[Header image: FTL's Oids of 1987]

Best Atari ST Game

For the purposes of my computer game commentary I refer to the Atari ST of 1985 as a Western computer game machine. The Atari ST is also known as "The ST."

The Atari ST was designed by Shiraz Shivji.

Both the Atari 520 ST and 1040 ST are powered by the Motorola 68000 clocked at 8 MHz. RAM on the ST typically ranges from 512K to 1 meg. The ST went head to head with the Amiga during the ST-Amiga Wars of the late 80s and early 90s.

The ST could display 16 colors from a palette range of 512 at a resolution of 320x200. Its color palette was superior to IBM EGA but inferior to the Amiga.

The best Atari ST games are Microprose's Gunship of 1986, Xanth F/X's MIDI Maze of 1987 and FTL's Oids and Dungeon Master of 1987.

Oids and MIDI Maze were not only masterpieces, they were ST-exclusives.

Best Atari ST Port

The best Atari ST port is Activision Software Studios' 1988 conversion of SegaAM2's Super Hang-on coinop of 1987. The Atari ST and Amiga ports are notable for their accurate controls, speed-conveyance via sprite-scaling and challenging gameplay. Super Hang-On was one of the first great 16-bit ports of a graphically-demanding coinop.

Also, Rainbow Islands Atari ST 1990 Graftgold:

And International Karate Plus IK+ Atari ST 1988 Archer Maclean:

SunDog Atari ST FTL Doug Bell 1985:

The First Atari ST Flight Sims

F-15 Strike Eagle Atari ST Digital Illusions 1985:

Gunship Atari ST 1986 Microprose:

Atari ST mouse/joystick ports

One of the stupidest things about the Atari ST was how its mouse/joystick ports were located under the machine. This meant you had to lift the machine up just to access the ports. It was not a good idea to lift and move micros all the time because they were heavy and their plastic enclosures were weak.

In addition, you would need to be careful when accessing the ports because if you only lifted up the front of the machine you ran the risk of putting stress on the cables and ports at the back of the machine. Thus, most people bought cable extenders that stuck out from the front, which was better but still clumsy (and ugly).

The ST had a few other problems as well; namely, lack of hardware scrolling, no bit blitter and Yamaha YM2149 3-channel audio that was inferior to Commodore 64 SID and Amiga Paula [1]. The ST also only had 720kB diskettes whereas the Amiga had 880kB ones. The Atari TOS operating system is also a joke compared to Amiga Workbench.

One could be forgiven for referring to the ST as a "16-bit ZX Spectrum with MIDI"; it was only its MPU, RAM, diskette-space and color that separated it from the 8-bits; it did not have any custom chips like the C64 or the Amiga; its parts were off-the-shelf. That said, it was cheap, decent and had tons of software, so it sold well.

Other Notable Atari ST Games

Kick Off Atari ST 1989 Dino Dini:

The Secret of Monkey Island Atari ST LucasFilm 1991:

Shadow of the Beast Atari ST 1990 Eldritch the Cat:

Turrican Atari ST 1990 Factor 5:

Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge Atari ST 1990 Magnetic Fields:

Golden Axe Atari ST 1990 Dementia:

Uridium Atari ST 1987 Graftgold Joe Hellesen:

Blood Money Atari ST 1989 DMA Design Wayne Smithson:

Defender of the Crown Atari ST 1987 Cinemaware:

Xevious Atari ST 1987 Probe Software:

RoboCop Atari ST 1989 Ocean Software:

You can read about the following in History of Shoot 'em ups:

There were many good Atari ST games, but the Amiga versions were almost always superior if the coders tapped the Amiga's chipset. And since they often did not do so, the ST versions were often just as good as the Amiga ones (which were just ST ports).

In addition, the ST version of a game was often cheaper than the Amiga version, yet just as good. The ST also had clearer stock color monitors than the Amiga did. Before the Amiga and IBM PC took over the Atari ST was also used as a game development system. For example, Xenon 2 graphics were drawn in Degas Elite of 1986 on STs, and Graftgold used 1040 STs to program Rainbow Islands in assembly.

Unless you were into DTP, CAD or MIDI from 1985-90 (and ST MIDI was in 99% of cases NOT for games), there was no reason to choose an ST over an Amiga. ST MIDI was mostly for non-gaming: C-Lab's Notator and Steinberg's Cubase.

Note that I am only concerned with stock ST, ST-F and ST-FM models, not the ST-E, Mega ST, TT or Falcon. Reason: this is computer-game commentary, and the stock ST is the only ST that took off as a computer-game machine. The Amiga-like STE of '89 and the A1200-like Falcon of '92 never took off as computer-game machines, even though they were great micros.

It could be argued that the lack of an ST version of Eye of the Beholder of 1991 marks the point of ST abandonment since EotB is basically an AD&D-based clone of Dungeon Master, which originated on the ST in 1987.

However, many technical marvels were not appearing on the ST (or the Amiga) by 1991: they were exclusive to IBM PC MS-DOS (e.g., Falcon 3.0 of 1991).

[1]

Doesn't mean ST games could not have good sound and music (the ST could play sampled sounds, for example).

Anders Nilsson's TCB Tracker on the Atari ST (used for Exile of 1991):

cf.

Lilura1 cRPG

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