Oh no! Mario is now available for the Atari ST. Phew, thankfully, I'm lying!! This is actually a cool intro screen that was created to be a main menu for some demo that never got completed. Good old Demozoo informs that it's by Channel 38 and features neat music and a large "play area" making good use of those borders. Oh yeah, so nice!!
My apologies for my video recording which is pretty poor. A real ST/e performs silky smooth.
Dave Munsie is a legend within the Atari ST world. It's as simple as that. The guy released several outstanding games like Berzerk, Frantick, and Kid GP. Some of his games were even enhanced for the Atari STe.
Asteroidia, as you've probably guessed by now, is a Munsie-take on the Asteroids arcade genre. This means it's hardly going to win an award for originality, but don't be put off because I've a sneaky suspicion this might be worth your time downloading this rock blaster. Well, it's a Munsie game so that's a given, right?
Forget about a static/no-scrolling screen with vector graphics. Dave is transporting us to a part of space where moving pixels rule thanks to the Atari STe hardware. Pixels powered by the Blitter chip; scrolling at blistering speeds. Not only that but you can expect DMA audio too. Your monitor won't know what hits it!
To be honest, it's hard to imagine Asteroids looking impressive but, I'll post a screenshot anyhow...
The planet is powered by the Blitter and whizzes by!
Boring old asteroids, right?
As you would expect, the gameplay is predicably asteroids with us controlling a ship chasing lumps of rocks. It's initially quite hard and surely takes some practice because everything moves so fast. Thankfully, the controls are a cinch to master so it won't be long before you realise how fantastic this alternative conversion is.
Visually, it looks nice but it's the speed that will impress. Planet Earth swooshing across your monitor and makes you realise how under-utilised the Blitter and Atari STe was by many commercial gaming companies. Mr Munsie puts them to shame. The audio hasn't been forgotten and we get DMA support which plays a short sampled tune. However, it's quite repetitive so I switched to far better chiptune/sound effects!
Here is the options screen where you can activate the Blitter, flip to PAL/NTSC, and much more...
Gotta tip my hat to Mr Munsie... Blitter, 50Hz, Atari STe / Falcon support. Incredible!!
The CryptO'pinion?
Sure, this is Asteroids but the twist is how it performs with impressive Blitted graphics zooming about the screen. Not only that, it's like watching a demo that proves how much-untapped potential the Atari STe has. That changes and enhances the gameplay mechanics of the genre vastly. Factor in the excellent joystick controls and you know why this is rock-smashingly addictive. One of the most entertaining games I've played.
Blitted graphics or not, this is bucketloads of fun and a superb Asteroids conversion. Highly recommended!
Download Asteroidia from AtariMania Hey, can you beat my hi-score below?
Check this out, folks! Marc Johnson needs no introduction but look at what he created for me when fed with chiptunes (and a bottle of wine). Thank you mate, this is an awesome logo. Absolutely superb STuff!!
You know me, I love the Atari STe so am always on the hunt for games, demos and programs that make use of its enhanced hardware. Well, I was flicking through ST Format #58 and noticed a review of a game called Crime Wave, by Dillon Agoma. It appears similar to Super Cars and makes use of hardware scrolling! However, the reviewer didn't seem too pleased with the controls so perhaps it was a work in progress?
This is a tough one to research because its name is the same as a commercial US Gold game! Plus no PD library stocked it as Crime Wave was only available directly from the author. I've searched online but found no downloads or information. I have written and posted a letter so I hope he is living in the same house!
Update: I have managed to contact Dillon...
June 2016: This is the date I originally posted the letter!
Feb 2017: Sadly, I never received a reply to my letter. (I later found out that he had moved!)
July 2017: I managed to contact Dillon online and he thinks his disks are still in storage :-)
Oct 2017: Nothing turned up there, but he now hopes that those disks are in his attic.
April 2019: I've sent Dillion another message but sadly I've heard nothing back. I hope he's okay but I'm now starting to think this piece of ST history is now lost forever.
Jan 2020... Perhaps I should give up? I am gutted :(
Marko Latvanen currently handles all of the Atari ST administration for the AtariMania website which must be a massive undertaking but one he is committed to finishing (he's a workaholic!). AtariMania is a popular website that has catalogued and detailed almost every Atari ST game. I don't think a day passes without a visit from myself and zillions of other people, I'm sure.
Of course, AtariMania isn't just about Atari ST gaming because they also feature utilities, applications, demos and even scans for books, adverts and magazines. Not to mention support all other Atari machines, from those odd-looking consoles to the mighty Falcon computer & Jaguar CD. Quite incredible!!
