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Atari Explorer Online Issue 1995 09
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:: Volume 4, Issue 9 ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE January 1, 1996 ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: ::
:: ATARI .............. News, reviews, & solutions ............ ATARI ::
:: EXPLORER ............ for the online Atari .......... EXPLORER ::
:: ONLINE ................. Community .............. ONLINE ::
:: ::
:: Published and Copyright (c) 1993-1995 by Subspace Publishers ::
:: All Rights Reserved ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: Publisher Emeritus ........................... Michael Lindsay ::
:: Editor/Publisher .................................. Travis Guy ::
:: Assistant Editor GEnie......................... Ron Robinson ::
:: Assistant Editor CompuServe................... Albert Dayes ::
:: Assistant Editor Internet.................. Timothy Wilson ::
:: Assistant Editor Delphi..................... Mark Santora ::
:: Unabashed Atariophile ............... Michael R. Burkley ::
:: User Group Coordinator ..................... Ron Whittam ::
:: 8-bit Editor ............................... John Hardie ::
:: Sunnyvale Editor ........................... Adam Urbano ::
:: UK Correspondent ........................... Iain Laskey ::
:: WWW Spinner ...............................Frans Keylard ::
:: ::
:: Contributors: ::
:: """"""""""""" ::
:: Bryan Edewaard, Clay Halliwell, ::
:: Damien M. Jones, Charles Wells, David A. Wright ::
:: ::
:: Telecommunicated to you via: ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: GEnie: ST/JAGUAR RT Library 38 ::
:: CompuServe: ATARIGAMING Library 10, VIDGAME Library 15 ::
:: AOL: VIDEO GAMES FORUM Hints, Tips and Tricks II Library ::
:: Delphi: ATARI ADVANTAGE & WORLD OF VIDEO GAMES Libraries ::
:: Fnet: AEO Conference, Node 319 ::
:: AtariNet: AEO Conference, Node 51:1/10 ::
:: ::
:: FTP recent AEO issues from: rahul.net:pub/wilsont/AEO ::
:: Search gopherspace under "aeo" for back issues ::
:: ::
:: World Wide Web: http://www.ior.com/~fkeylard/aeo.htm ::
:: http://www.mcc.ac.uk/~dlms/atari.html ::
:: http://www.bucknell.edu/~svensson ::
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Table of Contents
* From the Editors ......................... A toll stop on the Infohighway.
* Preview: Fight For Life .............. Mark tries out a recent version of
this long-time-coming polyfighter.
* Fun 'N Games ........................... What the games magazines saw, at
last fall's game-in at Atari.
* EGM SuperTour ...................... How BattleSphere crashed the Burbank
stop on the gaming tour.
* Jaguar Tackboard ................... The latest Jaguar development list -
Jag PRs - SBO "Punisher" code.
* In The Pub ............................ Jaguar news from the UK, and Iain
is immortalized in silicon.
* NBA Jam TE ........................ "Jag's on Fire!" will be the cry when
this game hits the hot spot.
* Defender 2000 .................... Llock your doors. Llanders are coming!
AEO's exclusive review sizes up
Jeff Minter's latest Jag game.
* Battlemorph ............................... Those pesky Pernitians return
to do battle on Jaguar CD.
* Reprint: CatBox Review ................ A saucy little expansion box that
can spice up your Jaguar gaming.
* I-War ........................................ Another incarnation of the
CyberVirusWarGame theme.
* Pitfall the Mayan Adventure ............. Whips, snakes, an old felt hat.
Haven't we been here before?
* The Unabashed Atariophile .................... PD and Shareware files for
=your= Atari computer.
* Rare Gems .......................................... Quotes worth quoting.
* Developing News ............................. The New Current Notes
In-Touch
HP & Mustek Scanner Drivers
Afterburner040 & FalconFX
Catherine Wheel CD
* Shutdown ............................. Around the world and up your block.
--==--==--==--==--
||| From the Editors ........... Atari Explorer Online: Jaguar Voyagers
||| Travis Guy
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.MAG Delphi: AEO_MAG Internet: aeo.mag@genie.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
Life exacts its own tolls in its own time, and your AEO staff has
certainly paid its small share over the previous two months - new
employment, a brief hospital visit, a cross-country move, a budding
romance, computer equipment failure, and in my own case, the past two
weeks recovering from my lower back's sudden refusal to bend despite
my insistance.
Of course there's the perks, like a flood of new Jaguar releases to
keep us busy writing. This issue of Atari Explorer Online is packed
with reviews and previews of just released (and of yet to be seen) Jag
games and new Atari computer files.
As for Jaguar games still off in the future, I can tell you right now
that Phase Zero and Skyhammer are looking very fine, but there'll be
more about them in the next issue... just as soon as I can get up and
around and off the medication. (Hence this shadow of an editorial.)
Please accept from the entire staff of AEO, our best wishes for you
and yours to have a safe and happy 1996!
Peace and Freedom for all.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Jaguar Preview - Fight For Life
||| By: Mark "Stingray" Santora
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.4 AOL: MrSantora
----------------------------------------------------------------
About a year ago, Atari made a big deal over hiring a member of Sega's
AM2 programming team. Francois Bertrand joined Atari as the head of
the AM1 (Atari Magic One) programming team. The first project for AM1
was a 3D fighter for the Jaguar, called Fight For Life.
FFL debuted at last year's E3 in a very early form. The models were
crude, the motion capture was jerky, and the textures really needed to
be redone, but it was still shaping up nicely, and the public was
looking forward to it. Move to this past fall, Atari announces that
FFL is on "Indefinite Hold." When pressed for what this means, Atari's
response is that FFL does not meet up to their new and improved gaming
standards. If the game ever did shape up to meet these criteria, then
Atari would release it.
Back in November, I started a new job with a production company in Los
Angeles. I joined them a few days after they finished shooting the
Atari Jaguar Infomercial (detailed elsewhere in this issue). In
post-production I was able to try out a few games that were still in
development, one of the most noteworthy cartridges was Fight For Life.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Revision 2
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Around the time of ECTS, a couple of shots from the revamped FFL
surfaced on the Internet. They showed improved texturemapping and
sharper imagery. Many of the 'netters quickly dubbed these shots,
"Fight For Life - Extreme." The only comment from Atari was that the
game still did not meet its standards and would not be released.
Then in November, Atari laid off a considerable amount of its
in-house development staff, including most of the AM1 crew. Francois
Bertrand was no longer at Atari and rumor had it that FFL would most
likely never see the light of day. Shortly after, Atari asked Francois
back into the fold to finish the game, and from all accounts, he has
done so, so FFL's final fate lies in the hands of Atari Test and
Atari's management. The preview copy I was able to play was dated
from the end of October, so it is by far, NOT the final word on the
Polyfighter That Wouldn't Die..
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// The Game
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The plot is pretty simple, you're dead and in Hell. Did I mention it's
hot there? The Devil and his son, Junior, have a little tournament -
they take a group of dead people and allow them to fight one another.
The winner of the tournament is given their life back, so I'd guess
that for Hell-based activities, it's fairly popular.
Each fighter starts with some very basic moves, and one or two special
moves. As you beat each opponent, you are given the ability to "steal"
two of their special moves. They then become part of your permanent
character, which is represented by a code entered on the character
selection screen.
While I never played an earlier edition of FFL, I did spend countless
hours in front of an editing system working on the AEO @ E3 video this
past summer, so I feel like I got to know it quite well. Then when I
started playing the October version of FFL, I was blown away. Before
I really get into this preview I want to stress again that this is a
-preview- copy from over two months ago.
Graphically, the new textures on the characters are very sharp. They
blend together well and share a style common to Tekken. It would
appear that the number of polygons in each character has been lowered
since its last public showing (I'm estimating), but if so, the
textures easily make up for that. A major fault I'm afraid I must find
is that the characters do not appear to be Gouraud shaded with a light
source. With this ability built into the Jaguar, its omission is quite
noticeable when compared to other games and other polygon engines.
The fighting area or "ring" is basically the same as all of the other
3D fighting games - it is comprised of pastel squares. It is something
that I hope will be elaborated on by the time the game is released.
However, one of the neat twists on the "ring out" option is that when
you hit the edge of the ring, you get electrified. It's not that gory,
but plumes of smoke emanating from each character would be a nice
touch....
The backgrounds are simple, flat looking bitmaps that wrap around the
ring. The game moves at a fairly decent clip, and I would estimate
that it averages about 24 frames per second. Even with the floating
camera, full 3D motion of the characters, and music, I have never seen
it drop below 21 fps.
As for the sound and music, it's average. There is a fully sampled
guitar riff that accompanies the title credits which is extremely
clear, but then we go back to the standard Euro-tinny in-game music.
Sound fx are also average. There are some voice samples in the game,
but they are sparse.
Now for the big one, control. Thankfully, FFL utilizes the
ProController to its limits. Although the original joypad is usable,
I suggest the ProController. The 4/6(L/R) shifts you left and right in
the 3D world. The 7,8,9(X,Y,Z) are extra punches and kicks. The joypad
works as you think it would, up is jump, down is crouch, left/right
move you left/right. In this version, the control is a bit rough. With
the continual playtesting and Atari's standards, I'm sure that this
game will easily be tweaked to perfection.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Fighting Stereotypes
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I've talked about the graphics, the sound, the control, so what's
left... comparisons. If you own a PlayStation or if you've played
Toshinden, which seems to be everyone's current benchmark, then you
will find FFL extremely rough. It does not have that glossy over-
produced feel that Toshinden has. I don't think that it would be
possible to have FFL come even close to Toshinden without a complete
rewrite of the main game engine and new artwork. But what about Virtua
Fighter on the Saturn? Right now, FFL does LOOK better than VF on the
Saturn, but it does not look as good as VF Remix. Remember though
that FFL is a four megabyte cartridge on a system whose design is
almost two years older than the Saturn and PlayStation. The Jaguar
also has considerable less RAM to work with.
What do I think of Fight For Life right now? I can see why Atari did
not want to release it just yet. It really wasn't ready. Is it ready
now? I hope so. I guess we are just going to have to wait until the
next word comes down from Atari on one of its more public internal
projects.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Fun 'N Games Deux
||| By: Adam Urbano
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.5 Internet: adamu@cue.com
---------------------------------------------------------------
Last June, Atari held a "Press Day", an event where all the members of
the videogaming press were invited to come to the corporate
headquarters and test some of Atari's newer offerings. This October,
Atari held another one of these shows, and will apparently continue to
hold them about once a quarter. If anyone remembers the concept behind
the last show, it is heralded as a "Fun 'N Games" day, in which the
first part of the day is hands on gaming at Atari, and the latter half
is spent at some non-videogaming activity. Last year the activity was
a trip to the local amusement park, Great America. This year, however,
Atari went all out and created an amazing presentation at The Magic
Edge, a local Flight Simulator. But first I'll explain the gaming
portion of the day.
The presentation started a little bit after nine o'clock in the
morning with a speech by Mr. Ted Hoff. The group present for the show
was small enough that Ted didn't even bother using the microphone
system that was set up. Nothing new was brought up during the speech,
Ted just did a quick overview of what Atari's plans for the future
were, including such items as which games they planned for a Christmas
release, and which ones were to be released on the P.C. Immediately
following this, Mr. Hoff pointed out the various Atari employees and
their occupations, and then the press was invited to go and play the
games. Most of the games had at least one programmer, producer or
tester standing by them in order to answer questions.
So, without further delay, the games:
Fever Pitch - This soccer game reminded me very much of some of the
""""""""""" Neo Geo's arcade soccer games. The graphics, play
mechanics, and style of play are very similar. For those of you that
haven't seen one of the arcade games, the action is sprite based, with
a very cartoony look, and a slightly angled perspective on the action.
The game is definitely not a sports "simulation", it is an arcade
game.
Each team has a star player that can perform special feats, such as
strikers who can shoot especially well, or players with extra speed.
Other options include an instant replay with options for reverse
angles and slow motion. This game can support up to four players with
the Team Tap.
Formula One Racing - (Name Will Change) This CD game was probably one
"""""""""""""""""" of the games I felt that had the most potential
of all the games at the show. After Atari's previous attempts at
racing games, (cough, cough, Checkered Flag, cough), I was anxious to
see what they did to improve on their track record. I was pleasantly
surprised to find this nicely texture mapped racer. The graphics are
very similar to something such as Indy Car Racing or NASCAR on the
P.C. Lots of polygons with fairly detailed texture maps covering
mostly everything. The game/graphics engine was quite impressive on
this one, with the only possible down side being the frame rate, which
is most likely a product of the game's earliness. Not to say that the
frame rate is anything like Checkered Flag, the game does run
smoothly, but with a game like this it is worth the nit-picking to
create a perfect product. The largest highlight of this game is the
number of tracks - 16 in all to choose from - and with 1 or 2 player
play, this game should have quite a lot of replay value.
Atari Karts - This game abounds with similarities to Mario Kart on
""""""""""" the SNES. The game's graphics are all very nice texture
maps that have a clean look to them with no pixilation. These texture
mapped grounds are complemented by gorgeous 16-bit parallax scrolling
backdrops. The graphics all scroll along at a perfect smooth-as-silk
framerate. Some of the various levels include a beach complete with
light-effect produced waves, desert stages, antarctic stages,
highways, castle stages, and an oriental stage. The games levels are
divided into various "cups" with a series the various backdrops in
each. There are four skill levels included and a two player
split-screen option.
SuperCross 3D - This is a texture-mapped motorcycle game that has the
""""""""""""" player racing through 14 stadiums, each containing a
different race course. The graphics on this one are very nice, with a
fully texture mapped ground and SGI rendered bikers. The various
courses are interesting, with various jumps of changing size and type,
from little bumps to multi-story drops. The player can even do mid-air
stunts off the jumps. The problem with this game is a sub-par
framerate. The game is rather slow and choppy, and to me that
contributes to poor gameplay. If that aspect can be fixed it will be
an incredible motorcycle game, far superior to the 32X attempt.
NBA JAM Tournament Edition - If any one game was the hit of the show,
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" this was definitely it. This one looks to
be every bit as good as the arcade game. The characters are absolutely
huge, and everything is animated very well. The Team Tap is even
supported for four player play. There really isn't much else that
needs to be said, just go look at the arcade game to see how this one
looks on the Jag. Slam this, EGM!
Phase Zero (a.k.a., Hover Hunter) - This great looking game highlights
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" the hardware potential of the
Jaguar. Using a graphics engine very similar to Commanche on the
PC, Hover Hunter creates a very realistic looking 3D universe. The
landscape is a detailed depiction of natural terrain, with riverbeds,
canyons, hills, and mountains. All of this flies by at a very smooth
15 frames per second. Some of the various areas the player will
encounter include mountains, deserts, the arctic, and a lava filled
fortress. The game has ten of these missions to complete, and each of
the landscapes is immense. Atari has the size of the 3D terrain listed
as "...equivalent in scale to a metropolitan city." and they certainly
don't appear to be exaggerating on this one. The control on this
hovercraft is very well done.
After seeing the initial response to the control in Hover Strike, the
designers have done a good job to make sure that the hovercraft in
this game is fun and easy to steer. The craft steers as if it were a
normal vehicle with friction acting upon it, but there is a certain
amount of "drifting" involved. It is similar to a car with bald tires
on wet pavement. This control scheme actually contributes to a lot of
the enjoyment. The game contains several great sounding options such
as Jaglink support and surround sound. Let's just hope that these
options make it into the final version.
Battlemorph - The sequel to Cybermorph made a showing, and was met
""""""""""" with a very positive response. Most of the concern that
people had with Cybermorph have been dealt with, and these changes
have made Battlemorph a much better game than the original. The basic
goal of the first game ("collect the pods") has been updated, and now
there are several very distinct mission types. These can be everything
from collect missions, to search and destroy missions. The variety is
a welcome and refreshing change from the first one. The graphics also
have taken a slight revamp. The game seems to sport more on-screen
polygons, and a much smoother frame rate. The original "popping" of
polygons onto the horizon is now a "blending" of polygons, with the
background slowly melting into view. The terrain is also more
elaborate, and the color schemes are more realistic. The underwater
section is absolutely stunning - the player merely drops the ship into
the water, and an instant transition to the undersea section is made.
The graphics become slightly distorted, the colors darker, and fish
float quickly by. The effect is very convincing. There really wasn't
much negative to say about this game, and the only people who disliked
it appeared to be the ones who just plain hated Cybermorph from the
beginning.
Baldies - This game uses a top-down perspective to create a vivid, if
""""""" not cartoony, world in which the player must build a society
to conquer the enemy. The player may choose from workers, builders,
soldiers and scientists to help him or her in the quest. This game
has an enormous amount of complexity behind the apparently simple
interface. For example, if you give the scientist a skunk, he may
create a stink bomb. Then, drop the skunk into an enemy house and the
enemies players will run outside. And if the player had happened to
set a minefield right outside the door, that would be a very effective
way of killing the enemy.
Other options for death include the ability to trap enemies,
electrocute them, or just plain drown them. The player can really do
whatever he or she wants in this game. One of the major highlights in
Baldies has got to be the artificial intelligence. The little baldies
live about their lives in a "fishbowl" like setting, in which they do
their normal activities without the aid of the player. With more than
100 different levels, including bonus levels, hidden features, tons of
inventions and secret warps to discover, Baldies should keep players
busy for quite some time.
//// Off to the Edge
After we finished playing the various games, the press was all shipped
off to The Magic Edge. This is similar in concept to Battletech,
however, the game engine for Edge is far, far superior. Each player
is in the cockpit of a fictional fighter aircraft. This cockpit
rotates and shifts up and down, matching the on-screen action, to give
the player a feeling of movement. Each cockpit is powered by a SGI
machine, so the terrain that flows below is silky smooth and
photo-realistic. After a delicious catered lunch of pizza and salad,
each press representative was given a free networked game.
Finally, each person was given an Atari gift bag. This year the bag
was stuffed to the brim with goodies and games to test. The fun-filled
bag included Jag Sunglasses, glasses string, an Atari pen, squirt
bottle, and both a Denim Jag shirt and a baseball style Jaguar shirt.
The games to take home included Battlemorph, Baldies, Missile Command,
NBA Jam, Atari Karts, and Attack of the Mutant Penguins. So you know
all the magazines have plenty of material to print, let's see if they
follow through. All in all, Atari made a very excellent showing at
their press day, with every effort being made to make sure that the
press had a good time. With continued support like this Atari should
be on the track to a good reputation with the various magazines.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Atari at the EGM Supertour
||| By: Mark "Stingray" Santora
/ | \ Genie: AEO.4 AOL: MrSantora
----------------------------------------------------------------
In late October, someone mentioned the EGM tour and reminded me that
it would be in Burbank Saturday November 11, and Sunday November 12.
Living in the San Fernando Valley, I decided to take advantage of the
opportunity to check out the tour and the company that rarely gives
the Jaguar a break.
The week before the event, I mentioned that I would be attending to a
couple of friends of mine, Scott LeGrand and Stephanie Wukovitz. I
suggested that they come along and bring Battlesphere with them to get
some feedback. Alas, they were off to a convention for work, but they
said I could take the latest version and see if the people from EGM
would allow it to be seen. So, Scott worked his behind off to get the
networking really solid before he left, but it was crashing too much.
So they disabled it, updated my FlashROM of the cart (I'm play testing
it), and sent me on my merry way.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// To Burbank
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Burbank is an easy twenty minutes from me by car. After riding down a
couple of different freeways, and there are a lot of them here, I
arrived at the Burbank Media City Mall around 10:30am. I fumbled my
way inside and just figured I would follow the noise to the Set Up.
Unfortunately, the mall was kinda empty at 10:30am but I eventually
found it, placed on the bottom floor of the three level mall in the
atrium. The entire mall could look down on the tour. It proved to be a
very nice spot to have the tour set up.
My first job was to get a lay of the land and see what they had. The
tour consisted of these eight feet tall yellow cylinders which each
house four TV screens and pads beneath them for you to play the game
with. Every company represented had one cylinder. Companies
represented were Sony, Sega, Viacom New Media, Williams, Time Warner
Interactive, X-Band, Panasonic, and our favorite, Atari. But Atari did
not have their systems housed in the standard tour cylinders - Atari
fashioned the tour with four of the Jaguar kiosks. Each kiosk had a
Jag, one or two controllers, depending on the game, and instructions
mounted to the kiosk so you knew how to play. It looked very
professional.
Atari had supplied four FlashROMs for the tour to use. When the tour
started, the games were not available, but by time the tour had hit
Burbank, they all were. Atari had sent Rayman, Super Burnout, Ultra
Vortek, and White Men Can't Jump (which only had two controllers on
it). During my day-long stay at the show I showed off my prowess at
Ultra Vortek and even enabled the turbo code - people really dug that.
Throughout the day, the booths became very crowded, and the Atari
kiosks were very rarely not in use.
Meanwhile, the other systems weren't as lucky. Sure the PSX had
Toshinden running and that was pretty busy, but it also had some sort
of speedo racing game which had real nice graphics, but no gameplay.
You were suspended on a cable as you accelerated down a trench. When
you hit a corner, you swung out. It was like a really bad version of
Stun Runner without it being any fun. Williams had DOOM there for the
SNES, and while it didn't look bad, the play mechanics weren't very
good and the movement was jerky. Mortal Kombat 3 was also there for
the SNES and Genesis - what can I say, it was MK3. They also had a
tournament for it. I was told there would be an Ultra Vortek
tournament on Sunday.
Next I hunted down the manager of this tour. Once I tracked her down
(forgive me, but I can't remember her name and she was so nice to me),
the manager was not only more than happy to let me plug in
BattleSphere, but they announced it over the PA, every 30-45 minutes!
The announcement was usually something along the lines of, "OK Folks,
we have a Jaguar Developer here today (I told her I worked with 4Play
but was not the programmer) who is here to get some feedback on their
new game! Go and play it now months before it gets released and tell
your friends!" Usually after that I was accosted by many people, but
they were all extremely pleasant.
The manager dropped us into the kiosk which ran White Men Can't Jump.
They said that this was the game that generally got left alone the
most at the Atari booth. So, from around 10:45am to 4pm I demoed and
talked to many people about BattleSphere, Atari, the state of Atari,
dispelling rumors, answering questions about the projects, and even
giving out numbers for people who needed to mail order. I should've
been paid by Atari for all the shmoozing I did for them on Saturday.
I even sold the three Jaguars that were at the Electronic's Boutique
on Ultra Vortek, Rayman, and BattleSphere. One of the people was a
person the manager brought over who was looking to spend some money on
a video game system. The manager showed him the PSX, then the SNES and
Genesis and finally the Jaguar. He responded, "These graphics are a
hell of a lot better than the Nintendo one, and I don't have $400." He
went upstairs and nought a Jag, Rayman, Tempest 2000, and Super
Burnout. He showed them to me as he made his way out of the mall. It
brought a smile to my face.
Everyone involved with the tour was great. They were helpful and
really went out of their way to help get BattleSphere some exposure.
Many of the people who played it even mentioned the write up of the
game in Video Games and Computer Entertainment a few months ago.
