[This video shows the wonderful Atari ST game because I have no way to record direct off my phone!]
An ST classic goes mobile
Let me start by saying that I never play "mobile" games. However, I was in my car bored stupid (it didn't take very long) and I remembered that Eckhard Kruse's Ballerburg has been remade by a company called DonkeyCat. Well, to say I'm blown away is an understatement because this classic mono game looks and feels very authentic.
The gameplay is as you would expect with wind, angle and speed to decipher. So choose your kingdom and get blasting cannons over the mountains! Okay, I admit that I prefer the Atari ST original but this mobile game is jolly good fun. Waste no more time and get on your chosen App Store and download this mobile artillery action (both iOS and Android).
Atari Legend is playing Father Christmas with a fantastic run-up to Christmas by releasing something special every day throughout December. It wasn't until the 7th when they released an HDD-patched download of Ultima 5 did I become intrigued. I've not played any Ultima before and this looks especially interesting so I had to try it!
The land of Britannia has lost its king, Lord British (cool name dude) and is now ruled by a tyrant called Blackthorn. Okay, it all sounds corny and the visuals might not rock the Bitmap Bros off-top spot (but when did great graphics ever matter to the gameplay?) I mean, just look at Rogue which I found to be a breathtaking experience. Nuff said.
Okay, I take that back, the graphics are really very nice so let's check them out in these screenshots...
Looks like I'm in a pretty cosy place and very glam too.
Okay, let's get out and explore the lush countryside.
Oh no, a two-headed Ettin has found me when walking over the hills...
I'm too weak and need better weapons - I should have run away!
First Impressions
Creating yourself a character is an unusual affair. It's something I didn't expect, but this process eventually got little Stevie configured and straight into the thick of it. Boy, are there a large number of keys to learn for each and every additional action - which basically means the interaction within your world at large. In fact, the world is huge and the battles are very hard so exploring Britannia is going to be lots of fun (or agony?). But, I can take it!!
I am genuinely enjoying my first couple of games: a lovely country walk through grasslands and forests until I found a small bridge - with a Troll. Luckily I made it across without him noticing me but I then ran into some red demons who decided that they wanted a piece of me. You know, those pieces that I need to stay alive... Yep, my first battle didn't go down well if I'm honest - DEAD! But wait, I think I've been resurrected for another bash! Let's hope I can do better?
This is one seriously addictive and immersive RPG. I'm talking months of my life, gone...
Vicious snakes decide to spit venom at our plucky adventurers.
Now I feel Ultima V is finally starting to show its true colours.
What a game and I must say that I adore the graphical style and detail. Amazing!
Hey look, I've just found a map! Time for a drink before leaving...
Have my plans changed?
Yep, they sure have. I now plan on spending the Christmas holidays in the world of Ultima V - which also includes whiskey, turkey butties and mince pies!! I'm really looking forward to learning more about Ultima V and have enjoyed a few interesting attempts (aka failures). So I'm excited to take this game seriously and see how my next adventure plays out.
MandelST is a fractal generator developed in GFA Basic by Manos Kantzos (thanks to GeoAnas for the heads-up). I love messing about with funky fractals and this program is a cinch to use - which is a good thing for me!
Mandelbrot/Julia productions can be generated within moments but faster computers will benefit from their extra grunt. Of course, emulators are an excellent idea, unless you prefer leaving your ST on for long periods? Images can be exported as Degas PI1 or TIFF - which is superb. Also, basic animations are possible and these take us deep into an infinite mathematical world like nothing I've seen before. A stunning idea with great potential.
I've enjoyed creating many peculiar and wonderful images and animations - which I'm quite proud of. Also, it's fantastic to see something new being developed for the Atari ST so I'm hoping Manos continues on and improves his work in the future. This is a great program, so have yourself some geeky fun zooming in on infinite!!
