Top News

Stunt Car Racer gets an STE version (11.09.2021 - 00:12 Uhr)

Geoff Crammond's Stunt Car Racer is surely one of the most original racing games ever. The two cars are on a track several metres high. By the standards of the time, both the frame rate and the graphics (filled vector graphics) were fine. Two computers can be connected via null modem cable, which also works across systems, at least with the ST and Amiga versions. Despite its success, the game remained without a successor and the 16-bit versions of the time remained the best technical versions of the game.

Jonathan Thomas (Lotus STE) wonders if this game could be further improved with the hardware features of the STE, such as using the blitter to draw polygons faster. Should Stunt Car Racer be as high quality a work as Lotus STE, ST(E) gamers can look forward to an update with many small and large improvements.

(mj)

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PC/AT emulator Remake Project (29.03.2022 - 00:17 Uhr)

The successful reverse engineering of two PC emulators is reported from Poland: The logic chips of PC-Speed and ATonce 286 were successfully decoded and new boards of the hardware-based PC emulators were built. Tori sees this as an archiving project and explicitly forbids to make money with these replicas. Those who want to rebuild an emulator for their own use can do so now.

PC-Speed was one of the most successful hardware extensions. Tens of thousands of the first hardware-based PC emulator were sold. Later Vortex entered the market and offered the ATonce with 80286 and 80386SX CPU.

http://atari.myftp.org/atonce/atonce.html

(mj)

New text adventures for the ST (24.02.2022 - 14:38 Uhr)

There is one force that unites all systems from 8 to 32 bits: the input prompt of a text adventure. Text adventures were probably among the first games to separate engine and game logic. This facilitated the porting to other platforms enormously besides the already low system requirements of a text-based adventure game. This was true in Infocom times, but also today, because in February two new text adventures were released for the ST, each with an intro image at program start. Silk Dust and The Queen's Footstep are each available in versions for 40- and 80-characters. There are no environment graphics like in the adventures of Magnetic Scrolls.

http://davbucci.chez-alice.fr/

(mj)

New FPGA core for Suska provides 68030 CPU (09.01.2022 - 00:00 Uhr)

Im ausgehenden Jahr 2021 meldete sich Wolfgang Förster mit einem großen Suska-Update zurück. Suska ist eine Sammlung aus FPGA-Code, um die Funktionalität der Atari-Custom-Chips nachzubilden.

Mit dem Release 2K21A wurden alle CPU-Kerne gründlich geprüft und Fehler behoben. Die Suska-Kerne unterstützen nun Fast-RAM, soweit möglich. Interessant ist die Implementation der 68030 CPU. Hier gibt es die WF68K30L (ohne MMU und Cache) und die WF68K30L (mit Cache/MMU). Der DSP ist noch nicht implementiert und auch ohne DSP ist das Suska-III-C-Board für einen Falcon unterdimensioniert.

https://download.experiment-s.de/Configware/releasenotes.txt

(mj)

FPGA computer Mega65 is available for pre-order (02.10.2021 - 20:23 Uhr)

The Mega65 is an FPGA-based computer compatible to the C64 and C65(!), complete in its own case with keyboard. However, the system is also intended to become a Spectrum, Amiga or even Atari ST later on.

The case is strongly reminiscent of the C65, Commodore's planned C64 successor with a 3.5" floppy drive and much improved graphics capabilities. The prototypes of the C65 did not turn out to be quite as C64-compatible as hoped, in addition the C65 would have become an in-house competitor for the Amiga. The prototypes and developer machines were eventually sold in the USA and Germany.

