Army Moves

Reliving Christmas 1987

The last time I played Army Moves was probably on my Spectrum +3 just before moving up to the Atari ST. I remember it being part of Ocean's Live Ammo (that was a great compilation). It was extremely sluggish, very hard, and I was rubbish at it. Yep, so I never managed to beat the first level (stop laughing).

Army Moves was developed by Dinamic, who brought us After The War. It has many ideas borrowed from a variety of great(er) games, and it begins with us trundling over a damaged bridge in a surprisingly well-armed jeep. This can fire an infinite supply of rockets at the constantly attacking enemies whilst hopping over potholes in the hope of safely reaching the other side ...cough cough... Moon Patrol...

I think that we need a screenshot of this uniquely original opening level. Hmm, okay, here it is...

The jeep is brilliant with good handling and fantastic leaping abilities! Yeah!! ;)

When variety isn't the spice of life!

The following level has us flying a helicopter over enemy territory protected by planes - blindly shooting whether you're in their sights or not. The controls are lethargic, making it difficult to avoid their shots. Don't forget to manually land on the helipad at the end - otherwise, you suffer a suckers' death!

The next part is more of the same, which is very disappointing and extremely tough. It's now that you realise I've used a trainer because there was no way I could complete this stage without it. The final levels take us through the jungle, avoiding grenades and silly buzzards, before it flips into something resembling Joe Blade.

The first level is the best, while the others are far too difficult with too many enemies. Ultimately, it's a Dinamic game, and that means ridiculously tough, so you won't beat stage two without resorting to a cheat.

Wanna see a screenshot? How about one that feels odd as it scrolls in the wrong direction...

Reversed scrolling is weird and doesn't feel right, so it makes stage two quite frustrating!!

Speccy aesthetics

Visually, I like Army Moves, but that's probably because I'm fondly reminded of my colour-clash days on the Speccy? The graphics are barebones, but I must admit, everything scrolls along nicely, and I like the detail in the sprites. The helicopter levels feature parallax scrolling, which is a neat touch I appreciated.

David Whittaker's music plays throughout and isn't his best work, but it's still good enough. Nuff said.

Honestly, I swear that jeep doesn't only leap whenever I need a screenshot!

The CryptO'pinion?

I liked some of Dinamic's ideas, but it tries too hard to be cool. They spoiled it with ludicrously-long levels, which is made worse by being sent back to the start after losing a life!! Ignoring the enjoyable Jeep stage, I find it difficult to recommend this game - just play Moon Patrol, Silkworm, or Joe Blade instead.

Army Moves could have been great, but it feels like a rushed 8-bit conversion with a massive fistful of frustration. Unlike the Spectrum game, our conversion feels like a glammed-up quick port and one that lost much playability thanks to faster mechanics; scrolling, enemies, etc. I don't get it, what was Dinamic thinking?

The first level is the best, but the rest of the game is too difficult to be entertaining.

Wear camo and grab the floppies or hard disk version!

Jinks

This looks sucky!

Jinks appears as a horizontally scrolling 'Breakout', but is technically one of the worst ST games ever. Rainbow Arts’ port of this game is a disgrace. The incredibly jerky scrolling is enough to make your eyes bleed after just a few minutes of play. It’s that awful, and I feel sorry for anyone who spent their money on it.

Thankfully, Peter Putnik has attempted to improve the code by using the Blitter (as shown in the video). However, all disk images of Jinks contain the same bad data. Therefore, Peter is seeking anyone who can provide an image of the original floppy disks. This will allow him to repair this piece of history for his enhanced version.

Please get in touch if you have the original disks and can help...

• This new Blitter-powered version is downloadable from Atarimania.
• If you want to torture your eyeballs, then download the original at Hang Loose.
• Trusteft has a humorous recording of the original jerky game!!

Collaboration Two

Oh no, not another disk?