Do you remember the excitement when Lupo Alberto was released back in 2015? Well, today I've taken another look because I was contacted by Luca Stradiotto who supplied a cheat code that enabled me to get much further into this *difficult* game. Otherwise, I'd have never stood a chance! However, I found a bug and got stuck lol
Lupo Alberto looks and sounds great but that push scrolling sure lets it down, especially when killed by something off-screen! But, it's still great and the two-player co-op is a fantastic feature to change characters. Overall, it's a shame that this was never released because I have enjoyed playing it. Well, until I got stuck!
It's silly (and a bit buggy) but it's so worth downloading!!
Magic Bytes released Clever & Smart back in 1987 and is a peculiar puzzler that is based on an original Spanish comic strip. Now, if I'm honest, I've never heard of that comic strip before nor have I ever played this Atari ST game. I'm hoping that being new to something is going to be a good thing. I can but hope! Let's see and take this weird game for a spin.
So, we begin at an odd city and are two special agents - who are controlled at the same time. Okay, they're hardly Mulder and Scully but these guys have been informed about a gifted scientist, Dr Bakterius. He is being held prisoner by a terrorist organisation called OMP. Yup, I guess it's our job to free him but why is there always an evil scientist on the loose?
Folk, brace yourself. This is going to be a bumpy ride so let's check out a couple of screenshots...
Terrorists are causing trouble again so let's plod through the city looking for clues... I think?
I must admit, the graphics are quite shocking but the character sprites are kinda cool.
Let's play something different, you said?
The city is viewed from above and exploring is quite a weird experience. Watch out for odd characters lurking in the streets - it usually ends in a brawl for some insane reason I cannot figure out. Finding a cop won't help because they just disappear (like in real life). I wandered around for a while until a car suddenly appeared with the sole purpose of running us down!
By chance, I entered the sewers through a manhole and found myself in a place that reminded me of an old ZX Spectrum game, Maziacs. I pottered about, dodging rats and silly cats, but there wasn't much else of interest other than to seek out an exit. Also, bumping into the walls displays a menu with two useless options, so I assumed I needed to previously hunt down items from in the city above? However, I found nothing in the three games I recorded. Yes, three.
Aesthetically, this sucks. It's almost like my Atari ST has been transformed into an Amstrad with such poor visuals. The animations are suspect and whoever created that shuffling walk (during the sewers scenes) should be shot!! Saying that some of the sprites are kinda cute and those brawls are a neat cartoon-like touch. However, this isn't a game you'll boot up to show your friends (lol). Sadly, the YM2149 blurts out little more than the odd scratchy effect and footsteps.
However, this now leads me to a couple more screenshots with humorous sprites like this cat...
Wow, the sewers are bad but not as much as our shuffling walk which is quite odd.
Hey, look is that a baby trapped in the wall or just hilarious graffiti. Love it!!
The CryptO'pinion?
Well, that was certainly one of the most unusual Atari ST games that I have ever attempted to play. It's quite confusing with lots of careless walking about. Little makes any sense so you basically wonder, wondering what to do and where to go. But then be prepared as you'll probably get mowed down by a car for no reason! Nah, this game didn't give a good vibe.
Those willing to torture themselves can grab the floppy and hdd versions for instant fuji pain. Good luck and enjoy it!
Another World was released by Delphine Software back in 1991 and I feel this 16-bit legend is groundbreaking and something everyone will fondly remember? The gameplay feels like a cross between Prince Of Persia with dollops of Dragon's Lair thrown in, which isn't something this old retro gamer would normally be too eager about. However, this beauty is going straight into our Pixel Art section thanks to the stunning visuals created by Eric Chahi.
Our adventure begins with a nice intro that nicely explains how our unfortunate hero, Lester Chaykin, managed to find himself in such a strange world. Okay, we're not talking Race Drivin' standards (and the elevator scene is boring) but it's definitely worth watching. I also like the sound effects which are a lot clearer on the Atari STe. Nice!!
Okay, let's check out a few photos to prove why I admire this game's pixel art so much...
You know you're in for a great adventure the moment this beast appears!!
