Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 21/02/2026Latest work on my #AtariSTE enhanced version of Lotus 2, now with a sky gradient similar to that featured in the #Amiga version. Still loads of work to do in various areas but it's looking good and performing well. 👍 🚗 I'll probably release as a single stage proof of concept. 0489
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 17/02/2026I don't know how you could tolerate the framerate Josh. 😀 100
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 17/02/2026Spent several hours last night rewriting and optimising the 68k code that draws the rev counter on the #AtariST version of Lotus 2 to use the Blitter chip instead. These are the lengths that us ST folks are willing to go to in order to compete with that other machine. 😉 1245
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 12/02/2026Spent a couple of days progressing the #AtariSTE enhanced version of Lotus 2 using some of the knowledge and techniques gained while developing FaSTer. Still some way to go, but much closer to the #Amiga version than before. And yes, it's quite glitchy at the moment. 😄 1509
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 06/02/2026We had a magazine in the UK called INPUT in the mid 1980s that aimed to teach people how to program such things on the 8-bit micros. Your video instantly took me back to those days. 😀 050
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 02/02/2026I guess I should probably stop messing around with demo effects on the high score screen and get back to writing the damn game. 😄 #CaveyTaxi #AtariSTE 1181
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 27/01/2026Thanks to Atari-Forum user ThorN for this "STOT Players Favourite new ST Game" award for Faster! 🥳 (STOT is the ST Offline Tournament - a high scores competition hosted on Atari-Forum and played using Atari ST games). Download Faster for Atari STE from retroracing.itch.io/faster-atari.... 0152
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 26/01/2026Cavey Taxi for Atari STE: high scores now being loaded from floppy and displayed on high score screen. Tons of raster time left, so I feel the urge to get a lot more colours on screen and more demo effects going on here. 😄 (Yes I'm aware of the glitch!) #CaveyTaxi #AtariSTE 1101
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 25/01/2026As suggested by Angus over on X - raster bars underlying the wavy logo. Who needs one of them "copper" things anyway? 😄 (excuse the artifacts - it's next on my list...) #CaveyTaxi #AtariSTE 0101
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 25/01/2026That's an excellent idea... lots of new stuff to see on the STE from the last 5 years. Including my own two previous works :) 010
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 24/01/2026I'm supposed to be working on the core gameplay of Cavey Taxi for the Atari STE, but instead I've gotten caught up in creating this logo distorter for the high scores screen. 😄 Back to the game itself when I've got these demoscene urges off my chest! #AtariSTE #CaveyTaxi 0191
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 21/01/2026Cavey Taxi for Atari STE - game is now booting from floppy and I'm working on mundane stuff like title screens and high score tables. I tend to implement things *very* roughly before going back to refine them - this video illustrates this idea very well. 😄 #AtariSTE #CaveyTaxi 1111
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 18/01/2026Coming soon to an Atari STE near you, with another one of those tasty hi-colour title screens that does a great job of showing off the STE's 4096 colour palette. 😄 #CaveyTaxi #AtariSTE 0161
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 17/01/2026Sometimes I get a bit bored of working on the game itself, and find myself going off on a bit of a tangent to add some demoscene-style magic into the mix. 😄 0182
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 16/01/2026"Cavey Taxi" for Atari STE: activated scoring system and added notifications to indicate how many passengers are remaining to be picked up. At this rate of progress, I'll be looking for help with YM music and digital sound effects soon - please let me know if you'd like to help! #AtariSTE 0143
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 15/01/2026Excellent games on N64 - much more playable than the overrated (but very pretty) F1 World Grand Prix series. The PC and Dreamcast versions were rather underwhelming though. 010
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 15/01/20262 minutes of gameplay from my upcoming Atari STE minigame "Cavey Taxi", running on real Atari STE hardware (with a badly calibrated modern monitor 😞). Look how effortlessly this powerhouse of a retro system handles that 2-layer parallax scroll and particle system! #AtariSTE 0222
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 15/01/2026Good to hear from you Scott. I contemplated the idea of an energy/shield bar, but I couldn't be bothered to go to the effort of working out the pinball-like physics of bouncing the ship off the rocks. So I'm afraid you'll have to settle for playing a game with difficulty turned up to 11. 😈 120
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 13/01/2026Ha ha! I messed up pretty badly there - it's a good illustration of how you have to pay non-stop attention to the craft at all times. I'm just glad I made the collision detection pixel perfect so I couldn't go blaming the game! 020
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 13/01/2026Not quite sure what you mean there - could you explain a bit further? 😀 100
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 13/01/2026This is the latest build of the WIP Atari STE game I am now provisonally calling "Cavey Taxi". Pick up passengers in a tight cave complex and drop them off elsewhere, fighting gravity, time and fuel consumption. With pretty parallax scrolling and particle systems. What's not to like? 😀 2112
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 07/01/2026Continued work on this upcoming minigame for the Atari STE. The gameplay is shaping up to be a bit Crazy Taxi-esque - pick up passengers and drop them off elsewhere in the cave without running out of time or fuel. Still lots of work to do but coming along nicely! #AtariSTE 0130
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 04/01/2026Ah well... at least the Blitter isn't as bad as everybody used to say. 😀 010
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 02/01/2026Score/status display starting to take shape (yes, the masking around the timer isn't yet finished...). Working with hardware scrolling can be pretty mind bending at times. 🤯 #AtariSTE 1112