Common replies to BattleSphere ranged from "very good" to
"excellent." The people who played it, ranging in ages from 6 to 65,
were very impressed. They loved the gameplay, the graphics, the music,
and even the fact that it was going to be networkable. In fact,
several people mentioned networking as being a primary reason they
were going to buy BattleSphere before playing it. But after seeing it
in action, not only were they sold, but they were planning on making
sure their friends bought it too. Another thing that the people liked
was the play options in BattleSphere. A lot of people like the option
to have one player fly using pad 1 while player two uses pad 2 as the
gunner. It really adds to the depth of the gameplay.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// In The End
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The EGM Supertour was a nice way for companies to show off their
wares. A lot of people walk through the mall and usually stop to
look, even if they didn't plan on it. And Atari's presence was felt
there. In one part because of their kiosks which gave the look of the
tour some diversity. Also, EGM gave a Jaguar Core System away on
Saturday which was donated by Atari. According to the manager, Atari
always made sure that there were t-shirts, keychains, Rayman stuff,
etc., available to give away. You could tell that the entire staff was
very pro-gaming, not anti-something. Atari's decision to help finance
the tour, was in this reporter's opinion, a good one. Here's hoping in
the future that Atari continues to expand the awareness of the Jaguar
in such manners as these tours.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Jaguar Tackboard
||| Confirmed information about Atari's Jaguar
/ | \ Compiled from online and official sources
-----------------------------------------------------------------
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Independent Association of Jaguar Developers
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The IAJD (Independent Association of Jaguar Developers) has started
accepting members on GEnie. The IAJD is a private group where
confidential discussions can be freely held. (Category 64 of the ST
RoundTable is the IAJD meeting place.) Consequently, membership in the
IAJD is limited to Jaguar developers who are registered with Atari
Corp. To apply for membership, send EMail to ENTRY$ on GEnie (or
<entry$@genie.com> if you're not on GEnie). Regular EMail
correspondence with the IAJD should be sent to IAJD$ (again, or
<iajd$@genie.com> if you're not on GEnie).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Internet Jaguar Mailing List
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Anyone with Internet EMail access can join the discussions on the
Jaguar mailing list. To "subscribe" to the list, send an EMail to
the following address: <listserv@bucknell.edu>
With the following as the body message:
subscribe jaguar FirstName LastName
(Where "FirstName" is your real first name and "LastName" is your real
last name.)
You should then soon receive the subscription information including such
options as a digest (for those who have requested that in the past).
The actual list address is: <jaguar@bucknell.edu>. All mail will go to
the list server and be sent to the over 250 readers of the list.
IMPORTANT: If your mail server charges you by the character or by the
letter, please be aware that the Jaguar list can generate dozens, and
up to a hundred EMails in a day.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Jaguar FAQ
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Robert Jung <rjung@netcom.com> maintains the Jaguar FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions) file, an updated list of Jaguar specs and facts. The
Jaguar FAQ is posted to rec.games.video.atari on Usenet around the
first of every month, and can also be found via FTP, address:
ftp.netcom.com, in Andy Eddy's /pub/vidgames/faqs directory.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// AEO Development List 2.10
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Editor: The following list of game titles has been confirmed to
the best of AEO's ability as of December 31, 1995. Entries in the
"S"tatus column reflect any "e"rrors, "u"pdates, "n"ew titles, titles
that are in "P"roduction, or "?"uestionable listings since the last
AEO list. Entries in the "M"edia column reflect whether the title is
"C"D-ROM, "H"ardware, or "V"R software. (Blank entries are assumed to
be cartridge software.)
ETA dates are dates that have been provided by the developer. AMMV.
//// Titles in Development
Rating/
S M Title ETA Developer Publisher
""" """"" """ """"""""" """""""""
Arena Football League Q1/96 V Real Productions Atari
Battlesphere Q1/96 4Play 4Play
? Battlewheels - Beyond Games Beyond Games
? C Braindead 13 - Readysoft Readysoft
Breakout 2000 Q1/96 MP Graphics Atari
u Brett Hull Hockey 2/96 Atari
u C Brett Hull Hockey CD Q1/96 Atari
u C Commander Blood 2/96 Atari
? C Creature Shock - Virgin Interactive Atari
? C Dante - Atari
? Deathwatch - Visual Design Atari
P Defender 2000 2/96*8*LlamaSoft Atari
? C Demolition Man - Virgin Interactive Atari
C Deus ex Machina 1H/96 Silmarils
? Dune Racer - Atari
Fight For Life - Atari Atari
u C Formula 1 Racing (Work Title) Q1/96 Domark Group Ltd. Atari
? C Freelancer 2120 - Imagitec Design Atari
C Highlander II Q1/96 Lore Design Ltd. Atari
C Highlander III H1/96 Lore Design Ltd. Atari
? Horrorscope - V-Real Productions
? Indiana Jags - Virtual Xperience
C Iron Soldier II Q1/96 Eclipse Atari
C Ishar Genesis - Silmarils
? Legions of the Undead - Rebellion Software Atari
? C Litil Divil - Gremlin Interactive
u C Magic Carpet - Atari
u C Mortal Kombat III 4/96 Probe Atari
P NBA Jam TE 1/96*9*High Voltage Atari
u Phase Zero 2/96 Hyper Image Atari
? Return of Magic - Virtual Artistry
? C Return to Zork - Activision
u C Robinson's Requiem 2/96 Silmarils Atari
C Rocky Horror Interactive 6/96
u Skyhammer Q1/96 Rebellion Software Atari
C Soulstar 1996 Core Design Atari
C Space Ace - ReadySoft ReadySoft
u Sudden Impact ?
? T-Mek - Time-Warner
Towers II - JV Enterprises
u C Varuna's Forces 1996 Accent Media Atari
Worms 1996 Team 17
Zero Five Q1/96 Caspian Software Atari
P Zoop 1/96 Atari
? Zzyorxx II - Virtual Xperience
//// Current Releases
M Title Rated Company Publisher
" """"" """"""" """"""" """""""""
Alien vs. Predator 8 Rebellion Atari
Atari Karts - NEW Miracle Designs Atari
Attack of the Mutant Penguins - NEW Sunrise Games Atari
C Baldies - NEW Atari Atari
C Battlemorph 10 NEW Attention to Detail Atari
C Blue Lightning 7 Attention to Detail Atari
Brutal Sports Football 6 Millenium/Teque Telegames
Bubsy 7 Imagitec Design Atari
Cannon Fodder 7 Virgin Interactive C-West
H Cat Box / Black Cat Design Black Cat
Checkered Flag 4 Rebellion Atari
Club Drive 6 Atari Atari
Crescent Galaxy 3 Atari Atari
Cybermorph 7 Attention to Detail Atari
Doom 8 id Software Atari
Double Dragon V 3 Williams Enter. Williams
Dragon 6 Virgin Interactive Atari
C Dragon's Lair 7 NEW ReadySoft ReadySoft
Evolution Dino-Dudes 6 Imagitec Design Atari
Fever Pitch - NEW US Gold Atari
Flashback 6 Tiertex Ltd. U.S. Gold
Flip Out 8 Gorilla Systems Atari
C Highlander I 8 NEW Lore Design Ltd. Atari
Hover Strike 7 Atari Atari
C Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands 8 NEW Atari Atari
I-War 4 NEW Imagitec Design Atari
International Sensible Soccer 6 Williams Brothers Telegames
Iron Soldier 9 Eclipse Atari
Kasumi Ninja 6 Hand Made Software Atari
Missile Command 3D - NEW Atari
C Myst - NEW Atari Atari
C Primal Rage - NEW Probe Time-Warner
Pinball Fantasies 6 Spider Soft C-West
Pitfall 8 NEW Activision Atari
Power Drive Rally 7 Rage Software Time-Warner
Raiden 6 Imagitec Design Atari
RayMan 10 UBI Soft UBI Soft
Ruiner 6 NEW High Voltage Atari
Super Burnout 6 Shen Atari
Supercross 3D 5 NEW Tiertex Atari
Syndicate 7 Bullfrog Ocean
Tempest 2000 10 LlamaSoft Atari
Theme Park 6 Bullfrog Ocean
Troy Aikman NFL Football 6 Telegames Williams
White Men Can't Jump 8 High Voltage Atari
Wolfenstein 3D 7 id Software Atari
Ultra Vortek 10 Beyond Games Atari
Val d'Isere Skiing... 5 Virtual Studio Atari
C VidGrid 6 High Voltage Atari
Zool 2 7 Gremlin Graphics Atari
Pts Stars AEO Ratings
""" """"" """""""""""
10 ***** GAMING NIRVANA!!! - You have left reality behind... for good.
9 ****+ Unbelieveable GAME!! - Your family notices you're often absent.
8 **** Fantastic Game!! - You can't get enough playtime in on this.
7 ***+ Great Game! - Something to show off to friends or 3DOers.
6 *** Good game - You find yourself playing this from time to time.
5 **+ Ho-hum - If there's nothing else to do, you play this.
4 ** Waste of time - Better to play this than play in traffic.
3 *+ Sucks - Playing in traffic sounds like more fun.
2 * Sucks Badly - You'd rather face an IRS audit than play this.
1 + Forget it - ... but you can't; it's so badly done, it haunts you.
0 - Burn it - Disallow programmer from ever writing games again.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Jaguar PRs
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Core System Price Drops to $99
CONTACT: Beth Whyte or Jennifer Hansen
Shandwick U.S.A.
800/444-6663 or 310/479-4997
Atari Corporation's Jaguar 64 Hits Mass Market Price
In Time for Holiday Sales, Jaguar now $99
SUNNYVALE, CA (December 15, 1995) -- In a bold retailing move to
increase its share in the interactive home entertainment market, Atari
Corporation announced that the Jaguar 64 system will be priced at $99.
A premier gaming platform launched nationally in 1994, the Jaguar is a
power home video game system designed to provide game enthusiasts with
top-quality entertainment products. Atari has developed an extensive
software library to support the Jaguar system, and is committed to
aggressively expanding its list of exclusive titles throughout 1996.
Four new Atari titles have been released this week alone for the
Jaguar 64: "Atari Karts", "I-War", "Fever Pitch Soccer" and
"Supercross 3D". The new games will be available at retail stores
before Christmas.
As Ted Hoff, Atari's President of North American Operations explained,
"Atari is proud of the depth and breadth of current Jaguar platform
software titles, and we're committed to enhancing this already
impressive collection. Offering the Jaguar 64 at $99 will allow us to
reach more consumers nationwide with top-quality games."
Hoff indicated the Jaguar 64 systems will be offered at their new
price in retail outlets across the country effective Saturday,
December 16. That means there's still time for Christmas shoppers to
benefit from the $99 price tag.
With its aggressive new pricing, Atari Corporation is offering
consumers a high-end home video game system at a mass market price.
The action reinforces Atari's commitment to the Jaguar gaming
platform, as well as providing consumers with superior and affordable
interactive products.
For more than twenty years, Atari Corporation has provided consumers
with high quality value-priced entertainment. Atari Corporation
markets Jaguar, the only American-made, advanced 64-bit entertainment
system and is located in Sunnyvale, California.
Atari and Jaguar are registered trademarks of Atari Corporation. All
rights reserved.
//// Missile Command 3D Ships
CONTACT: Patricia Kerr or Jennifer Hansen
Shandwick USA
(800)444-6663 or (310)479-4997
Arcade Favorite Receives New Mission
Atari Corporation Launches "Missile Command 3D" for Jaguar 64
SUNNYVALE, CA (December 12, 1995) -- Load your lasers, mark your
missiles and secure your smart bombs, your colony is under alien
attack. Gamers are gearing up after Atari Corporation's announcement
that "Missile Command 3D" is the latest artillery in the Atari Jaguar
64 software arsenal.
Based on the arcade classic, the Jaguar update of "Missile Command 3D"
features both fiercer firepower and nastier bad guys. It takes more
than missiles, lasers and smart bombs to defeat these aliens---gamers
must employ a quick and accurate fighting style to protect their
neighborhoods from the outer space invasion.
"Missile Command 3D" contains three different game options: Original
Missile Command, 3D Missile Command and Virtual Missile Command. The
"Virtual" and "3D" game options boast a number of 3-dimensional worlds
found undersea, in the clouds and in outer space. Stereo sound,
texture mapped graphics and multiple backgrounds compliment the power
of the Jaguar 64 system.
"Atari Corporation continues to provide Jaguar owners with
top-quality, exciting games for their Jaguar 64 systems," said Ted
Hoff, Atari's President of North American Operations. "'Missile
Command 3D' is another outstanding title in our lineup of software
releases for the Atari Jaguar 64 and CD peripheral this holiday
season."
"Missile Command 3D" is available in stores nationwide, has a
suggested retail price of $59.99, and is rated K-A (appropriate for
kids to adults).
For more than twenty years, Atari Corporation has provided consumers
with high quality, value-priced entertainment. Atari Corporation
markets Jaguar, the only American-made, advanced 64-bit entertainment
system and is located in Sunnyvale, California.
//// Jaguar CD Highlander Ships
CONTACT: Patricia Kerr or Jennifer Hansen
Shandwick USA
(310)479-4997 or (800)444-6663
Players Fulfill Their Destiny as "The Highlander"
Atari Corporation Releases Second CD Title in One Week for
Jaguar CD
SUNNYVALE, CA (October 30) -- The rapidly expanding software library
for the newly released Jaguar CD grew again this week, as Atari
Corporation launched its second CD title. "Highlander: The Last of the
MacLeods" was shipped to retailers this morning.
An action adventure game based on the popular animated series,
"Highlander: The Last of the MacLeods" boasts both a truly sensational
storyline and advanced gaming technology. Players assume the role of
Quentin MacLeod, an immortal whose destiny remained unclear until his
mother revealed his true identity as "The Highlander." With this
knowledge, Quentin must set upon a quest to fulfill his destiny,
rescue his village and save humanity from the evil Kortan.
"Highlander: The Last of the MacLeods" features both original dialog
and Cinepak sequences from the animated series. Atari Corporation used
Motion Capture technology in the development of the game, giving the
3D characters lifelike movement.
"By releasing 'Highlander: The Last of the MacLeods' and 'Hoverstrike:
Unconquered Lands' in successive weeks, our Jaguar CD title library is
rapidly growing in scope and depth," said Ted Hoff, Atari's President
of North American Operations. "We will bring Jaguar gamers numerous
top-quality titles for both the Jaguar cartridge and CD formats in the
next several weeks."
"Highlander: The Last of the MacLeods" has a suggested retail price of
$59.99, is rated K-A (appropriate for kids and adults) and is
available in stores nationwide.
For more than twenty years, Atari Corporation has provided consumers
with high quality, value-priced entertainment. Atari Corporation
markets Jaguar the only American-made, advanced 64-bit entertainment
system and is located in Sunnyvale, California.
HIGHLANDER (c) 1994 Gaumont Television. All rights reserved.
Highlander is a protected trademark of Gaumont Television. Licensed to
Atari Corporation. Cinepak and the Cinepak logo is a registered
trademark of Radius Inc. Atari, the Atari logo and Jaguar are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Atari Corporation.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Cool Jag Codes
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Super Burnout "Punisher" Bike Code
[] Key in the sequence "2", "1", "7", "9" and then "4" at the Super
Burnout title screen.
[] You will hear a musical "beep" to confirm the correct code has been
entered.
[] There will be a new motorcycle to select, the "Punisher." Aside
from its impressive performance, it functions like all other Super
Burnout motorcycles.
[] All record times and speeds made using the "Punisher" will be saved
to cartridge as normal.
[] You can still access the "Punisher" after a reset without having to
reenter the code, but the code will have to be reentered after a
power-off/power-on cycle.
--==--==--==--==--
||| In the Pub
||| By: Iain Laskey
/ | \ Internet: ilaskey@cix.compulink.co.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------
Christmas has come and gone. Santa didn't bring me anything nice for
my Jaguar but then I got some laserdiscs instead so I'm not
complaining! The UK Jag scene crawls along unabated. It's still
proving a bit tough getting much in the way of review carts out of
Atari at the moment. It's ludicrous that Atari UK can't supply review
copies to magazines. Few of the gaming mags give the Jaguar anything
other than an occasional damning mention and most games are hammered.
When a magazine comes along that is willing to give the Jaguar a fair
crack of the whip, do they get games to try? Naah. No spare EPROMs.
Sorry. The excuse is that all the flash cards are being used to demo
the Jaguar to retailers and until that's finished, none can go to
reviewers. (FX:<Clump> Iain gets of his soapbox).
Jaguar sales are down and up. The release of Playstation had an
immediate effect - Jag sales halved overnight. Since the intial shock
they have picked up and now Atari UK report them as being on the up
and up. My contact in a local Electronic Boutique (What an awful name,
they just got changed from their original name of Game Zone), confirms
this and said any JagCDs they get fly out immediately and new titles
sell very well. This from a confirmed PC/Playstation nut too.
I'm yet to see many of the games that have been out in the US for some
time although others such as Missile Command 3D appeared within days
of the US release.
//// Gotcha (or not)
One of the European Dev Centre titles, Gotcha looks like it's going to
end up as a PC only game. A Jag version may get looked at again later
but it has been decided that it's not a suitable title at the moment
and having played an early version some months back, I'd be inclined
to agree.
//// Sega games
A lot of people wonder why Atari are not making good use of the access
they have to Sega's games. It transpires that Jag ports cannot be
started until some 6-8 months after the Sega equivalents have been
released. The net result would be a stream of already out of date
titles. A pity.
//// PC Games
One of the reasons Atari have started to look very hard at PC games is
the enormous success of titles like Microsoft Arcade. Atari still own
the computer rights to a great many titles of yesteryear and they have
seen some pretty fat cheques arrive as payment for publishing Atari
owned titles. This has apparently whetted their appetites for some
serious revenue (and about time too), hence their new found interest
in the PC. Let's hope they dont underestimate the cut-throat market
they are entering and end up getting badly burnt (again).
//// Cross Products
Rather sadly, Cross Products who was working on producing Jaguar
Development kits, have ceased work on the project. It appears that
after many months work and some serious interest and promise of many
orders from Atari, the whole thing has floundered. It appears that
Cross are owned by Sega. Atari felt unable to provide Cross with the
details of Jag II hardware they needed for obvious reasons. Cross were
a little less than enamoured by the sudden dropping of support from
Atari and told me they werent sure exactly why. A pity as Atari have
often been criticised for the low quality of the Jaguar development
kits compared to those of their peers.
//// Zero 5
An eagerly awaited title, Zero 5, has been put back to an Easter
release. The mechanics are all in place but the missions now have to
be created and added in. Also, the title may change. If anyone who has
seen the game has a good idea for a title then let me know and I'll
pass it onto Atari.
//// Team 17
I was hoping to have a Team 17 interview completed for this issue but
Christmas seemed to have got in the way. Hopefully next issue will see
this now. As an aside, Team 17 publish via Ocean who in the UK have
decided to drop Jaguar, Hence Team 17's original line-up of Jaguar
titles has ended up as just one - Worms. Still, this is a cracking
game and I can't wait to see a copy.
//// Five Years Away
21st Century, they of Pinball Dreams have told me they do not intend
to do any more Jaguar titles but dont take it personally, they have
decided to avoid any next generation consoles for the time being. They
did say that its possible that if the policy changes they may go back
to Jag development at a later stage. How about voting with your
wallets? Pinball Dreams is a fine game and well worth buying.
//// Last Call Bits
Atari UK have announced a new distributor - Telstar. Hopefully this
will help get even more Jaguar stuff into our shops. On a less
pleasant note, Silica, an Atari selling and distributing firm since
the dawn of time (I remember getting mailshots from them when I bought
my 2600 back in 1980), has sort of gone down the tubes. They are in
receivership with debts of 8 million GBP and are hoping to get a buyer
very soon to inject some more cash. They blame the downfall on the
demise of the Amiga which accounted for 45% of their sales combined
with a difficulty getting PC stock.
Not entirely Atari related but possibly of interest to computer lovers
who have outgrown their STs but dont want to be just another clone
owner. The former Apple product Division president, Jean-Louis Gassee has
set up his own firm and launched a new computer. Totally different to the
rest of the pack, it is designed to appeal to computer freaks and
tech-heads who must have the best, neatest, most interesting computer.
What he has produced is the BeBox. Powered by 2 Power PC603 processors,
it is equipped to provide high-performance audio and video for just
$1,600. Up to 256Mb of RAM can be installed and the standard hardware
includes 16bit CD quality sound, 4 MIDI ports, a SCSI II port, 4 serial,
1 parallel and 3 infra-red ports. Software includes a graphics server,
database server and digital media tool kit as well as an integrated
development environment called Code Warrior. Already developers are
working on software to utilise its impressive hardware. Most have been
won over by finally having a piece of hardware to live up to their
software dreams. Keep an eye out for it.
Finally, my (albeit) minor claim to fame. Atari's European Development
bought the rights for the Jag version of Fever Pitch from US Gold and
did the port themselves. (I understand it's been released in the US.
Hello! Over here!) This gave them a little room to manoeuvre. Result?
A new team member called Laskey in my honour! Shucks guys!
--==--==--==--==--
||| Jaguar Review: NBA Jam - Tournament Edition
||| By: Damien M. Jones
/ | \ GEnie: DMJ Internet: tsd@gate.net
---------------------------------------------------------------
High Voltage Software's own Adisak Pochanayon (an excellent Jaguar
programmer) has churned out in an amazingly short time what amounts to
a very good port of NBA Jam: Tournament Edition. After wheedling a
review copy out of Travis (who is notably stingy with these things ;-)
I slapped the funky-looking FlashROM cart into my Jaguar and powered
it up.
I should point out here that I'm not a basketball nut. I like to watch
basketball because it's fast and professional players are just
awesome. Basketball is entertaining - but it's not (for me) a way of
life. The last time =I= tried to play basketball, I was completely
devastated within five minutes and had to sit down before my heart
jumped out of my chest and filed a complaint with OSHA. So to help
with this review, I collared a friend of mine (Abe Torres) who is not
only a basketball fan, but also very familiar with NBA Jam on other
systems. Together we sat down in front of a nice big TV, with the
Jaguar and a couple of controllers, to rake Jaguar NBA Jam: Tournament
Edition over the coals.
After a couple of screens full of fine print, there's a nice High
Voltage Software logo, and then the attract mode sequence kicks in.
Right off I notice the music is kinda cheesy, but that's okay, it's a
cartridge, and I'd rather the space was saved for something more
useful, like gameplay. The attract sequence shows off some of the
fancy moves of the players, and talks about all the neat stuff in the
Tournament Edition of NBA Jam. Things like: more moves, more sounds,
more players, substitutions, and so on. Cool stuff, but we didn't want
to sit through the attract sequence, we wanted to =play=. So play we
did, both of us fiddling with the controllers to see what we could
figure out, since we were both too lazy to read the directions. (Who
reads manuals, anyway?)
All right, I won't bore you with the final score (even though I beat
Abe, heh heh) but it was fun. Too bad we didn't have a Team Tap and a
couple of extra controllers handy, because NBA Jam: TE will use one if
you've got it. So we just had ourselves. Two people can play against
each other, or they can both play on the same team against the
computer. Four people, of course, don't need the computer to play.
Our verdict? We enjoyed it, which means right off the bat, this game
is =fun= - always a good thing for a game to be.
For those of you not familiar with NBA Jam (and I can't imagine who
that might be) let me briefly explain the game. There are two players
on each team, and when you start the game you can select from
twenty-seven NBA teams, selecting two of the three players available
from that team to play. There's also a special "Rookies" team with
five players. Each player has their own stats - how fast they are, how
good they are at making field goals, and so on. These stats really do
matter (especially that FG rating!), so it's nice that both players
can choose the same team - that makes a matchup completely fair.
