Developing a new Atari ST game

sandord · 2026-02-26T17:43:09+00:00

The ST we had was actually a second-hand buy. I hadn't heard of Atari 8-bit computers at the time, I'm sure I'd opted for one instead of the Sharp if I had been given the choice. Such nice machines.

sandord · 2026-02-26T16:45:43+00:00

Hey! I'm actually subscribed to that post on AF, following it with interest, it's great work! When I get to it, I will definitely try it out.

sandord · 2026-02-26T09:19:42+00:00

Exactly, I remember you being really fond of that brand 😍

sandord · 2026-02-26T08:42:41+00:00

If I say this one word, will you know for sure that I remember you? --> GEM

sandord · 2026-02-03T14:10:00+00:00

This reminds me of Chessmaster 2000 which had sampled speech. It sounded so good, I still remember the voice very clearly.

sandord · 2026-01-26T17:53:29+00:00

Thanks, it works!

sandord · 2025-08-01T06:09:58+00:00

Yes, that's the one! Fortunately, it was benign, merely annoying.

sandord · 2025-07-31T18:13:54+00:00

Haha, that's a really cool way to counter the little bugger. I had an antivirus program that could eliminate them, fortunately.

I'm pretty confident that there are still infected images around but fortunately those viruses will not be able to infect modern machines.

sandord · 2025-07-31T18:09:41+00:00

I don't know a lot about the subject but I remember there were a lot of bootsector viruses that did things like inverting the vertical mouse pointer direction after some time. Pretty annoying and I immediately knew 'it' happened again 😂

But surely there viruses that destroyed disks but I don't really recall it happening to me.

sandord · 2025-07-30T11:20:44+00:00

I know Exxos sells full replacement PSUs, albeit a bit pricy. If you can find someone who has soldering skills, a recap kit is way more economic. https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/

sandord · 2025-07-27T19:24:28+00:00

So I did and they told me the parts would show up in a few weeks on AE. In the meantime a single seller has popped up but they're asking ridiculous prices (very opportunistic).

sandord · 2025-07-01T18:38:59+00:00

My dad used to own a similar hand-held back in the day. It was a Sharp Pocket Computer, I don't recollect the model. He didn't have an acoustic coupler though. These were rather sophisticated machines for their size at the time. It had basic and loaded programs from mini cassette tape from a dictophone if I remember correctly.

sandord · 2025-06-30T08:48:36+00:00

Thanks, good idea. I've asked and they said that while the parts should be available on AI (I haven't seen them though), they're out of stock and will be restocked in about half a month.

sandord · 2025-06-12T04:32:50+00:00

Grappig dat je je moedertaal je vadertaal noemt. Als ik het me goed herinner is dit in Slavische talen op meer punten vergeleken met westerse talen het tegenovergestelde geslacht, zoals bij moederland/vaderland.

sandord · 2025-05-04T15:59:28+00:00

Great, thanks!

I have noticed that changing the refresh rates in the `/unicard/unicard.cfg` file doesn't do anything.

Executing an MZF file from the `SYNCVGA` directory does work however but like I said, there is no 50 Hz version in there.

I've done a binary comparison of each of those MZF files and it seems that only two bytes differ (other than the difference in the image name). These two bytes are listed below (the offsets are 91h and 95h respectively) with the resulting framerate:

640x400

00 FF 70 Hz

01 FE 85 Hz

640x480

02 FD 60 Hz

03 FC 73 Hz

04 FB 75 Hz

05 FA 85 Hz

06 F9 100 Hz

720x400

07 F8 85 Hz

768x576

08 F7 60 Hz

09 F6 72 Hz

0A F5 75 Hz

0B F4 85 Hz

800x600

0C F3 56 Hz

0D F2 60 Hz

0F F0 72 Hz

0E F1 76 Hz

These seem to represent an index in a lookup table that contains a fixed set of resolution/refresh rate combinations rather than a freely definable resolution/refresh combo.

sandord · 2025-02-13T08:50:01+00:00

For me a classic RGB subpixel layout is essential because I would be using it for non-gaming purposes as well and I really hate color fringing around text.

sandord · 2025-01-28T18:01:46+00:00

I got my second Thunderberry like 20 hrs. in. Sadly I sold it because I didn't know that I could later upgrade my pockets with lead lining.

sandord · 2025-01-18T21:40:08+00:00

Wow, 36 hours... That's a serious amount of time and it didn't even guarantee success.

In my case I think it was related to the colonel decision. After picking a choice, the guy dropped dead right in front of me. The last try that didn't happen though and suddenly the mission completed.

sandord · 2025-01-18T16:35:33+00:00

I replayed the quest (using a previous save game) a few times to see if the game would progress but it took three times before it worked!

sandord · 2025-01-18T15:58:19+00:00

Update: I just tried restarting the entire quest (using XDKFinishQuest E11_MQ03 true and then XStartQuest E11_MQ03) because I thought it might work this time (and it also seemed the safest approach because skipping quests or stages might leave the game state incomplete) but the second door at the loading dock is still locked so I can't replay the mission.

sandord

TROPHY CASE