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 02/01/2026Mockup of status display, including countdown timer, fuel remaining, score and high score. Hoping to implement this in the game in the coming days. #AtariSTE 060
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 01/01/2026I have no idea at the moment - it's evolving rather organically. 😀 010
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 01/01/2026Fixed colour palette and added pixel-perfect collision detection with foreground. Ship spawns back to a safe point when it crashes. All STE features except DMA sound on show here - Hardware scroll, Blitter and Enhanced palette! DMA sound to come soon to complete things. 😀 #AtariSTE 0154
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 30/12/2025First signs of gameplay in this new Atari STE project - joystick left and right rotate the ship and up activates the thrusters. Gravity pulls the ship downwards. The particle system is looking really nice - there aren't nearly enough ST/Amiga era games with particle systems. 😀 #AtariSTE 1211
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 30/06/2025Big thanks to @zeropagehomebrew.com for this exquisite award certificate and trophy for FASTER on the Atari STE! (Amiga OCS/ECS version of FASTER is still in the works - please bear with me...😃) 1203
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 06/04/2025The STE version is already available if you want to grab a copy. retroracing.itch.ioretroracing.itch.ioJonathan Thomas 000
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 06/04/2025Ha! I know what you mean, it's sometimes a bit too fast for my ageing reflexes. My "justification" for this is that racing games in the 80's were hard and fast, but our younger reflexes could cope with that. 😆 010
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 05/04/2025I think it's going to be okay - I've come a long way since those earlier efforts and coming to understand how to get performance out of the Amiga. Still got a couple of tricks up my sleeve but hoping it should be as fast as the STE version for the most part. 121
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 05/04/2025Here's a very informal comparison between the existing #AtariSTE version of FASTER and the (WIP) #Amiga OCS/ECS version, because I know you guys love this kind of thing. 😄 Atari left, Amiga right. 35014
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 05/04/2025This short gameplay segment (I can only show about 30 seconds in Bluesky) is taken from quite a yellow time of day in the 24 hour cycle. That may account for it - there's no deliberate yellowness injected into the Amiga version. 220
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 04/04/2025FASTER for #Amiga OCS/ECS: switched over to single pass (rather than 4 pass) rendering for car and scenery bobs, giving a noticeable increase in performance. Further evidence for any existing doubters out there that this is definitely not a lazy port from the ST! 😄 2597
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 31/03/2025Of course, it'll run at a solid 50FPS on the 1200. But then people will expect a load of additional bells and whistles. My interest here lies mainly in getting the most out of the base chipset. 120
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 30/03/2025Ha ha! I'm trying my very best not to, but the Copper just presents to many opportunities for eye candy! If it's any consolation, I have a strong suspicion that I won't be able to make the Amiga version run quite as smoothly as the STE version. 😆 010
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 30/03/2025Ah thank you! Just trying to avoid taking sides and just using the hardware in each machine to the best of my ability! 000
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 30/03/2025Still not 100% I'll be able to get the Amiga version running as smoothly as the STE version. 😉 110
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 29/03/2025FASTER for #Amiga OCS/ECS: currently adding in some features that had to be left out of the STE version because they were too CPU intensive. This depth-cueing effect on the ground/road surface is a good example. I don't love everything about the Amiga, but I love the Copper! 😁 46712
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 29/03/2025Thanks! I've discovered that you can get away with a lot of visual imperfections when you hold a reasonably solid 50fps framerate. 😀 020
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 28/03/2025FASTER for #Amiga OCS/ECS: currently adding in bobs for top status display. Time digits will be hardware sprites. As with the STE version that came before it, each new feature requires a load of optimisation work in other areas to hold onto that all-important 50fps framerate! 37311
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 27/03/2025Absolutely. I now have tooling to create hardware sprite data from a GIF, so you can expect to see them everywhere I can cram them in. 😆 110
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 26/03/2025Also, the Copper on the Amiga allows for a variety of low-cost (in performance terms) "special effects" such as copper gradients. My gut feeling is that the final Amiga version will drop a few more frames than the STE version but will also be a little nicer to look at. 😀 040
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 26/03/2025It's complicated. The STE feels a little faster in terms of raw brute processing and drawing speed. But to counter this, the Amiga allows for a variety of performance-enhancing optimisations such as switching off bitplanes on certain lines, using hardware sprites instead of bobs etc. (continued...) 110
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 25/03/2025FASTER for #Amiga OCS/ECS: Following much head scratching, the speedo in the bottom right has been switched from BoBs to hardware sprites, giving a nice performance boost and other cool benefits that I'll come to later. I did say this would be no lazy STE->Amiga conversion. 😄 28014
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 24/03/2025I thought for a moment you'd tried to build something that ambitious using the segmented real mode memory model. 😀 I used DJGPP back in the day to build a few 3D engines. Really liked it. But the Watcom compiler produced faster code! 110
Jonathan Thomas @atariste.bsky.social · 24/03/2025Love it! The texture mapped road and the overall look is so authentic to the era! Is that an old version of Turbo/Borland C I see running at the start? 110
