Steps

Steps?

No, not that annoying camp-as-Christmas pop group, but Cream's musicdisk stuffed full of Tao tunes. My recording has short samples taken from random tracks; it's just enough to read the scroller, which is always a lamer's necessity. YouTube has its uses, but this disk is best experienced using real hardware.

Tao never ceases to impress, and Steps is nothing short of extraordinary. I love this music disk!!

Amazine Weekend!

Time for a good read

I've not been feeling too good over the weekend, so I've not been able to play, record, or write for my favourite Atari ST website. (Yes, this one!!) Typical, isn't it? After being at work all week, I get myself a dose of the dreaded man flu. Let me tell you, women, there is nothing worse than this illness. Scientific fact.

As I've not been in the mood, I just popped over to Fujiology and grabbed a random diskmag. I love reading these when I get the chance - and the ST has so many to choose from. I downloaded Amazine #4 by HMD, which is probably one of the shortest-lived magazines ever. I wonder what happened to No.5 /etc? :/

Amazine #4 begins with a fantastic intro by Animal Mine, which has jaw-dropping fx. The magazine itself is displayed using medium resolution, so it looks gorgeous and is very easy on the eyes. Inside are all kinds of information relevant to the early 90s, which is both incredibly interesting and also a shame, especially when you see various productions that never got finished - Yuppies Land. I also enjoyed the interviews and then seeing who topped the leaderboard for best artist, musician and more. Geeky fun!!

Sometimes ... ugh... I wish I could be ill more often so I can take the time to relax with a good diskmag like this. The Atari ST has such an impressive library, covering a wide range of topics and interests. I enjoyed this one: it's interesting, funny, geeky and something today's youngsters will probably never appreciate.

Anyhow, enough of my waffling on! Check out these screenshots...

I love megademos, but they can be spread too thin with fillers. I prefer dentros!

I like the GUI and how it pushes the pages across... Looks cool in ST Medium resolution too!

What? Fuzion are dead?? Right, come on guys, own it - who killed the Fuzion boys??

This was an interesting and sobering read, and I would have enjoyed Yuppie's Land...

World Championship Boxing Manager

Do not talk about fight club

Outside of stock car racing, I can't say that I'm a sports fan, and Boxing is something that has never appealed to me in the slightest. In the interest of keeping things as varied as possible, I'm always looking to try new stuff. So, I downloaded World Championship Boxing Manager by Krisalis, which they released in 1991.

I admit to being dubious about anything with "manager" in the name because it usually means boring or for the uber-geeks. Then I noticed AtariMania had this listed as STe Enhanced, which whetted my appetite. Well, what can I say, I'm a sucker for anything STe enhanced!! Let's just hope I don't die of boredom. Ha!

Let's take a peep at some screens that push the ST to its limits... ahem...

  
Here's the place to get things organised and to ensure the care of your fighters. Gripping stuff!

Silly faces you can punch!

We're first greeted by a range of dodgy blokes, who are all after a contract, so pick who you fancy before heading out to the office. It's here you can arrange a fight, train, view contracts, and even watch a fighter receive his physio. The fights are watched from behind the commentators, who will describe everything that is going on for each round. However, I soon felt the life force drain from me, so I hit the fast-forward button!!

I can't say I was converted to the sport, or even hooked on this style of game, but I continued on and headed back to my office to see what other wonders awaited me. I noticed hands on the right side of the office, but clicking did nothing, so I figured it was just part of the background. Until I clicked the filing cabinet...

I almost spat my coffee out when I began to watch my assistant walk across the office - an eye-popping moment in 16-bit sex appeal. Walking in those heels obviously looks tough, but she certainly excelled at handing over my documents!! Come on, I'm sure a better use of the STe palette could have been made. lol

It's time for some more screenshots...

  
The car animation is cool, as are the opening scenes within the stadium. Very exciting!

The CryptO'pinion?

Boxing Manager isn't a bad game whatsoever, and I imagine it will appeal to sports and strategy fans. Sadly, it wasn't something that I found particularly entertaining. Except for the girl strutting her stuff and flashing her legs and boobs. Yep, I can imagine the folk at Goliath Games had themselves a right laugh making this!

Strictly one ideally suited for Boxing enthusiasts with lots of spare time on their hands.

(Mantronix #6) is great floppy disk at Atari Legend.

Dark Mode

FTL!

Finally, Amazon delivered a new ST book - Faster Than Light. It's a cracking read, and I couldn't help but giggle when reading about ST Writer's dark mode. This line hit home with me about Dark Mode: "The ST had that in 1985". Today's companies would rave about a feature like that. As if it were brand new.

Absolutely superb STuff!! Get this book, it's brilliant!!