R u m o r s   a b o u t
t h e   s c e n e



November 1st, 2001 
(emulators)   SainT v0.99 beta!

Here is a brief report about the increase of the new SainT' version. Please note it includes now a self-extracting executable, with TOS & a disk-image (surprise). Leonard worked really hard on the new improvements. JimB doesn't work on SainT at the moment since he is on a GBA game, but it doesn't mean he gives up the project. The final version must be released the next days (during the week-end?). Click on the pictures to discover more screenshots.
    SainT v0.99 features:
  • PC Joystick support
  • Increase the emulation of fullscreens
  • Added 'Low pass filter' for better sound quality
  • fixed the slow replay on some musics (Quartet' tunes for instance)
  • Windowed mode added. This version works perfectly under 16, 24 or 32 bits display mode
  • Added both options of display: hardware texture & vertical linear filtering.
  • Fixed problems with keyboard (Just Buggin', Hoby One, etc.)
  • Esc key didn't crash anymore
  • Good results with slow PC. Just install DirectX 8 and it rocks

click to enlarge the picture


click to enlarge the picture


click to enlarge the picture






October 16th, 2001 
(emulators)   Another Steem beta version!

A new version of Steem is available for beta-testers only. Not available anywhere else. But the final version might be released very soon (this week?).
Sounds' abilities don't seem to be improved since the last beta version. They are really good anyway (there's still a little bug with some soundchip tunes that cause a blip blip on background). But the authors looked into the overscan & sync scrollers instead of. So plenty of demos using fullscreen-technics are running very good now. It doesn't include demos like Just Buggin' or Dark Side Of The Spoon (can't tested because of the protection), but a lot of others are working perfectly. Just try ULM' New Year Demo or the main-menu of the Decade Demo.
The authors have also added some new features like the possibility to adjust the speed of the mouse. User-friendly!
Some games have been increased, too. Steem uses now a patch system for reticent games. It includes so Enchanted Land, Jumping Jackson and The Great Giana Sisters.
Click on the images on the right to watch at many other screenshots. And wait for a couple of days before the final version!

click to enlarge the picture


click to enlarge the picture







August 27th, 2001 
(emulators)   New Steem beta version!

A new version of Steem is available for beta-testers only. It seems really promising, since Russel has increased the sound support and resolved the bugs with certain SoundBlaster cards. Yes, it's true: now the sound works correctly (I own a SB Live Player)!
You want more? No problem. Better compatibility with overscan demos has been reached, so many more fullscreens are supported. After many tests it seems that a lot of demos are now working fully and will added here as soon as the final version is published.
Click on both pictures to see details about the new sync-colors support.
Download below an example of sound emulation (MP3 format). This extract comes from the Phantom Demo by Arkham and was created with the help of Sid Sound Designer. It is particularly difficult to emulate.
- Phantom Tune under SainT v09.1b
- Phantom Tune under Steem v1.62
- Phantom Tune under Steem v1.70 beta

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click to enlarge the picture




August 27th, 2001 
(emulators)   WinSTon is alive!

Stew succeeded to WinSTon after the advertisement the last year of the stop of the emulator created by Paul Bates. Today Darren Birks gives up Stew. In fact, both authors (Darren & Paul) have joined their efforts to release a new version of WinSTon, still one of the most popular Atari ST emulator. It seems to be really interesting for demos and megademos. The date of availability is planned but it's a surprise (not a fake, soon anyway).
WinSTon v0.6 will include:
- Blitter Chip
- DMA Sound
- Sync Protection
- ST/STE emulation (switchable in configurations)
- 4096 colors support
- both DIM format support (All Sectors and Used Sectors)




August 12th, 2001 
(demos)   OVR screen

Grazey from the PHF is working on a mysterious project and mentioned the name of Jess from the famous french crew OVeRlanders. No screenshot is available but it's certainly not a fake... Just wait and see.




August 12th, 2001 
(emulators)   Steem problems resolved?

Both authors of Steem have been concentrating on screen syncronisation and have been doing quite well (click on the picture on the right). They are also getting somewhere with sync scrolling. They have finally got rid of the last few farting sound problems, at the same time as speeding things up. They also might be able to find out what has been going wrong on some sound cards, they have a new one to test that doesn't work 100% correctly with Steem. click to enlarge the picture




August 4th, 2001 
(demos)   New Megademo for the Web

Ronnie the Webmaster of the site PleasureValley is working at the moment on a new megademo created in Flash. Since he is one of the best "Flash designer" on the Net, we can hope it will be a marvellous megademo. It will contain five screens and a Union-Demo-like maimenu. The sprite (Lucky Luck) is from Tanis and it comes from the STart website. Hope it will be online really soon!click to enlarge the picture




July 14th, 2001 
(demos)   About Industrially Safe Demo Disk #31

Between 1994 and 1996 The crew Effect created many ST compilation disks called "Industrially Safe Demo Disk". 33 issues have been achieved (1-30 and 32-34), but the #31 has never been realized. Since a few mounths Tronic (Effect) has decided to remedy this miss. The issue #31 is in production now. Tronic (Effect) & The Berserker (Teenage) are coding it, while MC Laser (TSCC) is composing the music. No set date is planned. "All gfx, music and code are being produced as they need it - so it takes time."




July 8th, 2001 
(emulators)   The next version of Steem is coming soon

The next release of Steem might be on anytime this week. According to Russell (co-author of the emulator), more games will be emulated. It includes Amberstar, Rodland, Overlander and Leavin' Teramis.
The authors also hope to increase the sound emulation and add proper hardware-level RS-232 serial port emulation, an option never seen before.
After the release of this version, they will work on the internet play (yes, really great!) and will increase the emulation speed. If lucky they hope to halve the PC CPU time used for the ST CPU. And last but no least, they plan to increase the sync-scrolling emulation and the STE compatibilty.




July 8th, 2001 
(emulators)   About SainT...

No real news about SainT, but the project is not discontinued in spite of some people who think it is. Jim has already redone the GUI of SainT and integrated new routines for better STE sound emulation (written by Arnaud). No date release is planned, but Jim is working on the next release, that's not a fake information!




July 8th, 2001 
(demos)   UMD 8730 in august

That's certainly the biggest sound project ever made on ST. This megademo created by Grazey and Cal (two members of the PHF crew) will include more than 4000 tunes! UMD8730 is almost finish, it will be probably avalaible early august.
The intro will feature the longest chip music ever: 20 minutes of bliss composed by... guess who!



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