Armada

BattleScapes

I wanted to pay my respects to the service men and women who have sacrificed to keep us safe. I'm not really into "military/war" games, so I wasn’t sure where to start. The Atari ST has a huge selection, and the closest I’d ever come to the genre was probably D-Day a few years back. But I knew I had to do something for our pride in #VEday80 - and then it hit me, like a cannonball fired from The Golden Hind! (geddit??)

Okay, I’ve got a bit of a "thing" for Atari’s ARC label. I've been slowly collecting their games over the years - I'm just waiting on a (decent) copy of Photon Storm to complete the set. Anyhow, that also means some games have been merely sitting idle on my shelf! Heck, I've never played Gettysburg, Armada, Prince, or Borodino. Well, I dabbled in Prince, but was blown away by its learning curve (I'm lazy). It was now that I realised how many "war" games I owned - maybe I’m more of a fan than I consciously realised. Ha, maybe!!

So, what to play for the big day? Well, I just flipped a (virtual) coin and took a chance...

Armada was the winner, which means I was about to set sail on the high seas around southern England for a war against the superpower, Spain. Armada was released in 1990 by Peter Turcan, the same developer behind Waterloo, Borodino, Austerlitz, and Gettysburg. Wow, I guess he really likes his history?

The game is based on historical events and is definitely one you will struggle to play without the manual. Not just for the backstory but for an understanding of how to command your fleet, as I discovered. The manual is great, providing a concise account of the historical events without becoming a long-winded chore to read through. I'm not much of a reader, but I set aside an evening to go through it. And I’m glad I did!

It’s a fascinating period in European history. I learned that the sheer numbers the Spanish managed to gather were impressive, becoming nothing less than formidable. But when you look back on these events, things did not go according to plan. It's an understatement to say the battles didn’t quite live up to their expectations - more like a soggy dud firework that failed to go off. Regardless, it’s surreal reading about these events, especially considering the limited technology, navigation, and communication of the time.

For me, that "dud firework" moment came early on. It became clear that, while the Spanish had an enormous fleet, they lacked the skill and experience of the English, who had the disadvantage of a smaller fleet. It’s hard to go into much detail without spoiling the game you will play. That said, it was heartbreaking to read how the men in the Spanish fleet ended up circling Britain, almost starving before facing their cruel and bloody fate. And then, how the English government appallingly treated their victorious veterans afterwards.

I hope this is proving as interesting for you as it is for me. Shall we pause for some screenshots...

The game introduces the opening moments of the war.
You are asked some questions that assist in your learning of this deep game!

The graphics draw before your very eyes and look pretty nice.
The ships are well represented, as is the coastline of southern England.

Reliving the War

It's 8am, July 31st, 1588, and the Spanish Armada have been sighted off the coasts of Cornwall. It's time to gather the brave men and head out into the seas to defend England. But wait, don't sail out yet because a few questions require answering. These help to configure your experience, especially for new players:

• Trail Fleets - Basically, lower the number of ships to make it quicker and manageable. Choose "Y".
• Two-Day Battle - A shorter game, so newcomers should choose "Y".
• Human/Computer - Either can be chosen for English and/or Spanish. (Y/N)
• Signalling - Used as a trainer, believe it or not, for new players, so answer "Y"
• Viewpoint - Another "cheat" for new players, but something I'd consider answering "N" to.
• Cannon firing - Of course, you must answer "Y" to see the action! (sarcasm)
• Existing Orders - Choose whether to keep things historically accurate, but you can still override.

From the perspective of the English, we play as Admiral Lord Howard. We will take command of our squadron along with those captained by Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher. The game begins at the battle's dawn, and depending on how you answer the human/computer question, you are either English or Spanish.

If you choose to be Spanish, you are Alonso Pérez, the Duke of Medina Sidonia (the computer could play the part of the English). Of course, you could attempt to play both sides or leave the computer to act out both sides of the conflict for you. But why you would want to do that is anyone's guess!

Now the game begins, and you are bewildered! Yep. So let's pause for a couple of screenshots...

You can request updates from particular captains or the squadron as a whole.

Use the mouse to identify places and any vessels.

A time to lead

The game begins, and you feel abandoned and left without a plan or any kind of assistance. Armada leaves you out in the cold!! So, grab the manual and also look at the underwhelming paper map inside the box. What? You have a cracked copy? Ha, play something else then - you don't stand a chance mate!!

I mean this - immediately, you are thrown in at the deep end. A visual representation of the day is drawn before your very eyes. You are instantly expected to command and give orders. If I'm honest, this is a truly bewildering moment. Quite mind-blowing, and I felt lost wondering where to begin. I'll say it again, you must read the manual. But, even then, you're left unaided with a fleet of men looking at you for leadership!

Armada is nothing like I expected. I thought I would have icons to click, but instead, we use a command-line parser much like a text adventure. Commands are structured and issued in a set format of [to whom] [when] [what to do] [timescale]. This is powerful but very difficult to understand, as I found out.

