Ultrasatan / hxc help for noobs

[walterg74]

Hi folks,

 

Have an Atari ST computer, and wanting to know the best option for my goal: playing games...

 

Not interested in tools, utilities etc. the sole reason I buy consoles and computers is for gaming.

 

having said that, in ine hand I already have an HxC (havent installed it anywhere yet) and on the other I saw the "ultrasatan".

 

Now the HxC I kniw more or less what it does (though I'n not fond of having the computer open to leave it connected, or take out the drive etc. ).

 

But the ultrasatan I'm not really sure... What exactly can you do with it, and would it just be overkill for what I want? I know I already have the HxC, but of the Ultrasatan is appropriate I could get one for the ST and leave the Hxc for another computer that doesn't have an alternate solution (like the Amstrad CPC)

 

Thanks for your comments/help!

[exxosuk]

ultrasatan is a hard drive.. worth getting as its faster than "floppy" stuff.

[walterg74]

Ok, but let me ask you this then... Is it like the Amiga equivalent of wdhload, where some games support being installed to hdd and others don't?

[exxosuk]

I don't own a Amiga so couldn't tell you. What I can tell you is while some games may not run from HDD, a lot of games have been patched to run from hard drive and other TOS versions. See here http://atari.8bitchip.info/ASTGA/astgam.php

[ParanoidLittleMan]

The right link is this: http://atari.8bitchip.info/fromhd.php

And I dare to say that it offers more than WHDload - you can save gamestate at any moment and later continue at that point - by most of adapted games.

[Rick Dangerous]

Ordered my Ultrasatan yesterday Can't wait to check it out and start using it! I asked if he could format it to be readable by mac/pc right out of the box but we'll see, worst case hopefully it's not too hard to do myself.

[ryoder]

Love my ultrasatan hate the name.

[+DarkLord]

Yeah, the Ultrasatan or CosmosEX are both way cool.

 

Hmm, btw PPera, has a hard drive adapted version of

Shadow of the Beast 2 ever been done? Thanks!

[+rdemming]

The following sites also have games that are patched for harddisk:

• D-Bug (Includes Shadow of the Beast II)
• Klaz's Hideaway

[+DarkLord]

Those are great sites, thanks.

 

Reason I was asking PPera is that his adapted versions usually

have lots of "extras", like the game save states, Photocrhome

enhanced static opening screens, etc,... For example, the extra

screen in Exodus: Ultima III doesn't affect game play, but it's a

very nice touch.

 

 

[Sowden]

Wow, I have a Robocop game that was a hack from far back in the day. It had that same demon with flames in his hand. Thats crazy man.

[Rick Dangerous]

Noticing that ST games are a tad on the pricey side, and the full rom set is available on the ISO zone.

 

Will these play right off the Ultrasatan or are they emulator only? Looking forward to doing some gaming on my ST as well and trying to buy some games but mostly digital copies will do..

[420kb]

Nothing is "emulator only" except for maybe weird romhacks that are designed to exploit the capabilities of emulators, such as weird NES or SNES romhacks but no, the most you might have to do is mount a disk image

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Noticing that ST games are a tad on the pricey side, and the full rom set is available on the ISO zone.

 

Will these play right off the Ultrasatan or are they emulator only? Looking forward to doing some gaming on my ST as well and trying to buy some games but mostly digital copies will do..

All copies are digital, so even original floppies What you (and some sites) call "ROM set" are floppy image files. And most of it will not play off the UltraSatan, but that means not that they are emulator only. You just need to write images on real floppies.

Of course, if have UltraSatan maybe should rather DL special hard disk adapted (patched) versions on mentioned sites.

 

I must here comment that ridiculous terminology what some sites still force: ROMs for floppy images - I guess that they just used same name as for real ROM cartridges - used mostly by consoles. But even then it is not ROM, but ROM image. ISO is really an image - for CDs, DVDs .

[Rick Dangerous]

All copies are digital, so even original floppies What you (and some sites) call "ROM set" are floppy image files. And most of it will not play off the UltraSatan, but that means not that they are emulator only. You just need to write images on real floppies.

Of course, if have UltraSatan maybe should rather DL special hard disk adapted (patched) versions on mentioned sites.

 

I must here comment that ridiculous terminology what some sites still force: ROMs for floppy images - I guess that they just used same name as for real ROM cartridges - used mostly by consoles. But even then it is not ROM, but ROM image. ISO is really an image - for CDs, DVDs .

 

Thanks man, really appreciate it, this info is very helpful. I plan to buy my favorite games on disk anyway, but with games (especially older ones) i've found it's best to try before you buy. Whether an old game is fun or not really seems to be a "your mileage may vary" situation to me.

[walterg74]

 

Thanks man, really appreciate it, this info is very helpful. I plan to buy my favorite games on disk anyway, but with games (especially older ones) i've found it's best to try before you buy. Whether an old game is fun or not really seems to be a "your mileage may vary" situation to me.

Exactly the same as with any new game...