marakatti

Besides usual activities like retrogaming and watching demos I also like to play around with various graphics utilities and fractal generators, writing Finnish Atari articles with my CosmosEx powered Mega STe using Papyrus Gold and running parts of Atarimania ST reasearch database with Twist 2. Also doing some lightweight DTP with PageStream. I worked using ST line along with Macs in the 90's so it's natural to continue using ST in modern times when possible. The SM124 from Oct 1988 still works great.

Yeah I've used it from time to time. Doesn't unfortunately give full monochrome compatibility as most apps seem to think they run in some incompatible graphics card mode despite pixels being in 640x400. Some work great like ImageCopy. Also works with monochrome monitors providing 640x800 resolution.

Hi, maybe this one? http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-st-ste-double-height-emulator_34222.html

My apologies.

I've always been an Atari ST user, but also had Amiga since mid 90's. It has some great gaming hardware and games from 1991 or so onwards really shows what the system can do, versus ST being a great multipurpose computer at the time with an unbeatable power/price ratio. Two different worlds. I think it would be great to see Amiga chipset returning back home. There's so much Atari history in that machine. I'm just happy Atari did the ST instead of Amiga back in the day. I wouldn't have my career without the ST. With Amiga I would just ended up playing games.

Why not let ST fans decide that? The games reflect their time and place. It's natural that they don't look as attractive today, but does ZX Spectrum or 2600 games? No and they still can playable and fun if programmed well. Retro gaming is not all about eye candy. According to professional journalists up to summer 1989 Amiga games were rarely seen that much superior, because it was playability that counted. I've compiled hundreds of review scores for that subject. Sometimes leading magazines even gave worse score for Amiga versions, because they didn't use the extra hardware. Not to mention Amiga games by Ocean were usually 5 pounds more expensive making them even less worth the asking price until things changed in the 89/90 when it became the lead platform and got cheap enough that people actually had money to buy one with a Ram expansion. Someone had to lead the way in the early 16bit days to make "next gen" games like Dungeon Master, Carrier Command or Universal Military Simulator. It happened to be Atari's hardware which still is a tough bite for some people to swallow. Sure it didn't perform well in arcade conversions due to lack of gaming hardware, but there were lot of great games for the older audience. Even Retro Gamer mentioned Atari three times in their article of 50 things that changed gaming, while Amiga, as great as it's hardware is, didn't get a mention at all. It's not always about superiority of the hardware, but the time and place when things actually happened. If it were, most games would have been written for Acorn Archimedes. YouTube videos are just games in attract mode. Like a car that can't be driven from the passenger seat. You can only admire scenery, but have no idea how it handles.

Thank You @TrogdarRobusto I've actually compiled a list of ST-series games and demos released by Atari or brands owned by Atari for the Atari50, but was unfortunately too late. If it's any help, just let me know if you want the list 😊 There are 80 titles at the moment including a small introduction text for titles between 1985 - 1994, from the first ever game seen on the ST screen at 1985 Winter CES (Accessory BreakOut) to Steel Talons Falcon port from 1994.

Why it has to be exclusives? I don't think that mattered so much back then. There were dozens of systems out there and most games were converted to whatever sold. The whole exclusives thing started when consoles appeared again in the NES era. Isn't it enough that the ST was practically a lead platform for many 16bit games in 87, 88 and even to some extend in 89? Or that some of the biggest software housesused it as a development system to produce games for other platforms also. People tend to forget that many 16bit computer games in those years were first in shops for the ST. By the time other versions were out, ST players had already completed the game in question. It usually took 2 to 3 months for example European Amiga versions to reach shops. Sometimes even 6 months, or over a year. So while there were not many exclusives outside shreware/freeware market, many of today's 'Amiga classics' were actually born on the ST originally. The beauty of ST was that it really is one of a few computers in it's price range where for a few years you could play the latest games first and use the same computer to earn money running your business as a cheap but at the time powerful Mac-like hires system.

Very important post! I have to say I was extremely disappointed that for example the ST was basically left out completely from Atari 50. There are tons of fascinating stories and well researched history, just please talk to Karl Morris from https://zafinnbooks.com/ I'm a huge Atari fan and an ST user from 1990 onwards to this very date. I also use the VCS800 to preserve Atari ST series history and to do my research. I even use my old Mega STe to write articles still in 2023! So I really love Atari as whole, not only the 'old' ST series. As most of us I've lived through the painful Atari years, had high hopes for the new succesful era time after time again, but never lost the faith to this brand, even when it was "uncool" to use Atari. BUT... as much as I think the current team at Atari is really the best since Tramiels left the scene in 1996, sadly I don't see Atari paying much respect to the fact that without Atari ST's commercial success in Europe there would have not been Atari Lynx or Jaguar at all. Atari's story would have very likely finished there in 1984. For that reason I think there is a really big black spot in Atari 50 compilation history because of this, even if otherwise it's an extremely polished product, and I've enjoyed it a lot on my VCS800. Other than that the 'new' Atari is pretty much all I've been hoping Atari to be. It's just amazing to be able to use a real Atari computer still in 2023 for modern tasks and enjoying nostalgia ❤ I just wish there could be more recognition for 8bit and 16bit computer lines in Atari's future plans. Atari ST's success was very critical for Atari's name to be alive today. Please Atari, don't forget it 😊

