Starball

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7.4/10
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Comments (8)
Claus - 01/04/2019
I even sent you 5 Pounds back in 95 but they came back
Dave Oldcorn - 22/11/2010
Hardly early, in 1994 ;) .

For most of the summer of 1994 we were getting up and running on another Falcon / ST project, but the target was to go commercial and since Starball brought in less than £1000 it clearly wasn't going to be viable.

PC it had to be, so I spent the last of my SERC grant buying one the week before I left uni at the end of the summer and got the port done.
lotek style/tscc^ymr - 17/11/2010
There was a pc version? So you joined the dark side very early :)
Dave Oldcorn - 10/11/2010
Yeah, I always felt I should have made more effort in that regard.

In the very early days I sent a few acknowledgements but when it became very clear that it wasn't going to be enough money to live on it was put on the back burner while we rushed through the port of the PC version. (Which didn't make enough to live on either, but it was still getting on for 30x what we got from the ST :) ).
sikor - 09/11/2010
Also work with Atari TT030
lotek style/tscc^ymr - 09/11/2010
Hey Dave... nice to have you onboard... well we wrote to the address back in the day and didn't got a reply :P
Dave Oldcorn - 09/11/2010
Don't send anything to that address - the PO box is very, very long gone :) .
Dave Oldcorn - 08/11/2010
I've left a link to a title screen and disk image in the forum.

Screenshots - Starball

Starball atari screenshot
Starball atari screenshot
Starball atari screenshot
Starball atari screenshot
Starball atari screenshot
Starball atari screenshot
Starball atari screenshot
Starball atari screenshot
Starball atari screenshot
Starball atari screenshot
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Starball atari screenshot

Information - Starball

GenrePinball - Standard TableYear1994
LanguageMachine LanguagePublisher[no publisher]
ControlsKeyboardDistributor-
Players1DeveloperVolume 11
ResolutionLow / VGA / RGBLicensed from-
Programmer(s)

Oldcorn, Dave

CountryUnited Kingdom
Graphic Artist(s)

Andy

SoftwareEnglish
Game design

Oldcorn, Dave

Box / InstructionsEnglish
Musician(s)

Moss, David [Spaz]

LicensePD / Freeware / Shareware
Sound FX

[unknown]

Serial
Cover Artist(s)ST TypeST, STe Enhanced, Falcon030 / 0.5MB
MIDIVersion1.61
Dumpdownload atari Starball Download / MSANumber of Disks1 / Double-Sided / HD Installable
Protection

Additional Comments - Starball

Other versions with the same title:


[no publisher] (version 1.10) (United Kingdom), ST Format ().

Instructions - Starball

 STARBALL - Special Edition
              ----------------------------

Patch File Notes

The files contained in this folder are the new patch files to
-convert Starball 1.11-1.15 to Starball SE, version 1.60.

The replacement files are MAIN.AFL and STARBALL.TOS, if these
are copied as replacements for the 1.11 versions then everything
should work OK.

Also available is STARBLFX.ZIP which contains the files necessary
to add sampled sound to Starball. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO INSTALL THIS
unless you have an STe, TT or Falcon because THE GAME WILL CRASH.


My current email address is still oldcornd@cs.man.ac.uk until October
12th. I have another address being set up in a few days, but I can
also be contacted on daveo@jumper.mcc.ac.uk if anything else fails.


Please contact me if any bugs or inconsistencies are found. If you
had a 1.12-1.15, remove STARBALL.HS before running, because the
tables are of incompatible format (the new 20-entry 9-digit table
couldn't be made compatible I'm afraid).



Thanks very much for all the testing help and I hope no more
problems are apparent

Dave Oldcorn, 11th September 1994, 22:22.


                           STARBALL
                           --------

An Atari ST / Falcon Pinball game written by Volume 11 Software
Development.



This is just a short introduction: a more comprehensive README file can
be found inside the game itself, by holding SHIFT when the quote of the
day appears. Please read that message, it carries instructions for how
to use the game.

A couple of things that are worth pointing out again: on a 512k machine
you have to run it from an AUTO folder. To do this, create a folder
called AUTO on the Starball disk, copy STARBALL.TOS into that folder,
and rename STARBALL.TOS to STARBALL.PRG. Everyone else can run it from
inside any folder on any drive.

For Falcon users, look at the main instructions for infomation on how to
set up MODLIST.TXT to select the right soundtracker modules. An example
file is provided, with lots of comments. Note that ALL of the Starball
files must be present for the game to run.



Anyway that's about it for now. Please contact me if you have any comments
about the game, or (erk) find any bugs! (Until September 1994 my email
address is oldcornd@cs.man.ac.uk). I also have a PO Box (to which you
will hopefully be sending donations!):
	Volume 11 Software Development,
	PO Box 311,
	Preston
	PR3 5DZ
	(England)

We have other games and projects in the pipeline, so please look out
for us! And DON'T forget to read the main README file! (remember,
hold down SHIFT when the quote appears!)

Good Luck

Dave Oldcorn, 15th June 1994.




STARBALL FEATURES:

Main playing area of 204,800 pixels
More than 24 screen colours
Three sets of flippers
Stunning sound effects (for an ST)
No PSG music (so you can enjoy a good CD rather than dodgy ST tunes)
Over 32 sprites on screen
3 amazing bonus screens
1 amazing secret barking mad bonus screen
LED Scoreboard
Rolling intro
Lots of surprise bonuses
Real-time SuperFlip Technology (on > 512k machines)
Quality soundtracker introduction
More than 1.2M of compressed data
Largely O/S cooperative
Just about fits in a normal 520ST (in an AUTO folder)
Hard-drive installable
Source code available
Falcon compatible with Enhanced Falcon Features:
   Ultra-smooth 50 frames per second operation
   Compatible with VGA monitors at 24 frames per second.
   Soundtracker music at 50 and 25 kHz during play, your choice of music!!

Trivia - Starball

Hardware
Supports STe DMA sound


Sound
Features digitized title soundtrack at 16.2KHz
Features partially digitized sound fx at 12.5KHz on STe
Music written with Quartet


Book / Magazine Reviews - Starball

 ST Format · October, 1994Rating: 96% 

Starball Atari review 

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