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Kenton Dalziel - 16/06/2021 |
I put so much effort into designing the extra level for the competition, I even wrote a level designer in STOS so it would print out with lovely graphics, I think they thought they had to let me win after all the effort.
If I remember rightly the level turned out so hard it was nigh on impossible. |
| Although the main menu is keyboard control only, the actual game can be used on a REAL STE/Falcon with the jaguar joypad. STEEM has known issues with this game in jagpad mode though... |
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Other versions with the same title:
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Unique Development Sweden
presents
SUBSTATION - the playable demo
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GAME CONTROL
KEY FUNCTION
Esc Pause or leave game
1-6 Select weapon
TAB/backspace Drop bomb
Control Fire weapon
Shift Run; makes all movements go faster
Z Sidestep left
X Sidestep right
ALT Sidestep on.
When held down, rotate turns into sidestep
SPACE Push buttons/open doors
. Sidestep left
- Sidestep right
HELP Adrenaline-rotate left
UNDO Adrenaline-rotate right
Arrow up Walk forward
Arrow down Walk backward
Arrow left Walk left
Arrow right Walk right
(Numeric keyboard)
1 Travel to level #1 when in elevator.
2 ---"--- level #2
3 ---"--- level #3
4,5,6,8 Scroll map
7 Place map-marker
9 Centre map on player
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100% PURE ACTION
SubStation is a 1st person perspective game in which the player moves
freely in an extremely fast real-time gouraud-shaded 3D world. The
screen refresh rate for the 3D world alone is an amazing 25 fps
(frames per second) in a resolution of 320*160 pixels using 3
bitplanes! The 3D system is a state-of-the-art development solution
written by Mikael Emtinger and Oskar Burman, and will make SubStation
one of the technically most advanced games ever to appear on the
Atari STE/Falcon.
100% GAMEPLAY
SubStation runs on any Atari STE 1Mb+ or Falcon with an RGB or a VGA
monitor. Your character is controlled using the keyboard. You can
run, walk, sidestep, pick up items, choose between a great number of
weapons, open doors, access elevators between the different
sublevels, and even sidestep, rotate, run and fire your gun at the
same time, giving you total control of your actions!
100% GREAT SOUND
To further increase the horrifying atmosphere in SubStation, Tord
Jansson (responsible for the amazing sound routines in Obsession)
developed a special sound effects system called DD Audio (Distance &
Direction) which enables you to hear where monsters are lurking. The
combined effect of foggy colors and the pit-pat of tiny monster feet
from the far left will give you nightmares...
100% MULTI-PLAYER COMBAT
By utilizing the link capabilities of SubStation, you can play
against other humans in special combat-levels using the Atari's built
in MIDI ports. Up to four players can take part in a game, either by
forming two teams, or every man for himself.
100% PURE QUALITY
SubStation features a true 3D world, more than 2000 different
locations, a vast number of fearsome enemies, real-time Gouraud
shaded walls, advanced DD-Audio sound, 6 different weapon types,
multiplayer mode, secret rooms & booby traps, real-time lightsourced
sprites, 25 kHz sound quality, more than 30 colors, "Trial and error"
monster A.I, more than 32 action-packed levels, end-of-level bosses,
100% horror!
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From the makers of Obsession - now showing on a computer near you!
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Substation is available in North America from:
chro_MAGIC Software Innovations
516 North Jackson
Joplin, MO 64801-2755
United States
Phone: +1-417-623-7393
Fax: +1-417-624-0700
Internet: jimcollins@delphi.com
Substation is available outside North America from:
UNIQUE DEVELOPMENT SWEDEN HB
Rådmansgatan 5
S-602 29 Norrköping
Sweden
Phone: (+46) 11 12 02 63, 70 751 51 36
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Graphics
Features up to 54 colours on-screen simultaneously (introduction screen)
Features up to 22 colours on-screen simultaneously (in-game)
Features digitized graphics (introduction screen)
Features overscan (options or static screen)
Sound
Features digitized title soundtrack at 25KHz (stereo)
Features digitized menu soundtrack at 25KHz (stereo)
Features digitized static screen soundtrack at 25KHz (stereo)
Features digitized sound fx at 12.5KHz (stereo)
Hardware
Supports Blitter
Supports STe DMA sound
Supports STe palette
Supports STe hardware scrolling
Supports MIDI for multiplayer action
Origins
From Atari-Forum September 3rd 2025:
UDS was basically formed around the creation of Obsession. Substation was started as the next project halfway through Obsessions development and a new team was formed for that consisting of Mikael "Empa" Emtinger and Oskar Burman (members of Zeal and Anatomica respectively). A bit later they were joined by Olov Lassus, who I think was 14 at the time. I think also Carl Lundqvist (who did most programming on Obsession) joined in after Obsession was completed.