Marko is a cool chap who works hard for our Atari scene so it was about time he answered a few questions for me here at AtariCrypt towers! And it was well worth it - thank you, Marko!
You know what to do... clickety-click and visit the AtariMania website right now!
THE INTERVIEW
MARKO LATVANEN
What is your role within the world of AtariMania?
Atarimania is a huge project which tries to preserve and catalogue the golden memories of gaming but also demos and utilities over 9 different systems (Arcade coin-op, 2600, 5200, 7800, Lynx, Jaguar, Atari 800-series, Atari ST–series and Falcon030 / TT. A lot has been done but also a huge amount of work is still ahead for a small team like us. Our headquarters is in France and we have 5-7 active members for the whole Atarimania website.
My role is mainly Atarimania ST database moderator. So I’m basically doing a lot of “household” work with our custom built software. It includes building database records, correcting information based on our own research, adding screenshots, hunting down unreleased games and their creators, helping them with utilities to save precious ST productions before they break down, doing a lot of cross reference checking, game archiving and research which is the most interesting part. I like being a software archaeologist for the digital dawn of 16bit computing.
In the last 12 months I’ve been also building a database for Atari’s last beast, the Jaguar. Oh and I’ll update the Atarimania Facebook page as well. What else, surely missed something (grin emoticon). I get of course a lot of help from Stefan_L and Champions_2002 who also do the database moderation, background research and are equally as important part of Atarimania ST-section.
What does the Atari ST platform mean to you?
It was the first computer I bought with my own money after working hard the whole summer 1990. My parents really didn’t dig computers so we never had one when I was a kid. That’s why I jumped straight to the 16bit waggon. Played a lot with Philips VideoPac G7000, C64 and Amiga with my mates though. After seeing an ST in Finland’s leading computer magazine Mikrobitti I knew what I wanted. I had to wait for a few years but when I finally was old enough for the summer job, oh boy! There they were side by side at the computer shop – an Amiga 500 and Atari 520STfm. I still remember it like yesterday. My choice was clear and I never regret it (wink emoticon)
So I grew up with my ST, it offered me thousands of hours of fun with games and some jaw dropping demos, I learned English (sort of anyway!) by using an ST and it helped me to secure my job in Desktop Publishing business (thanks to Calamus and TimeWorks Publisher). For a while, I even got paid using an ST as a workhorse in mid 90’s.
I do this because I want ST and its memories to live forever. It’s also my way to say huge thanks to all those game, demo and serious software developers, graphics artists, musicians and designers who offered me so much fun over the last decades. Their work should not be forgotten. It’s also a most rewarding feeling to get unreleased stuff dug out of people's attic to save them from destruction.
I hope you are in for the long haul?
Been into the Atari ST every day since 1990 so I’ll be there as long as most of my fingers and senses are working! And of course, as long as Franck keeps the site up and running. Retro computers just keep getting better every year!
How do you envision AtariMania 10 years from now?
In 10 years it should be a top research-quality database for the future generations of computer historians, journalists and the people who want to see and feel what Atari was about its golden years. Hopefully, it will also feature a lot more videos, music files and a capable online ST / Falcon emulator to try out the games and demos.
What Atari computers do you own?
Erm.. Well, they sort of started to pile up since 1996 when people practically gave them for free or for very little money… I think it’s better to just click here: http://www.gameberry.net/user/kokoelma.php?1503211172 ;-) (like wow!!! -Steve)
What are your favourite Atari ST games?
I’ve always been a big fan of racing games from the day one so Vroom, Microprose GP, Stunt Car Racer, Crazy Cars III, Toyota Celica GT Rally, Lotus and Super Cars series were the ones I’ve played most back in the day. For the other genres, i guess I'm still playing Kick Off, Phantasie III, Obsession, Pro Tennis Tour, Fire & Ice, Elite and most part of the awesome Power Pack bundle in the retirement home if they allow computers!
Are you planning any changes to AtariMania?
As I’m only an ST moderator it is really up to Franck to decide where the future of Atarimania is heading. I think there’s so much work ahead in most of the databases itself. We should concentrate on that until the work is done.
Is the Atari ST database close to completion?
I would say something like 45-50 percent. We have most of the commercial releases in as well as the biggest demoscene productions from ST’s commercial years. We are still missing many hundreds of PD / shareware games, a huge amount of Falcon stuff and utilities.
From the artist credits part, it really is not yet in such shape it should be used for research purposes without double checking first. The problem originates mostly from the imported list Atarimania used as a basis of the database. It, unfortunately, had a lot of errors in it. Another part is caused by me as doing too many 10-11 hour Atarimania days at the start of the project wasn’t maybe wisest move after all! It’s an extremely slow task to check everything, but we’ll publish the correction progress on the Atarimania news page a bit by bit.