Once you've selected your team, the game begins. There are four
quarters, each three minutes long. And, well, it's basketball.
Players run up and down the court, taking shots at the basket, passing
to their teammate, or trying to block the other guys from making
baskets and steal the ball away from them. There's also a turbo
button which, if pressed, makes your player go faster. Turbo runs out
after a while, though, so you have to use it when it counts. You can
also shove the other guys, which often results in them landing on the
floor. Ya gotta be careful with that shove, 'cause you can push your
own teammate (as I found out the hard way). When you're in the mood
for some impressive moves, you can take a shot while moving and
holding down turbo, and your player will usually do something very
cool and, while he's at it, make a basket. Life is good.
And then there's the Special Options. Just when you think you've got
everything else under control, you can throw in hot spots - if you
shoot from one, you'll get bonus points. Or throw in powerup icons.
(Powerups?!? In basketball?!?) Better yet, there's Juice
Mode, where
you can crank up the speed on =everything=. You thought things were
fast before?
For those of you who get addicted to this game, it'll keep stats for
you, too. You can put your initials in, and it will remember your
winning percentage, ranking, and so on. (Just to keep things fair,
powerup and hot spot games don't count for record-keeping.)
=-=-=-=-=
//// Nits
=-=-=-=-=
After beating Abe, I suggested we play again, this time paying a bit
more attention to things in the game besides the gameplay. I'm
ashamed to admit that Abe beat me this time, but at least I have an
excuse. Anyway, we noticed a few things this time that sort of
slipped by us the first time. Some of the players look a bit odd,
but there's only so much detail you can pack into the small heads on
the screen. The Knicks' uniforms were the wrong color (not a big
deal, but if you're an NBA fan like Abe, you notice these things).
Occasionally the announcer would declare a basket to be missed
("Rejected!") when it actually went in. I still have trouble with the
controls, and I keep jumping instead of swiping at the ball. It's
kind of hard to keep track of who is who, especially when the players
are off-screen. And there's the above-mentioned cheeziness to some of
the music.
But these are minor complaints. The colors don't affect gameplay.
The controls are configurable (independently for each controller).
And the sounds don't really matter - real sports announcers make more
screwups than I've heard out of NBAJTE.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Vs. the PlayStation
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Yeah, we have a PlayStation here. So I thought, to really make
things interesting, I'd compare the PlayStation version of NBA Jam:
Tournament Edition to the Jaguar version. And you know, I was really
surprised.
The PSX version has much larger players. Whereas the Jag version has
small players with enlarged heads (so you can recognize the players),
the PlayStation version enlarged the players to match the head size.
This might sound like a good idea, but it cluttered up the PSX's
screen and made it even harder to see what was going on. There's also
the differences you'd expect from a CD vs. a cartridge version -
screen transitions on the Jaguar are snappy, but on the PlayStation
there are noticeable waits between screens. Sound on the PSX is also
better - simply because there is more storage space.
The PlayStation version also plays differently than the Jaguar
version. The players block more aggressively, and for me it wasn't as
much fun. I haven't played the arcade machine, but I've been told by
more than one person that the Jaguar version is closer to the arcade
than the PlayStation version.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Wrap-Up
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
NBA Jam: Tournament Edition for the Jaguar is excellent. The graphics
are good, with lots of details - multiple layers of parallax in the
background, motion in those (cheerleaders!), perspective floor,
perspective backboards, and so on. Sound is decent, and the title
screen proclaims 3D sound (although on my TV, even with a stereo
hookup, didn't seem very 3D). Gameplay is great, it's lots of fun, and
it even edges out the PSX version!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Final Ratings
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Title: NBA Jam: Tournament Edition Jaglink: No
Developer: High Voltage Software Players: 1-4
Published by: Atari Cart Size: 4 Megabytes
Retail: N/A Availability: 1/96
A Summary of Ratings:
"*" is a whole
"+" is a half
5 stars Maximum
Graphics - **** Excellent, although some players look odd.
Audio - ***+ Pretty good inside the game, "okay" otherwise.
Control - **** Takes a little while to get used to, but
configurable!
Gameplay - ****+ Get a Team Tap and extra controllers and have
fun!
Overall - ****+ Almost as much fun to watch as it is to play!
Key to Damien's Ratings:
(the epicurean state of mind)
***** - Crab and lobster with butter sauce.
****+ - Lasagne--an inspired food.
**** - Barbecued baby-back ribs smothered in sauce.
***+ - 12oz. medium rare steak.
*** - Texas chili with cheese and onions.
**+ - Cheeseburger and fries.
** - Blue and green bread (moldy).
*+ - Asparagus... bleh.
* - Bean sprouts and tofu... gack.
+ - Chicken tartar (raw).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Author's Bio
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Damien M. Jones was born in England in 1972. Since then, he has lived
in Omaha, Las Vegas, Dallas, Germany, and currently, West Palm Beach.
His work in Atari computers started with crude, silly programs in GFA
BASIC, and grew into real programs like Sound Lab and View II. Earlier
this year he started a new company, Temporary Sanity Designs, to
develop game software.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Jaguar Review: Defender 2000
||| By: Bryan C. Edewaard
/ | \ Internet: tsd@gate.net
--------------------------------------------------------------
Coding Guru Jeff Minter does it again - this time with an update to
the classic Williams game: Defender. Created in 1980 by a team headed
up by the legendary Eugene Jarvis, Defender established Williams'
position as the arcade videogame leader of the early '80s. Your
mission in this side-scrolling shooter is to defend a planet and the
astronauts thereon from wave after wave of invading and body-snatching
aliens.
Defender 2000 offers three variations of the original Defender game:
Classic Defender, Defender Plus, and Defender 2000. Each of the games
supports a ProController mode with separate buttons for fire and
thrust. Two player games can be played either with two controllers or
two players sharing one controller.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Classic Defender
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Most mature gamers will immediately recognize Classic Defender in all
of its sixteen color glory, and if you haven't seen the original in a
while, it's quite a rush. All the original elements are here: Landers,
Mutants, Humanoids, Pods, Bombers, Swarmers, and Baiters.
Classic Defender closely resembles the arcade original, but purists
will notice that it deviates on a few points. There are a lot of
slight cosmetic variations between Minter's Classic Defender and the
actual arcade machine: explosions are larger in Minter's Classic, both
in the size of the particles and in the fact that they carry over into
the top area of the screen; the score has rastered colors instead of
the pulsating solid color of the original; the sprites are noticeably
larger; and there is a volcano in the game, which is borrowed from
Defender II (originally Stargate).
Perhaps more seriously, I found Classic easier to play than the arcade
machine. This may be somewhat due to the difference in controls, but
it largely seems to be due to the fact that the landers in Classic are
slightly oversized (as mentioned above) and some enemies exhibit
different behavior than in the original. One good example is the
Mutant, who makes quick jerky motions in the original, but jumps and
jiggles around like he's going critical in Minter's Classic. I feel
that both the oversized enemies and the frantic motion of the mutants
makes them easier to hit.
These are minor things, really, but they are somewhat disappointing.
Back in the 1980s, there were valid reasons for making changes to a
game when it was ported to a different platform. Frequently the
hardware was different, and just couldn't do the same things as the
arcade original. But the Jaguar can certainly do everything the
Williams arcade machine could do, so there really isn't much of a
reason for not having a perfect replica of the old game. And Minter's
Classic Defender, while closer than almost any other attempt, is not
quite perfect.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Defender Plus
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Defender Plus is very similar to Classic Defender except that more
enemies (and elements from the Defender sequel Stargate) have been
added, your fire-power is upped quite a bit, and several new visual
effects have been added. Defender Plus is to Classic Defender what
Tempest 2000 is to Classic Tempest - it retains the feel of the
original, but increases the tempo and intensity.
Visually, there is plenty of eye candy to look at. The background
contains several layers of scrolling stars, and a strange "plasma"
effect hovers over the mountains. The mountains themselves are filled
with a psychedelic moving pattern, and all the sprites have been
given a colorful overhaul. Landers now have a more metallic spaceship
look, and humanoids now look like actual people. (Imagine that.)
Plus also adds Stargate-like warp gates and some nasty new enemies -
although I don't know what to call the new enemies because the
evaluation manual doesn't have pictures of them. Starting with the
fourth wave, huge ships start popping up out of the ground that take
multiple hits to kill. To help keep things even, in addition to the
smart bombs of Classic Defender, you have what Minter calls the
"llightning laser", which will target the closest enemy, wherever it
is on the screen. You only have a limited amount of this, though, so
you have to use it sparingly. If you're a real wimp, you can opt to
have two droid ships fly with you to help you out - they'll zip around
the screen shooting at things and picking up humanoids for you.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Defender 2000
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
In Defender 2000, the game takes on a whole new look with varying
backgound (and foreground) scenery that can scroll up and down as well
as left and right. As you progress from level to level in Defender
2000, the graphics change from desert to mountains to city and so on.
All the game objects have new graphics as well and look very hi-tech
compared to the other versions. The radar, rather than just being a
box sitting above the screen, is partially transparent and allows the
background to be seen through it. And all the game objects are much
larger on the screen, so you can see more detail in them.
Your ship can pick up bonuses that increase firepower - AI Droid, AI
Droid 2, Lightning Laser, and Turbo Lightning Laser. You can also pick
up a shield to protect you from attack. With it, you can be hit twice
without dying, and each time you will bounce off whatever hit you. (If
you're moving quickly when you bounce, it's a little disconcerting to
suddenly be flying back in the other direction.) Another interesting
feature of Defender 2000 is that humanoids that have been picked up
can fire along with you. Each humanoid hangs below the previous one,
so when you get three or four of them strung beneath your ship, you
carry a solid Wall o' Death wherever you go.
There are also warp tokens present. Collect enough of these and you
go to the warp screens, where you must stay on a lit path while
hurtling down surfaces shaped like the levels of Tempest. In fact, it
is very similar to the second warp level of Tempest 2000. ("Stay on
the green path.")
As with Tempest 2000, Defender 2000 includes a bunch of hip new tunes
(portent of a Defender 2000 Soundtrack CD?) and flashy menu graphics.
Some of the other effects - like the end-wave screen where your
humanoid bonus is counted - are also very nicely done. Oh, you'll
undoubtedly see what happens when you let the landers steal all your
humanoids; it's certainly something to make you think, "Uh, maybe I
shouldn't have done that...."
While playing Defender 2000, I noticed that Defender is not an
equation that can be played with as easily as Tempest. While I felt
that Tempest 2000 gave Tempest a new lease on life, Defender 2000
loses some balance in the conversion. Defender 2000 is very cool to
watch, but there can easily be too much going on at once. Once I had
picked up a few bonuses, there was so much happening on the screen
that I was forced to play by watching only the radar at the top. It's
also difficult to pick out the colorful enemies from the colorful
background, I would often collide with them while flying. It's
definitely a game for those gamers who know how to get "into the
zone."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Comments
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I know this will sound negative, but with all that's going on, the
2000 mode lacks the feel of Defender. Defender Plus gets my vote for
the better update to Defender in this package. Plus has a nice, modern
(if wacky) look and formidable new enemies while still preserving the
Defender/Stargate atmosphere. Defender Plus and Classic were very
satisfying games and well worth the price of admission. All the
original game elements are here and the control was very precise.
Overall, I'd recommend Defender 2000 to anyone with a Jaguar who
loves classic games while I'd also recommend the Williams Arcade
Classics pack for PC/Mac owners with a serious craving for the
classic. (Get both, it's only money.)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Final Ratings
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Title: Defender 2000 Jaglink: No
Programmer: Jeff Minter Players: 1
Published by: Atari Cart Size: 4 Megabytes
Retail: N/A Availability: 2/96
A Summary of Ratings:
"*" is a whole
"+" is a half
5 stars Maximum
Graphics - **** Graphics are very nice, and full of Minteresque
effects although some of them get in the way at
times (much more than in Tempest 2000).
Audio - **** Authentic sounds from the original as well as
many improved effects. Great background music
too!
Control - ***** Dead on controls and thrust-fire option earns
Defender 2000 five stars.
Gameplay - *** Although Classic Defender and Plus play fairly
authentically, Defender 2000 doesn't feel much
like Defender and can be hard to follow.
Overall - **** A nice package if you're into the classics, but
Plus and 2000 versions might not have what it
takes to appeal to people who don't already like
Defender.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Jaguar Review: Battlemorph
||| By: Charles Wells
/ | \ GEnie: C.WELLS10
----------------------------------------------------------------
Battlemorph takes place thirty years after the original Cybermorph.
It seems that with the T-Griffon fighter, Earth was able to push back
the Pernitian invasion. After that, the Earth Defense Council built a
fleet of battle cruisers to patrol the colonies as a deterrent against
future invasions. For some time, things were peaceful, but it was not
to last. The trouble began in the Perseus Star Cluster. Several battle
cruisers disappeared in that area, and Pernitian activity was reported
in eight different clusters of worlds - then all contact was lost with
those worlds. The last remaining cruiser has been by the defense
council on a search and destroy mission, starting with the Perseus
Cluster.
This battlecruiser, the Sutherland, has a very special cargo - the
newest version of the T-Griffon, known as the War Griffon. This ship
comes with morphing technology, customizable weapons bays, underwater
capability, and built-in satellite mapping hookups. By the time you
reach the Perseus cluster, the Sutherland has almost totally exhausted
her energy reserves, so you must defeat the Pernitian general in each
of the eight star clusters. This will give you enough energy to reach
the Pernish cluster, homeworld of the alien menace. It's up to you to
stop the threat at its source, once and for all!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Starting Out
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Battlemorph, like Highlander, is playable in several different
languages: English, French or German, selectable from the options
screen. Once you are ready to start your first game, you'll be able to
enter your name in a screen very similar in layout (and sound effects)
to the one in Blue Lightning. There are five Save Game slots available
if you are using the Memory Track cart, which is highly recommended!!
There are also three difficulty settings (Easy, Medium and Hard), so
those who may not be familiar with the original game can tinker around
on Easy, while Cybermorph vets can plow right in on the higher
settings. There is a box on the right side of the screen which gives
you information about the Save Game slot you currently have
highlighted, such as the weapons you have accumulated, ships in
reserve, etc.
When you start the game, you will move on to the planet select screen.
As in the original game, you can pick any planet in any order you wish
- each planet has its own mission to complete. You must finish off all
the planets before moving on to the next cluster of planets. Each
cluster has its own general, or "boss", to defeat for valuable plasma
energy which the Sutherland needs. When you select a planet you want
to play, you will be given a briefing on the mission objective for
that planet. If this doesn't sound to your liking, you can come back
to this one later - just select Reject and choose another planet. Once
you've decided on the planet you want, it's on to select your weapons.
Your War-Griffon has a built-in twin shot cannon. In addition, you
have four weapons bays to customize as you wish, with the exception
that you can't choose a weapon more than once. Also, you have to find
weapons in this game, so when you start out, you won't have a weapon
for every bay. You start with cruise bombs (great for knocking out
tanks and buildings) and decoys. Decoys are really neat - duplicates
of your ship, they fly around for a brief time and are great for
dodging homing missiles and nasty kamikazes. Although they can't shoot
enemies, decoys can fly through forcefields for you to get at
power-ups you'd normally have a hard time getting to (if you can get
them at all). There are many weapons to be found later on in the game
(in the form of fragments which must be collected) including mines,
mortars and flame-throwers.
Control is similar to the original, with the keypad heavily
utilized. (The game comes with an overlay to help out.)
A moves the ship forward
B fires your selected weapon
C moves the ship backward
Option selects the Map mode. This is a satellite's view of the
landscape of the world, highlighting important structures, items and
objectives. When you move the pointer around on the map screen, your
radar's white arrow will point to it.
Different buttons on the keypad select between your four weapons bays,
turn your targeting crosshair on/off, cycle through several different
cockpit views from your ship (plus a few overhead views). As is usual,
the buttons are customizable to fit different tastes. I'm happy to say
that the new ProController is supported and works quite well. The
Options screen also lets you customize several other things, such as
the volume levels for the music, sound effects and Skylar, or turning
the Cinemas on or off. (I leave them on, since you can bypass them
with a button press if you wish.)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// The Game Screen
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The majority of the screen is taken up by your view of the world. A HUD
at the top of the screen displays your score, your ships in reserve,
and your radar. Skylar (your talking computer, who still looks kinda
like Sinead O'Conner) also pops up from time-to-time here with helpful
comments. (Or the occasional trash talking.) The radar will be
familiar to Cybermorph veterans - skulls are enemies (red ones are
hostile, green are passive, a skull with yellow eyes is an enemy
carrying a powerup), red dots for enemy shots, diamonds are power-ups,
and rectangles are special buildings. Powerups and buildings only show
up if you've collected an enhanced scanning powerup. A closed yellow
arrow points to your mission objective (or to the exit, if the
objectives have been found).
The instrument panel at the bottom of the screen has been changed
a little from the first game. It looks cleaner, less cluttered. There
are readouts for speed (forward or reverse), altitude and energy. When
all your energy is gone, your ship is destroyed. You lose energy from
enemy fire and from crashes. There are "monitors" which display your
different weapons bays (including ammo levels for each weapon), or
other special objects you've collected (such as data pods, batteries,
weapon fragments and keys).
The middle of the screen is where your ship resides. As it flies along
in the virtual worlds, it morphs as it changes velocity, climbs, dives
underwater, etc. As before, the game is not on rails like other games
of similar nature (i.e., Starfox on the Super NES) - you can fly where
you want, when you want. The only real restriction to this is your
ship can't fly above a certain altitude, so certain mountain ranges
will block or hamper access to some areas. If you fly past the
boundaries of the world, you will "wrap" around to the other side. Not
being on rails opens up many possibilities on how you choose to play
the game. You can fly along rather leisurely, exploring every nook and
cranny. Or you can be very quick and aggressive, blasting non-stop as
you fly by enemy tanks, only to turn around to pick off the ones you
missed on your first fly-by.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Powerups
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Powerups are floating cubes texturemapped with differing icons on
them. Some are floating around on the planets when you arrive, others
are dropped when you destroy enemies or buildings. Simply fly through
them to pick them up. Ammo pods supply whatever is pictured on the
pod. Occasionally, these pods will cycle through different kinds of
ammo or energy for your shields. Hint pods, which are textured with a
big question mark, will display a hint for the planet you are on. Keys
open the locked security domes on the surface (or doors in the
underground tunnels), and look like... well... big keys of different
colors. Magazines increase the maximum amount of ammo you can carry
for your weapons. Rapid fire is just that, and works for the entire
level once you pick it up. The powerup with the big eyeball on it is
an enhanced scan, which increases the effectiveness of your radar.
Batteries are used in the power stations. Place one in a power station
to activate the station (or remove it to cut off power to certain
things like forcefields). Weapon fragments are very valuable, find
four and when you get back to the Sutherland, you'll have a new weapon
to use in your fight against the Pernitians. Also keep an eye out for
gold-colored War Griffons; picking one of those up will net you an
extra ship! The rings from the first game are back, too; blue (power)
rings increase your energy back to full and flashing (speed) rings
boost you to incredible speeds, during which you are invincible!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Buildings and Special Objects
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
You will encounter many different buildings in your travels, including
power stations and power lines (which may need to be shut down in
order to drop a forcefield somewhere on the level), teleporters,
security domes (needs a key of matching color to open it), bridges
(blow 'em up and watch the enemies stupidly drive off to a watery
death, hee hee), underground tunnel entrances and a variety of
different bases and silos which launch tanks and fighter craft. There
is also a special building known as a planet cloaker. Take this sucker
out and a bonus planet will be revealed on the planet selection
screen! (The "Tree Planet" is funny...death to all trees! =)
As mentioned earlier, your War-Griffon can now go underwater - this is
really cool and has a nice underwater blur effect (like in Missile
Command 3D), plus bubbles, fish swimming around, and aquatic plants
gently swaying in the current. There are different types of water,
too. Some is acidic and drains your energy, while others heal you or
have a viscosity that allows you to fly through it as if it were air.
Tunnels are another new way of commuting. They are often blocked by
several different types of doors, and are texture mapped and probably
the coolest looking areas in the game. Movement through them is
extremely smooth and fluid - my favorite ones are the dark corridors
with the lights on the sides of the walls.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Enemies
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
There is a wide range of enemies out to do you in, some slightly
familiar. In addition to the standard tanks, destroyers, subs and
fighter craft there are some interesting foes such as fans (which blow
your ship around), worms (remember them? heh heh), leeches (drain your
energy), springs (pop up out of the ground and skewer things, like
your ship), bandits (steal your weapons!) and more. As before, some
enemies are pretty passive, while some seek you out with a vengeance.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Graphics and Sound
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Graphics are pretty faithful to the original game, with the Gourad
shading on the terrain being very impressive. There seems to be a much
better use of color this time around, too. The water is now animated,
and there is quite a bit of texturemapping on the enemies and
structures. The cinemas, tunnel and underwater sequences are all also
very impressive. Rather than just a black sky on the horizon, there
are now assorted mountain ranges, planets and more, which really adds
a lot to the look of the game. The framerate and terrain pop-up have
even been cleaned up since the original game. There are also a lot of
nice touches in the game. I like flying just above the surface of the
water so that you are barely skimming it, leaving a wake behind you.
In-game music has been added to the game, which was one of the major
things missing from Cybermorph. The music in Battlemorph is excellent,
and there appears to be a wide variety of different tunes. One nice
touch is the music changes when you fly either underwater or through
tunnels. Sound effects are also very good, with nice use made of
stereo and depth cueing. I love to listen to this game on a pair of
headphones through the Catbox.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// The Good, the Bad and the Overall
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Well, I honestly don't have anything really bad to say about this
game. The main complaint many people had about Cybermorph was that it
looked like they rushed it out the door, which meant things like
in-game music, polished transitional screens and other minor details
didn't make it into the game in time. That is not the case here, and
there is an obvious... well... attention to detail <g> in this one.
The gameplay is very solid and will offer many repeat playings. This
game also proves you don't have to texturemap everything into oblivion
to make an excellent game. If I was Atari, I would make sure this is
one of the Jag titles that gets ported to the other platforms.
Battlemorph is easily the best game for the Jag CD yet. Fans of the
original will flip over this one.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Final Ratings
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Title: Battlemorph Jaglink: No
Developer: Attention to Detail Players: 1
Published by: Atari Media: JagCD
Retail: $59.95 Availability: Now
A Summary of Ratings:
"*" is a whole
"+" is a half
5 stars Maximum
Graphics - **** Nothing mind-blowing, but very good nonetheless.
Audio - ***** Excellent tunes and voices, very good sound
effects.
Control - ***** Easy to learn, very precise, flexible, supports
the ProController.
Gameplay - ***** Even better than the first! Not on rails, set
your own pace, tons to explore and do, selectable
difficulty levels.
Overall - ***** The best Jag CD game yet and one of the best Jag
games, period.
Key to Charles' Ratings
(the sharp state of mind)
***** - Ginsu!
**** - Bowie
*** - Swiss Army
** - Steak
* - Rusty
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Author's Bio
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Charles Wells (a.k.a., Ginsu on GEnie) has been into Atari videogames
since Pong and the 2600, owning over the years various systems
including a 5200, 7800, Lynx, 520 ST and a 130 XE. The Jaguar is the
latest addition to the family, along with about two dozen games for
it. Currently residing in Fayetteville, NC, he plans to go to school
for Law Enforcement in the near future. A member of GEnie for about
two years, Battlemorph is his first review for AEO Magazine.