Thanks to FPGA, the Mega65 achieves a higher C64 compatibility than the real C65, and the cores are open source. Like the C65, the computer has a floppy disk drive, but the developers did not strictly adhere to the C65 data sheet: SDHC card slot and LAN were not provided for by Commodore, and the system's graphics and sound capabilities were also improved once again. If you want to load software in the classic way via 5.25" floppy disk, you connect a 1541/1571/1581. The Mega65 can be pre-ordered for 793.33 euros and will be delivered in 2022.

https://mega65.org/ https://shop.trenz-electronic.de/en/Products/MEGA65/

(mj)

TTF-GDOS version 2.3 released (18.09.2021 - 22:34 Uhr)

After a twenty-year break, there is an update for TTF-GDOS, a free GDOS replacement that works with TTF (TrueType Fonts). Apart from some bug fixes and optimisations, the biggest change is the included program ttf2gem, which converts TrueType fonts into GEM fonts.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ttf-gdos/

(mj)

Stunt Car Racer gets an STE version (11.09.2021 - 00:12 Uhr)

Geoff Crammond's Stunt Car Racer is surely one of the most original racing games ever. The two cars are on a track several metres high. By the standards of the time, both the frame rate and the graphics (filled vector graphics) were fine. Two computers can be connected via null modem cable, which also works across systems, at least with the ST and Amiga versions. Despite its success, the game remained without a successor and the 16-bit versions of the time remained the best technical versions of the game.

Jonathan Thomas (Lotus STE) wonders if this game could be further improved with the hardware features of the STE, such as using the blitter to draw polygons faster. Should Stunt Car Racer be as high quality a work as Lotus STE, ST(E) gamers can look forward to an update with many small and large improvements.

(mj)

zeST, new FPGA project (10.09.2021 - 23:05 Uhr)

Not all FPGAs are the same and an existing core must first be ported to another FPGA family. With the zeST project, the Xilinx Zync-7000 family now has the pleasure of an ST/E replica. The CPU replication is based on the free fx68k implementation of the 68000. zeST still lacks a comfortable user interface; it is booted via a setup program using Linux.

Developer François Galea uses the project to learn VHDL. He wants to inform about progress on Twitter.

The Zync-7000 family combines an FPGA chip with a dual-core 32-bit ARM CPU and various hardware controllers.

(mj)

MyAES 0.98 released (20.08.2021 - 18:52 Uhr)

Olivier Landemarre has published a new version of MyAES a good 3.5 years after the last update. Together with Freemint, MyAES forms a multitasking system and is thus an alternative to XaAES and N.AES. The changes are entirely internal, as the explicit goal was to overtake XaAES and MagiC in terms of performance. Via shel_write, threads can now be created, problematic apps can be noted in a text file, which are then started in single mode, and the kernel's event management has been optimised.

http://myaes.lutece.net/myaes098/myaes098_en.html

(mj)

EmuTOS 1.1 released (09.07.2021 - 20:25 Uhr)

The EmuTOS team has released version 1.1 of the alternative TOS compatible operating system EmuTOS today. The update mainly offers improvements in the AES and BIOS, in addition two more languages are supported with Turkish and Hungarian.

For the first time, the free operating system supports the DSP of the Falcon, so it is compatible with many programs that required the new features of TOS 4. Also included is support for color icons and colored windows, the former visible for example in the game NoMess or HypView. The developers also improved support for Nova graphics cards and added interrupt-driven I/O for MFP and TT-MFP serial ports.

Finally, the new languages led to another change: The 512K ROMs also contain only one language from now on. The more than a dozen language versions would otherwise lead even the "big" ROM to its capacity limit.

(mj)

Crackers I: The Gold Rush is being shipped (18.04.2021 - 16:59 Uhr)

Software piracy in the 80s and 90s is the subject of the latest work by Marco A. Breddin (Borders trilogy). It deals with the groups and people of the cracker scene, who mostly appeared under pseudonyms for good reason. The "end users" knew the cracks, which were passed on through many channels.

Unlike Borders, the development of the Atari ST does not serve as a hook and former crackers of the 8-bit scene and the Amiga also have their share. However, the list of celebrated groups reads like a Who's Who of the ST cracker scene. Readers can look forward to lots of background information and a generously illustrated book, which is currently shipping for supporters of the crowdfounding campaign.

