Addictive games from the ATARI ST

[terkio]

I am happy, playing again "Hex" and "The Sentinel".
They work prefectly with Steem.
Atari emulator: http://steem.atari.st/index.htm
Atari games: http://steem.atari.st/automation.htm "The Sentinel is in A_001" ( it is not listed, but beleive me, it is in A_001 ) "Hex" is in A_077.
There are two free clones of "The Sentinel" named "Sentry" and "Zenith"....they are no good, go for the original.


The Sentinel.

[Ameena]

What kind of games are they? I have Steem - been using it to replay old stuff I can't play on the old Atari ST any more .
Btw, I just checked quickly and both those games you mentioned are available on Atarimania (my go-to site for Atari games), if you want a good resource to use - http://www.atarimania.com/pgemainsoft.a ... G&system=S

[terkio]

The Sentinel is kind of unique.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentin ... eo_game%29: "The game itself can be best described as an "energy management" game. It has a first person point of view and features ten thousand playfields. Its uniqueness caused it to be labelled "the first virtual reality game".
I would say, it is puzzler, it needs strategy, speed and luck.

Hex is a small board game, playing with colors and magic spells. it is a puzzler, it needs strategy.

Thanks for the link to "Atari mania". I was pleased to find "Bloodwitch".
I am new to Steem. I had frustrating results with emulators, so I had given up. Thanks to Steem I am back.
I tried "Dungeon Master", but no luck, after entering the dungeon: Stuck: No mouse cursor, no arrows to move in. What can go wrong with Steem, Patsi, STX files ?
I get the same issue with Chaos Strikes Back, after entering the prison: Stuck.

[Phoenix]

Which TOS are you using? I have no problem playing DM/CSB with TOS 1.02us. I do however need to use TOS 2.06us to transfer files from PC -> Steem and vice versa. In general though, I use 1.02 for most games since it's the same version as my 1040ST.

The only game I wish I could still play is Alternate Reality: The City. The copy protection in the game is really nasty and makes it virtually unplayable.

[terkio]

I tried the 4 TOS available from the Steem site. 1.02uk, 2.06uk,1.02us,2.06us.

I found, it has to do with "Floppy disk access". it is not completely stuck, it resumes after a long time. The "Floppy access indicator" ( yellow dash at top left ) blinks for a long time , I beleive it hangs on floppy read retries, then resumes.
This Floppy is virtual, how come it behaves like a defective real disk or disk drive ?
What can I adjust in Steem or Pasti ?
Has this to do with DM floppy not standard formatted ?

With another game: "Dragon Flight", I have a strange Floppy issue, the game tells a floppy disk is Write protected, but the disk is not so.

[linflas]

DM/CSB isn't stuck, it is just loading the game (and that was long at that time) ! you can improve floppy speed in Steem, then take a memory snapshot and you won't have to wait anymore.

[Ameena]

There's a fast-forward button you can click-and-hold to speed up loading times - it says somewhere (either in the Read Me or on the actual Steem site) that they are trying to emulate the Atari as closely as possible, which can include long load times and unskippable cutscenes if that's what a particular game had. So that's why they included the fast-forward button .

[linflas]

ah yes ! i was confused with WinUAE

[terkio]

Thanks, you are very helpful.
@ Linflas: I did think, after I posted, this could be the actual speed of fkoppy reads. I had noticed that with CPU clock at 128 Mhz, the emulated floppy was much faster.
@Amena: Good to know the use of "fast forward", I was wondering about it.
So, no problem, but solutions.

Have you tried the game "The Sentinel" ?
You have all the rules here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentin ... eo_game%29
Simple rules, easy to start playing.

[terkio]

A nightmare landscape. The Sentinel plus seven sentries.
Landscape 0804: Secret entry code 66 80 48 57.


Hex.