--==--==--==--==--
[Ed: This review originally appeared in AEO's
Special Jaguar Edition E3, May 20, 1995]
||| CatBox Review
||| By: Travis Guy
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.MAG Delphi: AEO_MAG
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I've found a whole new way to play Jaguar - with the CatBox from Black
Cat Designs. Before, I've had my Jag hooked up to my old 19" RCA TV
through an RF connection. The picture was clear, sharp, and the sound
was great. While I have seen Jaguars hooked up to stereos and non-RF
televisions, I had never played one extensively.
But when my CatBox arrived (with an adaptor to allow me to connect to
my old 1040ST's SC1224 monitor), I was able to start seeing and hearing
my games in a whole new fashion.
//// What Is It?
The CatBox is a stainless steel box that connects to an Atari Jaguar
via the Jaguar's DSP & AV Out bus edges, and provides industry standard
connector jacks for S-Video, RGB and composite video; Left and Right
channel stereo RCA jacks; two 1/8" stereo headphone jacks (with volume
adjust); RS-232 and "CatNet" networking ports, and a pass-through Jaguar
DSP bus, so other devices can be daisychained.
Inside the CatBox are two PCBs with the support electronics to drive
old Atari/Amiga era RGB monitors, and to properly do everything else
that is asked of it. It's a very solid piece of engineering.
If you're buying CatBox to drive an RGB monitor, contact Black Cat to
make sure your monitor type is supported. (It should support a scan
rate of 15.75kHz.) There are two jumpers on one of the PCBs inside the
CatBox which a user could set for certain monitor requirements.
Furthermore, a monitor cable adaptor may be required. (I had to have my
SC 1224's brightness increased slightly, but it was well worth the
time... nothing provides a sharper Jaguar display, than an RGB monitor.)
There's two red LEDs that can been seen through holes drilled into the
top of the CatBox. They both light up when the Jaguar is powered up,
and I'm told that when networked, the LEDs will flicker on and off
similar to a modem's Receive Data and Transmit Data LEDs.
The CatBox has no external power needs or supplies. All power that it
uses is drawn from the Jaguar. A nice, neat solution.
//// Network Now For The Future
Networking. A future step that the video game industry will have to
take. CatBox supports RS-232 devices (if a game will support it, you
can connect a standard external modem to the RS-232 port), CatNet
(another networking possibility that uses twisted-pair telephone cable
to daisychain connect multiple Jaguars), and a place to connect
future DSP-port devices.
I don't have another copy of Doom to test networking with myself, but
I've spoken to several third-party developers who swear by CatBox for
their network tests.
//// Final Ratings
Title: CatBox Networking: CatNet, RS-232 and DSP
Designed by: Black Cat Designs Video: RGB, SVideo, composite
Marketed by: ICD, Inc. Available: Now
MSRP: $69.99 Audio: L/R RCA, 2 headphone
Of the three "computer port" games that appeared earlier this spring
for Jaguar (Cannon Fodder, Syndicate, and Theme Park), all experience
some "muddiness" of text when viewed through RF output. Not so when
played on my lowly Goldstar SC1224 monitor through CatBox! Crisp,
clear graphics. (I didn't even know that the starfield in Tempest 2000
wasn't made of =white= stars, till I saw it through CatBox!)
Audio-wise, the stereo jacks work perfectly. (If you only connect one
jack to your amplifier, CatBox will sense this and supply both
channels of audio through the one jack. Nice, Tom!) The amplified
headphone jacks on the CatBox are a =perfect= touch - nice, clean,
loud stereo.
Control and use are a snap. Just make sure your Jaguar is on a solid,
flat surface and that it won't be jarred during play - doing so could
possibly interrupt the Jaguar/CatBox connection.
Overall, this product earns five stars across the board, and the
shortest AEO Jaguar review on record! There's nothing else to say,
CatBox is a perfect addition to your Jaguar, and a definite "buy."
--==--==--==--==--
||| Jaguar Review - I-WAR
||| By: Clay Halliwell
/ | \ GEnie: E.HALLIWELL Internet: halliwee@ts436.dyess.af.mil
--------------------------------------------------------------
Imagitec Design, the folks who brought us such classics as Raiden and
Evolution: Dino Dudes, have struck again with I-War. Developed and
released without fanfare, I-War is both the best and the worst Jaguar
game I've seen.
In the future world of I-War, all the computing tasks on the planet
have been handed over to the Override Mainframe Computer. All is well
for a few years, then the obligatory Bad Things start happening.
Mutant databases begin appearing and clogging up the I-Way with their
datapods. Looks like it's time to hop into your anti-virus tank and
save the world!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Cybertank Driving 101
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I-War can be played in one or two player mode. The two-player mode is
mentioned only in passing in the manual, but seems to be a head-to-
head contest set in a single arena.
At the start of the one-player game you set your difficulty level
(Easy/Medium/Hard), and choose between three different tanks - Light,
Medium, and Heavy. Go for the Heavy. It's not much slower than the
Light tank, and allows you access to all the weapon upgrades. It also
doesn't slide around as much.
You steer your tank by pushing left and right on the control pad, and
move forward and backward by pushing up and down. The default button
configuration is A: Select Weapon, B: Fire Weapon, C: Shields. Option
isn't used. You can select from a variety of Club Drive-style camera
angles with the keypad. Pressing "7" overlays a map of the current
level on the screen. The manual says pressing "8" toggles the texture
mapping, but I couldn't get it to do anything. The usual
music-toggling and volume-adjusting options are also present.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Toys, Wonderful Toys
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
No matter which tank you pick, you're started off with a single
forward-firing laser. Weapon upgrades can be found as you progress
through the game. For example, Mark 2 lasers fire two-shot bursts. The
bigger your tank, the more weapons you can mount simultaneously, so if
you're in a Heavy, you can carry two Mark 2 lasers (a four-shot
spread!) and two racks of missiles. You can eventually acquire the
following goodies (most of which are available in several upgrade
levels):
[] Radar: One of the first items you find. Places a radar display at
the bottom center of your screen.
[] Missiles: These home in on the closest target, and are primarily
for use against airborne targets. Unfortunately, a typical launch
will result in the missile undershooting the target, looping back
over it, and nosediving into the ground.
[] Plasma Cannon: Hold down your fire button to charge this baby up,
then unleash a huge blast of destructive energy at your target.
That's the theory anyway. In practice, it's quicker to just blitz
your target with laser fire. The range of the plasma cannon does
seem to be slightly greater than the lasers though.
[] Mine Dispenser: Tosses mines out the back of your tank. Due to the
way I-War is set up (small rooms, enemies that mostly sit and
shoot), mines are less than useless. Generally you'll forget you
have them, accidentally spew out a few when switching weapons, then
drive over them yourself.
[] Rear Laser: A single peashooter laser that must be selected just
like your main weapons. If you're getting hammered from behind,
it's better to either run, or turn around and engage the enemy with
your main batteries, thus also putting the Rear Laser in the
useless category.
[] Auto Targeting: Not a weapon, but an upgrade which causes your
targeting cursor to float around and lock onto the closest target.
You get this fairly early in the game, and it works great... most
of the time. Annoyingly, you can't force it to cycle through the
available targets, so it will sometimes lock onto, for instance, a
stationary mine instead of the guard tower that's raining plasma
bolts down on your head.
You can toggle Auto Targeting off, but without it you can only fire
straight ahead. Shooting flying enemies is especially problematic,
since the only way to elevate your sights is to enable Auto Targeting,
but since it locks precisely on, it's impossible to lead your target.
[] A.I. Drone: A kissing cousin to Tempest 2000's A.I. Droid, the
Drone will hover over your tank and take potshots at any nearby
threats. Not very powerful (even the upgraded versions), but handy
for alerting you to enemies not in your field of vision. Also good
for shooting over electric barriers. The Drone can be destroyed by
enemy fire.
[] Shields: Your friend in a pinch. Hitting the "shield" button on
your controller will make you temporarily invulnerable.
There's a huge variety of enemies in I-War - bombers, tanks, homing
mines, guard towers - but you deal with almost all of them in exactly
the same way: blast 'em toe-to-toe until they die. Often you'll clear
a room of enemies without ever knowing what was in it.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Netscape Navigation
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Once you get past all the Cyberpunk gobbledygook, I-War is pretty
straightforward. Play consists of driving your tank through a series
of areas connected by teleporters, collecting datapods, upgrading your
weapons, and blowing up anything that gets in your way. Once you
collect all the pods, make your way back to the teleporter to move on
to the next level.
If this sounds familiar, it should. Gameplay is eerily similar to
Cybermorph, except you drive instead of flying. The major difference
is that each level is divided into up to a dozen "rooms" connected by
teleporters. Since the map doesn't show your current location, getting
from place to place can be a major headache. Also unlike Cybermorph,
there's no handy arrow pointing toward the nearest pod. In fact, pods
don't show up on your radar at all!
There is one save-game slot, but it's a tad flaky, and tends to
replace your rear-firing laser with an A.I. Drone.
The terrain is flat, with the occasional bridge, ledge, or platform.
These are accessed by driving onto jumpers, which bounce you up into
the air. (Whee!) There are also intermittent electric barriers, doors,
magnets (pull you in), repellers (push you away), spikes (drain your
shields), spinners (fling you away randomly), and switches. Switches
may activate jumpers, doors, or teleporters. Driving into walls and
off of cliffs doesn't damage you.
Between levels you take a trip down the Data Link, a bonus round
similar to the ones in Tempest 2000. Cruising down a variety of tunnel
shapes, you attempt to avoid stray junk while intercepting at least
75% of the viruses that come your way. Doing so will net you an extra
life. You have two view modes available in the bonus round - first-
person, which lets you see what's coming but pitches your viewpoint
around so much you can't tell where you are, and third-person, which
lets you see where you are but also sticks your ship directly in the
middle of your field of view.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Graphics
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
At first glance, I-War is the slickest, most professional-looking game
I've seen on the Jaguar. The title screen is wonderfully sharp and
colorful (and I suspect 640x200). All the option and intro graphics
are just superb... large, easy-to-read menu text, lots of
transparencies and gee-whiz animations in the backgrounds, a demo mode
that runs through the game story, a "know your enemies"-type screen,
and some sample gameplay. If you were to simply stare at I-War and
never play it, you'd swear it was the best Jag game ever.
Alas, I made the mistake of playing I-War. The game starts you off in
small rooms with only a few enemies, so the frame rate is good enough
that you don't mind the primarily gouraud-shaded environs. The moment
you make tracks into one of the larger rooms though, the frame rate
drops like a rock, to around 5 FPS. Large numbers of enemies onscreen
at once have the same effect.
It's obvious that I-War's polygon engine isn't up to snuff, yet
inexplicably the programmer seems to try to load it down at every
opportunity. The model of your tank is marvelously detailed... so
detailed that switching to any of the external views cuts the frame
rate almost in half. Every laser shot that hits a wall produces a
shower of polygon sparks, spraying an enemy with laser fire lets loose
such a bloom of shards that you can barely see what you're shooting
at, and the larger rooms in the game are often the ones with the
highest level of architectural detail. There are some even some pretty
impressive effects, like the "TRON"-ish way enemies burst apart when
destroyed, and the mirrored ball that englobes your tank when your
shields are on.
=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Sound
=-=-=-=-=-=
These are the guys behind Tempest 2000's legendary soundtrack, so of
course the music (mild techno) is great. Sound effects are limited
primarily to weapons fire and explosions. There's a computer voice,
which sounds almost exactly like a Type 'n' Talk, but not much else.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Conclusion
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
This is very much a two-headed beast. It's apparent that a lot of care
and thought went into I-War, but it's undermined by an inadequate
polygon engine and gameplay which is, while fun at first, ultimately
tedious and repetitive.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Final Ratings
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Title: I-War JagNet: No
Design: Imagitec Design Players: 1-2
Published by: Atari Cart Size: 2 Megabytes
Retail: $59.99 Availability: Now
A Summary of Ratings:
"*" is a whole
"+" is a half
5 stars Maximum
Graphics - ** First-class intro graphics; pathetic frame rate
when things get busy.
Audio - **** Awesome tunes from the Tempest 2000 guys; so-so
but serviceable sound effects.
Control - **** Maneuvering your way around the I-Way couldn't be
simpler.
Gameplay - ** The variety of weapon upgrades is fun; the
stumbling around lost is not.
Overall - ** Lots of promising stuff here, but the low frame
rate and confusing navigation are the kiss of
death for I-War.
Key to Clay's Ratings
(a cyber state of mind)
***** - WarGames
**** - The Lawnmower Man
*** - Weird Science
** - The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
* - Hackers/The Net/Viruosity/Wild Palms/Johnny Mnemonic
Clay Halliwell, currently residing in Abilene, TX, is a 27-year-old
computer programmer in the United States Air Force. When he's not
playing Jag games or referring to himself in the third person, he
likes to hack on his 130XE, much to the consternation of his
coworkers.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Jaguar Review: Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
||| By: Mark "Stingray" Santora
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.4 AOL: MrSantora
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Since the Jaguar's release, a little over two years ago, the most
popular games for the system have been the updates of "classic" games.
I am of course referring to Tempest 2000 and the upcoming Breakout 2000
and Defender 2000. These games seem to generate considerable more
interest than Super Duper Mortal Street Combat Fighter XXIIV games -
and with good reason. The original versions of these games are what
spawned todays programmers. They look to the classics with reverence -
even GameBoy has some "classics" out.
The term "classic" games refers to those games in the early to mid
1980's when playability was more important than following in the
latest fad. Most of the games did not have endings, and given your
skill could be played for hours on end while the difficulty just
continued to get harder.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Pitfall Classic
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
If you are a first generation gameplayer, than you must have heard of
the original Pitfall! It was written by David Crane for the Atari
2600. When it came out, it was the game to beat, and on the Atari
2600, I would be hard pressed to say that no other game captured my
attention as much as it did. The original Pitfall was simple - take
the role of Pitfall Harry (the original Atari Explorer) and run around
on two platforms, grabbing as many jewels and goodies as you can in
under twenty minutes, while trying not to fall in the pits or the
lakes with alligators, get stung by scorpions, or run over by logs.
You could run, jump, swing from a vine, and climb ladders. I'm sure
I'm forgetting a few objects, but you get the idea.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Pitfall: The Next Generation
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Now Activision has pulled out all the stops to update their classic,
and I gotta tell you, they've done one hell of a job. The plot is
simple, after years of gallivanting around the world, Pitfall Harry
decided to settle down and have some kids. Well, he had a son, Harry,
Jr., who's a lot like his dad - fearless and full of adventure. Seeing
this in his son, this awoke the feelings in Harry Sr, that he hadn't
felt since he settled down. So, he decided to set out on an expedition
with his son to the Mayan Pyramids in Central America. Once there,
Harry Sr. was captured by the evil Warrior Spirit Zakelua. Armed with
his father's notes, a slingshot, and some attitude, Harry Jr. is going
after the biggest treasure of all time, his father.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Playing the Game
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
As is standard with all platformers, as Harry Jr. you can run left and
right, jump up, crouch, and even crawl. That constitutes the main
moves of Harry Jr. However, like his father, Harry Jr can swing from
vines, and even the unconscious carcasses of snakes (more on that
subject later). Unlike his father, Harry Jr. is armed with weapons.
He has a slingshot that slings rocks. (which are plentiful throughout
the game.) He can also use the slingshot as a whip so he does not have
to waste the rocks, this is a good weapon for mice and spiders -
basically those things that are small and close to the ground. Using
your slingshot, you can charge your throws so that they do more
damage.
Throughout the levels you might be fortunate enough to find boomerangs
and exploding stones. The boomerangs whip around until they've hit and
killed everything on the screen. The exploding stones are very useful
when things get a little crazy in front of you. One of these puppies
will clear a nice path for you. You can also ride ziplines, jump on
items (like spider webs or tongues of statues) to bounce you into the
air, bungee jumps, riding runaway mine cars, climbing ropes, and
swinging on vine. As you can tell, the gameplay is varied and never
gets boring.
The screen is laid out rather well with information easily accessible
without being obtrusive. In the upper left hand corner of the screen
in the score. In the upper right hand of the screen is the number of
lives you have left and and image of Harry Jr being chased by a
crocodile. As you loose health, the croc gets closer. You don't want
to let him get too close or else you lose a life. In the lower right
hand corner is is a numeric representation of the amount of the
treasure you have collected so far. Every 50 pieces you collect, you
get another continue. And in the lower left hand corner is the weapon
that you are using and the number of them you have to use (you can not
run out of the whip and you select the weapon by pressing the option
button).
There are a lot of bad guys, and they are very different. First, there
are your basic skeletons. These baddies bounce around the ground as
heads and then when you get close, rise up and start swiping away at
you with their very large swords. Once you hit them, they go down, but
their heads continue to bounce around and eventually reform the entire
body! So, after you knock them down, it's a good idea to take another
swing against the bouncing heads.
Secondly are your snakes, mice and spiders. These are just about
everywhere on most levels. They are very quick and hug the ground.
Using your slingshot against them is usually a futile move. Use the
sling/whip. Ditto for the blood-sucking bats and the butterflies. (!)
Next, you get to play with the Spirits of Chaac. These guys will
really kick your butt if you don't watch yourself. They are fast and
fire at you without mercy. You also run into gargoyles that come to
life and throw axes at you, they're not too fun either. The manual
mentions vapor ghosts - but I haven't seen them yet. There are =many=
other baddies around: monkeys, swinging Great Balls o' Fire, spikes,
temple priests, etc. You won't get bored.
At the end of most levels you run into bosses. These little beasties
(tm. Yak) will jump all over you and rip your health away. They take
multiple hits, but there is a percentage meter above the screen to
tell you how good or bad you are doing. Sometimes, the end-of-level
boss isn't living, and you have a split second to figure out how to
deal with it.... Every time that you complete a level the game asks
you if you would like to save it. Unfortunately there is only one game
save, so only one player can play at a time. Of course the control pad
is completely configurable, so you can adjust the settings to your
liking.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Graphics
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
This conversion of Pitfall was handled by the lovely people over at
Imagitec in the UK. They were responsible for last year's Bubsy and
Zool 2 conversions. I know some people didn't like those games
because they weren't "64bit looking," whatever that means. But even
those nay sayers will be impressed by the graphics in Pitfall. They
are very sharp and colorful. The animation is also excellent falling
short only of Rayman status - and for a platformer, that's pretty
darn good. Harry Jr. is animated slightly better than an afternoon
cartoon. Everytime he moves, there is a new expression, his jacket
flares up when he jumps or swings, and he goes into a levitating
trance if you leave him unguided for too long.
The enemies are not overlooked here, either. They are animated
excellently, almost as well as Harry is. Not that it should be that
distracting, after all you have to dispatch them very quickly. Also
the lack of colors, seeing how the Jaguar has so many, they could have
easily been put to good use here by fixing it up. Aside from that,
the graphics rock.
=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Sound
=-=-=-=-=-=
The sound in Pitfall is also very good. There is different music for
each of the levels I have played so far and each movement has a
different effect. Even when Harry Jr. runs, you here his feet crunch
down on dried grass, cement, etc. The music is equally good, never
becoming obtrusive and causing you to get distracted from the game.
It is also of high quality, no distortion that I can hear. The sound
is used very well throughout this game and you can tell that the
programmers payed just as much attention to it as they did to
graphics.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Playability
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It's all here. You run, jump, shoot, crawl, swing, slide, ride, and
even find treasure. What else could you ask for in a great platformer?
The control is dead on and this game is just fun! On top of that, once
you reach the fourth level, if you find your may to a door which is
guarded by a really simple looking scorpion (it's white and real boxy
- like it was done in the "classic" days of gaming) when you go
through it, you are close to being transported to the original world
of Pitfall.
Yes the original is here - all 4K of it, or was it 8K? Anyway, you get
the three lives like the original and get to play until you lose them.
After that, you are transported back to Pitfall:The Mayan Adventure
and continue to play Jr. exactly where you left off with no loss of
time or lives.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Conclusion
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Pitfall is beautiful to listen to, to look at, and to play.
Everything is there to keep you hooked for a while. It actually plays
a little easier than Rayman, so if that was a little hard or too
frustrating for you, than this is definitely the place to go. And if
Rayman was fun for you, than you will enjoy this as well.
I never thought we'd end up in a time where so many good games were
coming out for the Jag. I know I can't afford to get them all. But if
you like platformers, than I highly suggest this one. It really shines
and Imagitec have done a great job with it.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Final Ratings
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Title: Pitfall:The Mayan Adventure JagNet: No
Developer: Imagitec Players: 1
Published by: Atari Cart Size: 4 Megabyte
Retail: $59.95 Availability: Now
A Summary of Ratings:
"*" is a whole
"+" is a half
5 stars Maximum
Graphics - ****+ Really sharp. Nicely animated.
Audio - **** Really good. Very clear and solid.
Control - **** It's on. You move, Harry Jr. moves.
Gameplay - ***** It's a good game and it'll take time to
finish it - but you'll enjoy it.
Overall - **** Above and Beyond a solid effort. Worth your
time and money.
Key to Mark's Ratings
The Ultimate State of Action Movie Directors
***** - James Cameron (T2, Aliens)
**** - Steven Speilberg (Jurassic Park)
*** - Peter Hyams (Timecop)
** - John Badham (Point of No Return)
* - Arron Norris (Top Dog - Brother of Chuck)
--==--==--==--==--
||| The Unabashed Atariophile
||| By: Michael R. Burkley
/ | \ Delphi: MRBURKLEY GEnie: M.BURKLEY1 I-Net: mrburkley@delphi.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
It's been awhile now since I've written one of these articles, hasn't
it been? I've not been lazing about though. It's been far too easy to
download many, many more files than I can possibly write descriptions
for in the limited time I have (but I'll get to them...soon!).
Nevertheless, I have been able to write a few descriptions here and
there. You'll find about a hundred of them below. Some of the files
are new and others are old (I've been working back through my
downloads!). Enjoy!
But before I go on to my file descriptions I want to tell you about my
newest hardware acquisition. I bought a SyQuest EZ Drive and about 13
cartridges for it. The EZ drive is a Fast, Small, and Inexpensive
(relatively!) removable hard drive that works perfectly on my STE. I
bought it for two reasons, the first was to allow me to easily
transfer data back and forth between my Atari and my Windows 3.1/95
based clone (yes, I have one, mostly because when I first made the
Suzy B's CDs, the CD had to be made on an IBM clone machine. Now I
understand that there is TOS CD mastering software available!). That
works just fine as long as I keep the partition size at 32 meg or
below, except for one problem that Windows 95 causes. For some reason
or another I end up with a lot of "hidden" garbage files written to
the disk that I can't delete with my STE and that mess up the copying
(I have to copy file by file rather than all at once). Windows 3.1
doesn't do that so that's what I use when transferring files. If
anyone can help me to fix that problem with Windows 95, I'd appreciate
it!
The other reason I bought the EZ-Drive is that I needed more room to
store away all of the PD files I download! My 2.2 gig drive is full!
A lot of the drive is backed up on our CD set, but there are several
hundred meg of files I needed to back up. Just having those extra
empty cartridges around makes a big difference!