We start in deep waters so hurry!! Before something reaches up to get you!
You made it!! Hang on, what's that in the background?
We didn't last long before getting captured and banged up with another fella. I hope he's friendly!!
Like an old eerie B-movie!
There's no denying that Eric has created incredibly beautiful backgrounds for each and every area. Their abstract artistry is outstanding using a bleak, futuristic style that produces such an eerie environment. Characters are made using chunky polygons which are superbly animated. Just watch Lester run and jump his way through but he's a gullible chap so I dare you not to smile when he holds up his hand at the end of the first stage. Love it!!
Its attention to detail like this which is so impressive, like on the first screen with that ugly beast on a distant ledge who looks rather ominous - it then turns around and sees you. Scary stuff!! Also, when trapped in jail, I love to watch those distant prisoners working in the background. And what about when Lester flops to the ground after a slug slashes his leg? Brilliant stuff and Another World is surely one of the best-animated games from the early 90s?
Consider the lower resolution of old computers... Well, check out the artwork talent here...
Sadly, there is no obvious way to escape. Or is there...
Okay, we're out and I've lost my hands! What's going on?
Another World is full of frustrating traps so watch where you walk - and how you jump.
Gunfights are fun but tough to master...
Good pixels/bad game?
Overall, this is such a classic adventure which I have loved and hated in equal measure. Sure, I marvel at the aesthetics but its gameplay is rather cruel and unforgiving which makes me scream out loud at my monitor!! I mean, something as simple as those droopy slugs on the first level - yet they killed me so many times...
However, it's because of the visuals why Another World takes its rightful place within our Pixel Art section. I hope you approve of my screenshots which I think helped demonstrate why I love these pixels so much? A truly wonderful game so grab yourself some of Eric Chahi's cartoon styles on either a floppy disk or for your hard drive.
AtariMania has a great walk-through which is very helpful to frustrated games (like me!)
Many of us still enjoy the gorgeous chip music from games like OutRun, Flying Shark, Vixen, Starquake and Overlander. Well, all these and others were created by Jason C. Brooke and are also some of my favourite tunes from the 80s era.
Jason is still online and I found him lurking on Twitter so it wasn't long before I began stalking him for a mini-interview. Well, you know me!! Back in the day, I didn't realise that the same guy created all of the above tunes. So our chat was certainly fascinating to discover he made the humble YM2149 perform far better than Atari ever imagined.
I'd like to thank Jason for taking the time out of his busy schedule to go back in time 30+ years. Bless him for racking his brain trying to remember stories and the jobs he worked on. He's a cracking fella and one I found to be extremely modest about his achievements. I fear he doesn't appreciate just how memorable he helped make certain games, like Ikari Warriors! Well, I hope you guys enjoy this interview and if you wanna hear some of his works then head over to SNDH Records [an awesome digital recording of the SNDH Archive].
Jas C. Brooke - The Interview
How did you get started with computers?
As a kid, I was blown away by seeing a ZX81 obey a list of instructions: I'd encountered another 'computer' so began frantically saving up my paper round money to buy a ZX Spectrum. At the paper shop, there were magazines about these computers and I was hooked on the whole idea of programming.
I imagined game programmers lived in a "software house" and spent their lives making machines do clever things. But before I met 'computers', I used to spend my teenage years writing music. So, when I was asked by a careers officer what I saw myself doing for a living, I naively replied that I wanted to be a music composer.
In response, I was informed that there were only probably two people in the whole country who earned a living from writing music and one of them was Andrew Lloyd Webber. OK - think again!
What 8-bit software did you create?
I knew of a lad at school who was called "Boffy" and he did weird stuff and it turns out that what he did was 'computing'. I ended up teaming up with him to write some Music Composing software for the Spectrum in 1984. He sent it to Melbourne House and they gave us £300 in advance because they wanted to market it. So that was my first encounter of the Games Industry, just around the time I was starting my A' Levels.
