Droid is a platform shooter for the Atari ST by M.P. Lord about a robot who needs to escape from within fortified catacombs. It's a simple idea that looks (umm) familiar and it was a very popular public-domain game that had a sequel released in 1994. Sadly, neither made use of the enhanced hardware inside the Atari STe...
Well, rolling on in Jamie Hamshere (aka junosix) who has begun working on an upgrade designed to use the hardware scrolling, Blitter and DMA Audio. The results are outstanding and there's an early beta available to download. As a WIP, this is starting to look amazing and I cannot wait to see future updates!! Watch this space...
Update October 2020
* WooHoo!! A brand new beta is available to download! * Jamie has also posted a new video on his YouTube channel.
It's got to that time of year when I post something Christmassy! Here we have SantaFly by the awesome Reservoir Gods and regular readers will remember its sister game. Yes, SantaFly is every bit as frustratingly addictive but with a peculiar Christmassy theme. It's great fun and I advise you clickety click and download it.
Thank you to everyone who visited AtariCrypt throughout the year and I wish you all a Merry Christmas †
Luke 2:11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!
I love it when you find something new - at least new to me. After decades of using an Atari ST, today I stumble upon something I've never heard of before - an emulator called Artemis. It's a Z80/ZX Spectrum emulator by Ralf Hemsing and features numerous options for the technically minded - and seems to perform very well indeed.
Feel free to tinker with the configuration but the overall performance -as is- is more than acceptable on the stock ST. That's actually a relief because Artemis doesn't work properly on faster computers plus there is no support for colour, meaning your game is in black and white. Even more peculiar is that we only have one game - Jetpac
The game comes in a format I've not heard of before --> .PRO
Can anyone help to find out more information or perhaps more games in .PRO format?
Playing Jetpac is never a bad thing and even though it's not as good as the real machine (or indeed the Speccy emulator) it is great to find something new. So, Artemis comes with no documentation, lacks colour support, and doesn't work properly with computers other than the stock 8MHz Atari ST/e. I loved finding this from deep inside the ST archives!
Unheart is something that I've been meaning to feature for far too long. It's actually pretty new and was only released in 2014 at Silly Venture by Masters of Electric City. It's based on the original PC game, Heartlight which happily mixes Sokoban with a dollop of Boulder Dash to produce a riveting and refreshing brain-teasing challenge.
In fact, Boulder Dash fans should look elsewhere because this is actually a Sokoban game and a brilliant take on that idea too. We are a dwarf who enjoys digging his way through caves looking for love hearts. Watch out for falling rocks that might block your path or worse, a head-crushing blow. You might even come upon a bomb as you crawl through the soft soil but be careful, because these will detonate when impacting something hard, like a wall or rock. Heck, there are even balloons that will float upwards potentially pushing whatever gets in their way...
Don't worry if you get stuck, hit ESC will humorously explode our dwarf so we can restart. Also, a level-skip function is used to bypass those brain-destroying levels with the option of coming back later (yeah right). The difficulty remains a constant throughout - high - with cunning map designs causing the most intense problems!
The graphics are simple yet superbly detailed using a gorgeous C64-like palette. The status bar is displayed using overscan, which is always going to be a great thing for obvious reasons. The chip music is on another level. It is breathtaking and perfectly suits the gameplay - I just wish there was more.
Unheart is so much fun and pushes you to think differently than you would imagine. Its difficulty remains a constant throughout - high - with cunning map designs causing the most intense problems to overcome. Thankfully, with unlimited retries - and the ability to skip troublesome levels - you aren't distracted and will keep on coming back for more. Unheart is challenging, distinctively brilliant and one of the beST puzzlers on the Atari ST.
- SCREENSHOTS & DOWNLOAD -
Some levels look so simple yet they are not. Perhaps well-placed explosions will help here?
I spent ages on this level and yet it is so easy to complete!! Sometimes physics helps a bunch.
Another level that appears so simple - and is - but that didn't stop me from pulling out my hair!!
I can imagine Boulder Dash fans loving the first level, but not so much the others!
Anduril is a high-resolution PD game by Markus Dheus from 1986 and features us as a flying hero. Like the ZX Spectrum game, Kokotoni Wilf, is also a flick-screen platformer with many cunning rooms to explore. Unfortunately, unlike Kokotoni Wilf, our hero cannot walk nor even touch the landscape scenery as that results in an instant loss of life. Thankfully, he can fly like a flappy bird using simple controls: use the SHIFT key to fly with H + J turning you left/right.
I imagine Anduril is beginning to sound rather easy? You couldn't be more wrong and anyone that loves a challenge will certainly get it. The first couple of screens are easy but it isn't too long before the game's true sadistic nature is exposed. Most of the map is made up of tight spaces with which to guide our hero. If that wasn't tough enough, once gravity is factored in, Anduril becomes a distressing adventure for all but the patient player.
The graphics are crisp and detailed but I noticed collision detection, which often worked in my favour so I shouldn't complain. Sadly, sounds are almost void with only a low-volume spot effect for an item pickup. However, I can live with the quirks if gameplay measures up and (after mastering its vicious learning curve) it does but it will take some practice.
Download Anduril from AtariMania and this program will help those without a high-res monitor.
The ZX Spectrum version of Kokotoni Wilf vs Anduril is displayed in the crisp Atari ST monochrome.