I also have a SyQuest 44 meg drive (which I'm selling, by the way).
I've had a SyQuest 44 for about 5 years now (though this drive is only
two years old). The access speed on that drive is 28 ms. I thought
that was fast enough until I got this EZ-Drive. It's access time is
13.5 ms with a sustained data transfer rate of 2.4 meg/sec (and a
burst max of 4.0 meg/sec). That's fast! The drive itself is about as
big as the Atari external floppy drive while the cartridges are a
little larger in area than a floppy disk and about three times as
thick. Dave Troy at Toad Computers tells me that the carts are the
same as the SyQuest 270 meg drive except only having one platter
instead of two. Whatever it is, it's a good deal, and I recommend the
EZ-Drive to you.
Now on to the descriptions!
Here are two very welcome files to start a very long list of files!
[] FALCSTUF is the first of the extras disks that came with the Atari
Falcon. Atari has now released them to be fully distributable! This
file contains the Audio Fun Machine, the Falcon Direct to Disk
recording system, and the System Audio Manager (SAM) along with a pile
of sound files (.AVR) for you to use. These all work with the Falcon
(of course), but the SAM program will also work with an STE or TT).
This file includes an installation program which you may use.
Uncompresses to 1.38 meg so you either need a hard drive or uncompress
it bit by bit. Thanks to Atari for releasing this and CLKSTUFF!
[] CLKSTUFF is the second of the extras disks that came with the Atari
Falcon. Atari has now released them to be fully distributable! This
file contains the Atari Breakout game (with lots of features and neat
sounds as the ball hits the "wall," the Calendar/Datebook/Addressbook/
Dialer program, the Atari LandMine clone (again with neat sounds and
lots of features), the ProCalc calculator v.1.3 by John Brochu (a
simple four function calculator OR an advanced scientific bin/hex/
everything calculator as you wish it, and the Atari talking clock
(pretty neat in my book). I think that all of them (except probably
ProCalc) would require an STE or higher (because of the sound
capabilities), but I'm not sure, and I can't test it on an earlier TOS
at the moment. Thanks to Atari for releasing this and FALCSTUF!
Uncompresses to 866K so you either need a hard drive or do it bit by
bit.
[] AGGROINV is the "Extremely Official Party Invitation To The
Aggressive II Party" (on Dec. 28-30th, with a New Years Party
following!). Dated Oct. 11, 1995, this demo -is- the invitation! It
requires a Falcon 030 with at least 4 Mb ram. It does not require an
RGB monitor but it is recommended. It features a very nice motion blur
rotator zoomer and information on the Aggressive Party 2. I found this
on UNI-KL.
[] AVIPL095 is v.0.95 of a simple AVI animation player for all Atari
computers by Dieter Fiebelkorn. This will work with mono, 16, or 256
color displays. This is for all of you who have found AVI animations
but couldn't play them. Now you can! At the moment the viewer supports
only CRAM8, CRAM16 (uncompressed), RLE8, RLE4 (untested) and CVID
format AVI files. Sound is not yet supported, but a utility is
included which will pull the sound information out of the animation
and save it as a WAV sound file. 680x0 support and math co-processor
support included (math-co not required). German and English docs
included. Delphi.
[] BANK_M1 is a GEM-based BankLoader for the KORG M1 synth by Olaf
Schrder (dated June, 1993). This file contains the original sounds
(in all programs and all combination forms - whatever that means!), a
piano sound, a synthi sound, and two combination sounds. The program
and extensive docs are in German, but it doesn't look too hard to
figure out. The KORG M1 instrument is required.
[] BIGCOLOR is a Big Color v.1.05 by John Dalton (dated 1989). This
is a color emulator for monochrome systems that will work with any TOS
(supposedly) and with all memory configurations. It will yield seven
different gray scales in "low res" and three in "medium." Docs and
source code (.S) included. Recently uploaded again to Delphi.
[] BOOMPREV is the is a preview version of a game for the Falcon
originally to be called Boom (but now changed to Incubator) by the nEw
PoWeR gEnErAtIoN. You can play this, but only to a certain level. The
main part of the game is a hi-color defender type game (with a
constant 30 frames per second), and the rest of the game (bonus
screens, etc) includes a wolfenstein type 3D
texture mapped maze with
variable walls (heavy use of the DSP/68030 here), and more. It works
on both VGA and TV/SC1224 monitors. True Color graphics and more.
Requires at least 3 megs of Free RAM. Uncompresses to over 3 meg!
Delphi.
[] BOOTCONF is the TT/Falcon Boot Configuration program v.1.1. This
program sets the NVRAM in the computers to control boot resolution or
language, etc. It's all in German, so you might really mess something
up if you don't understand what you are doing (the same could happen
even if it was in English though!). Delphi.
[] CDBIND01 is the CDROMIO interface by Julian F. Reschke (dated May
16, 1994). This is a series of three source code listings (.C and .H)
designed to provides a *nix type interface to the CD-ROM specific
functions. May be used either with a MiNT specific CD-ROM device
driver or with the new MetaDOS lowlevel drivers. Hensa.
[] CD_LIST7 is a listing of over 1,500 CD's that can be accessed
through your Atari (dated Dec. 1995). To qualify for the listing the
CD must contain over 75% of it's value in files and applications that
can be used with the Atari line. CD_LIST7 now contains: 31 Atari
specfic CD's including the new "All Things Falcon" and the Moving
Pixels Collection; 16 CD's to use with the SARA series of software
including Groliers Encyclopedia, version 6, and the new SARA Movie
Guide; 8 CD's to use with Atari CD Master, just released in July; Over
600 CD's to use with Photo Show Pro for the STe or Falcon; 21 CD's to
use with Brian Grier's M.O.S.T. player; 4 CD's to use with Image
Library Viewer for the Falcon; Over 1,500 CD's that work with ExtenDOS
Pro 2.1 by Anodyne and can be viewed or played with applications like
GemView, Image Copy CD 4.0, Calamus, Sound Lab, or your favorite Atari
software. Pretty Good, right? Thanks to Greg Kopchak of "It's All
Relative" for compiling the list (and for doing such a great job of
supporting all us Atarians!). It's All Relative is the Atari CD
capital of the world (they also sell the Suzy B's CD Atari Software
Treasury!). If you want any CD I'm sure they can get it! Greg Kopchak,
(GREG on Delphi or GEnie or 314-831-9482) As a bit of an aside, Greg's
son, Randall, is a part of a group named JAM (Jesus' Awesome
Musicians) that has just released a CD of Christmas songs entitled "A
Tiny Child Will Come." I've just been enjoying playing it over and
over today. Check it out!
[] CDPLR13B is CD-Player v.1.3b by Alexander Clauss (dated Sept. 26,
1995). This freeware audio CD-Player for the ST--Falcon runs as an
.ACC or a .PRG. With all of the functions of a normal audio CD player,
this program shows you how much fun it can be to play audio CD's off
of your computer! From the German docs it appears that you can also
copy the audio tracks to your hard disk in DVS, AVR, WAVE, AU, or SND
formats in 8/16 bit, mono/stereo. Sounds good! You must have a CD ROM
driver installed on your computer (MetaDOS v.2.6 from Atari is free.
Unfortunately, this has problems when run with ExtenDOS by Roger
Burrows. The program comes with resource files in German, English, and
Spanish are included. Use the English resource to learn the program
and then switch to another RSC file to learn a bit of the other
languages! English (a bit) and German (a lot) docs. Hensa.
[] CIVI is a patch program from Germany which will allow you to run
the game Civilization on your Falcon. No name is attached to this so I
don't know who did it. Delphi.
[] CPUMOD2E is the CPU_MOD player for the STE (Falcon?) by Patrick
RUIZ. This is an excellent(!) MOD player, and I recommend it to you.
It works as an .ACC or .PRG and is Geneva/NeoDesk compatible. It
provides you with all of the Amiga sound effects (CIA timing,
E-commands, 8 bits/16 bits sound, Mono/Stereo, 50066, 25033, 12416,
and 6258 Hz playback, and all of the functions you have come to
expect) and is quite small (using only 70K of RAM). Several versions
of the player are included so you can tailor it to your system set up.
Source code (and a description of the MOD file format) is included
along with permission to use it in your own programs! This plays your
mods with an excellent sound. I especially like the .ACC version
because it allows me to listen and to keep on working writing
descriptions! I found this on UNI-KL. Note: The one problem I found
with this (and it's a big one with me) is that it is not compatible
with the Universal Item Selector.
[] DACA122A is Da Capo v.1.22 (.PRG/.ACC) by Dr. Francisco Mendez of
the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (dated Sept. 6, 1995). This
is an excellent GEM-based address database and more (company names,
favorite forms of address, phone numbers, comments, and more). It
allows you to keep a record of birthdays (and reminds you of them when
they are near). Multiple sorts are allowed, and you can display your
information in several different ways. It uses GDOS (SpeedoGDOS?) to
print out your files. It was written TOS-clean, so it needs only a
TOS-compatible platform and at least 512 KB RAM (in fact, it was
tested successfully from the Atari 520 ST with a monochrome SM124
and original TOS up to MagiCMac running on Apple's PowerPC with a
17" and 32K colours monitor)! As I expected, it is also fully
compatible with Geneva from Gribnif. Here are just a few more of da
Capo's features:
+ GEM standards (Clipboard, non-modal windows dialogues, UNDO,
Context sensitive help, Cut/Copy/Paste, GDOS and 3D Dialogues)
+ Display as a table or mask with colour icons
+ AV support, 1st Base Pipeline, Selectric and ST-Guide support with
online help.
+ Flexible import/export options (including import of ASCII text
This formerly commercial program is now released as Shareware (limited
only to 40 records at a time). Now all in English. Docs included.
Hensa.
[] DISKL333 is DiskList v.3.33 by Peter Seitz (dated Sept. 7, 1995).
This is an excellent disk cataloging utility which will allow you to
catalog not only your floppy disks but also your hard drives as well.
It's always nice to know what's on your floppies, but for floppies the
real question for me is "where" they are when I want them! With hard
drives I always know where they are, but "What" is on them is
something else! The docs are in German, but the program resource file
has been translated into English so it's easy to use (the German
resource file is also included). STE and Geneva compatible (at least).
I found this on Uni-KL.
[] DUMPMNK1 is Dumpman - K1 v1.04, a MIDI utility by Carl Lofgren
(dated August 16, 1994). This prg/acc will allow you to load, save,
send or request anything your Kawai K1/K1m synth can do (if you have a
K4/K4r then get DUMPMNK4). It does the same thing as all other MIDI
dump handlers out there, but this one is specialized and optimized for
the only K1. In other words, it takes only the memory that's needed.
Load and save Sys-Ex data (any kind, sometimes using an included
converter program). It also works as an installed application.
ST--Falcon and Geneva/Mag!x/ MultiTOS compatible. Mono only. Text docs
and ST Guide Hypertext docs. NeoDesk desktop icon included. Shareware.
Delphi.
[] DUMPMNK4 is Dumpman - K1 v1.04, a MIDI utility by Carl Lofgren
(dated August 16, 1994). This prg/acc will allow you to load, save,
send or request anything your Kawai K4/K4r synth can do (if you have a
K1/K1m then get DUMPMNK1). It does the same thing as all other MIDI
dump handlers out there, but this one is specialized and optimized for
the only K1. In other words, it takes only the memory that's needed.
Load and save Sys-Ex data (any kind, sometimes using an included
converter program). It also works as an installed application.
ST--Falcon and Geneva/Mag!x/ MultiTOS compatible. Mono only. Text docs
and ST Guide Hypertext docs. NeoDesk desktop icon included. Shareware.
Delphi.
[] E_MAIL is "The Atari Community E-mail Address Book". Revised as of
Nov. 5, 1995 by Dan Mazurowski. This list has been compiled to provide
Atarians worldwide with the addresses to contact other members of our
ever-changing Atari community. There are 4 distinct sections - user
groups, Atari computer contacts, Jaguar and Lynx contacts, and World
Wide Web pages. Please note that addresses that are of interest to
both Atari computer users AND Jag/Lynx owners will be found in the
computer section. It's excellent, and it even lists me in the file (I
like his choices!). Delphi.
[] EX32V210 is Explorer 32 v.2.1 by Michael Haydn (dated Sept. 21,
1993). This formerly commercial Sequencer originally distributed by
C-Labs is now Shareware directly from the author. It is designed to
work with the Roland MT-35, MT-100, E-10, E-20, D-5, D-10, D-20, D-10,
D-50, D-550 sequencers. This archive contains several libraries and
set-up files. It will work with color or mono monitors on any
ST--Falcon machine. The program is in English with English and German
docs.
[] FFAQ2203 is the March 22, 1995 edition of the Falcon-Demo-FAQ
created and maintained by Mr.XY - GoreMaster of the GoreZone! This FAQ
lists scores of Falcon demos and the conditions on which they will
run. Also included are ways to quit safely, demo names, file names,
monitor types required, authors, and more. He keeps on adding to this
file as he gets more demos. Programmers, keep him supplied! Delphi.
[] FFT_F030 contains two programs for use with your Falcon. They are:
DMA2DSP sends zero bytes via DMA to the DSP's SSI port. The DSP
part receives the data and counts all non-zero bytes to detect
transfer errors. The program draws a bar graph for each 4096
bytes. If the bar is entirely green, everything works fine.
Transfer errors will be shown as a red part at the bottom of the
bar. DMA transfer uses the handshake mode. To exit the program
simply press any key.
REALFFT is a fast-fourier-transformation done by the DSP in
real-time. Just connect a microphone to the Falcon's mic jack and
watch the spectrum analysis of your own voice!
German and English docs (you've just read the English docs). Delphi.
[] FLICTC47 is FLICTC v.4.7 by Sven Bruns. This is a Full-speed,
=fast= FLI/FLC format animation player for the Falcon. It runs in all
HiColor-resolutions (Atari calls them True Color...), with 320x200
pixels or bigger on a Falcon. FLIs may be played directly from the
disk if necessary, so you can play some pretty big animations!
Whether you have a standard Falcon or an accelerated version, this
player will take full advantage of your hardware. You can run it from
a command line or instal it as a desktop icon. It can run at 608
frames per second (on an accelerated Falcon) and runs as fast as a 486
based machine on a standard Falcon. It was compatible with every
FLI/FLC animation tested and it also works with Screenblaster and
NVDI. It has a lot of other features too (like optional double
buffering which eliminates flicker!). The program comes in English and
German variations with their respective docs. Not MultiTOS compatible.
Hensa.
[] FLOATING is a 256 color .TIF picture of an ad for Floating Fish
Studios (according to their ad, "the industrial studio where
nightmares become reality"!). This TIF shows a colorful gaping mouthed
fish jumping out of the water. The water is rippling underneath the
fish. Use GEMView (or any other .TIF viewer) to view.
[] FP_DEMO is the demo of Fast Path v.1.0 by Keith Gerdes of Trace
Technologies (released Aug. 15, 1994). FastPath extends the power of
your current file selector by 1) adding 34 user-defined paths, 2)
remembering the last 4 paths used in the file selector and 3) adding
38 user-defined extenders. I use UIS III in my system (and MaxiFile
sometimes, too) and Fast Path can really enhance those already
excellent utilities. When you call your item selector (through a
program, an .ACC, however) Fast Path pops up and you have an
opportunity to select exactly what path you want. It's fast and easy,
and I recommend it to you if you have a hard drive (it will work with
a floppy too, but.... It works with all TOS item selectors, and with
UIS III, LGSELECT, MaxiFile (disabled in demo), Geneva's, Selectric,
BoxKite, and more. Online help along with detailed text instructions.
You occasionally get a "DEMO" alert and you can't save your
configuration data, but that is no limitation on finding out our
useful this can be to you. It's inexpensive, too!
[] GFAPE107 is the GFA-BASIC Interpreter/Compiler-Patcher v.1.07 by
Christoph Conrad and Gregor Duchalski (dated Oct. 22, 1994). This
program provides a convenient method of making useful patches to the
GFA-BASIC 3.x interpreter and compiler. The patches are included and
you can select which ones you wish to use. Two patches are available
for the compiler. They are the insertion of an improved INIT section
and a bugfix for the crash under Mag!X. There are ten patches to the
Interpreter, all of which improve capabilities or fix errors with
various machines. This looks like an excellent program for all of you
GFA Basic programmers out there! Docs included. Freeware. Hensa.
[] GODLOAD is GOD-LOAD v.1.0 by Mr Pink. God-Load is a loading system
for the Atari Falcon 030 that allows you to make use of all available
memory. Some demos want to grab as many bytes as they can, and
God-Load provides a quick and easy way of loading these demos without
messing around with configurations and resolutions. Just install
GODLOAD.PRG as a desktop icon with the default directory being the
top window. Now to run a demo, open a window which contains the demo's
directory and drag the executable file onto God-Load. God-Load will
set-up memory and then reset. When it is next loaded it will load the
demo from the auto folder - before GEM has been installed. This
frees up a greater amount of free memory. Using this technique, many
games and demos that didn't previously work will run on your machine.
Docs included.
[] HP550C is v.3.1 of a SpeedoGDOS HP DeskJet 550C printer drive for
all ST--Falcon computers. No author is listed (authors: put your names
on your works!). I found this on Hensa.
[] HUECKEL a program by Uwe Schneider (dated July 1992) which will
allow all of you physical chemists out there to calculate the MO
vectors and eigen values (MO levels) of organic Pi-systems according
to the Hueckel approximation. The heart if this program is a
diagonalization of the Hueckel matrix as proposed by Givens and
Householder. Completely keyboard based, this program is easy to run
and should work on any ST--Falcon in any res. (best in mono). It is
compatible with Geneva as well. The program is in English and has both
English and German online helps. More detailed docs are in German. You
really need to be a chemist to make sense of this program (maybe a
working chemist would be a better qualification, since I'm still a
chemist!). Hensa.
[] KAND173I is Kandinsky v.1.73i by Ulrich Rogoderer (dated May 19,
1994) and the demo version of the new and upgraded version 2.02 (dated
August 20, 1995). This Shareware Vector/GEM metafile drawing program
is excellent. Now completely translated into English, and with online
ST-Guide Helps (ST-Guide lite included) this program allows you to
create vector graphics which can be printed out at the highest
resolution of your printer with no image degradation (can't say that
about bit mapped files!). Import Easy Draw GEM vector graphics, GEM/3
files, create Bezier curves, do LOTS more (I'm amazed at all the
features and options of this program!). Registering v.1.73 provides
you with written docs, allows you to rotate text and objects, do
landscape printing, and export images in PostScript format! Those are
the only limitations in this archived v.1.73! The demo of v.2.02 does
even more (one feature, among dozens, I really like is importation of
Calamus vector graphics), but has more limitations (to encourage us to
register!).
It works on color and mono ST--Falcon's, even those with only 1/2 meg
of RAM! and with a variety of graphic boards. The program is =very_
fast on image re-draws (nice!). It has some excellent GEM sample files
included. Kandinsky allows you to create text that consists of BGI
fonts, the vector fonts from Borland (ten BGI fonts included). It
seems to be very easy to use with its GEM and icon interface. GDOS/
SpeedoGDOS/NVDI/GDOS clone compatible (while needed to save and print
files they are are not needed to run the program). MultiTOS, Geneva,
and Mag!C compatible. Check it out! Shareware ($29 US for v.1.73 and
$50 for v.2.02 through Cybercube Research of Canada, and worth it!).
Uncompresses to 1.16 meg so you will either need a hard drive or
uncompress it it pieces to a floppy (both versions will run from a
floppy though). Hensa.
[] KONTEXT is Kontext v.1.1s from Moskito Software (you can even see
that cute <ha!> "moskito" buzz across the screen and bite the logo!)
which will allow you to interconvert texts from Mac, DOS and Atari
format. ST--TT and Crazy Dots II Graphics card compatible (at least).
Docs and program are in German. The interface is a keyboard controlled
TOS style. From looking at it I guess that I could figure out how to
work this if I needed the services of a program like this. Shareware.
[] K_SKULPT is the K-Sculpt (Editor)/Librarian v.1.1 by Ben Hall.
K-Sculpt is a complete GEM based patch/multi editor and librarian for
Kawai K1 series synths. With this program you may transfer sounds and
banks of sounds (one bank included) from your ST/E to the K1 and vice
versa, and enables them to be saved to disk. It is possible to
reorganize and sort banks of sounds, and up to eight banks can be held
in the computer's memory (4 patch banks of 64 patches each, and 4
multi banks of 32 multi's each). It will work with (hopefully) any
ST/E from a 520 upwards with a mono monitor and either a K1, K1m or
K1r. This version is just the librarian section (ie. the patch and
multi editors are not included). It is however complete and has no
annoying omissions like the save function disabled. Docs included.
Requires one of the above Kawai synths to be useful, but it runs just
fine to look at all by itself. I found this on Hensa.
[] LAUNCHER is Launcher v.2 by Frank Vuotto of F10 Software (dated
1994). This is an excellent and well-thought out utility. I've
installed it on my NeoDesk Desktop and in Geneva and that's where it's
going to stay! Launcher allows you to install a list of programs into
it and then easily run them with just some mouse clicks. This works
very well from the standard desktop (you can run your programs without
searching through mounds of folders), but it is also very valuable for
NeoDesk and other Desktop replacement users. Most desktop replacements
only allow a certain number of programs to be placed on the desktop.
You can use Launcher to increase that number tremendously and free up
a lot of space on your desktop at the same time!. Place Launcher once
on the desktop and you get another 32 programs just two clicks away.
Rename it to indicate what type programs are listed in it and install
it multiple times on the desktop (a Utility Launcher, a Sound
Launcher, a Games Launcher...)! You can also pass documents to a
parent program and sometimes launch accessories (those that also run
as programs). This version now allows you to automatically return to
Launcher when you exit a program so you can launch another. Launcher
only uses 42K of system memory! Color or mono. ST--Falcon and Geneva
compatible. SHAREWARE (I've registered). Hensa.
[] LEXICON is Lexicon v.1.0 by Ian Clarke (dated 1995). Lexicon
permits the use of the mouse to simulate keyboard commands, such as
ordinary characters like: "AM7+=$ etc, non standard keys such as HELP
and UNDO and combinations of Control, Alternate, and shift keys with
ordinary characters. How can a MOUSE do that? By doing what mouses (or
mice?) do best - drawing shapes! With Lex (Lexicon) installed you can
simulate any key or combination of keys by holding down the right
mouse button while you 'draw' a shape on the screen, Lexicon will use
a clever system to match this symbol with one in its library (they do
not even have to be exactly the same), and simulate the appropriate
key being pressed, your computer will not know the difference! This is
a different idea, but it sounds really neat. With a quick flick of
your mouse you can make any complex key combination! Docs included.
ST--Falcon compatible. Color or mono (color better). I found this on
Toad Hall BBS.
[] LPS124 is LPS (Play Long Samples) by Uwe Reder (dated Dec. 23,
1993). This program will allow you to play sound files with
unlimited length by loading parts of it while continuously playing the
sample. It can handle files with a sampling precision of 8 or 16-bit
on 1 or 2 channels. Due to the sound hardware of the Atari ST
replaying is always 8-bit on 1 channel. LPS has the ability to
recognize unsigned linear, signed linear or logarithmic coded samples.