Melbourne House stepped back from the deal a few months later, but Boffy and I had spent our sixth form days on many projects. By the end of my A' Levels, I'd started on my own - a Spectrum game called Plum Duff.
Plum Duff is not only a game I'd never played but I had never heard of it until this interview!! O_o
It was time to get a job, and my parents were suggesting things that sounded really boring. On the other hand, I'd heard there was a company in Manchester called Binary Design that was looking for Games Programmers - so I moved to Manchester in 1986 and started writing games, eventually selling Plum Duff to Bug-Byte. That was my first 8-bit game and my last was Feud. I asked Jason for more information because Feud was a favourite of mine:
[Feud] I was the sole programmer for the Amstrad version. We used to program all versions at the same time (I was working at Binary Design) and there was no organised sharing of code even though the CPC and Spectrum were both Z80. However, the Spectrum programmer adopted some of my code but only parts of the AI would have been the same, so I doubt they played very similarly.
I remember buying Feud. A couple of mates and I loved it. In fact, we played it to death - almost!!
Wait for it... Jason and Dave Whittaker join forces!
Binary Design's musician was David Whittaker and I loved hearing his music while games were being developed. Max Headroom was being written when I started there but people complained about how much processing time the music driver ate up. In 1987, Dave (who preferred 'David' I seem to recall, but we all called him Dave anyway!) had a conversation with me about writing a new driver. I'd done that sort of thing myself years before but somehow hadn't connected my experience with what I was currently doing. So I wrote a new, more optimised driver, with a few extra features. I think the first music to benefit from this was Dave's Glider Rider.
Then, Dave decided he was leaving Binary and I was offered his old job. But it wasn't long until I was also offered a joint Directorship by Dave who'd set up Musicon Design alongside the games company Icon Design - which was Binary's rival. Around this time, the Atari ST and Amiga were steadily joining the 8-bits as target machines for game development. In my own time, I wrote the driver that Dave used, then wrote conversions for Spectrum, C64, Amstrad, MSX, Atari 800, Atari ST, Amiga and PC. At one point, I recall noting that we'd written the music for 8 of the top 10 games. (I think days had more hours in them back in the 80s?)
When I worked alongside Dave at Musicon, if we got an arcade conversion, it was often me who ended up doing it. Dave preferred to do originals. Conversions like Outrun were done by the company sending an audio cassette tape with the music on, often taped from the arcade machine actually in an arcade. So there'd be lots of muffle, lots of background noise and lots of chance of the tape playing at the wrong speed so that the tempo I ended up with was not at all the same as the arcade original. Unfortunately, I didn't realise this at the time!
My job was to play a short part of the music and listen for the bass, the backing and the main tune. I might also have to make decisions about what to miss out on because the arcade machine's hardware was far more sophisticated than the 3-channels of square waves and the white noise produced by the Atari ST's AY chip. But for games like Buggy Boy and Pacland, the original sound wasn't overly complex.
How was multi-platform music created?
All programmers at both Binary and Icon Design used a Tatung Einstein as a development system that had links to output the compiled code to Spectrum, C64, Amstrad and Atari 800. The ST and Amiga were different so, if I was writing music on the ST that I'd already composed for other AY-sound-chip-based systems, then I would port the musical data over to the Atari ST and work on it directly there.
We didn't have MIDI or any fancy hardware or software. My drivers were written in the relevant assembler language for each target machine and the code was compiled and tested time and time again with music being typed in as "defined bytes". I gave each musical note a label like "c3" for 'c' on the third octave and "fs2" for 'f#' an octave down. Then there'd be labels for extra features to create chords and different 'instruments'.
I would then send the music to the programmers to help them implement the music. I've just found the instructions for the Atari ST game Savage which is typical of the information I'd have sent for other games. The only thing I've changed in the following text is to * out the phone numbers because I don't know who'd own them now. [download].
Which Atari ST tunes are you most fond of?
