After about 6 years, Equinox eventually released Virtual Escape in 1999, and it's one of my favourite demos. The tunes are utterly sexy, with some of the most incredible visuals to blow your socks off!! Those swirling dots are gobsmackingly beautiful, and I love the super-duper fast 3D. It's hard to believe this is on a stock 520 Atari ST. An incredible production that oozes class and is definitely one of the best demos out there.
Don't emulate - experience this using a real Atari ST and crank up the volume!
Credits and Downloads
Furax - Music
Jedi - Music
Keops - Code, Graphics (design)
Mad Max - Music (endpart)
Nova - Graphics
Starlion - Code
You can download Virtual Escape right now off Demozoo.
Democyclopedia mentions each effect, along with the awesome Skyline (see above).
I'm sure everyone knows that Jet Pac was originally released in 1983 for the ZX Spectrum by uber-gaming legends, Ultimate Play The Game. It's one of the most iconic 8-bit games from the era and still plays brilliantly today. Our remake/conversion was developed by Pete J. Whitby in 1992 for Budgie UK. Heck, he also designed all the graphics and sound effects, very impressive. Talent like this never ceases to impress me.
Interesting tidbit? I owned Jetpac on both cassette and cartridge (ZX Spectrum). I also had a huge Speccy collection that dated back to 1981 plus others like an Interface II (I'm such a geek). Sadly, I sold the lot when we got our first house/mortgage. :( ....I need a time machine!!!!!
Right, what's the story? Well, our Jet Man is a lucky fella working as a space pilot for Acme Interstellar Transport Company. They're sending him to fifty planets to assemble (and playtest) their technological creations. Sadly, his luck ran out as each planet was bombarded by hostiles ranging from fiery comets to fluffy aliens.
I thought I'd never see Jet Pac on the ST, yet here is a screenshot to make us all very happy...
There are so many different baddies to blast and many new ones too...
Planets, aliens, and lasers!!
Playability is impressively legit from the start. The controls are tight, responsive, and instantly familiar - albeit a tad quicker than I remember. Jet Man's movements are exactly as you would expect, but he oddly cannot wrap around the screen. However, he compensates for that lost ability with a new one - shield power-ups.
That's right, the fuel pods aren't the only thing dropping in from the skies. Collect one of the bubbles, and you're protected from harm. It doesn't last long, but that grace period is good enough during the heat of battle.
Those space nasties use differing attack patterns that help keep the arcade action very engaging. Many are new, and some require several shots, whereas others are invulnerable. Also, watch out for deadly platforms that can zap Jet Man into an early grave. Heck, there is even an end level - this is something missing from the original. If only I had better gaming skills to witness that for myself? Yeah, I know. Not gonna happen!
Let's view another screenshot, and this time I've beaten the horde and escaped in my rocket...
Jet Man is one lucky dude who gets to play with all the cool new rockets!
Aesthetics
Visually, there wasn't much to the original, but it wasn't needed, and the same applies here. The Atari ST remake follows the same format, albeit with smooth-moving sprites and extra colours. The only thing I didn't like was the new background, which I felt wasn't needed. I wonder if there can be a way to remove it?
The audio is good but not great. You can play with either the sound effects or chip music by Mad Max. Personally, I would recommend you leave that exceptional music playing because the sound effects are bland. Actually, it's humorously disappointing to hear the Atari ST out-bleeped by the inferior ZX Spectrum sound effects.
Okay, it's time for one last screenshot, and this one represents the action nicely...
Zip Zap (geddit?) the aliens the best you can!! And refuel that rocket!
The CryptO'pinion
Jetpac is Jetpac, and this game will always be magnificent no matter the year. Admittedly, our remake wasn't going to beat the original, but I feel Pete has done enough to capture the authenticity, whilst also successfully implementing new ideas that work well and set it apart from being a mere clone.
What's not to love about frantically rushing about the screen, zapping a relentless alien horde whilst gathering fuel pods? I loved playing it and enjoyed the new features. The boring sound effects aside, this is an utterly excellent game that I highly recommend. Let me know in the comments below what you think.
Play the original game on your Atari ST using an emulator:
Artemis is a unique (albeit colourless) emulator that works only on 8MHz Atari ST/e computers. Recommended for those wanting to experience something different.
Speccy is another emulator with full support for colour and supports faster Atari computers. What a class emulator this is!!
Oids is a shooter set deep in outer space and has us rescuing metallic men from captivity. Like Dungeon Master, every ST guy has played this at some point in their life. It's a classic, and nothing similar comes close. I've probably spent hundreds of hours on it over the decades, so check out our review from last year.
However, I must admit that I was shocked to discover that it runs at 10/12fps (PAL/NTSC). I'm sure today's kids will probably laugh at such a low framerate! Oddly, it doesn't feel that low, but that didn't stop Peter Putnik from developing an upgraded version running at 25/30fps, and he improved the controls too.
This is an outstanding upgrade that enhances the original - without spoiling it. Check out the upgrade for yourself, as it's added a whole new dimension to our iconic space thruster. And I love it to bits!!
I'd bet money that this was the last thing you expected to see here on an Atari website. Well, I've had a C64 emulator on my drive for a while and figured it was about time to do something about it. So I started my day by trawling through Old Games Finder looking for games I remembered seeing in C&VG magazine in the early/mid-80s. I wanted to play Pitfall, Manic Miner, and Staff of Karnath, but sadly, I had zero success.
However, some worked (with a caveat of displaying text instead of pixels), and some crashed the emulator. Yes, I should have read the docs first - lol. Basically, almost all games aren't supported if they use fancy scrolling, sprites, joystick control, etc. What work are applications, educational titles, etc... Including magazine Type-Ins and many text adventures (impressive, but hardly worth my hassle over the last few hours)
BTW, AtariCrypt has a section dedicated to emulation, which you can access by clicking here. Anyhow, would you like to see a screenshot of my programming skills taking advantage of the virtual hardware?
I thought so! Check this out, and it's a good idea to make some notes to learn from me...
B.A.S.I.C.
Ah, the extent of my coding knowledge! Perhaps it's best to leave that be and check out these commands instead? Now, I'm no Commie 64 expert, but these might help play C64 Jetpac...
LOAD "$",10 (this loads the disk's directory into Ram) LIST (this lists that directory to screen) LOAD "filename.prg",10 (you've guessed it, this loads a program) RUN (go on, take a stab at what this might do!)
Please note:
The "10" is the device ID for my Atari ST's hard drive.
If you are running the emulator from floppy disk then you should instead use "8".
Copy the Commodore ".PRG" programs into the same directory as the Atari file: "C64.TOS".
C64 emulation was tested on my 8MHz Atari STe and Hatari (same spec) for the animation.
The CryptO'pinion?
I'm not sure who to credit for this emulator but he/she did a great job and the docs indicate many practical intentions. This has been fun and the Commodore 64 is a decent machine (shush don't tell anyone). However, there is no real support for anything more than tinkering. Playing games was never gonna happen. Having said that, this has been a bunch of fun to play with the C64 operating system and some programs.
Sadly, I'm not sure how much longer I can stand the pain of having C64 software stored on my Atari ST's hard drive!! So, I think I should delete this evil software and get back to using the ST properly ;)
If you fancy a dollop of Commodore fun, the best download (that I've found) is on disk LAN-0066 via Floppyshop and it includes the documentation. Additionally, Old Games Finder can link to zillions of C64 stuff in the .PRG format. What a shame I never got to play more games...
Go on, give this a playtest and let me know how you get on in the comments below.