For replaying a sound file you need a fast device (for example a
harddisk or a ramdisk) 'cause floppy-disks are just to slow! The
program supports a wide variety of sound formats:
Interchange File Format 8SVX by Electronic Arts (*.iff/*.svx)
Audio format by NeXT and Sun (*.snd/*.au)
Audio format by Audio-Visual-Research (*.avr)
Resource Interchange File Format by Microsoft (*.wav)
Creative Voice file format by Creative Labs (*.voc)
HSND-format introduced by Maxon's CrazySounds (*.hsn)
Audio format used by Sound Machine (*.sam)
raw data or unknown formats (you have to help the program here).
ST--Falcon and Multi-TOS compatible. Docs included. I found this on
UNI-KL.
[] MARIANT is Mariant v.1.0 by Jean-Etienne Doucet (dated Nov. 25,
1993). Mariant is a solitaire card game for the ST/STE in low res.
color. The game derives its name from being a short form of "Marie
Antoinette", the real name of this game, coming from a queen of France
who had serious problems during the French revolution: it was her
favorite solitaire, or so says the legend.... Mariant is played with
104 cards (2 packs). The aim of the game is to sort all the cards in
the 8 suits. The board is made out of 10 columns, initially filled
with face-up and face-down cards, and the deck of remaining cards: it
is not shown onscreen, but you can know how many cards are left at any
time. Along with the excellent English docs you get nice graphics and
music! Postcardware. From the Atari UMICH site and Delphi.
[] MATHSYS is the MathsCSYS Formulae Tester v.1.03 by Brian Duff
(dated Nov. 15, 1994). This program is designed to help remember all
those nasty formulae you have to know for Maths Exams. It is
specifically written to cover the Syllabus of the Scottish Certificate
Of Sixth Year Studies Paper I material (Calculus, etc.), though it
should be fairly applicable to an A-Level or equivalent course.
Fortunately, this program is NOT a replacement for good hard studying.
It is intended simply to back up your knowledge of Math Formulae. It
presents you with a question (What is the Integral of ...) and you
have to type in an answer (I say "an" answer because I tried it found
I remembered zilch from college calculus!). If your answer isn't the
same as the one stored in the program you are given a chance to tell
the program whether or not you really did get it right. Keyboard
controlled. ST--STE compatible (at least). Docs within program. Hensa.
[] METADS26 is Atari's MetaDOS v.2.60. With this file you can get any
SCSI CD ROM drive going on an Atari TT or to use an "Atari CDAR 504"
CD ROM on an Atari with ACSI port. It does NOT support SCSI drives
connected to an ACSI port. It does NOT support the Atari Falcon030 at
all (in these cases, you'll need third-party drivers). This release
fixes only some small problems present in previous versions.
According to the docs you shouldn't expect any further development of
this. I personally use Roger Burrows "ExtenDOS" software which works
just fine, and I recommend that to you. I found this on UNI-KL.
[] MUSLURN is Musex1 and Musex2 by Seymour Shlien (dated Christmas
Eve, 1992). Musex1 is designed to teach you to read the notes on the
musical staff and to find them on the piano keyboard. You do require
some minimal knowledge of music theory. Musex2 is an ear training
program designed to teach you to recognize the musical intervals
(perfect fifth, major third etc.). Musex1 requires a color monitor in
medium res while Musex2 will run in all resolutions (mono is a bit
cramped and some of the screen gets lost occasionally, but it works).
ST--STE compatible (at least). Written in GFA Basic 3.5. Hensa.
[] MWIND131 is Maus-Window v.1.31 by Thomas Binder (dated August 24,
1994). This .ACC/.PRG will allow you to "top" a window (bring it to
the top of all the other open windows and activate it) simply by
moving your mouse pointer over it. This might not seem very useful,
but once you try it you find out that it can be very useful indeed.
When run under MultiTOS, Maus-Window allows you to automatically raise
the priority of the process with the topmost window. This very nice
feature makes working with MultiTOS even quicker and easier. This
version now allows either German or English to be used. The program is
very configurable, allowing you to choose just what conditions must be
met for a window to be topped (he's thought of just about everything
here!). A "lite" version (only 25% the full size) is included (with
some limitations, obviously!). English and German program docs
included. Shareware. ST--Falcon and Geneva compatible.
[] NAUDIEMO is two programs that show what can be done with the NAUDIO
sample replay library by Nat. The first is NaTracker, a prg/acc
ProTracker MOD player for all ST--Falcon computers. It's a simple
interface, but it works and sounds fine! I could get it to crash by
accessing the .acc menu while the program was playing (don't do
that!). The next sample is N-Quiz and QizMake. These two form a set
which allows you to make and play sound quizzes (with questions like
"What is the name of this song?" or "What is the name of this group?"
when a sound file is played. Best in Low res, but it works just fine
in mono or med. res, too. Not Geneva compatible. Just what is the
NAUDIO library? It allows you to program digital audio programs for
all Atari hardware platforms by allowing you to load, save, and play
samples and modules on the PSG, the StarSampler+ (I have no idea what
these two are!) or the STE and Falcon DMA (but the program has a
"slow" or "fast" ST mode, so it seems to work on those, too. I found
this on UNI-KL.
[] NAUDIO is the evaluation version of NAUDIO, the sample/module
replay library for all Atari ST--Falcon computers from Mulle KybernetiK
(Georg Wallmann ) dated 1993. According to the docs this is the first
professional quality sample library for the Atari line, that allows
even complete beginners to use digital sound effects in their own
PURE-C or Assembler programs. Samples are played "in the background".
Your main program will NOT freeze while playing samples. NAUDIO
performs close to optimal on all output devices, for the given task,
which is playing samples using interrupts or DMA. NAUDIO also provides
functions for loading and saving samples, compressed and uncompressed
as well as loading and playing ProTracker Modules. On all output
devices at least four samples can be played at the same time. NAUDIO
gives you a variety of output devices to choose from. Due to the
layered architecture of the library, it is possible to write portable
digital sound code for Falcons, STEs and STs, w/o having to use the
least common denominator (i.e. PSG) as the output device. Docs
included. This version is limited in several ways (you can still use
it though), but ordering instructions are included. I found this on
UNI-KL.
[] NISHIRAN is an action/adventure 3D game by Manuel PIRES and
Guillaume LAMONOCA (dated January 1, 1995). It has been designed for
the color ST--Falcon and a "PC" with 256 color display. This is a huge
game which uncompresses to two DS floppy disks (you can run it from a
Hard Drive as well). After beginning the game you find yourself on a
strange and hostile planet. Of course, the object is to get out alive,
which is quite difficult! You must use your robot scout
(well-controlled by the keyboard and mouse) to investigate the
environment and to gather resources. The authors have included a very
detailed "walk-through" of the first level. I recommend that you study
it thoroughly (and make sure to save your game frequently, too!).
After finishing the first level you will be 3% through the game! The
graphics and sounds are excellent (and you can play your own 50KHz
MODs if you wish!). The program (and docs) comes in both English and
French versions. This is the first game I've seen which comes with
both Atari and clone versions. That must have taken a lot of time!
Delphi.
[] NUMTEST is a text file which is a test of your mental flexibility,
creativity, and animal cunning. I first saw it fifteen years ago and
wasn't able to finish it then. I'm still not able to finish it now
(though I think I've correctly answered a few more of the questions).
I don't feel too back though because few people have been able to
solve more than half of the questions on the first try. *NO* books,
*NO* groups, and *NO* cheating! Good luck! An example of one of the
problems is... 12 = M _ _ _ _ _ IN A Y _ _ _ (12 = MONTHS IN A YEAR).
I found this on Toad Hall BBS.
[] OHNO is the "Oh No!" sound sample v.1.1 by David Oakley (dated
1992). Place this in your AUTO folder and you will hear a really cute
"Oh No!" when you press the reset button on your computer (requires
the DMA sound of the STE--Falcon computer). Hensa.
[] OMEN314D by is OMEn v.3.14 by Craig Carmichael, Pres. of Esquimalt
Digital (dated April, 1995). OMEn is a cross-platform operating
system, with upcoming releases for the Mac, Amiga, PC (with a 680x0
card), and the Power PC. What that means is that a program written on
any of those platforms will run, without modification, on any of the
others! This demo will give you a hint of how OMEn works, and will
show you how easy it is to program OMEn applications (it's component-
ware, so you don't need to "invent the wheel" each time, components
are developed which do one thing well and are then used after that in
many applications), and much more. Sample applications, sound and
picture files are included. Docs and online help included. I think
OMEn is an exciting development in the Atari world. Check it out!
This version has a number of new features such as Falcon 16 bit
true-color video is supported (in the licenced version) and Falcon
digitized sound. The Desktop appearance has been improved and Help
menus are text files for easy translation without programming.
[] PATIENCE is Patience v.2.25 by Volker Weidner. This is an excellent
mono only multi-option solitaire by Volker Weidner and translated into
English by Charles B. Dorsett, Jr.. This program contains six
solitaire games in one: 'Eiffel,' 'Matriarch,' 'Standard,' 'Klondike,'
'Gallery,' and 'Braid.' You can have the computer play demo games of
all the different games so you can get a feel for the game. Save and
load games to disk. Options to "suspend the rules," (cheat!) and undo
last move are available. Docs are both in German and English, though
the game is only in German (but the English docs tell you detailed
rules for all the games, but see below for an English version). This
game is easy and fun to play. For an English language version of this
game see an older version of PATIENCE (v.2.13) in the GAMES database
on Delphi (or most likely other places as well). That doesn't have the
translated docs (which are very useful), but the menu options and most
of the dialog boxes have been translated. Delphi.
[] POS_DEMO is the Positive Image Pre-Production Demo by Stephen Found
(dated August 10, 1995). This usable (but saving and printing are
disabled, among other limitations) Photo image processing and
retouching package looks to be a very excellent product. Edit 24-bit
True color images in any res (even mono!). If you can recognize an
image format this will probably load it (except for GIF pictures,
which I assume is due to Unisys' royalty claims)! There are pages of
features included in the docs. I like the fast screen redraws (only
the part that changes is redrawn!) and the built-in virtual memory for
ANY ST--Falcon with a hard drive! GEM based, this version is designed
around the 68000 chip, but the complete program will have versions
tailored to the 68030 chip (so you can really zoom!). Any res and
graphics cards are sort-of supported in this demo (if they don't work
right you can force them to work, with a slowdown penalty). The final
version will support all the major graphics cards. Printing options
will even include 720 dpi with the Epson Stylus printer (lots of other
printers supported, too). Any TOS based computer (Gemulator and MagiC
Mac included) compatible with one meg or more of Free RAM.
Multi-TOS, Geneva and MagiC compatible. This looks to be one capable
program! Hensa.
[] PSCRIPT is a set of 2 PostScript printer drivers for PageStream
v2.3x. Docs are included, but one driver is a general purpose driver
while the other should be used when printing to an image setter or
Color- PostScript printer. That one should also be used when printing
pages smaller than 8.5x11 inches. Delphi.
[] QUICKDSP is the Quick DSP assembler v.0.02 by Audoly Gilles (dated
Jan. 30, 1994). This assembler is nearly 40 times faster than
ASM56000.TTP+DSPLNK+CLD2LOD (the assembler from Atari). It is 30 times
smaller too! The speed test was done with a complete 2000 lines
source. Docs included. Another programmer who doesn't allow PD
Distributors to distribute his program! Delphi.
[] SILKBT3 is SilkBoot 3 by Mark Slagell (the author of SilkMouse,
the best mouse accelerator and screensaver <and more> I've ever seen).
The objective of this utility is to allow the quickest possible
one-switch bootup of Atari systems that use a hard drive. It
accomplishes this by installing an executable boot sector on a floppy
disk, which should be left in the A: drive whenever booting. The
computer will hold off on its cold-start boot process while drives are
initializing, and bypass the memory test and keypress delay used in
some TOS versions. Previous versions required that the hard drive ID
be "zero." This is no longer required. Another added benefit of
SilkBoot 3 is that STe/MSTe owners do not need SIMMFIX if they are
using the unsupported-by-Atari 2.5 meg RAM configuration. This doesn't
have any of the problems that were sometimes found with SIMMFIX, and
so I recommend it (though I recommend that you get SIMMFIX anyway if
you want to move your STE to 2.5 meg as the docs there explain the
difficulties with this in more detail than is done here). Docs
included. Delphi.
[] STARIO is a demo of Super STario Land. This color only game is very
similar to Super Mario and is just as easy to play with your joystick
or keyboard. I tested it with a person who had Super Mario (and didn't
have an Atari) and he said that it was just like "the real thing." I
enjoyed the running and jumping, the puzzle solving and the blasting
of the bad guys. This looks to be a pretty good buy. Every time you
begin a new game one of five levels from the full 100 level game will
be loaded. The full game has music while this demo doesn't. Docs
included. Compatible with TOS 1.02, 1.04, 1.62 (STE) and 2.06 (at
least) but locks up TOS 4.04 on the Falcon (try Backwards to run)
Uploaded to Delphi by Al Horton, the owner of "The Computer Dungeon"
(718-547-7085) where you may find the complete program.
[] SUB_DEMO is the official North American playable demo of
Substation by Unique Development of Sweden (the programmers of the
excellent commercial pinball game "Obsession"). SubStation runs on any
Color Atari STE 1Mb+ or Falcon with an RGB or a VGA monitor.
SubStation is a 1st person perspective game in which the player moves
freely in an extremely fast (25 frames per second!) real-time
gouraud-shaded 3D world with more than 2000 different locations, a
vast number of fearsome enemies, multiplayer mode (up to four players
linked via MIDI), secret rooms & booby traps, real-time lightsourced
sprites, 25 kHz sound quality, more than 30 colors, "Trial and error"
monster A.I, more than 32 action-packed levels, end-of-level bosses,
and too much scary action for me (but not for you!). Your character is
controlled using the keyboard. You can run, walk, sidestep, pick up
items, choose between a six different weapon types, open doors, access
elevators between the different sublevels, and even sidestep, rotate,
run and fire your gun at the same time, giving you total control of
your actions! I really found the "DD Audio" (Distance & Direction)
captivating. It gives you a feel for where those monsters are lurking
(you can hear them sneaking up on you!). The combined effect of foggy
colors and the pit-pat of tiny monster feet from the far left (or
right, or even behind you!) could give anyone nightmares. Detailed
docs and ordering information included. Delphi.
[] TCACHE64 is TCache v.6.4 by Ralf Biedermann. TCache is a very fast
Harddisk-Cache for the Atari ST--Falcon. Caches are very nice in that
they store disk sector information from your floppy or hard disk in
RAM and then accesses that RAM when you call for that data again. That
doesn't sound like much, but it can speed up the access speed of your
drive 6-10 times! You may also set TCache to be a "delayed write"
cache. This speeds up file writes to your disk considerably. But
TCache is a lot more than just a fast, fully configurable cache
program. You can also use it to redirect drive access (for example,
some older programs expect to see their data files on drive C, now
you can store that program on any drive and redirect any drive C
access to the new drive). It also allows you to lock specific hard
drive partitions, set password access to specific drive partitions,
and more. The author has really worked hard to make this a very usable
program. TCache is donationware. Either donate a small amount to an
animal related charity or pay a larger shareware fee directly to the
author (in other words, he wants you to donate to your local humane
society!). The only limitation in this demo version is a short text
file every time you start. This works with my ICD boot software
(though the ICD software already has cache software, TCache has more
features). Delphi.
[] TOS2GEM by Thomas Binder (dated March 24, 1995) is a program which
offers the TOS/MultiTOS/Geneva/MagiC user the ability to run TOS/TTP
programs within a clean and simple scrolling window. The docs are in
German, but all you really need to know (I think!) is to run this in
your AUTO folder if you wish it to be a usual part of your bootup.
Otherwise you may run it from the desktop. Delphi.
[] WWW116 is release 1.16 in the ongoing improvement of this World
Wide Web tool for your Atari (any flavor, Multi-tasking with MultiTOS,
Geneva, MagiC, or not, any RAM - though with only 1/2 meg you can't use
CAB, only STik) and even with just a floppy! This archive basically
consists of three packages: CAB, by Alexander Clauss (Germany) will
be considered the main program by most people; STiK, by Steve Adam
(Australia) is the prg/acc that actually does the low-level networking
stuff to the Internet, and CAB.OVL, by Tim Newsome (USA) which is the
missing link between Cab and STiK (as an aside...we do have a World
Wide Web going on here with such a multi-national development team!).
On with the description...CAB, or the Crystal Atari Browser v.1.00a
(dated mid Dec., 1995) is an Internet HTML-Browser. Now you can get on
the Web in a graphical manner on all Atari's! Version 1.00 added lots
of features, increased compatibility with more HTLM variations, now
supports Forms, imagemaps, and more search commands, and lots of bug
fixes as well (one with opening windows on older TOS machines, another
with transparent background images, and two more that I don't know
about). This version catches four more bugs that slipped by the last
time. CAB works best with SpeedoGDOS or NVIDI (so you can display
various text fonts and attributes), but it will also work with your
standard system fonts (in a much plainer way). The instructions as to
setting up and using the program are clear and detailed. Graphics and
text are displayed using either the programs built-in routines or with
your favorite utilities. A lot of work has gone into this program....
CAB.OVL is the utility that allows you to browse online. Without this
you could only download HTML files and view them offline...STiK v.
1.07 (dated Oct. 4, 1995) is a desk accessory that implements TCP/IP
for your Atari. Currently, STiK (which is quite stable) only supports
SLIP for the Internet connection. Only HTML and IRC (which is a lot of
fun - chatting with people from all over the world!) clients are
currently available. This whole package is freeware with the request
that you register to encourage the authors to continue their
development. Wow! Exciting! This version includes a very useful FAQ
file compiled by Denesh Bhabuta. Denesh is receiving contributions for
the authors and manages the Atari Area at the Hensa Internet site.
You may register this program in the US or Canada through Jeff
Wisniewski of Dragons Egg. Thanks Jeff and Denesh! Encourage these
programmers! Send them some money and comments if you use these
files!! Tim Newscome sent me this file directly, and it is available
on Delphi. Uncompresses to 731K.
[] DUFTP1_1 is DUftp, v.1.1 by Craig Graham (dated Sept. 24, 1995).
This is a GEM based FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program for use with
MiNT (Multi-TOS, too) and the MiNT-net networking drivers (by Kay
Roemer). You may use DUftp to fetch files from any FTP server on the
Internet (or any other TCP/IP based network). You must have MiNT
v.1.12 or higher and MiNTNet v.0.70 or higher to use this program.
You can use DUftp to fetch files from any FTP server on the Internet
(or any other TCP/IP based network). As well as just transferring
files (now with improved directory caching to speed up access on
remote systems) you get the following extras:
Web-browser style bookmarks for fast access to your fave sites.
Automatic logins.
Full GEM interface.
Runs under MultiTOS or plain GEM (with MiNT installed).
Drag & Drop style file transfer (with Gemini or Thing Desktops)
Multiple connections at the same time (under MultiTOS).
Fast, reliable transfers (code based on the BSD Unix ftp).
New progress indicators ("received n of m bytes" and a progress
bar).
Envy from PC users who have to pay for this sort of thing.
AES 4.1 iconify support.
No command lines.
Integrated with DIP to handle your dial-up SLIP connection
for you (simple Connect/Disconnect menu options).
Only uses 200K when running.
Context sensitive help (using an ST-Guide Hypertext file)
DUftp is "advert-ware" for the Data Uncertain's upcoming World Wide
Web browser "Distant Earth." Also it is intended to prove that
GEM+MiNT can support easy to use networking software, and in
particular, that Data Uncertain can provide that software. Docs
included. Hensa through Delphi.
[] ZEN is "Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide to the
Internet," First Edition, January 1992 by Brendan P. Kehoe. The
composition of this booklet was originally started because the
Computer Science department at Widener University was in desperate
need of documentation describing the capabilities of this "great new
Internet link" they obtained. The purpose of this booklet is two-fold:
first, it's intended to serve as a reference piece, which someone can
easily grab on the fly and look something up. Also, it forms a
foundation from which people can explore the vast expanse of the
Internet. Zen and the Art of the Internet doesn't spend a significant
amount of time on any one point; rather, it provides enough for people
to learn the specifics of what his or her local system offers. It's
great! I found this on the now-defunct CodeHead BBS, but it's probably
all about.
[] DRBOBNET is the fourth edition (dated July 15, 1995) of "Accessing
The Internet By E-Mail: Doctor Bob's Guide to Offline Internet
Access." If you don't have direct access to the Internet through your
BBS or online service, you're not alone. About half of the 150
countries with Internet connections have only e-mail access to this
world-wide network of networks. But if you think that sounds limiting,
read this file. You can access almost any Internet resource using
e-mail. Maybe you've heard of FTP, Gopher, Archie, Veronica, Finger,
Usenet, Whois, Netfind, WAIS, and the World-Wide Web but thought they
were out of your reach because you don't have a direct connection. Not
so! You can use simple e-mail commands to do all of this and much
more on the Internet. And even if you do have full Internet access
using an Atari Browser such as WWW116 or the Toronto Atari
Federation's MiNT based Browser, using e-mail services can save you
time and money. If you can send a note to an Internet address, you're
in the game. Delphi.
I think I've reviewed this next one before, but as it has to do with
Internet access here it is again...
[] This seven disk set is the Toronto Atari Federation's MiNT (UNIX)
X-Windows Environment that includes TCSH, SLIP/PPP, FTP, Telnet and
Chimera, a graphical World Wide Web Browser v.1.00 beta compiled by
Sam Mesbah, et. al. (dated April 20, 1995). In order to uncompress
these files you will need STZIP26 and the uncompression utilities
found on DISK1. In order to use these files you need 4 meg of RAM, a
ten meg separate hard disk partition (it must be overwritten with this
special MiNT environment so it must be other than your boot
partition), an Internet Service Provider with PPP or SLIP (I don't
think that Delphi yet qualifies as this, though it's Internet access
is superb), Mono Graphics mode (ST High, Falcon, TT High), and an
ASCII text editor. It is recommended that you have a 14.4 modem, a
boot manager (like Superboot, XBoot, or my favorite, Occultar v.3.02b
by Uncle Carl), knowledge of UNIX and the VI editor-not essential but
useful, and finally, the docs say a recent version of ADHI (but I
can't imagine that it is limited to Atari's hard drive software-
probably this means a recent version of any hard drive software). Docs
included. ST--Falcon included. Delphi.
Here are some STOS programs I found on Hensa, Uni-KL, and Delphi:
[] BLITTER is the STOS STE Blitter Extension by L.J.Greenhalgh. This
is an extension of the STOS programming language (the upload says that
it will work with any ST--Falcon) which allows you to access the
blitter, if available. Seventeen different commands are included. You
can quickly clear the screen, check for blitter availability, even use
the CPU to do something else while the blitter is doing its
calculations (getting double-time work out of your computer!). Docs
included. Uploaded to Hensa in April, 1995.
[] CONTROL3 is the Stos Control Extension v.3.0 by L.J.Greenhalgh
(dated 1994). STOS may be powerful and easy to learn but it is very
unstructured when compared to languages like C and GFA basic. This
extension adds a switch construct to STOS which makes program listings
shorter and more readable as well as =many= other useful commands.
BAS source, fonts, pictures, and other utilities included on this
disk, but if you register you get lots more graphics and other helpful
tools). Docs included.