It was interesting to take a peep back at what I've done on Atari ST. Outrun was an arcade classic and a relatively early conversion for me (from one of those audiotapes!). So I'm fairly fond of that one, though it is basically a port from Spectrum 128k. By the time I was asked to write some music for Overlander on the Atari ST, I had noticed that companies seemed to be asking me to do the music for games in the racing genre. I think this probably had something to do with Outrun so Overlander is one of my 'Outrun'-esque pieces.
Doing the bulk of the arcade conversions in the early days meant I had little chance to create my own tunes. Vixen was an early exception and so I'm fond of that, though I do think it's overly twee in the middle! And Savage was one I was fond of because it was all original music and I was given it over a number of platforms so I was able to spend more time on it than usual. When I look back at much of the music, it's with a knowledge that they could have been better: if I'd had two days instead of one or one full day instead of a half!
As for Resolution 101, that was just a basic "12 bar blues". We hardly ever knew what the style of a game was, merely guessing from the title. I'm not convinced that the music here fits the game and I don't think it was what the developers were quite after - but they went with it!
Any free time left to play?
At Binary Design in 1987, we had some arcade machines in the office, mainly because was being asked to convert them to home computers. I played Pacland quite a lot but at that point, I wasn't being asked to write the music, but the game (though that didn't happen). If a game looked like you had to spend time on it, I'd avoid it because I didn't have the time. I guess there were some puzzle games too but in short, I don't think I ever did much gaming!
Are there any long-lost unreleased tunes?
Yes, there was one piece I wrote called Dreadnaught but I haven't seen of that since. Also, I have this other note of a game "Chainsaw Warrior" which I must have written music for it as the two pieces both have how long they last - and NO music would last 0s! Sadly, these ST tunes are now long lost.
I rarely listen to music. I don't find it particularly restful, which may well be because I find myself listening out for the bass line, the main tune and whatever might be appropriate for that third channel!
Are you proud of your achievements?
I don't look back with pride at what I did because I was fortunate to be able to encounter those early days of Computer Games, especially from the mid to late 80s. From around '89, I was back into programming and did little music as I had moved into writing 3D games: F29 Retaliator (PC - DID/Ocean - and I wrote my own music for that one) and Darker (PC, Psygnosis/Sony). Then I joined Perfect Entertainment. I wrote some sound and video compression code for the Discworld games but otherwise, I moved away from music.
When I look back at my music-writing days, I smile at how the careers officers had told me I couldn't write music for a living and yet, by heading in the direction of Computer Games Programming, I ended up doing just that without even seeking it out. By 21 I had achieved my childhood dreams and got bored of it so the challenge of writing 3D games on a 12MHz 286 PC was my next goal.
Jason "at work" with Brian Beuken during the development of Ken Griffey's Slugfest in the late 90s.
So what is Jas up to these days?
As the games industry developed, it became less creative and less technically challenging. By the 2000s, programmers had become 'coders' just making the computer do what somebody ELSE said it should do. I'd moved on to Gameboy in '98 but when I ended up on XBox/Playstation II in 2002, there was little left that interested me.
I'd become a Christian in the 90s and my evaluation of life had changed. I knew that one day 'soon' I would step away from the industry, but it wasn't until 2003 that the day arrived. Personal circumstances, coupled with the unethical direction of the company in which I was working caused me to jump into something new.
I'd been studying Biblical texts from a 'programmers' perspective, noting how they interrelate, and observing certain structures which are part of ancient orality. Some of these structures are very like ones found in musical forms. I'd started to dig into this, effectively reverse-engineering the texts and working out how they developed. One thing has led to another, with new languages to deal with - Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic instead of Z80, 6502, 68000 etc.
The end result will be a piece of software that enables people to explore Scripture from a structural and developmental viewpoint rather than just linear words. The research has been immense, but I've never been involved in a project which has so great a potential for a valuable and long-term impact. Life has not just been an experience, but a development - to something that would have been off the radar and impossible for me to aim towards when I mentioned being a "music composer" back in my teenage years. It seems to me that God's plans were not my plans, just as my plans were not the plans of that career officer.
