YMT Play

Let's bleep and bloop the night away!

What better way to end a great Christmas than listening to cool chiptunes using YMT Play by Peter Jørgensen (aka Bionic Nerd). This program features YM music data streaming, like the typical ST-sound playback, using a sound range from 50Hz to 300Hz and with very little CPU usage. The quality is outstanding, and I'm sure you will find its potential interesting and an exciting concept. Go and download YMT from Demozoo.

What is YMT?

"YMT files are like the YM/AY files. Music files where you sampled data from the sound chip register (YM2149/AY8910) in a certain interval, instead of having a dedicate player.

To my knowledge, there has only been YM/AY player that could play tune/score files, that was sampled at 50HZ, but the YMT player can play files up to 300hz (there are some 50hz+ tunes/scores include in the examples)

The advantaged of AY/YM/YMT format, is that to replay these tunes/scores cost very little CPU power. So, if you need a lot power for a eg. a 3D demo, then it could be a wise choice to use it, because it leaves most of the CPU power for 3D calculations and the graphic etc.

The disadvantaged is that it uses a lot of memory, and it is nearly impossible to make a routine that can capture and use the SID sound and Samples etc. It is also why those files need to be hand made, that is the reason why YMT-Player only support pure YM2149 sound."

Annihilator

Homebrew games suck, right?

I was always fascinated by what assortments of goodies I could find within the ST's public domain. I scoured the various PD Libraries trying to find either the next big thing or something obscure that would take me by surprise. Who remembers Goodmans, FaST Club, Democlub, LAPD, and many other libraries?

Amazing times, and the Atari ST is blessed with a gigantic and assorted Shareware/PD library. That includes a fantastic gaming section, and here is one such example: Annihilator by Robert HC Leong. This is a classy shoot 'em up, released in 1991 through the esteemed Budgie UK label (a company I genuinely miss).

The gameplay feels instantly familiar, with lots of baddies swarming about. They're called Insectoids, not Galaxians, no matter what you think! The controls are responsive: moving left/right dodges their attacks, whilst hitting fire will shoot the cannon. Killing aliens is never boring, but remember to look out for power-ups that replenish your ship's shield and increase firepower. There are even end-of-level bosses!

Robert coded in a level skip cheat...

It's easy to activate: just pause the game using the spacebar.

Now hold shift and press keys F1-F10 for the required level.

Annihilator is a tremendous blast back to the early 80s. In fact, it's almost as good as I would expect from a commercial company, with exciting gameplay, smooth-as-silk visuals, and fluent controls. Budgie UK has tons of great games, and this is one of the best in their library. Definitely worthy of a Crash Smash rating!!

Waste no more time and get Robert's game download from the GamerBlitz website.

R-Type Deluxe

R-Type is back!

An early beta of the new R-Type Deluxe was released at STNICCC by Stephen Jones, aka Bod. It has been designed to use the STe hardware - Blitter co-processor, hardware scrolling, and DMA effects/music. It plays far better than the original game, and the pictures you see here were sent by Stephen.

I have enjoyed playing R-Type Deluxe, which has proven the Atari STe to be a formidable computer. The action feels smoother and much better, plus the audio has a great effect by making this feel more arcade-like. This is looking to be an impressive project, but please remember this is a Work In Progress. (update).

   

   

Update July 24th

This file is already on Atari-Forum, but here is my backup of Stephen's R-Type Deluxe source code. I'm keeping it safe until another developer continues the work. <download link>

lotharek

Thank you, Lotharek

Shortly before Christmas, the hard drive inside my Mega STE died. Thankfully, I had just backed it up the previous day (how lucky am I), but this did give me a big kick up the backside to invest in something better. After all, it was the original 47MB SCSI from 1991, so it was only a matter of time before it went BOOM!! ;-)

Lotharek is selling the Ultrasatan on their web store, and I bought one. It's quite something to go from a noisy 47MB drive to a fast and silent SD card offering much more space. I must say, Lotharek is quick, as this arrived on Christmas Eve, so I'm spending the holidays playing! The possibilities appear limitless because I am no longer struggling with meager storage. Lotharek's UltraSatan is a brilliant piece of Jookie kit. Buy this!!

Why not use your UltraSatan to game or enjoy a few demos...

One of the most famous 16-bit shoot 'em ups ever - Xenon II Megablast. This will always be a firm favourite of mine, so it was exciting to hear Peter Putnik had doctored it back in January with his magic. The game now streams 25Khz music directly using the Ultrasatan (sorry STFM guys - this feature requires the audio co-processor hardware of the Atari STe). What a jaw-dropping upgrade!! Such an unbelievably huge size for an ST game, and worth it. I certainly hope Peter converts more games in the future!

Drone, an Atari STe demo which I would personally rank as a masterpiece. Stunning audio, artwork, and presentation.... all far beyond excellent. It was released back in 2012 by the legendary Dead Hackers and is a whopping 11+MB. It was released for Sommarhack to pay special tribute to the Ultrasatan. This is one of the best demos I've ever experienced.