[] CYBER is the STOS Cyber extension v.1.00 by Andy Cato and Martin
Cubitt. This extension (which includes the compiler extension) will
allow you to view a cyber animation sequence (.SEQ) and depending on
the way you set the flag will either loop or just go through the
sequence once. In any case you can press the spacebar to exit the
sequence once going. Numerous .BAS examples, six .SEQ files, and docs
included.
[] EXTNSEL2 is the STOS Extension Selector v.2.0 by L.J.Greenhalgh
(dated July 1994). This program allows you to select which specific
STOS extensions you wish to load at boot up. You may selectively
activate/deactivate you selections, view which ones are active, and
restore your standard configuration with a button click. You can even
print out a list of the currently selected extension's commands to the
printer.
[] FALCEXTN is Falcon STOS Extension v. 1.2 by Anthony Jacques (dated
1995). This is an extension that has been written to allow STOS to
take advantage of the new capabilities of the Falcon. There is both
graphic and audio fixes here. The docs are in HTLM format, but you can
still read them easily enough (or get an HTLM reader!). The docs cover
how to use this. If you are a STOS programmer and want to write Falcon
compatible programs get this! Shareware.
[] FIGGY is a small program which will allow you to configure your
computer memory to 1/2, 1, or 2 meg for those difficult programs that
require a specific memory configuration. Just choose the option, click
on a button and reboot. It's too bad that it can't turn a 1/2 memory
ST into a 2 meg machine!
[] GBP_EXT is the GBP STOS Extension v.4.7 by Neil Halliday of GBP
Software (dated 1994). This extension allows you to do things with
STOS that you aren't supposed to be able to do without machine
language modules tying up your machine. The docs list a slew of
commands for you to use. This archive only contains the run time
version of this extension. If you want the compiler version you much
register (inexpensive).
[] ICBIS is the "I Can't Believe It's STOS" extension v.1 by Richard
Hunt, (dates from April, 1994 through Sept. 20, 1994). ICBIS is a STOS
extension which corrects the only 15 sprite on screen and slow sprites
at that limitation of STOS and brings many additional facilities
easing some, quite complex, programming tasks considerably. This
advance is all under your direct control and so also requires a bit
more thought before tapping at the keyboard. The docs help guide you
though this, of course (it's always nice when people write useful
documentation!). This file includes the compiler extension in source
code format (.S), the ICBIS executable program, and several example
files. ICBIS provides you with a sprite toolkit which allows you to
have...
+ Up to 65535 sprites - not a measly 15.
+ More than one sprite bank can be used in the program
directly - no more copying banks to bank 1! Saves on
memory too.
+ Faster than the existing sprite system when lots doing and ...
+ Autoback can (and should) be turned off - 50 to 100% increase
in speed!
+ Allows for easy parallax scrolling as sprites blanked with a
specified (hence current) screen, not the last background.
+ Global offset for sprites - ideal for large screen/scrolling
games.
+ Comprehensive and pixel perfect collision detection.
+ Background collision detection as well (what pixels under
sprite!)
+ Invisible sprites (!) make for even faster collision detection.
+ Sprite movements can by precisely synchronized.
+ Animation position can be determined by a simple command.
+ Sprites can be copied to any screen at any point, unlike put
sprite!
+ Control is easier as updating of animation and movement only
done at redraw.
+ Numbers of sprites/moves/anims/areas required set by yourself,
up to 255 each for the latter. Thus keeping memory requirements
to a minimum.
+ Very fast screen copy type command for full screens.
+ Existing STOS sprites can be used in your programs as well
(65550 sprites!) or if you don't use the STOS system ...
+ No sprite buffer needed on compilation thus freeing more memory!
+ Fast plotting of backgrounds using sprites (uses optimized
plotting on even boundaries of 16)
Wow! This looks like it does a lot! STOS required (obviously!). I
found this on UNI-KL in three different archives. It's on Delphi in
one piece.
[] MISSLNK is the Top Notch Stuff, release 1.0 by Billy Allan and
Colin Watt (dated Feb. 1993). In it you will find two STOS extensions
- Misty and The Missing Link. There is also a large doc/source file
giving details on how to write your own STOS extensions, use Assembly
in your STOS programs, and much more! It gives an easy "how-to" guide
to writing extensions, including 11 commands from the Misty and
Missing Link extensions.
There are also several utilities such as:
COLDBOOT Does a cold boot of your machine
FIGGY A program which will allow you to configure your computer
memory to 1/2, 1, or 2 meg for those difficult programs.
HERTZ Switches back and forth between 50/60Hz with color
monitors.
PAL_REST Restores default palette with keypress, by B. Allan.
RAZREZ An excellent .ACC to play a wide variety of chip music
files
ZAK, or Muzak Application v.1.0 which allows for easy playback and
recognition of music files. This program recognizes a wide variety
of formats (the docs just say that and not which kinds) and will
also depack all of the common packers.
Shareware.
[] NINJA is the STOS Ninja Tracker Extension v.1.05 for 1meg STE/TT/
Falcon machines by L.J.Greenhalgh (dated 1995). This extension allows
you to play mods at up to 21khz in your STOS programs in the
background on any STE/TT/Falcon. It should be able to play any four
channel protracker mods and the vast majority of chip music formats
available. This extension has been fully tested on the Falcon030 and
works perfectly. You don't need to convert any MOD files, just load
them and play them! Docs included. Hensa.
[] PALREST4 is a small program by Billy Allan (one of the authors of
the Misty and Missing Link STOS extensions). When you click on this
you store away a little program in memory which allows you to restore
default palette with keypress. This is great when you run a program
which messes up your screen colors!
[] STOSTRAK is the official STOS tracker. There are now better tracker
routines available in STOS, but this one is needed to run the many
program listings that make use of this version. This is extension #S,
but is also known to be distributed as extension #H ( #S is the most
common form). STFM sound only at 7-14 KHz. Also included in this
archive is Michael Street's FileSpy v.1.2. FileSpy allows you to load
a text file from the desktop, scroll through it forwards or backwards,
search for specific words, etc. (nicely done, STE and Geneva
compatible). Also included is a folder entitled UPGRADE which contains
a program named COMP_207.PRG. This is an upgrade to the STOS compiler
(how recent, I don't know, but I suspect 1991 from the file dates).
Finally, numerous STOS .BAS and .EXE files are included for your use
as is or as programming examples. Docs included. Found in the STOS
category on UNI-KL.
[] TUTORIAL is a STOS Basic tutorial (in .BAS and .RAN forms) for STOS
and STOS Maestro. Written by Lozian (dated Jan. 5, 1990). There are no
ASCII docs with this. You must load it into STOS and run through the
tutorial to get that information.
Sorry about this next set of files being out of alphabetical order
from those above. All of the above files may also be found on
Delphi, which isn't true for the ones listed below.
[] CK4_7_BJ contains both a CK4 and CK7 for the Canon Bubble Jet 600C
printer for use in Calamus. The CK4 is a printer calibration curve,
while the CK7 allows you to define the UCR and GCR to control the
level of black etc.. This file will be of interest to anyone that uses
a BJC600. I found this on the now-defunct CodeHead BBS. It must be
around in other places, too!
[] COLRFRAC is a set of four ST Med. Warp9 Desktop background
pictures of fractals in Tiny format. They are the same pictures as are
in FRACTALS (though in a different format). Three are nice and one is
very beautiful. Uploaded by Michael Crisafulli of Soft-Sci. CodeHead.
[] F1_04C is a STIS 3D image by Lonny Pursell. This shows a Formula 1
race car in GIF format [640x256x2]. CodeHead.
[] FRACTALS is a set of four ST High Warp9 Desktop background
pictures of fractals in Degas format. They are the same pictures as
are in COLRFRAC (though in a different format). Three are nice and one
is very beautiful. Uploaded by Michael Crisafulli of Soft-Sci.
CodeHead.
[] LP104USA is Laborant Professional v.1.04 (the English Version) by
Jens Schulz (dated June 18th, 1995). Laborant Professional is an
astounding GEM-based chemistry program for the "curious chemistry
user." This program does =everything= a chemistry student or
professional might want. Obviously, such a statement is a bit
exaggerated, but consider: the Table of Contents listing the
functions available in LP is 270 lines long! Just as another example
he has included a very capable Units conversion option right in the
program. Not only is LP useful in Chemistry, it finds application in
biology, physics, pharmaceutical sciences and mechanical engineering
(thermodynamics)! Nevertheless, its main application is as a universal
chemistry program for the daily work in laboratories and in the
teaching of chemistry. Compatible with any ST(TOS 1.2 or
higher)-Falcon computer, color or mono, in ST med. or higher with 1
meg or more of RAM. Geneva, MultiTOS, MultiGEM, and MagiC all work
just fine. If you are working as a chemist, or studying to do so (or
did do that but now are working at another job...say as a pastor!)
then Laborant Professional is for you!
Laborant Professional is divided in several scientific divisions :
+ Stoechiometry with powerful formula-/equation analysis
+ Data processing (Error determination, interpolation,
approximation)
+ Statistical tests
+ Linear equation systems and matrix operations
+ Thermochemistry (incl. databases)
+ Reaction kinetics
+ Chemical solutions and conversions
+ Chemical calculation methods of a wide variety
+ Tables and exercising programs
+ Import/export of experimental data (to a WIDE variety of
platforms and program types)
+ Integration of external programs
+ TeX support
The program is now fully translated into English in both ASCII and TeX
documents. Jens sent this to me, but I think you can find it on the
Internet or on Delphi.
Here are two other of my (Michael Burkley's) favorite programs of
Jen's. He is one creative guy!
[] PMJ_ENG2 is Premium Mah Jongg II (the English version) by Jens
Schulz & Thomas Grube (dated Oct. 10, 1993). Mah Jongg is an old
chinese board game in which you seek to remove pairs of tiles from a
set of 144 tiles stacked in a five level pyramid. The game itself
might be old, but Premium Mah Jongg II is anything but old. It is full
of features, has excellent game play and graphics, and is
unfortunately quite addictive! It will run in all ST and TT res, and
up to 256 colors on Falcons and graphic cards. I can't begin to list
all the features (but I'll try anyway).
First of all, there are excellent English Docs which explain all the
rules of Mah Jongg II and all the features of the game. Next, the
program will tell you all the free tiles available if you wish (only
in the solitaire, non-tournament mode). It will even check, in
real-time if you have reached a dead end in your play (if it doesn't
tell you you're finished then there is a matching tile SOMEWHERE!). It
will repeat your game for you and allow you to replay your game from
any point. If you don't like the color of the tiles or background you
can change them! This game has a solitaire practice mode, a tournament
mode, and a "happening" mode. The happening mode is where the game
produces multiple copies of the exact same set of games for as many
players as desired. These players then each play the games and the
times are compared. The fastest player wins (and as a prize gets taken
out to dinner by the other players!). This game is shareware, but you
only need to pay if you get so good that you can beat the highest
tourney level (or participate in a "happening"). Recommended. Floppy
or hard drive installable.
On a personal note I was surprised to see my name listed in the docs!
Joseph M. Turner (ATARIPOWER7 on Delphi) and I (Michael Burkley!) were
thanked for the help we've give Jens (Joseph has done much more than
me!). Also mentioned was the fact that Mah Jongg II cannot be
distributed by any Commercial PD company except Suzy B's Software (but
I'm sure if any =ask_, Suzy B's will OK it <g>)
[] VALENCY is Only! Valency by Jens Schulz (dated Dec. 24, 1994). I
especially like Only! Valency (O!V) because it reminds me of my
chemistry background. But as the opening screen of this game says,
"You will love and curse this game at the same time." It sure is a
challenge! You don't have to be a chemist to play O!V, all you need is
quick reflexes, both mental and physical. O!V is a boardgame which
presents you with 300 levels of molecules which you need to build
using the atoms at hand. Unfortunately, molecules aren't nice 2
dimensional beings. They are 3D and so are the O!V molecules. As you
build your molecules to match the pattern goal you need to rotate your
molecule to bring the next link into view. This gets complicated...and
fun! Of course, the above would just be too easy, so Jens has added
all sorts of traps and dropouts to slow you down. There are solitaire
(without time limits) and several Tournament modes (with decreasing
time limits) options. This excellent game will play on any ST--Falcon
from ST Low res through VGA 640*480 16/256 colors (including CrazyDots
and Matrix graphic cards). Keyboard or mouse controlled. Shareware.
English and German versions included (and their respective docs). As
with anything by Jens I recommend this.
[] MAGIC_MA is the MagiCMac English Demo v.1.2.1. MagiCMac from
Application Systems Heidelberg Software is an alternate operating
system for Apple Macintosh computers, or so the external file
description says. As I remember it MagiCMac runs as a Mac program, not
as another operating system. In any case, this is one amazing program.
It allows you to run Atari ST software on your Macintosh 6 meg RAM or
more System 7 computer with a 68030, 68040, or PowerPC CPU
in
cooperation with Macintosh applications. Not only does it run most
application software (and a lot of other stuff, too), but it runs it
four times faster than a TT (and that's just an average!). This demo
lasts for 15 minutes. The full file name (for uncompressing on a Mac)
is magic-mac-121-demo.hqx (BinHex). To extract this archive you need
Stuffit Expander (freeware) or Stuffit Lite (shareware). You will also
have to decode it first using MacBinary (Stuffit Expander does this
automatically, Stuffit Lite has a menu section for it). Hensa.
[] MONEY_10 is Easy Money, The Address Book and Financial Manager
v.1.0 by Anthony Watson of Mountain Software. Easy Money is a fully
relational database with facilities for accounts, invoices, and
transactions. Various search features are available to quickly
analyze your records. While Easy Money is designed for business uses,
it could easily be used to handle your personal accounts and expenses,
or even as a basic address book. Originally written to supply their
own needs, Mountain Software is now releasing this program as fully
functioning shareware. It will run on any ST--Falcon with at least one
meg of RAM. Color or mono (higher res. supported). A hard drive is
recommended and GDOS or SpeedoGDOS installed if you are using its
print functions. Docs included. I found this on Toad Hall.
[] MUSICCHA is MusicChannel v.1.51 by Stephan Bold (dated August
1994). This shareware program is an audio CD player/selector and a
MOD file selector (MOD files are played through Paula, a MOD player).
The program is designed to work with multi-tasking systems to allow
you to play the music you select, in the background. The program and
docs are all in German, so I am a bit hesitant about saying much more
about this. Shareware (you can't save your config. settings in this
unregistered version). ST/E through Falcon compatible. You must have
Paula to play the MODs and MetaDOS (or ExtenDOS?) for the Audio CDs.
I found this on UNI_KL.
[] PAINT100 is Painter v.1.0 from Gordon Gibson of Sinister
Developments. This formerly shareware game has now been released as
freeware. Fortunately, that doesn't make it any less challenging to
play! Use your joystick or keyboard to guide your player (that little
white mouse/blobby thing) around the grid. As you pass over the grid
it will change color. The idea of the game is to color all of the
lines, thus filling in the enclosed rectangles. Sound easy?
Well....you have to avoid the baddies. Those guys are intelligent and
hungry, and they like to home in on you. Your sole defense is an
ability to create holes in the grid which will block the baddies from
following you (of course, they also prevent you from backing up
yourself).
This is a fast-paced and thinking person's game. I enjoy it, even
though I haven't gotten very far! You have a long way to go as there
are 100 levels available (I find it hard to imagine someone with
enough skill to accomplish them all!) - and an included level editor
allows you to create even more! Once you have completed a level you
can record its password and begin right from there the next time.
Soundtracker music available. Docs and hints are in a text file.
Sinister Developments has created several other games (Asteroids
(Colour and Mono), Galaxian, Centipede, and Space Invaders). Let's
support them as they have supported us! STE, hard drive, and Geneva
compatible (and I'm sure more, too). Uncompresses to 540K. I found
this on Toad Hall.
[] PRED201 is PrEd v.2.01 by Markus Pristovsek (dated Sept. 9, 1995).
This text editor will allow you to load multiple files, copy and paste
between them, mark, move and delete blocks of files, and more. One
thing I like about it's block handling is its ability to use the mouse
to mark just portions of the top or bottom of a block (several text
editors only allow marking of whole lines). This editor allows the use
of long text lines and huge files. It scrolls through text rapidly and
allows you to search for specific data. On the downside (for me) is
that the program and docs are all in German (but I figured out how to
use it in just a short while). ST--Falcon, Graphic cards, Multi-TOS and
Geneva compatible. I found this on Uni-KL.
[] PRFPCH12 is the Perfect Pitch Enhancer v.1.2 by Steven Selick
(dated 1994). The main goal of the perfect pitch enhancer is to
develop your sense of pitch over the full range of the piano keyboard
(88 notes). The computer will choose a note within your given range,
and it will play it on a SEPARATE machine from the keyboard that you
are using for input. Then you must search for the note that the
computer played. Simple enough, however you are not supposed to be
able to hear the notes you play, only what the computer plays. You
will generally need two MIDI machines, but you can sometimes use just
one one machine if you can turn local keyboard control OFF (see the
docs). Brief docs included. ST--STE and Geneva compatible (at least).
Hensa.
[] PT_SRCT3T is a series of three fast (50KHz) PROtracker replay
routines in Devpac 3.00 source code files (.S) by Lance (Mrten Rnge)
dated Jan. 1, 1994. What's special about this code is his addition of
buffers which store a few seconds of the sound in memory so that when
your program and sound play would take up more CPU time than your
computer has available everything still works (it just eats into the
buffer time). The buffer still is being updated, albeit at a slower
rate due to the CPU demands. That means that the few seconds available
at a zero refresh rate can stretch out double, triple, even more!
Smart idea! Docs included. I found this on UNI-KL.
[] PUNSSI is PUNSSi by Eero Tamminen (dated March 9, 1995). Punssi is
a small arcade game for two players on a mono system. You are in the
role of the new information fetching 'agents' (ie. software filters)
that roam the InterNet. Your mission is to guide the found information
(represented as a ball) to your host computer and to avoid the
(Intel/Micro$oft sales) droids which try to confuse you with
mis-information. Getting contaminated by mis-information kills you and
reverts you to where you started. The goal is to score points by
pushing (bouncing) the ball to your home area on the opposite side of
the "Intel Outside" screen and to avoid the droids that tail you and
your opponent. When you'll crash into a droid, you'll lose one of your
nine lives and start again from your original location; the droid that
crashed into you disappears and the other droid splits into two new
droids. The ball returns to its starting place after it has been
pushed into the 'goal'. English docs and program. Joystick controlled.
C source included. TOS, MiNT, MultiTOS compatible. I found this on
Atari UMICH and Delphi.
[] REVELDEM is the Revelations Demo by Psychosis (dated Sept. 30,
1995). The author (Alan Parker) used to code demos for the ST. Now he
is working on his Falcon and has lots of ST code just for the asking
on his old hard drive (he'll sell you that 40 meg hard drive too for
forty pounds!). This slideshow has a scrolling text file (from which I
got this information after I unpacked it using the New Depak v.1.1 by
Mike Watson), and pictures drawn by a guy named Rank. I assume that it
has sound, too, but the docs don't say that. I found this on UNI-KL.
[] SENF is SENF by Thomas Binder (this guy writes a lot of programs!).
Environment variables contain global information for programs to use.
It tells them where something is kept...or can be accessed. With some
software, such as a C compiler, environment variables are required for
the software to work correctly. Many command line based OSs support
environment variables, and so does GEMDOS, but GEM desktop does not.
This makes it a much overlooked feature on the Atari. SENF is a small
program which will set the environment variables for you. Just place
in the Auto folder, and place the corresponding INF file in the root
directory. Reboot. Docs and program are in German. Hensa.
[] SET_DEV7 is Set_Dev7 v.1.0 by Mark S. Baines (dated April 18,
1995). In serial communications the Falcon uses, by default, device 6
as the serial port (which isn't connected to any hardware port at the
back panel and is the ST MFP compatible port). This often causes
confusion with Falcon users who use software that automatically uses
the default device without checking (this was OK until the Falcon) and
then find the software doesn't work with the Modem 1 SCC channel B
device port that their modem is plugged into. This program fixes that
by setting the default system serial device to device 7 by doing a
Bconmap(7). Docs included. I found this on Hensa.
[] SOKOBAN2 is Sokoban - the Bobby the Hippie Ghost edition by Johan
Sprng (Pluto of ICE) and Mandus Skn. Oh, poor Bobby the hippie
ghost. The Tellus Ghost Investigation Agency is going to pay him a
visit, and he who has all those peace signs all over his place. He
might lose his ghost licence because of those. You must help Bobby to
cover all his peace signs with the stones that lies around his place.
You can only move one stone at a time so you have to plan ahead and
not work yourself "into a corner." You may have seen this game in the
past (as an ASCII only version), but it was nothing like this. This
version has improved graphics (colorful, attractive, and pleasing) and
gameplay. All of the 42 classic levels are included along with a few
new ones. A level editor is included so you can create as many great
levels as you wish. Designed for the STE but you may play it on the
Falcon too (color monitor, RGB or VGA, required). Johan has gotten
tired of coding great demos and he wanted to do something else. This
was his first attempt and first success (both at the same time!). I
look forward to finding more PD games from him. This is excellent!
Online docs. Geneva and NeoDesk compatible. I found this on UNI-KL.
[] SOX10P11 is the SOund eXchange program release 10, Patchlevel 11 by
Lance Norskog and a slew of other contributors. This "Universal" Sound
Sample Translator (using a command line interface) translates sound
samples between different file formats, and performs various sound
effects. This release understands "raw" files in various binary
formats, Sound Blaster .VOC files, IRCAM SoundFile files, SUN
Sparcstation .au files, Sun ADPCM compressed sound files, Internet
Radio files, mutant DEC .au files, Amiga/SGI AIFF files, Macintosh
HCOM files, Sounder files, .WAV (I think) and Soundtool (DOS) files
(and more). The sound effects include changing the sample rate, adding
echo delay lines, applying low- and band-pass filtering, and the
infamous Fender Vibro effect. The original program was written in June
of 1993, and the ST port/docs have an October 2, 1993 date attached to
them). ST--TT compatible. Docs included.
[] TAUT_II is Tautology II by "Reservoir Gods." This one or two person
game of skill and strategy for the Falcon (only, sigh) is a
challenging and fun game. This could be called a cousin of Mahjong in
that it involves the removal of matching tiles from a board. Unlike
Mahjong though you can only remove matching tiles when they can be
connected by a line that bends only once or not at all. I've seen
another game like this (but for the ST) in TAKETWO, a game by Marco
Feikert. The two player mode is either competitive or side-by-side.
The game is much improved over Tautology I: new graphics and several
new tile sets, new sounds, improved video, and more. You can configure
the options of this game to your hearts content. Runs on all Falcons
with four meg or more of RAM, with joystick, keyboard, or jaguar
controller, and with RGB or VGA monitors. Inexpensive shareware. I
found this on UNI-KL.
[] TOS_29 is a ST-Guide Hypertext by Rolf Kotzian detailing all of the
ins and outs of a variety of operating systems for the ST (well,
including one that turns your Mac into an ST!). The OSs are TOS,
Multi-TOS, MagiC and MagiCMac. You must use ST-Guide. v. 3.50 to view
this file. I think I found this on UNI-KL.
[] TSAM_242 is the Totosampler v.2.42 by Torsten Thiel. This sound
sampling program for the ST/E/TT will allow you to sample and edit
STereo and mono sounds (and convert between them) at up to 50KHz.