Following on from last year's success, Collaboration #2 has been released. The STatariART gang has been busy and created more funky pixel art - by many different people who kindly submitted their Degas dabbles. You will even see a few images from yours truly. Brace yourself for that horror; don't get your hopes up :o)

A lot of hard work went into this production, and it's always fantastic to see so many people coming together like this. People like us aren't often associated with the "scene", so let's hope we see many more disks. Any ideas? Contributions? Get in touch. Until then, Clickety-Click and download Collaboration #2 via Demozoo.

Credits

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AtariSTaffroom - Graphics

Atarian1982 - Graphics

Bionic Nerd - Code, Graphics

Dj Sergant - Music (We hope you don't mind ;))

Forgotten Grove - Graphics, Other (Started the whole idea)

Loggins - Graphics

Scarlettkitten - Graphics

Stefan Lindberg - Graphics

karim - Graphics

I hope you enjoy this show. Let me know what you guys think in the comments below...

- SAMPLE IMAGES -

r0x

Asteroids?

Set within deep space, you are Commander Perez, who humorously finds himself alone in uncharted space during a meteor storm. R0x was released in 2009 by NoExtra / RGCD and programmed by YMRockerz's Nicolas Flandin (Tomchi). It may look like an Asteroids, but it's not. It's an Atari STe game that requires quick reactions to pilot your spacecraft through a continuously hectic asteroid field. This is a game of dodge and scrape!

Before you load it up - make sure you read the storyline within the 'Readme' file included in the download. What a brilliant read and it had me laughing at loud. It's genuinely superb!!

Anyhow, let's quickly stop for a screenshot whilst you dig out that readme file...

Hang on, this isn't Asteroids!

Yeah, this isn't the arcade shooter that I first imagined. Instead, it's an avoid 'em that requires skill and careful timing to skim past hundreds of rocks zooming down your screen. It may sound simple, but the rocks are flying furiously at great speeds and range from iddy-biddy stones to huge planet killers. There is a distance counter at the top/right of the screen that indicates how long you need to survive before the level ends.

The longer you last, the faster the rocks move - many zooming diagonally - and are intent on squashing you into pieces. Your ship is equipped with smart bombs to zap the local area when things get too hair-raising. This also offers a brief moment to rest from the rocky onslaught, but it's not long before they're back!

I love it when games explain the basics, just like in this screenshot...

This is different. I like different!

A range of bonuses is available for daring pilots to collect - letters that spell out "EXTRA" for another life, but watch out for the fakes, especially the blue one, which inverts your controls! You shall see Treasure Rocks, which look different from the rest and offer up points should you bump into them. There are even teeny cosmonauts floating helplessly in space, just itching to be rescued - a lot harder than you imagine!

Skilled pilots can scrape their ship alongside any rock for a hike in bonus points, but the risk of being obliterated makes this a dangerous job. Interestingly, co-op is supported for those lucky enough to have friends or, like me, a gullible 7-year-old opponent who is eager to be my next victim!! This game mode also involves dodging more of those space rocks, but with the added incentive to rescue 20 astronauts for the win.

For such a humble game the graphics are fantastic with beautiful colours and movement, all by C-Rem, Heavy Stylus, and Templeton. Audio is the bee's knees with utterly fantastic chiptunes by Crazy_Q, TomChi, and DMA-SC. I will fight anybody that dares to disagree with me!!

The CryptO'pinion?

Shoot 'em up fans might be disappointed that R0X isn't ... well ... a shoot 'em up! No, it's a game of avoidance, I guess. It's straightforward and easy to pick up and play, but tough to master. Each level becomes progressively challenging, and I guarantee it's nowhere near as easy as you imagine. The rock-scraping mechanics add to the appeal and longevity. R0x is unexpectedly different and tremendously addictive!

The latest version is available from RGCD along with everything else. Additionally, a secret menu is unlocked if your high score beats 800,000. Easy, right? Send in your screenshots. Hmm, I thought so! :p

Peter Putnik

Here is an interview that I am extremely excited to publish because Peter Putnik is a name paramount with Atari ST gaming mainly because of his hard disk adaptations. This means no more running games from an unreliable floppy disk!

