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### D-Bug Falcon/MSTE Fix Update

#### www.dbug-automation.co.uk

#### Previewed By J. Monkman

Back in the early 1990's I was faced with a major dilemma - my Atari 520STFM had finally died and I was left with two viable choices; to upgrade to an Amiga 1200 and lose my back catalogue of games, or to stick with Atari and pay a little bit extra for the 32-Bit Falcon. In the end I opted for the former - mainly due to Atari ST(E) game compatibility with the Falcon being so poor, and therefore meaning that even if I did stick with Atari I'd have to buy new games for the machine. At the time it turned out to be a wise move, but then a few years later the Commodore Amiga market evaporated - forcing me to 'upgrade' once again to the modern PC that most of us use today. What has all this got to do with D-Bug? Well, if they'd been patching Falcon games back then at the rate they've been completing them over the past six months then it could have been a very different story.

Since the last issue of RGCD, I'm sad to announce that there have been a total of zero new game releases for the Atari ST(E). Aside from a few decent scene demos it's all been a bit quiet and I was sorry to hear that there were no new projects unveiled at Outline this year. However, the good news is that D-Bug (formerly Automation) have been busier than ever, releasing four new Falcon/Mega ST(E) game fix-packs and a new menu disk (CD197) featuring the all-time classic Gauntlet II, fully trained and hard disk installable.

As always, where possible the games have been fixed to make use of the extra speed of the higher-spec machines, and the majority come complete with optional trainers so you can finally beat those old games you could never finish back in the 1990's. Of particular note here is the speed enhanced version of Frontier (Elite II), making it finally possible to play the game at a half decent frame-rate on the Atari and without having to resort to the manual to pass the copy protection check. Also included in the May fixpack is Chaos' Pandemonium Demos, which although not yet fixed for 030 accelerated machines, is a great demo pack that really showcases some of the Atari's capabilities. Of course, all of the releases work on the Atari 16-Bit range of machines (provided you have the necessary RAM - up to 4MB in some cases), and equally well via emulation using STEem.

(Note that due to the copyright nature of the original games and the already inflated file-size of this issue I've decided against including the fixes on disc. However, they are currently all available from D-Bug's site (URL above) and I sincerely recommend that you add them to your Atari collection - especially if you are one of the lucky few to own a Falcon or Mega STE).

Anyway, here's that list of recent Falcon/Mega ST(E) fixes in full:

Another World (Delphine)
Bionic Commando (Go!)
Bubble Bobble (Software Creations)
Clever & Smart (Magic Bytes)
Cybernoid 2 (Hewson)
Frontier - Elite 2(Gametek)
Gauntlet II (Atari Games)
Gobliiins (Coktel Vision)
Gobliins 2 (Coktel Vision)
Ishar 2: Messengers of Doom (Silmarils)
Kinghts of the sky (Creative Sparks)
Leisure Suit Larry 3 (Sierra)
Nebulus (Hewson)
Night Shift (Lucasarts)
One step beyond (Ocean)
Pandemonium Demo (Chaos)
Phantasie 2 (SSI)
Push Over (Red Rat)
Stunt Car Racer (Microstyle)
The Sword and the Rose (Codemasters)
Ultima VI (Origin)
Vindicators (Tengen)
Wicked (Binary design)