Jinnee is a very good alternative desktop. https://exxosforum.co.uk/atari/mirror/myatari/issues/mar2001/jinnee.htm

Having something similar to iGame for the ST would be great. https://www.indieretronews.com/2020/09/igame-v2-well-known-amiga-game-launcher.html?m=1

You can map keys from shortcuts menu (flash icon)

Well, it's a start at least... Hopefully someone can assist you further. I can understand the frustration when people spend their free time and energy to create contributions. At the moment it takes way too long for them to appear to the website but there's not much we can do about it We usually have just one person per platform to handle ALL the work, so the amount of contributions is way, way bigger what we have free time for. I still have stuff sent to me over 2 years ago which i haven't been able to verify and archive. It's 3 to 4 Atarimania guys against over 300 people who have sent material for archiving over the years. That's the negative side of this hobby. No matter how fast, realiable and precise we would like to be, there's always real life issues slowing us down. And when you grow older, you don't have energy anymore to stay up all night to process contributions when kids and wife are sleeping. That's the human side of this. It frustrates us as much as it frustrates the hard working Atari community. We can only try our best, because we can't keep up with the amount of contributions at the moment.

Hi Harry Potter, i'm sorry no one has contacted you back I run ST compatibles side of things and unfortunately don't have any access to A8 stuff or database, so i didn't reply to your mail. Usually A8 admins should have done that. My apologies from behalf of Atarimania. @Atarimania or anyone else from A8 - are you still active?

I understand that very well, and i know you're only asking money for your work. And you more than deserve it. I've followed your work for years, and know you're one of the most helpful and productive guys in the world of Atari ST. I'm not here to judge what you can or cannot do It has just been 'against the spirit' of retro computing in my part of the world to ask money when something ex commercial is directly involved. Culture might have been different in your part of the world, and that's ok. I'm not familiar with it, but i respect it. I also understand that if things get tricky and someone is under threat to be thrown out of their own home due to bills they cannot pay for example, people will do anything to survive. Sometimes managing to get it through the next month financially feels like you're a super hero or something... Been into that situation many times and i'm going to be. It's not fun. Like you, a few other Atari ST hobbyists have worked like hell the last decade aswell for making the memory of our belowed computer to last forever. I know how time consuming it is to do something when 95% of the other users just expect everything to be free and instantly ready. Someone wants money for their work, someone wants respect, someone wants nothing, someone spends hundreds of euros just go give something for hobbyists to enjoy for free. We're all in different life situations. Still, if you ever put up an alternative way for donations, like Patreon, Buy me a Coffee or similar, i'm more than happy to contribute. And i'm pretty sure a few others are too. When you do good things to people, people usually do good things for you. Keep up the good work Peter

Peter, would you consider a bit different aproach to your policy? You could offer the game datafiles for free as previously, but charge money for your executable loader packs instead. This way people wouldn't accuse you of selling 'other people's work' and you would still get paid for your hard work. In other words people could still download the games, but need your loader to activate them, and all the work you've done wouldn't get overshadowed by the piracy accusations and breaking hobby traditions. Now, the big picture: My biggest fear is that someone pays for your gamepack, sends it to a publisher like Atari or Microprose as evidence. So the witch hunt begins which tries to close every Atari site for good, making ST software history preservation impossible in the future. It's naive to think big publishers won't care if their IP is sold for profit, no matter how good the hobbyist intentions are, or how small our scene is. Is a possible destroying of the Atari software preservation scene really worth a few sets of 10 euros or whatever the price is? I wish there could be another way for Atari hobbyists to support your work financially.

The same happened for ST last year. Many popular games were downvoted and someone 'maintained' his favourite list in our top 25. Not sure if there's protection against this kind of hackers. I suspect Amiga evangelists but can't say for sure. I would have hoped that people would have grown up by now. Sadly not...

Very sad news indeed. He was a fuel to my passion on researching Atari when i first started in the mid 90's with my Finnish Atari page. He always had time to answer my silly questions, helped with photos and everything. I've learnt so much from him. Without Curt i wouldn't have started my hobby as an Atari ST software historian, software cataloguer and preservator. A true hero who will be deeply missed. RIP Curt and thanks for everything. My condolences to his family.

We Love Atari part 2 book is a very good source for such information.

Many thanks!

Many thanks, great app

Apex Media http://www.leonik.net/dml/sec_apex.py

Photochrome version 6 says it can handle up to 226,981 colors on STE

It is a PC board called Falcon Speed similar to this one https://www.ebay.de/itm/Atari-Falcon-Speed-by-Sack-electronic-/113865766411 You can run DR-DOS, MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 with it if you have the software.

Hundreds of games and demos uses horizontal palette splitting which allows for example to have one 16 colours palette for things like score panel and another 16 colours palette for other screen area. Huge amount of games and demos also uses rasters to create colour gradients which in many cases break the 16 colour barrier by itself. Gods game engine for example can display over 50 colours on screen on standard STe.