GameBase ST

[.mad.]

Just letting all you atari fans know,

there is a NEW version of Atari ST GameBase v4.0HD.

contains thousands of new games and all HD conversions by PP.

 

 

[+DarkLord]

Awesomeness. 

 

[youxia]

Thanks for this, and many other Gamebase updates @.mad. A gentelman and a scholar.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Is it me, or there is no link to page about it, DL ?  I googled for Atari ST GameBase v4.0HD, and nothing ...  Ehm, after some walking over forum there found some not so apparent link. At least Mega is fast and cheap ?

[+DarkLord]

Hmm, hadn't noticed there wasn't a link.

 

I couldn't find anything either. Every google search brings up AtariMania.

 

[Atari8guy]

I found it here:  https://mega.nz/folder/e8xm2ZiZ#hkSeXf-_evLaoi13649JHA

[jefffulton]

Incredible work!  

[.mad.]

Wasn't sure about rules posting links???

but i should have gave you a better clue.

 

Thanks 8bitguy1 for posting.

 

Hi Peter

yes it's on MEGA, and thanks for the HD games.

 

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Inspired with e-mail what got today I checked that hard disk image what contains  my game adaptations. Folder PPHD\HD .

So, someone asked that I prepare him 4 MB only image, where he can place single game, and use it with special for it set Hatari, and that will be transportable easily. 

And similar is with this image used in this Gamebase ST . But I see one error, and something what can be done better.

So, MBR and Desktop Disk info says that partition is 63 MB . Even if it is cut to 5 MB only, that's not good.

Whoever did this uses my driver/partitioner without permission, and even it this is not commercial that's not nice thing.

Even worse is that all this could be done legally, with available free version of pure DOS driver, creating partition with DOS or Windows (tool), of size under 32 MB. Then it is TOS compatible without special driver.  And all it would need much less RAM than TOS/DOS compatible partitioning, which is created with much larger partition sizes in mind.

What can be done better ? In many cases it can be normal AUTO run instead Desktop auto run - will start faster, use less RAM.

Only need to rename TOS extension to PRG by files START.TOS and RUNME.TOS   .

So, I suggest that whoever worked on this drop me e-mail, and I will explain what to do to get small partitions with low RAM usage. Or just read my WEB pages about whole thing more carefully. 

 

 

[pixelmischief]

There is a special place in hell for people who put 5.9GB on a file sharing service that let's you download 5GB and then cuts off your "quota" unless you pay.  Fuck.  Off.

[youxia]

22 minutes ago, pixelmischief said:

There is a special place in hell for people who put 5.9GB on a file sharing service that let's you download 5GB and then cuts off your "quota" unless you pay.  Fuck.  Off.

I suppose waiting few hours till the quota restarts is a bit too much in our firstworldproblems-infested world. But the good news is you can always put together your own Gamebase, the frontend is available on sourceforge. Might take you a bit longer though...

 

Mega is not ideal, but it wasn't always like that, that 5GB limit is a recent change. Gamebase sets are made by enthusiasts like .mad. who spend months working on putting them together and then distribute free of charge. Roms are also in the greyzone, so it's not like you can spam the links right, left, and center. Considering these facts, perhaps it'd be advisable to rethink your "complaint".

 

 

Edited June 8, 2021 by youxia

[pixelmischief]

2 hours ago, youxia said:

I suppose waiting few hours till the quota restarts is a bit too much in our firstworldproblems-infested world. But the good news is you can always put together your own Gamebase, the frontend is available on sourceforge. Might take you a bit longer though...

You're right.  I was an idiot.  I should have said thank you.  My bad.

[calimero]

Is there any better file hosting option then Mega?

 

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Well, not sure that there is something better than Mega. But, if you register at Mega and open some kind of account, what is free, can DL much more than 5 GB at once, without interrupt.  I used it previous year a lot, to DL F1 races for instance. Now, site where were were links for it went into mining way - will overload your PC like it does bitcoin, only that you don't get anything in return. Actually, it is advised to check CPU load with task manager periodically - because many sites do that - yeah, that's where we are now ...

And fileshare sites/hosts are  obviously in financial problems - more restrictions and  annoying in free DL, etc.

 

I would like to contact man behind this - to make some corrections in PPHD section. Registration to forum is slow ...

Will try with PM to .mad  .

[youxia]

Archive.org is probably the best place for this kind of stuff, makes it more discoverable too.

[.mad.]

@ParanoidLittleMan

I am truly sorry if the driver file i used was not legal and free version.

The last thing i wanted is to upset you.

Please accept my deepest appolgies.

 

[posting this in public as well as PM to you]

[.mad.]

You maybe pleased to know, i am working on a small update to this.

 

It doesn't (or ever did) have any problems with scripting two joystick controllers or selecting mono screen modes someone was worried about.

 

don't be afraid to ask for help, if you have problems setting it up.

[Atari8guy]

Is there a recommended step by step guide somewhere?

[youxia]

I wish. There's this: https://www.bu22.com/wiki/

...but it's not really that great for somebody with 0 GB experience (or even with some, like me - too complicated)

 

What I usually do is

-run the GamebaseSetup v1.3. Make sure you install it to the root of a hdd, preferably 😄, umm, I mean C :  Must run it as Admin on Win7 and up.

-download/unpack a Gamebase (like, a pack with actual games and extras and stuff, eg GamebaseST) somewhere. In theory into the location where the exe install is from the setup (C:\gamebase) but it's okay to keep it elsewhere, since messing with C : is not good idea

-then fire up gamebase.exe (as an admin) from the directory where the actual Gamebase (with games) is (eg I just set it up on my new laptop as D:\gamebase\Atari ST\. So the gamebase.exe is in D:\gamebase\)

-If you use the shortcut the setup made on your desktop it won't detect anything, because it points to C:\gamebase. You can change it to your proper one.