Here are the commands that I have come to use often. There are lots more commands apt at particular points in the conflict, but consider the following a list of the base commands you will probably use. There are two main types of commands: either you signal the squadrons (or ships) directly, or your own captain.

With that in mind, here are some examples...

signal all squadrons to sail to plymouth

captain sail to plymouth

These mean exactly what they say, everything heads in the direction given. The first, commands the fleet. Whereas the second, yours. You can tailor that to send Drake to Poole, for example.

signal Hawkins to sail in line astern formation

captain sail in crescent formation

You may wish to adopt a nice pattern to sail the seas? The first command directs Hawkins' squadron. Whereas the second is ours. You can also command all the squadrons.

signal drake to blockade Plymouth

This is mentioned in the manual and something to consider, but maybe not only Plymouth?

signal all squadrons to attack enemy

signal drake attack enemy

When the time is right and the enemy is closing in - fight (with lame cannon effects). The first commands everyone to attack. However, if you have left (as in the example above) Drake elsewhere, then you might direct him separately. It depends on how you direct the battle.

captain adopt short/long range tactics

signal all squadrons to adopt short/long range tactics

signal Frobisher to adopt grappling tactics

These commands are interesting. If you aren't close, then long-range tactics (cannons) are needed. Grappling is when you are close and you attempt to board an enemy ship.

signal all squadrons disengage

signal all squadrons send me your battle reports

The first command helps you to backtrack, if in trouble. The second command provides feedback provided by each squadron. It's slow and pre-internet speeds!

As you can tell, the manual is desperately needed. I personally think this game is impossible to play without it. The manual may have a fantastic backstory to the war and provides lots of technical details about the ships, and much more. But it's not great at assisting a (new) player. I felt it didn't help with the basics, so you spend the first few games blindly guessing what to do without much visual feedback to aid.

With that in mind, we definitely need a break! So here are a few images you will appreciate...

After reading all the above, you may be disappointed. Fear not, we have a mouse!

That's right, whenever the fleet requires commanding, use the mouse to identify ships/etc.

I had a play with formations, but I think I made things worse! lol

Here you can see my ships heading towards the distant Spanish fleet.

The CryptO'pinion

Beginning Armada is baffling. More than I realised, so I dug out the map and re/read parts of the manual - yet again. Learning the commands and their finicky structure was tough, very tough. So I don't think this war game will be for everyone. If you're brave enough to download it, then this is my humble advice:

Remember that you have your own Captain onboard (and your own squadron of ships). This means you don't need to worry about the finer details because you should leave the captain to worry about that. However, you still need to address your squadron as you would the others - Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher. Get an image of how that setup looks in your mind, and rather than directing commands at ships, use squadrons.

For a quick start, I figured Plymouth or Poole were destinations worthy of a Spanish attack. So my tactic was to flood these seas with my fleet. I blocked off Plymouth using Drake's squadron and left Frobisher nearby. That left two squadrons, which I took towards Poole. Well, that was my novice theory. And I felt it worked.

Regardless, this game is huge and with a technical command-based system. So that means its learning curve is massive and probably the biggest of any ST game I've played. I fear this could put many off it. Having said that, I rather enjoyed playing Armada a bunch. I ended up beating the Spanish after a handful of games. That was quite a proud achievement, considering the negative thoughts I had on my first attempt.

Armada is only for serious war fans. If that's you, I would easily rate this old seadog an apt 80%.

• Atarimania has scans of both the manual and game map (don't bother playing without these!) https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-armada_11094.html
• 8BitChip has a version for hard drives https://atari.8bitchip.info/SCRSH/armada.html
• A few more Tactical/Strategies here https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/TacticalStrategy

This doesn't happen often (and it didn't happen on my first "few" attempts!).
But eventually, I did it and stopped those Spaniards from invading my country. Woohoo!

STDOOM

DOOOOOOOOM!!

If you’ve been following me on Twitter/X, you will know I've shared screenshots and video clips of Doom running on my Atari STe (and later my Mega STe). This is thanks to Jonas Eschenburg, who has been hard at work getting the source code to compile and run on our favourite 68000 computer. It’s mind-boggling to see this game running on my Atari ST, but it’s also bittersweet because it reminds me of when I first saw Doom in 1993. By then, the 16-bit era was drawing to a close, and Doom’s release was like the final nail in the coffin [sigh!]

Decades later, I’m geeking out about the ability to “run” Doom on my Atari ST. This all started thanks to a thread over at Atari-Forum, with a post by Badwolf that had my mouth watering. Okay, it's an accelerated computer, but the possibility of "STDOOM" began. (Greetings @Badwolf for that download)

Later, I read a post on Twitter by Jonas, and the joy truly began when I saw screenshots of Doom running on the ST. Accelerated/emulated or not, this was starting to "be something". I contacted him and we've since found/fixed errors and even got it to work within 4MB of RAM. This has been fun and exciting!!

I eagerly asked Jonas for his thoughts on what he hopes to accomplish with STDOOM...