I have been using his warez for a long time, and ST gaming wouldn't be nearly as much fun without his efforts. The adaptations offer us the ability to install games onto our "hard drives" instead of the sluggish and failing floppies.

The experience is therefore far superior and usually comes with a trainer to help bad players (like me). Each game often comes with support for faster Atari computers which is incredible when booting up something like Frontier on my Mega STe. What's even more interesting is his 'Gamex', a method of snapshotting your progress instantaneously - kinda like an old Multiface!

I was surprised to hear about his past with not only the Atari ST but also the ZX Spectrum. Two great computers form my own computing history. I hope you enjoy this interview with the man responsible for hundreds of adaptations and several outstanding Atari STe enhanced upgrades. I don't think there is anybody so active on the Atari ST scene. My sincere gratitude to Peter for taking the time out for a good chat.

- The PP Interview -

 

What is your Atari hiSTory?

My history started in 1987 when I decided to upgrade from a ZX Spectrum to something much stronger and the Atari ST was my first thought. However, the Amiga had just arrived in the shops so I was in dilemma, but not for long, the Atari ST had far better quality of software and the prices were almost equal. Also, the Atari seemed a better platform for some serious activity. I soon upgraded the RAM to 1MB and also added another floppy driver and made an EPROM programmer (a must for anyone dealing with hardware mods).

I already had some experience with ASM programming with the Z80 so I soon started on the Atari ST. 68000 ASM is really nice to work with, especially with a good assembler like Devpac. I wrote utilities for my own needs with help from Atari Profibuch book and created a floppy copier combined with a RAMdisk. Most learnings was via books and magazines, unlike today with easy software availability. Pirates were pretty much active in these days, even during 1988's PCW Show in London. :-) In Eastern Europe, they were the only source for computer software, I must say. I also wrote some articles for Yugoslav computer magazines during these early years.

 

What setup are you using these days?

Currently, I have one Mega ST, one STe and a Mega STe. The truth is, I don't use them much because they are very old and fragile and I've needed to repair them a few times, except the Mega STe which is indeed best built. The extra speed is welcome, even for games, although Mega STe was never intended for gaming. I bought this some 9 years ago, and I've since replaced the hard drive. Now used mostly with UltraSatan - much easier data exchange, less noise...

I mostly use the Atari computers to test and to play but my main tool for adaptations is using Steem Debugger and, without this, development would be much slower and harder. This emulator, equipped with a complete overview of emulated computer status, may see all hardware at any moment and following the program flow (even with history). Steem is a very good emulator, and luckily, a couple years ago they released sources so I was able to do some modifications for my needs. On the real hardware, there are limited possibilities of tracing, especially with some software working in very low RAM. Older computers have too low a resolution with a small screen area but there are some things I can not do with my PC: GAL and EPROM programming - where I still use Atari and old programs.

 

History of your famous game adaptations?

Adapting games started during my Spectrum years actually. However, there was not much to adapt but POKE was popular to exploit the code which decreases a player's life count and the like. I also made a snapshot saving program which was in fact very-very simple and only needed to save the RAM and CPU registers to then restore from where we wanted to play. I did it with faster routines, so loading only took some 2 minutes instead 5. :-) Next step was when I added a floppy interface to the Spectrum and then I wanted to transfer all good games onto floppies. So, basically same thing as the Atari ST with game adapting, except that this was way easier because Spectrum software was singleparted in 99% cases and that means no further loading was required after starting the game. I transferred hundreds of games onto floppies very quickly - one disk could store over 20 games, using compression. Next step was adding hard disk like with Atari ST and I designed my own IDE adapter...

In case of Atari ST games, it was more time consuming, some 60% do not directly access the hardware but instead TOS functions for floppy access. This means it was sometimes simple but other problems might arise, like TOS version incompatibilities, RAM usage, etc. Again, it was easiest with singleparted games, so my first hard disk adaptations were with such games that didn't have any disk access after loading - like Stunt Car Racer and Sentinel. Afterwards, I made adaptations using a RAMdisk for faster loading before the later adaptations, like Formula 1 GP.

 

Incredible results achieved but why did you begin this?