Those who missed this campaign can currently order the 336-page book for 35 Euros in the Microzeit store. A follow-up title is already being planned.

https://www.microzeit.com/atari-store-1/crackers-the-gold-rush-1/

(mj)

Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge STe (11.04.2021 - 15:30 Uhr)

Fans of arcade-style racing games will be familiar with the Lotus trilogy. The three racing games in pseudo-3D style were a success in the early 90s, especially on the Atari ST and the Amiga. The split screen was already included in part 1. At that time, however, it was no longer common to develop on the ST and port a game 1:1 to the Amiga. The original Lotus did not make use of the STE hardware.

Now there is an extended version for the STE, strongly inspired by the Amiga Lotus. First of all, the Blitter is now heavily used, road, roadside objects and cars are calculated by the Blitter. Also the mountains in the background are now handled by the Blitter. All objects move more smoothly across the screen now. The extended color palette of the STE is used. The sounds of the engine and the sound effects are samples, plus there are ST chip tunes.

Officially supported are the 1040STE and the Mega STE (also in 16 MHz mode). On STs with Blitter the game also runs, but there the gradient in the sky is limited to the ST color palette and there are no sound samples. Download at Atarimania.

(mj)

Last shipment of Atari hardware arriving soon! (01.04.2021 - 19:22 Uhr)

Another ship from Asia is expected in Rotterdam soon, with a cargo that Atari fans have been waiting for a long time, more precisely: for over 25 years.

Atari never had a good hand with deliveries by ship, numerous launches had to be postponed, delivery promises had to be shortened. "A ship will come" was also mocked in ST-Computer. But it was always only a matter of a few weeks or months.

One ship, however, showed up in the Atari accounts as a total loss: The Ppallijuseyo had departed with the last hardware production on board - the goods would have brought Atari urgently needed capital for the Jaguar. However, the ship did not live up to its name.

Scholars are already celebrating the slowest ship of all time as a silent time capsule. Filled with pallets of Falcon 030 computers, gray power pads, several hundred TTs and 8281 ST Books, the supplies Atari dealers have been waiting 30 years for are finally arriving. We at ST-Computer are also happy to welcome back our old advertisers.

So Atari fans can now create a free spot on their desk for the coveted Falcon 030 or the ST Book. The Ppallijuseyo is currently heading for the Suez Canal, queue position 260.

(mj)

EmuTOS-Snapshots: 512KB ROM splitted, new 1MB ROM (18.03.2021 - 21:41 Uhr)

The snapshots of the free operating system EmuTOS indicate the direction of development. For the 512KB ROM - multilingual in the Falcon - this means: giving up multilingualism. This is for good reasons.

Responsible for this is actually a welcome development: EmuTOS is available in more and more languages, among them recently a Turkish translation. Compared to the Falcon TOS there are three times more languages to choose from - and at this point even the 512KB ROM reaches its capacity limit.

Through the now implemented splitting, there is again about 200KB free space in the ROM. But there was also a ROM released with all languages, which weighs a whole megabyte. Atari itself has not built such a ROM size into any ST. The EmuTOS team points out in the readme that the 1MB version cannot be used by Atari hardware and is currently only compatible with Hatari.

(mj)

Minipos: Point-of-Sale-System for the ST (25.01.2021 - 00:39 Uhr)

That's how it started in 1985/1986: There was little software for the Atari, so a lot of software was created for personal use - and then the Atari served well in accounting or in the store. Very few of these programs were published, or developed into more general solutions.

MiniPOS is reminiscent of this time, but was not created in 1985, but 35 years later. The program was written in HiSoft Basic and since more than half a year it is actually in daily use in a bicycle store.

The program is available including source code on Github.

https://github.com/winterhard/minipos

(mj)

Songbird announces 2D RPG for Jaguar (20.12.2020 - 20:06 Uhr)

Pessimistic Jaguar fans look at the screenshots and wonder when this game was released for the ST. Kings of Edom, however, is not an ST port, but a new development for Jaguar. Both visually and gameplay-wise, the title is definitely retro: In 2D optics, the player descends deeper and deeper into the dungeon. There are role-playing elements, but Kings of Edom is primarily a true Rogue-like game. Players can therefore expect randomly placed treasures, traps and enemies. The game is scheduled for release in Summer 2021.

https://songbird-productions.com/2020/12/14/its-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-part-2/

(mj)

AtariAge starts presale for new VCS and 8-bit games (17.12.2020 - 22:19 Uhr)

Once a year AtariAge dumps a whole bunch of new games into their store, usually with high quality packaging. This year there were a few delays and the shipping will also be next year. As many as 13 games for the VCS2600 are launching, one each for 5200 and 7800, and two for Atari's 8-bit computers. Prices range from $40 to $50, and shipping is from the US.