AtariMania's ST games - not playable on real hardware?
It’s because we try to preserve games as originally as possible. Most cracked versions had title screens or even digital music tracks removed or altered so the originality was gone. As we want to give the full credits and support to the original authors who did the hard work in the 80’s and 90’s, we don’t use cracked versions on ST section.
However, I must point out that game crackers did a very important job historically speaking if you look it nowadays. The majority of the classic games would have been lost without people spreading them back in the days, and there probably wouldn’t be commercial interest in retro gaming nowadays without crackers who kept the software alive. So they really deserve the credit for their work but we just like to do things unedited when possible.
You have so many aliases on Demozoo! Why?
Hmm. There seem to be some errors. The ones I used were mostly related to Jean-Michel Jarre’s recordings. Not sure where the Beatdrum or Squish came from… Probably from some lazy editing of my crappy MOD-files.
I guess I just couldn’t make my mind. First, we had a little user group called The Atariga Crew. We did some 40+ compact disks mostly for our own use and had little gaming parties. We also toyed a bit with STOS Basic but I soon found out I had no character of a coder. My highlight was to get a UFO sprite bouncing around the screen (grin emoticon). My cousin was a bit better but he never got much running either. So we used an util called Intro Concept to run our menu disks. I concentrated mostly on swapping and graphics.
After my cousin got bored on ST I started Alien Nation to do some graphics work. In later stages, we finally got a real coder from the UK. Under that name, we released 10 MOD disks and some 40 more compact disks, again mostly for internal use. I used some of the graphics in them I did with Canvas and Deluxe Paint ST. I also did a new set of VW Buggy themed graphics for PD racing game called Hot Wheels but the disk is unfortunately lost. After a while, our coder went to iMac and we had some plans to make a game for but it got nowhere.
In the meantime, a crew called “Depression” asked me to do some logos for them. One of them is actually painted using Amigaarghh (don’t shoot me, my STe was collecting dust at a computer shop for memory expansion) and others with 68030 powered Apple Macintosh IIfx in PhotoShop 3. Shame on me! (demozoo weblink)
What makes Marko tick?
Having two under 10-year-old daughters, a Collie dog and doing mainly working hours from 3pm to 11pm does, unfortunately, rule out most of the social hobbies.
Besides Atari things, I'm also a big Mazda Motorsports fan and follow everything Mazda-related racing action closely. They’ve an amazing racing heritage in the USA thanks to the rotary engine which was something no other car manufacturer managed to get working properly. I even travelled to the UK last year just to see and hear their vintage rotary powered racing cars. I also keep my 1995 323F’s and 1992 MX-3 in running order, expanding my 520+ title racing games collection.I try to go to as power metal gigs I can & of course have a beer or two with my friends from time to time and play retro games.
I picked up a random (#101) issue of Atari ST User magazine (see below) from my collection and sat down for a good read with a nice cuppa joe. All of a sudden, I almost spat out my coffee in disbelief. There it was. Something I had forgotten about: my old Motelsoft favourite - Walls Of Illusion.
How could I have forgotten about this?? Perhaps I'm crazy!! Yes, but, for those who don't know, Walls Of Illusion is a "Dungeon Master" follow-up to Arcan, released in 1993/4 (shareware). This is an impressive and extremely well-made RPG so I think I should lock myself away for a few days to relive it?
Has anyone played this RPG? I'd love to know if there are any fans. I remember playing this like crazy even though I would never have come close to finishing it! Anyhow, I feel like I've just been reunited with an old friend and I'm so happy! Atarimania has the registered version to download. Go on, get it. Play it. Live it!!
It's time to be flabbergasted because Motelsoft still has a website w/ Atari ST downloads!
Crapman was originally featured within the Synergy megademo and later released as a standalone product in 1993. Most Atarians rate this as one of the best Pac-Man and it's obvious why with spot-on perfect gameplay: those pesky ghosts are clever and a cunning level design helps make this extremely challenging.
The graphics are marvellous and the Scavenger music is just perfect - gorgeous and timeless! Crapman may have a silly name but it's a fantastic twist on the original and immensely addictive. Right, I cannot stress this enough, stop what you're doing and play this game right now. Quite possibly the best Pacman clone?
Marko Latvanen currently handles all of the Atari ST administration for the AtariMania website which must be a massive undertaking but one he is committed to finishing (he's a workaholic!). AtariMania is a popular website that has catalogued and detailed almost every Atari ST game. I don't think a day passes without a visit from myself and zillions of other people, I'm sure.
