AstroPanic '94

Unexpected little gem

AstroPanic '94 is a shooter by Dan Ackerman and appears to be a remake of the 1986 original by Charles Brannon. It was released in 1994(!), with updates and bonus sounds a year later. The premise is dead simple - shoot the aliens in what feels like a silly mash-up of Space Invaders and Missile Command.

We control a tank that moves left and right along the ground, blasting upwards at a bunch of alien ships. They’re a bit daft, flying around in oddball patterns, so you’ll need to dodge them while banging on the mouse button (you can use the keyboard, but the mouse is miles better). As is real hardware, Hatari would often freeze up and was painfully slow just to load the game - my Mega STe (4MB/TOS 2.06) ran it flawlessly.

AstroPanic '94 is a no-frills shooter, but loads of fun. Perfect for a quick blast and highly recommended!

• Atarimania has all the floppies https://www.atarimania.com/astropanic94
• Dan's other programs are listed on AtariUpToDate https://atariuptodate.de/en/dan-ackerman/
• Including Santa Run, which I love https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/2024/12/merry-christmas.html
• Don't forget to play Charles Brannon's AstroPanic! https://www.atarimania.com/astropanic.html

Zero-5

Poor gameplay and my death

Some games sit on the hard drive, gathering digital dust as the years slip by unnoticed. Zero-5 is one of those, I’m embarrassed to admit. Going all the way back to 2016, I posted a short review along with an interview with the game’s creator, Andrew Gisby. 2016! Almost a decade ago. How did that happen?

Anyway, as most of you know, I’ve got a Mega STe sitting proudly on my desk, so I figured it was time to stop everything and fire up this classic shooter. Zero-5 is an Atari STe game (yes, yes... and the Falcon too) that takes full advantage of the enhanced hardware. I would say it’s more of an arcade shooter than a space sim, as it's packed with frantic 3D blasting - with some missions taking us down onto planet surfaces.

My video is a collection of short clips - no long, boring, unedited footage that nobody’s going to sit through anyhow (read the video's description for the clickable links). Let's hope I don't leave it nearly a decade before I play this cracking game again. Enjoy the video and make sure you download the game...

• Review & Interview with Andrew https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/operation-zero5.html
• Floppy disk downloads Atari Legend and Atarimania
• Hard drive download https://atari.8bitchip.info/SCRSH/zero5.html
• Cool Atari Legend video https://youtu.be/cgqw8cEgfBs?si=4z7SPWIUbdZqz2o7

DOOM8088ST

We're going to hell...

AtariCrypt seems to be turning into a bit of a Doom website these days. That's not a problem for me, as Frenkel kindly shared the latest beta of DOOM8088ST. You may remember the previous version? A lot has changed since then; we now have luxuries like sound effects, colour, and a choice of three new colour modes.

• Low Detail (30x128 x 16 colours) will definitely be for the stock ST computers running at 8MHz. The framerate is excellent, and Doom is playable. That fact alone is shocking when you think about it for an 8 MHz computer. Who needs to source an old 386 PC on eBay to play this game? Not me ;^)
• Medium Detail (60x128 x 16 colours) is suited to those with an upgraded ST and Mega STe. It looks a LOT better and still manages to maintain a brisk framerate (as in video recording).
• High Detail (120x128 x 16 colours) is suited to those with an upgraded ST. It looks brilliant if you have the hardware. Do you have the power?!!
• Alt Medium Detail (60x128 x 2 colours) but using a black and white detail mode.

Check out the video above, it's best viewed on YouTube, and I've recorded it in three parts, which are linked in the description. Please note that this is a WIP. The current release of DOOM8088 is an exciting and promising project that you can follow and hopefully assist with here https://github.com/FrenkelS/Doom8088ST