|
|
Yes, this is truely amazing! Excellent work! But what on earth are compiled BLiTTER sprites?
|
| Absolutely awesome, smoothest, fastest arcade racer on the STE , could easily pass as an arcade game. |
| | | |
| |
_________ _____________________
/ ____/ | / ___/_ __/ ____/ __ \
/ /_ / /| | \__ \ / / / __/ / /_/ /
/ __/ / ___ |___/ // / / /___/ _, _/
/_/ /_/ |_/____//_/ /_____/_/ |_|
version 1.0 for Atari STE
released at Sillyventure 2024 WE, 5-8 December 2024
Introduction
------------
This is FASTER, a new silky-smooth 2.5D racing game built from the ground up
for the Atari STE using modern tools, techniques and knowledge.
Features:
- 50 frames per second racing action on a stock 8MHz Atari STE
- 15+ large, full-colour sprites on screen drawn by Blitter chip
- 30+ colours on screen from enhanced STE palette
- Full 24 hour day/night cycle
- Simultaneous digital engine noise, sound effects and YM soundtrack
- Screen shaking effect courtesy of STE hardware scrolling
This game is freeware - the only thing I ask is that you tell the world about
it through tweets, blog posts, YouTube reviews, word of mouth etc, so that
everybody knows that the Atari STE is actually quite good after all!
Source code is coming soon - please follow @RetroRacing on Twitter/X for
further updates.
System Requirements
-------------------
- Atari STE (not compatible with STFM, even if a Blitter is installed)
- 1 Megabyte RAM or more
- Atari TOS or EmuTOS (note that Atari TOS 2.* requires 2 megabytes RAM)
- Double-sided floppy drive (or equivalent - e.g. Gotek)
- Joystick in port 1
Note: not currently compatible with Falcon, but might be compatible in a future
version. Unlikely ever to be compatible with TT as it has no blitter :)
How to play
-----------
- Plug digital joystick into port 1 (note: Jagpad currently not supported)
- Insert FASTER disk (or disk image), switch on/reset STE and wait for title
screen (with 'Press Fire' prompt)
- Press fire to start game
- Controls are up/fire to accelerate, down to brake, left and right to steer
- Drive for as long as possible before running out of time.
Credits
-------
- Code: Chicane (aka @RetroRacing, aka Jonathan Thomas)
- Music: Dma-sc
- SFX/Mixer enhancement: Junosix
- Additional art: Karl Morris, Scott Elkington
- YM playback: Zerkman
- Original PCM mixer: Masteries
Thanks
------
- Steve Gregory (Atari Crypt)
- Lukasz Jokiel
- Maarten Martens (Atari Legend)
- Keith Clark
- The clever people on Atari-Forum - Anima, DML, Cyprian etc...
- All the commenters and likers on YouTube and Twitter for the feedback and
encouragement :)
Random technical buzzwords :)
-----------------------------
- Mix of C and hand-optimised 68k code
- Compiled blitter sprites
- Dirty rectangles
- Bitplane tricks
- Software audio mixing
- Ruthless elimination of MULs and DIVs |
| |
Hardware Supports Blitter Supports STe DMA sound Supports STe palette Supports STe hardware scrolling
|
| |
Graphics Features up to 164 colours on-screen simultaneously (introduction screen) Features up to 32 colours on-screen simultaneously (in-game)
Sound Features digitized title soundtrack at 12.5KHz Features digitized sound fx at 12.5KHz
|
| | | | |