They wanted to do "Doom for Atari" and discussed the project with Peter Zetterberg (our Managing Director) who gave them the green light and involved himself in designing the game. It was very much their project - but me, Hans Härröd (Shrimp/New Core) and Jimmy Gustavsson got involved in doing sound playback, sprite zooming and some graphics respectively, but we were hardly involved beyond that. A number of outside people were also commissioned to do graphics and sound.
Olov was still in elementary school, Empa was doing his last year in "gymnasium" (~High School) and Oskar was doing his military service more than 1.000 kilometers away from the rest. He somehow got a special room in the barracks where he could put up his Atari and do some development. Almost everybody was living in different cities so communication was over phone calls and exchanging code and graphics through a BBS. We all gathered together in copy-party-esque meetings over weekends and holidays as regularly as we could to crunch through things together, sometimes all night long. I remember Empa had an incident in chemistry class on a Monday after such a meeting where he could have lost his eyes, caused by his sleep deprivation.
Development through phone calls, BBS and irregular copy-party-style meetings was also a big part of Obsessions development, but there the three members of the core team lived in the same town and met regularly which made things easier.
Substation didn't use any C2P routine. I don't think anyone had made fast C2P routines for the Atari when development started, at least we were not aware of any and assumed it wasn't feasible. As far as I remember the walls were drawn using something best described as a custom gouraud shaded polygon renderer written by Empa that was optimized for just doing rectangular wall segments. That it got white up front was just a result of how light setting was configured as far as I understand.
It could probably have been quite much faster, Empa didn't write the fastest code, but he was very productive, had great ideas and a Jack of all trades that could both code, design and do 3D modelling.
The sprite zooming was done by Hans and was very fast. I did the sound system which was a simple but quite fast 2 channel, fixed frequency 12.5 kHz sound engine with volume and panning control.
The image at the end of the game was drawn by some Amiga artist not part of the team that was hired specifically to make that. The weapon sounds were actually real guns being fired at a shooting range sampled specifically for the game, done by a friend of Excellence In Art who also made the main menu music (with some help from Excellene In Art).
The photo of the diver is actually Peter who did scuba diving back then and had (or had access to) diving equipment. The picture was actually taken under water by a friend of his who was a professional photographer who was paid with a bottle of whiskey. Peter was good at keeping costs down. :)
Of the programming, I know that Olov did the AI, networking and (I think) the mini-map. I remember that we were quite amazed that he being just 14 did what we considered to be the hardest parts of the game. I also think he was quite new to programming, only having coded for half a year or so before he started but I might be wrong on that one. How the rest of the coding was divided between Empa and Oskar I don't know, except for Empa doing the maze rendering.
While Obsession was pushed hard towards technical brilliance with demo technology throughout the game, the same was never really done for Substation, except for the sprite zoomer. There was certainly room for improvements. I think the main reason was that me and Hans were the ones who strived for technical and visual perfection and lobbied and worked for that in Obsession and we were not as involved in Substation. Empa, Oskar and Peter were more focused on story, gameplay and actually getting the game done in a reasonable time.
As an example of what could have been improved, the in-game screen was first cleared by copying a whole 4 bitplane image containing the floor and ceiling gradients, taking most of a full vsync. This could have been done better looking and almost twice as fast by simply using rasters and just clearing the screen. In the end the background was cut in half and mirrored, a slight improvement. Another example is that the walls are drawn as displayed while they could have been drawn half the height and mirrored before adding the sprites. Numerous other simple things could have been done, like using rasters to give the status bar a separate palette, but those things were never a priority.
Oskar and Empa were close friends and they made a great duo. I think that really showed in their next game, which was Ignition for the PC. :)
User: tord, Norrköping, Sweden
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| ST Format · July, 1995 | Rating: 75% |
 
| ST Format · March, 1995 | Rating: Preview |
| ST Format · May, 1995 | Rating: Work In Progress |
| ST Magazine · Juillet, 1995 | Rating: - |
 
| STart Micro · Septembre, 1995 | Rating: 7/10 |
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