-when you get to see the actual Gamebase pack screen for your machine, you should set up paths (Tools>"xxx" Paths) to games and stuff. They are in D:\gamebase\Atari ST\Games and so on in my case.

-one gotcha is that the specific gamebase directory (the one with games) name has to be exactly the same as the .mdb file inside. For GamebaseST there is Atari ST.mdb file in GamebaseST so the directory has to be also "Atari ST" hence D:\gamebase\Atari ST\

 

Now if all went well you should be able to see the scr$, extras, and play games. It's important to remember about Run As Administrator otherwise eg emus won't work.

 

Somebody might perhaps offer a simpler and less convoluted explanation, but this one does work for me (just set it up this way on my laptop away from main PC).

[.mad.]

Each GameBase is slightly different.

but the basics are the same.

 

The most common problem is setting the correct path to the emulators and games.

most are released with the default C:\ path already set.

c:\gamebase\atari st\emulators

check and edit the ini files if you use another location...

 

emulators.ini

[Emulators]
1=Hatari 241
2=STeem SSE
3=STeem v3.2
4=

[Hatari 241]
UseShortFilenames=0
UseDefaultTypes=0
SupportedTypes=ST;STX;MSA;HD;INF
EmulatorPathFile=C:\GameBase\Atari ST\Emulators\hatari-241\hatari.exe
ScriptFile=hatari.txt
WaitFinish=1
1=

[STeem SSE]
UseShortFilenames=0
UseDefaultTypes=0
SupportedTypes=ST;STX;MSA;HD;INF
EmulatorPathFile=C:\GameBase\Atari ST\Emulators\SteemSSE\Steem32D3D.exe
ScriptFile=Steem SSE.txt
WaitFinish=1
1=

[STeem v3.2]
UseShortFilenames=0
UseDefaultTypes=0
SupportedTypes=ST;STX;MSA
EmulatorPathFile=C:\GameBase\Atari ST\Emulators\STeem v3.2\Steem.exe
ScriptFile=Steem32.txt
WaitFinish=1
1=

 

paths.ini

[Games]
1=C:\GameBase\Atari ST\Games
2=
[Pictures]
1=C:\GameBase\Atari ST\Screenshots
2=
[Extras]
1=C:\GameBase\Atari ST\Extras
2=
[Misc]
Music=C:\GameBase\Atari ST\Music

 

you can install gamebase to any drive but always use the root of the drive.

d:\gamebase\gamebase.exe

rezip folder

d:\gbgame\

 

The game rezip option will not work if you move games to another drive or folder containing spaces.

d:\my games collection\gamebase\atari st\

*this has been fixed with an updated GEMUS.DLL (not included in the gamebase install)

 

this PDF is for the C64, but it will help you.

GameBase64 Getting Started Booklet.zip

[+wongojack]

Following

[.mad.]

New link is up.

 

4.0HD UPDATE#2

There's no need to re-download everything again, if you already have 4.0 (2021) installed.
*check dates in download folder for files with 2022.

full screenshot pack is only for new downloader.

 

Download these 2 files.
. ATARI ST(Update#2).zip [22MB] (updated MBD, emulators, screenshots, games)
. Extras-HardDisk.zip (843MB)

 

1) Extract ATARI ST(Update#2).zip to ../Gamebase/Atari ST/ and overwrite any files when prompted.
2) Delete the PPHD folder "../Extras/PPHD".
3) Extract "Extras-HardDisk.zip" here ../Extras/HardDisk/

 

run Gamebase and select verify available files from the GB menu.
Tick all the boxes and press OK.

 

To run a HD version of a game.
click on the HD icon in the left window from the GameBase list.
*Not the "play game" button.

HardDisk (GEM)
HardDisk (ACSI)
HardDisk (Files)

 

[Bikerbob]

SO I am new to this. The files on the MEGA server, which do I want to download? All of them?

 

James

[.mad.]

33 minutes ago, Bikerbob said:

SO I am new to this. The files on the MEGA server, which do I want to download? All of them?

 

Hi James,

Yes, you need all the files for a new install.

you also need to install the GameBase frontend full v1.3 (it's Windows only).

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gamebase/files/gamebase/v1.3/

 

Mega has download limts of 5GB in a 5/6 hour window.

the total size of all the files is just over that.

just wait before downloading one of the larger files (next day) so you don't hit the limit.

or Mega will pause the download and make you wait 5 hours before finishing.

 

[Ray Gillman]

On 10/29/2022 at 1:16 PM, .mad. said:

Hi James,

Yes, you need all the files for a new install.

you also need to install the GameBase frontend full v1.3 (it's Windows only).

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gamebase/files/gamebase/v1.3/

 

Mega has download limts of 5GB in a 5/6 hour window.

the total size of all the files is just over that.

just wait before downloading one of the larger files (next day) so you don't hit the limit.

or Mega will pause the download and make you wait 5 hours before finishing.

 

Archive.org is nice and SourceForge is nice but Mega is superfast if you have a faster internet like Starlink it just blows through 5GB in a few minutes which is really ideal. Waiting a day or hours to get more allocation makes sense when they are serving up fat bandwidths like that

I was wanting to compare BBS Express ST to BBS Express Pro 8 bit - I have the 8 bit version in the archive library - anyone seen the ST version archived somewhere to compare it? I used to have it but at some point I converted to Amiga from ST and all my ST stuff got lost or given away. Anyone ever seen any Amiga BBS files? I don't recall ever trying to configure a BBS with the Amiga. Around that time my focus changed to lashing (bridge) two dial up lines to get 112kbps for multiplayer games like Mech Commander as most of my gamer time in the pre-2000s era

Edited November 30, 2023 by Ray Gillman