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Apps that defined your personal ST/STe/TT/Falcon use


Fletch

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Sitting near the STs and the Falcon tonight got me thinking about which apps defined my Atari 16/32 days best. Which apps kept me entertained the most, got the most work done, provided me with access to the outside world, etc.

 

So I figured I'd make a bit of a list and would love to hear a bit about what apps defined your ST/TT/Falcon experiences the best.

 

Here's mine in no particular order of importance:

 

Stunt Track Racer : I just loved this one. The 3D game play was smooth and the tracks were amazing. The ability to play via null modem was an awesome plus as well!

 

Battle Chess: I sucked at chess then, I suck at chess now, but boy did I like this one. The sounds and animations somehow made me getting my butt kicked by friends and CPU alike somehow enjoyable. Played it recently and boy is it slow, but I guess that didn't bother me then. Also had null modem play, so there was that too.

 

1st Word: This word processor came with my original 520ST and I used it throughout high school and university. It was pretty bare bones, but the price was right. I still use it when I want a quick text edit.

 

Wayne Gretzky Hockey: Being North American our sports selections weren't as diverse as our Euro ST brethren, but I enjoyed this one a bunch. The sounds were fun, editing your own teams was fun, graphics sucked but worked.

 

The Immortal: A Will Harvey Classic! Great graphics and fun story kept me entertained for quite a long time.

 

TimeWorks Desktop Publisher: The first WYSIWYG editor I ever used. Not really a desktop publisher per se, but I made flyers for my friend's band with it and for the time the output was pretty decent.

 

Sierra: I realize Sierra is a brand, but I'm including all of the titles as a group. I loved the King's Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, and Space Quest series of games a ton. Hooking the midi keyboard up to play the music added to the fun. Loved these games.

 

Sensible Soccer: What a great footie! Hard as heck, but hands down the best soccer game on the ST.

 

Atari Works: The word processor that replaced 1st Word for me. It came with my Falcon and was certainly an upgrade from 1st Word.

 

Bomb Jack: My favorite arcade conversion on the ST. Other than the music, the conversion is spot on. Not much else to say other than brilliant!

 

ST BASIC: I know it sucks, I hated it then and I hate it now. However, it came with my 520ST and when I needed to do write a program for whatever reason I used it. The multi window editor and output irritated me to no end. I used it way more than I should have.

 

Goblins: What an amazing puzzle game. I loved the animation and the goblin voices. If you haven't played this, you need to try it!

 

FLASH 2: Communication software that connected me to GEnie. I spent way too much time on GEnie and this is the software that allowed me waste away those hours.

 

Antmail: The first dedicated internet email client that I ever used. Its email, so not thrilling, but my Falcon and I were happy :)

 

Neochrome: Another pack in with the 520ST. I'm not much of an artist, but the ability to do simple animations was fun.

 

Colonial Conquest: A RISK like game that I played a ton. Friend's and I would play all night and take turns sleeping whilst we'd hot seat our turns. Amazing one!

 

Winter Games: I'm a sucker for this series. Played Summer Games all the time on the 8-bit. This one on the ST.

 

Dungeon Master: Are you even an ST user if this isn't on the list? :)

 

Civilization: Heck I still play this one! The ST version had lousy EGA graphics, but the game play is amazing. Top notch!

 

MetroCross: Another great arcade port. One of the first ST games I had and I still enjoy it today.

 

Leader Board: A golf game. I don't like golf. I like this game.

 

BLAT: If you have an STe or a Falcon you need to play this Tetris-like game. Sound effects crack me up.

 

 

I'm sure I'm missing a ton of stuff, but these are the ones that came to mind so I'm thinking they defined my ST/Falcon time the best.

 

Let me know about what defined your time.

 

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Dungeon Master, Battle Chess, just about anything from Sierra (especially the

Space Quest series!), Gauntlet 2, Better Dead Than Alien, Gods, Chaos Engine,

Blood Money, Arctic Fox, Ultima 3, 4, 5, (like 6 but the graphics suck), and many

more...

 

On the productivity side, I used ST Writer, then Edith and QED. I started out with

Michtron's BBS but wound up with BBS Express! ST, which I still use on my BBS

to this day. FANSI (not commercial) for ANSI editing. Flash at first, but then I went

to more graphical telecomm programs such as Freeze Dried Terminal, ANSITerm,

and TAZ.