I would like to emphasize I was a little surprised that apparently no officially recognized ST port existed. I kind of naively tried to compile the official Doom sources to Thorsten Otto‘s great GCC port. After ripping out code that was never going to work on the ST, I had a version running after just one night of hacking.

I was mainly interested in supporting the ST‘s original graphics, so I experimented with medium-res using black & white. I had ideas for how to support 16 colours, so that came next. I really like the dithered colours now. The experiences I gained on my VoxelSpace demo were very helpful.

It’s a technical challenge, and not a very hard one. There’s an emotional aspect to it as well. In a way I’m giving a present to my 13-year old self who saw his friends, with their PCs, play doom while I was left with an old ST. I know some of you feel the same. Whatever your reasons are, I’m happy if you enjoy the fact that there is now DOOM for the ST.

I won’t make any promise of playability on original (8MHz) hardware, but I’ll see what I can do. However, I’m pretty sure that id software did their best optimizing the hell out of this game. It was considered a hardware seller for the PC platform at the time for a reason. But even if it only runs at acceptable speed, with accelerated hardware or under emulation, I think having a best-effort port for the ST is valuable on its own.

One thing missing is audio and I’m not experienced with the YM2149. If anybody would like to help me with support for DMA sound effects and YM music, I would love to accept help.

Yep, nobody expects Doom to be properly playable on an 8MHz STe, but Jonas is convinced more optimisation can be done. A carrot & donkey moment for me as I hope to moderately play it on my Mega STe.

Seriously, I wonder what lies ahead on this long road that leads into Doom heaven (hell?).

Remarkable times, folks!! Check out these links and watch this space...

• Follow Jonas/get in touch to help with development https://x.com/indyjonas
• Have you seen Jonas' VoxelSpace engine? https://demozoo.org/productions/370162/
• Here is a Doom slideshow to whet your appetite https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/doom.html
• Aranym is a great ST Doom "option" https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/2017/05/easyaramint.html
• Do you want more ST FPS games? https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/FPS
• Those lucky pluckers with a Falcon should play BadMood https://www.leonik.net/dml/
• As you all know, I'm not technically minded when it comes to programming (I know now't!). ST guys like Jonas blow my mind, kinda like this CAD application did a few years ago... https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/2016/03/a-day-in-life.html

Okay, I've sludged through the slideshow framerate and found a Shotgun Guy!

He turns and hits me, but it's futile in God Mode!

Oh yeah - Take that!!

His already dead corpse is... dead for good this time!!

Reload and move on for the next zombie to slay!

There is no sound yet, but reducing the screen size helps a (tiny) bit!

This help screen is for anyone who’s never heard of Doom - bless ’em...

Power Drift

More Speed, Less CPU Strain

This is an arcade racer I’ve always loathed. I remember playing the ST conversion and instantly taking a dislike to it. Looking back, I reckon it was probably because the game was too ambitious for a 512KB 16-bit computer. I wouldn’t have thought that at the time, of course, but that’s how I translate my old memories.

Now, don’t take this for a review - it’s more of an excuse to add another game to my STe Enhanced section. Yes, AtariCrypt actually has a section dedicated to enhanced games! Bet you didn’t even know that, did you? Well, take a look to the right of any page and you shall see a link to this list (WIP - loads more to come).

Wait… what? Power Drift is STe enhanced? Well, yes and no. It makes use of the Blitter, which is something within every Atari STe. The standard ST is supported - if you were lucky enough to have one installed - like the Mega ST (I also believe late-model STfms had an empty socket waiting to be filled?). Okay, considering the game was released in 1989, I would have been using my older 520 STfm (without a Blitter). That would certainly explain my long-standing grudge against this racer, which I never bothered loading up again - until now!

Fast forward way too many years, and I’m lucky enough to own both machines (though Hatari’s a decent option). So, booting it up on an ST without a Blitter, and the framerate is awful. Fire it up on an STe, and it’s a different story. The Blitter kicks in - probably handling the sprites - and the framerate feels much better. That might sound dramatic to some of the ST Nutters out there, but trust me, it makes all the difference.

If I'm honest, I only ever expected a small improvement. Something hardly noticeable because I still expected to be unimpressed by a rubbish port. Turns out, I was completely wrong! Power Drift is actually a blast, and I can’t believe I’ve spent decades ignoring it. Sure, it's not the best racer we have because it's far too ambitious for any 16-bit computer. But if you use an Atari STe, download this game and give it a whirl.

It's weird how such an old game surprised me like this. Power Drift isn't a serious racer; rather one to take lightly, but it's fun. Highly recommended and I'm confident to rate at 75% (40% without Blitter).

• Atari Legend has the best disk - Dodgysoft #75 https://www.atarilegend.com/games/power-drift
• 8BitChip has a version for hard drive https://atari.8bitchip.info/SCRSH/powerdrf.html
• If you’re too lazy to glance right for more enhanced games, just hit this link right now https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/enhanced-games.html

Master those corners, and you have a cracking racer. Well, on an Atari STe!!