Several types of hardware are supported, but you don't need them to
edit or play available sound files. It's all in German and so I don't
know much else about it. Multi-TOS compatible. NeoDesk and Geneva
compatible. Mono only. For a similar program (in English) try Damien
Jones' Soundlab v.1.11 (SNDLB111). I found this on UNI-KL.
[] SNDLB111 is Sound Lab v.1.11 by Damien M. Jones (dated July 28,
1993). This is a very capable sound editor that allows you to take
digitized sound samples and manipulate them to your heart's content.
It has plenty of features, and its edit functions are =very= fast. You
can play and record samples from 5KHz to 30KHz, use samples in .AVR
(signed or unsigned), .SPL, .SAM, .WAV (commonly used on the "PC"),
.SND (DigiSound and SoundOff!), and .SMP formats (for GEM Sound),, and
it's easy to use. (Recording samples requires either the ST Replay
cartridge or Pandaal DataSound cartridge.) It also lets you add sound
effects to your samples, like echo and fade, and more. It uses a ZeST
type 3D button interface that is a pleasure to watch and use. Color or
mono. 40 page ASCII manual included. There's a nifty on-screen help
system that takes you through the in's and out's of the program. Watch
the mouse move about all by itself! ST/STe compatible. SHAREWARE. You
get printed docs and updates with your registration (I've registered).
653K uncompressed. Delphi.
[] UCDM is a set of two UCDM modules (UMPs) for Octalyzer by Lance!
(Marten Range). One UMP is a 50 kHz 4 channel MOD player and the other
is a 50 KHz 8 channel MOD player. These umps should work fine on STe,
MSTe and hopefully the TT. Why might you want these umps? First thing
is that the 50kHz 8 channel ump works on a normal 8Mhz STe and as far
as the author (or I) know this is the first ump that does this. Since
he mostly work on a monochrome monitor he doesn't know what the
maximum time is for the 8 channel ump is but should be around 85%.
The 4 channel ump should take around 35% maximum. If you want to learn
more about Octalyzer read the description OCTA096. Found on UNI-KL.
[] WD2D_PRO is the Falcon only Direct to Disk Player Professional
Edition recording program/ accessory by WAX (dated Nov. 13, 1994).
With this software you can play any sample which is 16 bit (either
mono or stereo) at any conventional frequency. You can even hook up an
external synth connected to your DSP port (how do you do that?). The
sound distortion with this program is in the 3-4% range which means
you get out the sound you put in, pretty accurately. Files can be
compressed (though not in real time) and played back in real-time.
There are lots of docs which explain everything to you music types.
Here are some more of the features available...
+ Loop option on single track selection
+ Selectric multiple selection compatible
+ Allows text files with list of tracks to replay (.LT)
+ Handles multiple formats list of tracks
+ Handles/saves DVS compatible file format
+ Mathematical analysis and distortion calculation
+ Optional Pseudo stereo replay for mono tracks
+ 100% GEM and assembler
+ Ultra fast cache routines
+ Can be driven by GEM messages.
Source code (.S) included. Hensa.
[] ZCONT20A is zControl v.0.20a by Ralf Zimmermann (dated July 6,
1995). zControl is a replacement/enhancement of Atari's XControl CPX
accessory. For all ST--Falcon computers, this .ACC (or program, just
rename the file) will allow you to access any .CPX module, just as
XControl does. But it's still being supported, and it has several new
features. It will support the Drag & Drop, Iconification, and AV
Protocols and allows several CPX modules to be run at the same time,
each within its own window. Right now zControl works best from within
a Multi-tasking system (Multi-TOS, Geneva, or MagiC Mac, and maybe
more), but it does work with single-TOS with some limitations. The
program is in German, but the docs are in English. Shareware. Hensa.
Finally, here's a list of programs which the authors don't allow to be
distributed via PD distributors. Thankfully for them that doesn't
include places like the internet or Delphi or GEnie (but it sorta
leaves me out in the cold!).
[] GIGMUS14 is GigaMusic v.1.4 by Vincent Partington (dated October
10, 1992). GigaMusic is a very small program/ACC which allows you to
play several kinds of music formats in the background (with the .ACC
version in standard TOS or with either the PRG or ACC in a
multitasking environment). I haven't heard of any of the following
formats before, but these are the music files this program plays...
+ Mad Max (normal and digidrum),
+ Count Zero (normal and ripped with the Fuzion Mega Ripper)
+ OffBeat/Big Alec
+ Dave Whittaker
+ Synthdream (with samples!)
+ TriSound/TriMod
Samples of these various music formats are included for your playing
enjoyment. Docs included. TOS 2.06 and Geneva Compatible (at least).
Shareware (he makes PD distributors pay him 1/2 of their "profits"
<ha!> which makes them reluctant to distribute his program, which
means he gets less money - go figure! Especially since he has placed
about 168K of other people's music in his 180K total file! Is he going
to pay them 1/2 of his profits? Oh well, let it pass!).
[] MIDIKLA4 is MidiKla4 by Peter Bogner (dated Sept 4, 1993). This
program displays a piano keyboard onscreen. From what I can tell it
will display the keys that you press on your MIDI keyboard. You may
rename this to create an .ACC. The docs and program are all in German
(but just hook up a keyboard and you'll figure out how it works!).
STE and Geneva compatible (at least).
[] O3RWGMME is O3RWGMME, the General-MIDI-Multiset-Editor for the Korg
O3R/W by Peter Bogner (dated Feb. 25, 1995). The programmer hoped to
create a GEM-like program which was able to create/change multisets
for the KORG O3R/W synthesizer-module. He wanted to do this because
the O3R/W can only manage one multiset - but in the O3R/W multiset
only the effect-parameters are stored, all other multisettings are
lost after switching off the module. This program/accessory enables
the user to choose the soundgroup, the soundname (GM-mode), the volume
and the panorama setting for each channel. (You choose the soundgroup
and soundname, channel and panorama settings via popup-menus. The
volume is changed by a slider.) Also switching between the GM-bank and
the O3R/Ws soundbank A, switching off a channel and choosing the
gm-drumset are all possible. Keyboard and/or mouse controlled.
ST--Falcon compatible. Color or mono. Docs (both English and German)
are included. Fairware.
[] SMF_PLAY us SMF_Play by Peter Bogner (dated Feb. 23, 1995). This is
a GEM-based-Standard-MIDI-File-Player for your ST through Falcon. It
presents you with a very simple, yet nice, interface which allows you
to select a MIDI file to play using your item selector. It displays
the file name and type (format 0 or 1). The program (or accessory)
also allows you to set some play parameters (such as pitch bending,
After Touch, etc.). There is also a MIDI clock which allows you to
synchronize your external MIDI instruments with the play-function.
Midi files of up to 131072 bytes are allowed. No multi-tasking during
play. Fairware.
[] WATCH_IT is Watch-It v.1.0a by Stefan Bock. WATCH-IT is a fast
PRG/ACC GEM based picture viewer for Atari ST/STE/TT/Falcon030
computers (only GIF 87a and 89a supported at the moment). It was
planned as a viewer for the Falcon only, supporting the 256-color-
resolution and the truecolor-resolution, but as it is a plain
GEM-program, you can also start it on the "old" Ataris as well.
WATCH-IT runs on all memory-configurations, but 512 KByte may be too
small for big pictures. If you don't have at least a 256 color display
the pictures will be dithered down to ST low 16 color or monochrome
mode (whether in ST Med. or mono, it does it well). Docs included.
Multi-TOS compatible. Delphi.
And one final file that I need to mention to discharge a shareware
debt. At bootup this program mentions that if I use but don't
praise this program and its author that my GEM operating system
(and I assume Geneva, too) will be replaced with MS-DOS! Yikes! I
can't risk that! Yes, I know that he was just kidding, but this
program (FASTBOOT) gets my praise anyway!
[] FASTBOOT is FaST-Boot v.1.0 from Tim Patrick, the Happy Hacker, a
guy who goes out of his way to help people. The purpose and function
of this EXECUTABLE BOOT SECTOR is very simple... First, it prints an
anti-virus message to your screen at boot up - and second, it sets
your FaST Technology Turbo25 accelerator to 25Mhz mode at the very
start of the boot cycle. Since it activates BEFORE your hard disk
boots and your AUTO folder loads, your hard disk booter and auto
programs can share the same speed benefits as your applications. If
you are a true "speed-freak" you will be happy to know that this, on
average, will shave two seconds off your boot process (that's
according to the docs, but I save 5.75 seconds on my boot up!). The
files you need to set this up to boot AUTO booting games up at 25MHz
are also included. You must have the T-25 (and I do <grin>) to use
this file. Docs included.
Speaking of speed, I wish for a Christmas present from Jim Allen.
He's had my Mega 4/Gadgets SST since early December of 1994. I can't
get ahold of him in any way. If he reads this =please= send it back to
me!!!
Whew! That's a lot of files! The only problem is that I have about
another 300 meg that I haven't written descriptions for yet! Oh well,
there's always next time.
Finally, since it's Christmas time, and since Christmas is a very
important time to me, I wish you all a very merry Christmas. May we
all remember whose Birthday Christmas is!
Michael
All of these files can be found on one or more of the following
on-line services: Delphi (MRBURKLEY), GEnie (M.BURKLEY1), Toad
Computers BBS (410-544-6999), and at Toad Hall, now the official BBS
of the Boston Computer Society (617-567-8642) (as Michael R. Burkley).
Drop me a line!
Michael lives in Niagara Falls, NY. He is a former Polyurethane
Research Chemist and is presently the pastor of the Niagara
Presbyterian Church, and co-owner with his wife of Suzy B's Software.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Rare Gems
||| Compiled by: David A. Wright
/ | \ Internet: centaur@nai.net
----------------------------------------------------------------
The following are the "Rare Gems (sm)" selections for December 17 to
23, 1995. "Rare Gems" is a service mark (sm) of Rare Breed Noninc.
and David Alan Wright. (Internet: CENTAUR@NAI.NET) Compilation
copyright 1995 by same. All Wright's rights reserved. Each weekly
collection may be distributed freely as long as this notice is
retained. No other format may be distributed without further
authorization. All quotes covered by "fair use" of copyright law.
Jeep is a registered trademark of Chrysler Corp. --:Dave
Caution: Opening Windows lets bugs in! --Unknown
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there
be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of
blindfolded fear. --Thomas Jefferson
Clothes and manners do not make the man; but, when he is made, they
greatly improve his appearance. --Henry Ward Beecher
A cheap coat makes a cheap man. --friend of Thorstein Veblen
I fear the man who drinks water, and so remembers this morning what
the rest of us said last night. --Unknown ancient Greek
Rich men are to bear the infirmities of the poor. Wise men are to bear
the mistakes of the ignorant. --Henry Ward Beecher
Nobody is bound by any obligation unless it has first been freely
accepted. --"The Fugitive" by Ugo Betti
===
The following are the "Rare Gems (sm)" selections for December 24 to
30, 1995. "Rare Gems" is a service mark (sm) of Rare Breed Noninc.
and David Alan Wright. (Internet: CENTAUR@NAI.NET) Compilation
copyright 1995 by same. All Wright's rights reserved. Each weekly
collection may be distributed freely as long as this notice is
retained. No other format may be distributed without further
authorization. All quotes covered by "fair use" of copyright law.
Sanitized for your protection. --:Dave
When Duty comes a-knocking at your gate,
Welcome him in; for if you bid him wait,
He will depart only to come once more
And bring seven other duties to your door. --"Duty" by Edwin Markham
I hate a man who swallows [his food], affecting not to know what he is
eating. I suspect his taste in higher matters. --Charles Lamb
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
--Aristotle
When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in
our life, or in the life of another. --Hellen Keller
He who limps is still walking. --Stanislaw Lec
Elegance is good taste plus a dash of daring. --Carmel Snow
Me, I try to get somethin' good outta every day. Know what I mean?
Like, you fall through the seat in the outhouse? Well, at least it's
a soft landing!
--Gordon, "For Better or for Worse" strip by Lynn Johnston
--==--==--==--==--
||| Developing news!
||| Items of interest from TOS platform developers and supporters
/ | \ -------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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//// In Touch with In-Touch
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Computer Direct and Lorne J. White (Author of In-Touch) are pleased to
announce the availability of In-Touch as commercial software.
In-Touch is a very powerful and flexible database for organizing and
managing all your personal information such as names, addresses, phone
numbers, notes and calendar events.
In-Touch is very different from most databases. The unique index view
makes selecting and manipulating everything from single records to the
entire database a simple process.
With a touch of the keyboard or mouse you can easily find and select
records, search for text and dates, get date reminders and categorize
records.
In-Touch uses Speedo fonts to print a wide variety of professional
looking envelopes, labels, addresses, date books, calendar labels,
event calendars and "To Do" lists. Most day timer page formats are
supported and In-Touch prints multiple pages per sheet thus saving
paper!
A calendar window provides a view of any month of any year and
provides a listing of all events in that month. A date reminder system
keeps you in touch with all upcoming events.
You can easily import and export information from other programs,
making In- Touch the "Master" database for all your personal
information.
In-Touch runs on Atari ST, Atari STE, Mega ST, Mega STE, Atari TT030,
Falcon030 and all Atari Compatibles as well as Macintosh 030/040 and
PPC computers under MagiCMac. In-Touch operates under all versions of
TOS and uses full GEM interface. As well, In-Touch may be used under
MiNT, MultiTOS, MagiC and Geneva multitasking operating systems.
Minimum system requirements are 512K of memory, double sided disk
drive and a monitor. In-Touch also runs as a desk accessory.
In-Touch is shipped with a professionally produced 44 page manual with
Examples and Tutorials on methods to get the most out of your personal
information. It is supplied on a 720K disk and is supported,marketed
and distributed by Computer Direct.
In-Touch is available now for 79.99 Cdn. - 59.99 US.
Competitive Upgrades are available for a limited time at 59.99 Cdn. -
44.99 US. Upgrade from CardFile, GEMvelope, Mail Manager or Tracker
ST.
In-Touch (c) 1995 Lorne J. White
Computer Direct Support and Info: 403-496-2488
10338-59 Avenue Toll Free Orders: 800-547-9203
Edmonton, Alberta 24 Hour Fax Line: 403-496-2489
Canada. T6H 1E6
Internet: info@compdirect.com
orders@compdirect.com
support@compdirect.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// HP & Mustek Scanner Drivers
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
DECEMBER 15, 1995
FOR IMMIDIATE RELEASE- HOMA SYSTEMS HOUSE-OTTAWA, CANADA
Homa Systems House is proud to present two new products, HP SCAN JET
and MUSTEK Paragon scanner drivers for all range of ATARI computers.
Mustek scanners are quality flatbed scanners, at an affordable price.
They offer a resolution of upto 1200 dpi, in 24bit color mode.
With the above scanner drivers, you have ultimate control over your
page.
NOVA SCANNER DRIVER specifications:
- PRESCAN @90dpi in monochrome, half tone monochrome, 256 grey,
24bit (16.8 Million) color
- SCAN:
- a minimum area of 1 x 1 (mm) to 356 x 216 mm (Legal size,
8.5"x14") using a Crop frame or direct value input
- from 45 dpi to scanners maximum resolution (Mustek paragon
6000cx @ 600 dpi, Mustek paragon 12000cx @ 1200 dpi)
- lineArt/text, halftone, 256 grey and 24 bit color
- 4 halftone settings (Hardware built in)
- 4 gamma correction (Hardware built in)
- brightness and contrast control
- 3 adjustable scanning speeds
- inverted scanning mode
- adjustable scaling (50%-400%)
- runs as a GDPS driver (Applications such as Pixart 3 will allow
direct scanning into program)
- runs as a program or accessory, on any ATARI operating system
- saves as IMG, uncompressed TIF and ESM
- SCSI interface required
CND$ US$
MUSTEK PARAGON SCANNER DRIVER
(FOR 6000CX & 12000 CX ONLY) 199.00 149.00
HP SCANJET SCANNER DRIVER 199.00 149.00
CMUSTEK 6000CX PRO SCANNER & DRIVER COMBO
-CHRISTMAS SPECIAL 849.00 599.00
For more information, please contact Homa Systems House:
Homa Systems House
P.O.BOX 52127
OTTAWA, ON K1N 5S0 CANADA
TEL: (613) 722-0901
FAX: (613) 722-9061
EMAIL genie: NIMA
internet: aa414@freenet.carleton.ca
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Afterburner040 & FalconFX
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Afterburner040 is ready for Take Off!
After many setbacks and production delays, the 68040 32/64MHz based
Afterburner040 accelerator card for the Atari and C-Lab Falcon030 is
finally available for shipping.
Afterburner040 is a compact card that fits internally into the
original Falcon case using the PDS expansion slot. This card contains
an expansion port throughput allowing for the use of other expansion
cards such as Nova-Graphics cards, Falcon Speed PC Card and Screen
Eyes or Expose video capture cards. There are 4 slots for optional
Fast RAM expansions up to 128Mb using industry standard SIMM modules.
An external case expansion is required for installation of Fast RAM.
Speed increases of up to a factor of 14 can be achieved with this card
while maintaining full compatibility with existing software including
Cubase Audio 16, Neon and other modern Falcon software. The only known
Falcon application not currently supported is Apex Media. Titan and
Black Scorpion have an Afterburner040 and are currently working out
this incompatibility.
Afterburner040 is available from Computer Direct now and sells for
1299.99 Canadian including the 32/64MHz MC68LC040 processor. We accept
VISA and MasterCard.
Installation by a skilled technician is recommended.
Computer Direct is also pleased to announce the availability of the
new 3 in 1 Falcon expansion card, FX, from BlowUp.
FX contains the three most sought after Falcon expansions in one
compact card that fits neatly into the internal PDS expansion slot of
the Falcon030. FX can be fitted into the original case! FX consists of
a Fast RAM module, an accelerator module and a video resolution
module.
FX allows you to add Fast RAM to your Falcon and break the 14Mb
barrier using industry standard 30 pin SIMMS. FX has 4 slots that can
be filled independantly with matching pairs of SIMMS. As an example;
you can add two 4Mb SIMMS now and two 8Mb SIMMS later, or similar.
FX also consists of an accelerator module that increases the speed of
your bus as well as CPU, FPU and DSP! Your Falcon can acheive variable
speed increases of up to 40MHz bus and processor speed, 50MHz DSP
speed and 40MHz FPU speed by using the included CPX. For compatibility
issues, this can be selected via software. Benchmark tests have shown
that this accelerator is consistently faster than a TT030 with
Cattamaran! As an added bonus, Falcons suffering from the CPU clock
problems will be fixed by FX!
BlowUP has also included the BlowUp Internal Video expansion with FX.
Now you can enjoy True Colour display at a resolution of 640 x 480 or
256 colours in resolutions up to 1024 x 768!
FX has been tested on numerous Falcons and is compatible with all
Falcon software such as Cubase Audio 16 and Apex Media to name just
two.
Available now from Computer Direct for 349.99 Canadian.
A skilled technician is suggested for installation.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Direct Toll Free Orders: 800-547-9203
10338-59 Avenue Info and Support: 403-496-2488
Edmonton, Alberta 24 Hour Fax Line: 403-496-2489
Canada. T6H 1E6 On-Line Support: GEnie, Atari RT
On Line Orders, send e-mail to: orders@compdirect.com
On Line Information, send e-mail to: info@compdirect.com
Surf our World Wide Web Site: http://www.compdirect.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Ride the Catherine Wheel
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dubble Dee Atari PD Library are proud to announce the immanent release
of CATHERINE WHEEL.
Catherine Wheel is a CD that is specifically aimed at the Atari Falcon
030, but users of other Atari computers will find programmes and files
that they can also use - in fact, so will users of most other computer
platforms!
The CD contains:
* 130Meg of Falcon specific programmes, including games,
graphic packages, utilities, MOD players, trackers, demos,
utilities and application.
* 100Meg of ST/STE programmes that are 100% Falcon compatible.
This also includes games, graphic packages, utilities, MOD
players, trackers, applications and utilities.
* 800+ 4 (128Meg) track MOD files
* 90+ 8 (or more) track MOD and S3M files
* 20Megs of PD book files obtained from the Project Gutenberg
data-base. Including greats like War of the Worlds, Around
the World in 80 Days, Mars and Tarzan series by E.R.
Burroughs and many, many more.
* 100 true Type fonts compatible with NVDI 3 and Speedo-Gdos 5
* 120Megs of some of the best GIF graphics you have ever seen.
* 120Megs of some of the best FLI animation files you have
ever seen.
All pictures, animations, fonts and mod files have been tested on
a Falcon with TOS 4.01 and 4 Megs of Ram. All S3M files will work
with the shareware version of Mega-Player (v1.15).
Write today for further info...
paul@frisbee.net.au
geoffc@campg.mtx.net.au
or by snail mail to....
P.O. Box 226,
Smithfield,
South Australia,
Australia,
5114
--==--==--==--==--
|||
||| Shutdown ........................... Power off, EXIT, BYE, Logoff
/ | \ -----------------------------------------------------------------
We welcome feedback from all of our readers; feedback both positive
and negative. Whatever you think of our efforts, we sincerely would
like to know. Our EMail addresses are sprinkled throughout each issue
- with the Internet gateway into GEnie, you can reach us through the
Internet also. Append "@genie.com" to any of our GEnie addresses.
If you are a regular user of PGP, you can EMail AEO Magazine
<aeo.mag@genie.com> using this key:
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.6.1
mQCNAzAhx34AAAEEANv2p4vh8J3DHce9GM6SbYEhr1LGTeF37TyP5YFrgbBRLFMC
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LlW23JAnxRn2RrhKhyvH3GZL/j8XILADFd0HGf2Dkcq5d72/T/H26/F7JGeJAAUR
tCBBRU8gTWFnYXppbmUgPGFlby5tYWdAZ2VuaWUuY29tPg==
=2Jq5
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Until the next issue of AEO, I remain,
Your Editor
Travis Guy
--==--==--==--==--
(This issue printed on recycled photons)
--==--==--==--==--
DNFTEC
--==--==--==--==--
No Inflation Necessary
--==--==--==--==--
Eleven Straight!
--==--==--==--==--
Atari Explorer Online Magazine is a monthly publication covering the
entire Atari community. Reprint permission is granted, unless
otherwise noted at the beginning of the article, to registered Atari
user groups and not for profit publications under the following terms
only: articles must remain unedited and include the issue number and
author at the top of each article reprinted. Other reprints granted
upon approval of request. Send requests to <aeo.mag@genie.com>.
No issue of Atari Explorer Online Magazine may be included on any
commercial media, nor uploaded or transmitted to any commercial
online service, in whole or in part, by any agent or means, without
the expressed consent or permission from the Editor or Publisher of
Atari Explorer Online Magazine.
Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do
not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. All
material herein is believed accurate at the time of publishing.
--==--==--==--==--
Atari, ST, Mega ST, STE, Mega STE, TT030, Atari Falcon030, TOS,
MultiTOS, NewDesk, BLiTTER, Atari Lynx, ComLynx, Atari Jaguar, Atari
Portfolio, and the Atari Fuji Symbol are all trademarks or registered
trademarks of Atari Corporation. All other trademarks and identifying
marks mentioned in this issue belong to their respective owners.
--==--==--==--==--
Atari Explorer Online Magazine
"Your Source for Atari News"
Copyright (c) 1993-1995, Subspace Publishers
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:: Volume 4, Issue 9 ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE January 1, 1996 ::
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