 

STing, CAB, Newsie, were all staples that I used as well for 'Net stuff.

 

I was always partial to playing around with Mugshot as well. :)

 

PS OH! How could I forget about the GENie client! Spent hours

and hours there...

Edited by DarkLord
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Skulldiggery (my #1 desert island game for the ST)

Duck Dash (introduced me to the wonders of homebrew games)

Treasure Trap (under-rated gem, got my original copy of this from the bargain bin for £2.99 back in the early 90s, goes for £15 these days)

Outrun (first ST game I ever played and first version of Outrun I ever played)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (action game) (been playing this since the age of 10 and only got past the first level a couple of years ago)

Ghostbusters II (been playing this since the age of 10 and completed it for the first time last week)

Blood Money (been playing this since the age of 10 and still can't get past the first level or even get on the high score list)

r0x (the first game to show me the true power of the ST)

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Skulldiggery (my #1 desert island game for the ST)

Duck Dash (introduced me to the wonders of homebrew games)

Treasure Trap (under-rated gem, got my original copy of this from the bargain bin for £2.99 back in the early 90s, goes for £15 these days)

Outrun (first ST game I ever played and first version of Outrun I ever played)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (action game) (been playing this since the age of 10 and only got past the first level a couple of years ago)

Ghostbusters II (been playing this since the age of 10 and completed it for the first time last week)

Blood Money (been playing this since the age of 10 and still can't get past the first level or even get on the high score list)

r0x (the first game to show me the true power of the ST)

 

I have never been exposed to Skulldiggery, Duck Dash, or r0x before. I will certainly seek those out.

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I have never been exposed to Skulldiggery, Duck Dash, or r0x before. I will certainly seek those out.

 

You'll find Skulldiggery in the Automation catalogue (#83)

 

Duck Dash is available here:

http://www.atarilegend.com/games/games_detail.php?game_id=1626

 

r0x is available here:

http://www.rgcd.co.uk/2011/04/r0x-atari-ste-2009.html

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ST Basic

GFA Basic

Assem Pro

Interlink ST

BBS Express! ST

Computer Eyes

Replay

PC Ditto

AD Speed 286

Magic Sac

Leisue Suit Larry

Populous

Sim City

Any Sierra Adventure

 

I recently tried my old PC-Ditto disk, but sadly it no longer reads. I found a disk image on-line, but it was a PAL version so it wouldn't work on my NTSC machines. Maybe someday I'll find one on eBay or something.

 

Man oh man was it slow :)

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Xenon ("S-Sector One")

Space Quest III (Monolith Burger, anyone?)

Monopoly by David Addison (or, "Holy shit, a hobbyist just made a better version of our game than we did!")

Obsession Pinball (Aquatic Zone, please.)

DynaBlasters (Who was that alien-headed broad, anyway?)

MODPLAY.ACC (Get my head-bang AND my Monopoly on, AT THE SAME TIME!)

MOD Music (Elysium, Alex Goes Funky, Axel F, Mortal Kombat Theme, etc., etc., etc.)

AtariWorks (Just enough Office for the Atari.)

SpeedoGDOS ('Cause it was cheap and easy. And cheap.)

Kandinsky Art (An excellent vector drawing proggy and in every shareware compilation know to Atari man.)

BOUND[X].PRG (The BOUND demos on the Falcon simply rocked.)

AGGRINV.PRG (The invite to Aggressive Party '94, I believe it was. Fantastic effects, and the smooth scrolling invite text with ominous, bassy hum made me wish I could be there.)

Toad Computers (I don't know what that sexy little girl-next-door voice looked like, but I was in love from the first time I called. And they had good Atari, too.)

ICD Link-II (BING! SCSI on my 1040 STe.)

Canon BJ-10 (BANG! Laser quality print on my 1040 STe.)

NEC MultiSync 3D (BOOM! Multisync display on my 1040 STe.)

 

The list could be endless, but those are some of the major milestones.

Edited by pixelmischief
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I recently tried my old PC-Ditto disk, but sadly it no longer reads. I found a disk image on-line, but it was a PAL version so it wouldn't work on my NTSC machines. Maybe someday I'll find one on eBay or something.

 

Man oh man was it slow :)

Yep it was, but it was somewhat useful...

 

Hmm, I'm pretty sure I've got that disk somewhere.

 

Want me to try to find it, MSA it, and post it here?

