Running scenario disks for Eastern Front (1941)

[Wargaming Scribe]

Hello folks,

 

I am trying to run the scenario disks for Eastern Front on Altirra, but never having owned an Atari, I am at loss for the instructions.

 

it says :

 

 

But I have no idea how to trigger/reach somewhere where I can use the"DOS command", nor what the "lower right hand corner is.

After that, well, I have no idea whether I know how to do this, but if I could reach the DOS menu I could try it.

 

Could anyone help me ?

 

Edited July 26, 2021 by Wargaming Scribe

[MrTrust]

DOS should be on the disk, and when you boot the .atr, you'll see the DOS menu and you can just select whatever command you want by typing the letter.

 

Are you booting the image, or just mounting it and running the cartridge?

 

Edited July 27, 2021 by MrTrust

[Wargaming Scribe]

Hello,

 

Thanks, I managed to do it ! I had a cartridge still there so it would not launch the menu !

 

[MrTrust]

13 hours ago, Wargaming Scribe said:

Hello,

 

Thanks, I managed to do it ! I had a cartridge still there so it would not launch the menu !

 

 

Well, good luck.  I'm convinced Crawford's gsmes are all impossible, but they are nice to admire.

[Wargaming Scribe]

Check my blog in 6 hours and 10 minutes

[DavidMil]

On 7/28/2021 at 8:15 PM, MrTrust said:

 

Well, good luck.  I'm convinced Crawford's gsmes are all impossible, but they are nice to admire.

Would you mind clarifying that?  I'm not sure exactly what you mean.

 

DavidMil

[MrTrust]

On 8/6/2021 at 5:43 AM, DavidMil said:

Would you mind clarifying that?  I'm not sure exactly what you mean.

 

DavidMil

 

Well, I've played several of the man's games, and they're all brilliant in their own right.  It's hard not to admire the thought, logic, and detail that went into them, especially considering the limitations of the systems he was working on.

 

However despite all the reams of designers notes explaining the rationale behind the games he put out, and the simple intuitive UIs of them, the learning curves of all his games are like a 90° angle, and they hit you with so much information it's enough to make your head spin.  I play and play and experiment and get to the point where I feel like I'm getting the hang of it, and then I hit a plateau and can't get any closer to winning.  It's like his games are all ao tightly desinged to force and endless stalemate.

 

[+Stephen]

33 minutes ago, MrTrust said:

It's like his games are all ao tightly desinged to force and endless stalemate.

Greetings Mr. Falken.  What a strange game.  It seems the only winning move, is not to play.

[MrTrust]

 

1 hour ago, Stephen said:

Greetings Mr. Falken.  What a strange game.  It seems the only winning move, is not to play.

 

That's Professor Falken to you, pal.

[DavidMil]

17 hours ago, MrTrust said:

 

Well, I've played several of the man's games, and they're all brilliant in their own right.  It's hard not to admire the thought, logic, and detail that went into them, especially considering the limitations of the systems he was working on.

 

However despite all the reams of designers notes explaining the rationale behind the games he put out, and the simple intuitive UIs of them, the learning curves of all his games are like a 90° angle, and they hit you with so much information it's enough to make your head spin.  I play and play and experiment and get to the point where I feel like I'm getting the hang of it, and then I hit a plateau and can't get any closer to winning.  It's like his games are all ao tightly desinged to force and endless stalemate.

 

I agree 100% that his games are brilliant, but if you mean that you can't win at Eastern Front, I'll have to argue with you on that one.  I have to admit

that I've played that game for over 35 years.  I have gotten so good at it that I always destroy all the Russian units and capture all the towns (including

Sevastopol).  I like to finish by trying to get all my German units to the right hand side of the screen before the game ends.  I guess this might be

considered cheating but sometimes:

This is done by saving the game to disk before each movement/combat phase.  If I don't like the result of the movement/combat sequence, I shut the

computer off, reload from saved scenario disk, make changes, then restart the movement/combat sequence. (This is all done with the Eastern Front

Cartridge on the expert level).  I used to have the game on diskette and I had gone into the disk with Omnimon and changes all the air wings (Fliegerkorps)

to 255, but after a while that made it too easy. 

 

DavidMil   

[Tillek]

On 8/10/2021 at 7:50 PM, Stephen said:

Greetings Mr. Falken.  What a strange game.  It seems the only winning move, is not to play.

Nah, just keep hitting start right away during the Russian winter!

[+DrVenkman]

I beat the original APX *cassette* version of EASTERN FRONT several times as a 14/15 year old kid playing on my Atari 400, so I know it can be done, lol. I also "beat" the SCRAM by repairing the reactor and preventing meltdowns after earthquakes and such pretty regularly.

 

The man was waaaaay ahead of his time in terms of thinking about what "games" can do by simulating past events (WWII in 1941) and things like the physics and thermodynamics of a pressurized-water nuclear reactor. His stuff was always hard, but always intellectually engaging and challenging for a certain kind of personality. 

[+selgus]

11 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

The man was waaaaay ahead of his time in terms of thinking about what "games" can do by simulating past events (WWII in 1941) and things like the physics and thermodynamics of a pressurized-water nuclear reactor. His stuff was always hard, but always intellectually engaging and challenging for a certain kind of personality. 

CC is also very entertaining and inspiring. I remember always going to his talks at the Game Developers Conference (that he actually started in his living room, though I didn't attend back then), and always took away some learnings in game design/programming. I was present for is last ever talk, which as usual, was very theatrical. His influence is sorely missed in the industry (IMHO).

[Wargaming Scribe]

On 8/11/2021 at 7:21 PM, DavidMil said:

I agree 100% that his games are brilliant, but if you mean that you can't win at Eastern Front, I'll have to argue with you on that one.  I have to admit

that I've played that game for over 35 years.  I have gotten so good at it that I always destroy all the Russian units and capture all the towns (including

Sevastopol).  I like to finish by trying to get all my German units to the right hand side of the screen before the game ends.  I guess this might be

considered cheating but sometimes:

This is done by saving the game to disk before each movement/combat phase.  If I don't like the result of the movement/combat sequence, I shut the

computer off, reload from saved scenario disk, make changes, then restart the movement/combat sequence. (This is all done with the Eastern Front

Cartridge on the expert level).  I used to have the game on diskette and I had gone into the disk with Omnimon and changes all the air wings (Fliegerkorps)

to 255, but after a while that made it too easy. 

 

DavidMil   

You only really win if you don't use save state or the equivalent :).

 

I have this AAR in the "initial APX" advanced mode, and I will post one in Expert on Monday

https://zeitgame.net/archives/1941

 

Did you try the 1943, 1944 and 1945 scenarios from the scenario disk ?

[DavidMil]

One of the most important rules of wining this game is to make sure you have a straight line (north to south) of all your German units

in Entrenched Mode without any openings between you units that the the Russian units can move into at the beginning of the the rainy

season.  And don't move any units or attack anything until the ground freezes!

 

DavidMil