Foebane

Oh, how could I have forgotten Alley Cat? That game has the most imaginative subgames, visuals and sounds I've ever experienced in any 8-bit game. The sounds especially, considering how none of them are digitised. The best sound has to be when the cat fights with a dog at the bottom of the "outdoors" screen - the screeching sounds are just brilliant. There was also a subgame I remember (haven't found it recently though) where the cat has to negotiate several sleeping dogs in a room, and when it gets too close, the dog growls (with the best such sound effect I've ever heard). Yep, Alley Cat is a real showcase for POKEY!

IMHO: BEST MUSIC: Numen by Taquart (So catchy!) RUNNER-UP: InvitroIO4 (Great bass!) BEST SFX: Dropzone - Spaceman/player explosion RUNNER-UP: Pole Position (Engine sounds) What are your favourite POKEY musical pieces and sound effects, with runners-up if any?

I used to own a fair amount of these, mainly as tape copies from a friend, but mostly the budget Mastertronic stuff, etc which I bought myself. I now own them all as ATRs or COMs, and I don't feel guilty about it. I have completed Bruce Lee a few times, as well as Ninja, and I've gotten so far into Defender that I've managed to reset both the score and the wave counter! There was this other great game that was Atari 8-bit only called Powerdown, and I think I completed that twice! Certainly a great puzzle/timing/shooting game.

Can someone tell me how to use this program, as I have no idea how to put these files on disk images, let alone putting my own jpegs on the same disk image. And how is DOS accessible? Pity there aren't any screenshots of the colour version.

I think this is how it is with all Atari 8-bits. Only 128 colours are available (16 colours at 8 shades each) on all modes except for GR.9 and GR.11, where it's shades and colours respectively, but not in any way combined. Although, combination is possible by alternating between 9 and 11 on successive scan lines, and some demos and software have just done that for some amazing colourful 256 colour visuals.

Can't be very good if you've got that circuit board on top all the time - or is that not part of it?

Why buy it when you can try it for free from Mr Bacardi's site? Or is that illegal?

Looks very interesting, Heaven!

Oh, didn't it? Good job I found this site then, and played it for myself - it's great! http://people.freenet.de/mrbacardi/Atari-proto.html You may need the latest Atari800Win for this. Download the file then just drag and drop it into the Atari800Win window, and it will work.

Sorry about that Heaven. I just thought that since you were in Taquart you added stuff to Numen... What is Boinxxx, then?

Jay DID design both chipsets, yes. At least, I think he was responsible for AmigaDOS as well, but I doubt Commodore would ditch whatever they were working on, just to save time for themselves. Yes, as far as I know, only the A1000 has the signatures of the Amiga team. Even Jay's dog, Mitchy, gets a pawprint too! Are you Heaven of Taquart? MAN, that Numen demo is the best I've ever seen for A8, as well as all your other stuff. Have you guys created anything since?

Yes, I wondered that too. Seems like a step in the wrong direction to me.

Aah, I have fond memories of Turbo Basic. It sped things up mightily when I was working on Mandelbrot Set generators back in the late 80s. Didn't know how to achieve same effect in Assembler, that's why.

I'm certain they used Jay's operating system, which was actually quite innovative at the time, offering pre-emptive multitasking YEARS before MS Windows did. Why would Commodore throw away such an asset?

Back in 1989, I had the same problem as X5 on my 800XL, but this time it was more regular. What would happen was that everything was fine at first, but then steady lines would appear over the image, together with a buzz, and then as time went on more and more of them came until the entire image was covered with them, and the buzz would become worse. I figured it was a component that was wearing out, but everything else seemed fine, until I tried AtariArtist with my touch tablet - the whole cursor would wobble all around the screen, and was very unstable. Anyone know what this could've been?

Sheddy, that Space Harrier port is REMARKABLE! Even the "Aargh!" and "Get Ready" samples sound clearer than on the ST! WELL DONE!

Red Rat's Technicolor Dream theoretically offers twice the palette (256 cols) with no line restriction, but at a lower resolution. I think it uses display lists to alternate between Mode 9 and 11, and combines brightnesses and hues that way. Either way, it is capable of remarkable graphics.

That's quite right. Atari were about to acquire Amiga technologies (then a separate developer) when Commodore bought it under their very nose at the eleventh hour. For Jack Tramiel, who was until recently AT Commodore but left to join Atari, this was VERY bad news, so they had to create the ST using standard off-the-shelf parts instead.

Well, I doubt I'll mention Amigas that much anyway, as I'm here to chat about Atari 8-bits.

I'm a new member of this forum, and before I start I just want to clear a few things up right from the start: 1. I've owned and loved the Atari XL series for the 8 years I had them, and consider them the best of ANY 8-bit computer. 2. I've owned an Atari 520STFM for up to four months, before I ditched it in favour of a Commodore Amiga, once I found out that Jay Miner was responsible for both the Amiga and the Atari 8-bit. I hope some of you are not offended by this - after all, why not own the machines created by this genius? I'm sure I'll have no problems on this forum, as I love the Atari 8-bits, but I only hope that what I said above in point 2 will not be taken the wrong way. Is it alright for me to join you all? I would love to discuss my favourite Atari 8-bit memories here!