Atari Mega STe

I recently asked Peter Putnik, from over on 8BitChip, if there was a program that allowed the Mega STe to flip between 8 and 16MHz - but without having XControl preloaded. He said yes, and a couple days later he had created it!! What a great Atari community we have - my sincere gratitude to Peter. Thank you mate!!

The download link is available via the AtariAge forums.

Cannon Fodder [Atari STe update]

Ugh, another lame Amiga port...

Yep, Cannon Fodder could have (and should have) been far better for the Atari ST. Alas, it was a rushed lame-ass port. However, cry no more tears for Peter Putnik has upgraded the game to support audio playback of 25KHz digital music - yes, during gameplay. This is making use of the DMA audio hardware lurking inside the Atari STe and (because it's a coprocessor) there is no CPU usage. Thus zero impact on the game's performance whatsoever.

Of course, storage requirements are too much for a floppy! An Ultrasatan or other hard drive device will be needed to store your chosen music - this can be anything and instructions are included in the zip file on how to use convert something from your music library. It's dead easy to do using Audacity. Click on my video, above...

Well, what an incredible upgrade! This is something else having real music blasting out from your Atari STe speakers. I'm only gutted it is the lame-ass Cannon Fodder getting this amazing upgrade. Why? Because it's a pile of rubbish with flick-screen horizontal scrolling. This not only gets you killed but also kills any enjoyment you might have had...

I hope Peter uses this technology again - for other Atari ST games - the possibilities are endless!!!

Goldrunner

Fuzzy speech be gone!

I've always loved Gold Runner which is a technical masterpiece by legend, Steve Bak. He proved when in the hands of a talented programmer, the Atari ST is more than capable to produce wondrous results. Other (lame) programmers would whine and complain but Mr Bak simply got the job done perfectly each and every time.

Okay, honest time, I'm actually terrible at this ultra fast-paced shoot 'em up and I was never too fond of that dreaded fuzzy speech. It was fine back in the day and is humorously entertaining but it soon wears thin and distracts me during gameplay... Perhaps I'm just old and grumpy but I've never really liked it. Sorry!

Good news - Peter Putnik has updated Goldrunner for hard drive installation and an option to disable the speech!! All you gotta do is press the F3 key so clickety-click and download this sweet update to the ST classic.

lotharek

Thank you Lotharek

Shortly before Christmas, the hard drive inside my Mega STE died. Thankfully, I had only 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 via their web store and I'm currently restoring everything I can. 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 are 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 meagre 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 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.

3D con kit

I've always been interested in 3D from my early computing years as a kid with a ZX Spectrum and games like Ant Attack, Deathchase and then the mind-boggling Knight Lore/Alien 8. Those games just blew my mind, so when I came across 3D Construction Kit for the Atari ST I was delighted.

After a little googling, I found a fantastic web resource by a Stuart Wilson which I'm hoping will prove to be useful and help me get the best from this program. They also run a FaceBook community page too.

3D Construction Kit is an old but excellent application for making your own virtual worlds. This video is the actual VHS recording that was released back in the day which is fascinating and explains many aspects of the program nicely. There are lots of projects already created on the Atari ST and many are excellent :-)

At my request, Peter Putnik has graciously adapted 3D Construction Kit so it can now be installed and ran from hard disk - so download this instead of the floppies! Plus those faster computers can make use of their power and my own 16Mhz Mega STe runs beautifully! :-)

Stu-Wilson’s website for 3D Construction Kit [and their dedicated FaceBook page]