I started all this because I wanted to get rid of unreliable and slow floppies. The real leap was probably the arrival of Flash cards, so we can now have small, silent, fast, cheap storage. I started to deal with them right at beginning - first one was 8MB Smart Media card in 2004. :-) I certainly did not plan, or expect, that it would reach a count of over 1000 adapted games!

 

What are your favourite games?

I first played Flight Simulator II which I bought together with Atari ST. Then I was playing Dungeon Master, Carrier Command, Millennium 2.2, Formula One Grand Prix and not forgetting Potsworth & Co.

 

What other stuff have you created?

My first serious software was MC Tracer, a debugger, for the ZX Spectrum. It could run any software, step by step, and there was a circular buffer feature to store the last 100 executed instructions. What's interesting is that I made almost the same relocating system (it must working at any RAM area) as what is used in TOS executables :-) Also worth a mention is my Spectrum modded ROM - for floppy and hard disk (all available at zx48.8bitchip.info).

For the Atari ST, I first made some floppy utilities and then a hard disk driver, which is still under development. I did some Windows utilities for accessing and transferring data with Atari ST formatted floppies and also hard disks. Soon after the Internet became accessible in our area, I started a website for my Spectrum and Atari ST projects. The site moved couple times during years, I hope that current place will stand for a long time.

Any current hardware projects?

I have many plans but things are moving slowly, especially with hardware. Mostly I would like to finish old projects, like the cartridge port IDE adapter and ACSI port CF adapter. No specific STE projects currently, but the cartridge adapter works better on STE and movies look much better. :-)

 

What's your favourite hardware creation?

My personal favourite ... hmm it could be the IDE hard disk adapter for Sinclair Spectrum because that was good exercise with GAL programming. For the Atari ST it would be the cartridge IDE adapter.

 

As a programmer, who inspires you?

I don't think that I was particularly inspired by a particular programmer but there are certain names I associate with high quality. Games by Costa Panayi, Andy Pennell for Devpac ASM and Geoff Crammond for his good simulations.

What about the Atari ST/e future?

My concern is that real Ataris will not last much long. More and more people will use emulators or clones like Mist. Still, adaptations can make playing a lot easier on both. I think doing STe-improved versions of games seems the right choice now. However, this can be very time consuming, I started Uridium couple years ago and simply disassembling it properly took a couple days. I then had to put it on ice because of a lack of time but, luckily, I was finally able to finish this recently.

Other problems are a lack of sources for better sound effects and corrupt or missing original disks. We need flawless images to work with for so many games, like Son Shu Shi, Jinks and others. Thankfully, we recently got Giana Sisters, the internet is a great thing and we need to work together. :-)

 

Links...

 - I often use Peter's 8BitChip adapted games and all are listed right here!

 - There is an 8BitChip Forum you can join and a YouTube Channel with many adapted games.

 - Have you seen Peter's Atari STe versions of Xenon 2, Cannon Fodder, Dungeon Master, etc??

Sideways

An unreleased gem!

Sideways was developed by Jamie Woodhouse, but it was unfinished and (obviously) unreleased. Actually, it's close to being a finished product and something of a cross between Uridium and Return To Genesis; a fast-paced shooter with graphics ripping along at 50fps! I'm saddened this was never released, as it proves that the Atari ST can perform brilliantly in the hands of a talented programmer. Yep, no lame port here.

What a shock it was booting this up for the first time. It's impossible not to be impressed by this ridiculously exciting shooter. The controls feel natural and responsive with precise turning and acceleration - better than Uridium!! Each level is stuffed with baddies and power-ups for increased firepower, shields, weapons, etc. However, not everything has been implemented, as this is an unfinished game after all.

Any shoot 'em up needs great control mechanics to deliver a thrilling experience, and Sideways has that by the bucketload. I feel Sideways is far better than either of the above-mentioned games, albeit unfinished. If you favour a shooter to be nothing less than FAST and FURIOUS, this game was made for you!!

Unfinished or not, Sideways is absolutely superb! Get it downloaded right now...

- Download Sideways -