Zero 5 by Caspian Software. Atari Falcon 030

An STE game, falcon enhanced.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Atari
• Falcon
• 68030
• Game

[duckocide]

Wow... Brings back memories! That took me 12 months to write that game ... lots of sleepless nights!

[CFalcon030]

Hi, nice to see you here. You made a very nice game there. :)

[duckocide]

Unfortunately, whilst I have all the source code and everything for the game (locked away in the attic), my Falcon has not been working for some years. Very cheeky ask ... Is there any chance you could do a video for me that shows all the level types (including the planetary ones)?

[CFalcon030]

Well, it's easy to play it on an emulator but if you want sure. I can probably record some stuff. Video quality will be as good as this one though.. which really isn't good at all. I could also record through saint (a pretty good ST(E) emulator that can record videos). Also you may be able to have someone take a look at your falcon.

[batlin]

Very slick-looking game! I only picked up an STE recently, having had two STFMs during the 90's... I wonder how this looks on the STE? Certainly looks colourful on the Falcon. Good vid!

[CFalcon030]

TBH, the video is not that good since it hasn't been processed properly. It looks way better on the real thing (no interlacing artifacts). It's falcon enhanced but plays great on the STE too. Looks very nice as well ;).

[duckocide]

@rudiangath I had some involvement in the Jaguar version (consultant mainly). The voice you hear in the game (e.g. "Take Control!") is me :)

[bobbystar101]

@duckocide You know, if you were to feel charitable I bet there are some people who would love to get their hands on the source code for one of the only games that truly exploited all the STE's enhancements.

[rudiangath]

@duckocide Did you also work on Zero 5 for Atari Jaguar? I like that a lot.

This one looks also groovy :-)

[bobbystar101]

@batlin I might just do a side by side comparison of this game on my falcon and ste.

[vlgtube]

Well, as for STE im sure that it was like that. AS for the Falcon its different story. A1200 was not so good supported at all, but it got some advantages, yes there was some releases but not much by big companies. Amiga got strong society cause good game support before and quantity of sold units. It gives strong arguments for designers, but Falcon was different history.

[batlin]

I think they wanted something more like the Falcon but got the STE... then they wanted maybe something more than the Falcon when it was released - a lot of people were disappointed that it was actually slower than the TT.

Probably the main reason the Amiga was more successful was its specialised hardware making it easier for programmers to play MODs, use more colours etc - as you say, games by big companies didn't really "push the envelope", so tracked music didn't show up in many ST games.

[vlgtube]

As the time goes by, designers could do better but i think everything went wrong when atari release STE in 1989, i read some interviews where game designers waits and was really excited about new computer but after all much dissapointed. they expect something more than Amiga and get onoly something near Amiga. And of course market shows that Amiga titles sells with advantage. But still you can do better with ST/E.

[vlgtube]

Its not about computer, but skills and tools also. Its always the same. Just check some ZX Spectrum commercial games and new noncomercial titles. Same for ST, some n-c or small company commercial games are better than big companys titles. It depends who wrote game, how it was accepted by publisher. Etc.

[batlin]

Agreed... the difference between the early (1986/7) games and later ones is pretty amazing if you browse the screenshots at the Atari Legend site. It's almost like a different computer :D

[vlgtube]

Well, i didn't say its even possible. You're absolutely right. But it still could be quite easily better than only stiff 16 colours. Dont't need to say its not "just case of activating", simply there are some games that proves these abilities and some that was coded badly. For many reasons. Just look OBSESSION pinball and compare to ZOOL which was not optimized for utilize STE. It needs additional code of course but hey its not a piece of cake.