush on your phone because something better is out on the Atari STe. It's called BeGEMeD and is a twist on the Bejewelled theme by Alexander de Vries. It's a new game for the Atari STe with 16 beautiful colours and DMA sound effects. Those familiar with the genre will love this version because it plays brilliantly and is challenging - without irritation or frustrating mechanics. You'll be playing for hours!

The graphics were designed by Carnivac, and it's difficult to believe that he only used 16 colours. The quality is superb, so it appears there are far more on-screen. This talented use of colour is impressive. Accompanying the lush visuals is music by Dma-Sc, one of my favourite musicians, and it's mesmerisingly awesome. We also have familiar sound effects as we play. This includes samples letting us know how awesome we are.

Hey, let’s check out the readme…

Nice of you to visit this text, it will give you all the basic information you need to know to get started. Don’t worry it's easy so you will get the hang of it very soon!!

We are visiting Jack Bright, the castle lord of a medieval castle. He has already lived there for a lot of years and the castle needs some work. But his cash flow is a little bit on the downside so to earn some cash he has to swap gems for it.

He has lots of them hidden in his castle but it is a real mess. They are just piled on top of each other in no order at all. To swap them for cash he has to sort them out! But he can only do so if he has 3 or more of the same collection.

How does he do that? Well simple, just align 3 or more gems horizontal or vertical. For every successful swap, he earns those coins. Click the gem you van to swap with one of its neighbours and then choose the one you want to swap. Or even better just drag it over the other one by holding the mouse button, it both works...

As the coin meter reaches the top you have earned enough cash to go to the next level. The aim of the game is to reach the biggest high score of course.

The CryptO'pinion?

I contacted Alexander to thank him for developing this, and we got chatting! It was only a short time before I was beta-testing a new version - I'm thrilled to report numerous bug fixes and extra features.

This has been a blast because Alexander is a cool chap and I'm honoured to have played a (tiny) part in producing a fantastic and addictive puzzler. I'm confident with the following statement: BeGEMeD is one of the best Bejewelled games there is. A fantastic puzzler that looks and sounds as good as it plays.

Don’t waste any more time and click the link below this text. NOW!!

AtariMania has the latest download

The first screenshot... what a nice display with lovely colour and design!

The second screenshot... It kinda looks the same as the first, doesn't it. lol