• Avalanche (2600)
• Cannonhead Clash (2600)
• Dare Devil (2600)
• Deepstone Catacomb (2600)
• Hugohunt (2600)
• Ms. Galactopus (2600)
• Ninjish Guy in Low-Res World (2600)
• Panic! Rooms (2600)
• Robot City (2600)
• The End (2600)
• Tower of Rubble (2600)
• Venture Reloaded (2600)
• Zoo Keeper (2600)
• Magical Fairy Force (5200)
• Dragon's Cache (7800)
• Adventure II XE (400/800/XL/XE)
• Scramble (400/800/XL/XE)

(mj)

C-Compiler AHCC in version 6.0 (11.12.2020 - 01:42 Uhr)

There is again an update to report, namely to AHCC, the C compiler and editor based on Sozobon, which is compatible to a large extent to Pure C. AHCC is getting closer to this standard with this update. An interesting footnote is that now for the first time all included binaries have been compiled with AHCC and not Pure C. As usual AHCC is available as source code or compiled for 68000, 68020+ and Coldfire.

(mj)

In honor of Ostrowski: GFA Editor 3.70 (09.12.2020 - 18:42 Uhr)

Today would be Frank Ostrowski's birthday, the creator of Turbo Basic and GFA-Basic. In honor of Ostrowski, Lonny Pursell has officially removed the "beta" suffix from the GFA Editor. In addition, the development system now presents itself by its version number as the legitimate successor of the legendary Basic.

GBE 3.7 offers about 500 new commands and functions, including all previously missing AES/BIOS/XBIOS/VDI/GEMDOS calls. MiNTNet, LDG, STiK and the protocols Font, DHST and AV are supported. There are also some general additions, inspired by HiSoft BASIC, GFA PC or by various developers who worked with GBE in the last years.

GBE was created because GFA Basic does not run well in multitasking. The editor runs exclusively with multitasking systems, but is also suitable for writing games and demos. Latest example for a GFA program created with GBE: Randomazer.

(mj)

EmuTOS 1.0.1 with Falcon fix (06.12.2020 - 12:18 Uhr)

Compared to EmuTOS 1.0 there is only one change: On an Atari Falcon with 4 MB RAM, when using the 512k ROM version of EmuTOS, a Nova graphics card was erroneously detected. This caused a panic during boot, preventing the use of the 512k ROM version of EmuTOS 1.0 on such a machine.

(mj)

LynXmas 2020 Game Jam (01.12.2020 - 00:50 Uhr)

Please warm up the Assembler and C-Compiler, because Lynx developers are again invited to participate in a contest. The contest is organized by Atari Gamer, AtariAge, ejagfest and SillyVenture - both will not take place this year. There are only fifteen days left to develop something that "puts a smile on the face of the players". The Itch.io site is a bit more specific: the game should have a theme appropriate to the season, be less than 32 KB in size and play on a single screen.

https://itch.io/jam/lynxmas2020

(mj)

GEMGUILib for Nana C++ (30.11.2020 - 23:43 Uhr)

These are posts that cause head shaking for those who have had the "pleasure" of writing a GEM application: The demand to simply put the GEM user interface on a new operating system substructure - which is not a good idea, because GEM stems from a completely different era.

With GEMGUILib you can at least pretend to. The library uses the Nana C++ Library for the design of user interfaces and is roughly oriented on the look of TOS 4.x/MultiTOS. So there is a reunion with alert boxes, 3D buttons and window widgets with shading. In practice, such an app feels more like an application that pretends to be a GEM application - but there were plenty of those on the Atari, too...

https://github.com/emartisoft/GEMGUILib

(mj)