I have found some recently:

PC Ditto v2.0.msa.zip

PC Ditto US v3.01.msa.zip

PC Ditto US v3.01 v2.msa.zip

 

*remove .zip from the msa filename*

 

These are standard zips:

pc_ditto_vx_xx_(19xx)(avant_garde_systems)b-atarist.zip

pc_ditto_v3_64_(1988)(avant_garde_systems)a2-atarist.zip

pc_ditto_v3_64_(1988)(avant_garde_systems)a-atarist.zip

pc_ditto_v3_64_(1988)(avant_garde_systems)-atarist.zip

Edited by AtariGeezer
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No particular order:

 

- Devpac Developer

- Dungeon Master

- Oids

- Populous

- Starglider(s)

- Frontier

- Mercenary(1-3)

- CAD 3D (Sculpt etc.)

- Cyberpaint, Apex(!)

- ST Replay

- Xenon 1,2

- SimCity

- STOS

- Backlash

- Speedball

- Stuntcar Racer

- some trackers (can't remember which ones)

- lots and lots and lots of demos!

 

Plenty missing from this list - lots of good games - but my memory needs jogging...

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Xenon ("S-Sector One")

Space Quest III (Monolith Burger, anyone?)

Monopoly by David Addison (or, "Holy shit, a hobbyist just made a better version of our game than we did!")

Obsession Pinball (Aquatic Zone, please.)

DynaBlasters (Who was that alien-headed broad, anyway?)

MODPLAY.ACC (Get my head-bang AND my Monopoly on, AT THE SAME TIME!)

MOD Music (Elysium, Alex Goes Funky, Axel F, Mortal Kombat Theme, etc., etc., etc.)

AtariWorks (Just enough Office for the Atari.)

SpeedoGDOS ('Cause it was cheap and easy. And cheap.)

Kandinsky Art (An excellent vector drawing proggy and in every shareware compilation know to Atari man.)

BOUND[X].PRG (The BOUND demos on the Falcon simply rocked.)

AGGRINV.PRG (The invite to Aggressive Party '94, I believe it was. Fantastic effects, and the smooth scrolling invite text with ominous, bassy hum made me wish I could be there.)

Toad Computers (I don't know what that sexy little girl-next-door voice looked like, but I was in love from the first time I called. And they had good Atari, too.)

ICD Link-II (BING! SCSI on my 1040 STe.)

Canon BJ-10 (BANG! Laser quality print on my 1040 STe.)

NEC MultiSync 3D (BOOM! Multisync display on my 1040 STe.)

 

The list could be endless, but those are some of the major milestones.

 

The voice at Toad was Jennifer, Dave's wife. They were very young when they owned Toad. Here she is today : https://allianceforthebay.org/board-of-directors/jennifer-rucker-troy/

 

I'd make a drive to MD, I'm from PA, every so often and shop at their store. Both were really nice, as was their partner Ray. They gave me a tour of the back offices and Dave showed me how he made the catalogs. (On a Macintosh :)

 

I spent too much money there that I didn't have, but it was a great experience and was cool to see people my own age (at the time) running their own business.

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Well for me,

 

NVDI, fonts and screen acceleration.

ST BASIC, I made some stuff to help at uni and during my exams (i.e. too bored to solve 3x3 equations systems, so I programmed a solver for it :D)

Atari Works (though the spreadsheet had some unacceptable limitations, I did some work there).

Pure Pascal/C, my first attempt with these languages. Uni stuff mostly but nothing really interesting.

MultiTOS, my first view into the unix world.

Falcamp and Aniplayer

 

 

Games:

ISHAR II, though I don't play RPG I liked that one

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I couldn't get past the castle since I was terrible at fighting

NSP, not enough words to describe it.

 

Demos:

Sonoluminszenze

Underscore

Hmmm...

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Signum!2 for unprecedented and never surpassed individual character fiddling and microspacing

FidoNet software (BinkleyTerm initially, can't remember the name of the better software I used later) for pre-web comms

Oxyd for pure black & white SM124 gaming

Tempus/Tempus Word and TeX for word processing

NeoDesk and later MagiC for a better desktop

Kobold for quick copying

And a boot manager that allowed to choose between various configs during boot.

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Go to the folder where you downloaded them, right click on a file, choose Rename and remove the ".zip" from the end of the filename...

That didn't work :( than I'd remembered that I've winrar installed on my system so I had to use winrar to rename the files. :spidey:

Edited by walter_J64bit
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