Elite Atari ST/Amiga v1.4

Modified Atari ST/Amiga Elite from Atari ST source code

Release build configuration: noprotect=yes commander=default laser=singlebeam aifiresound=no scannerlogo=no

11.09.2026 V1.4

• Amiga / Atari ST: Thargoid and Tharglet lasers now always use light blue from the existing palette, regardless of commander rating.
• Amiga / Atari ST: commander=max now starts Jameson with the Deadly rating and matching score, alongside 1,000,000 Cr. Saved commanders remain unchanged.
• Added distinct continuous Beam and Military laser sounds on Amiga and Atari ST, with short fade-in and fade-out. Target impact sounds remain audible; Pulse and Mining retain their original firing sounds.
• Added scannerlogo=yes|no to Atari ST and Amiga builds to show or hide the ELITE caption below the scanner. Enabled by default.
• Amiga: Added the original ADF sound effect when the hangar launch animation begins. Respects the Effects setting and is skipped when the launch animation is disabled.
• Atari ST and Amiga: Replaced travelling laser effects and AI photon projectiles with BBC-style beams and immediate hit detection.
• Player targeting remains fixed at the crosshair centre; beam jitter is purely cosmetic.
• Preserved original player damage, firing intervals and overheating behaviour. Pulse and Mining fire in pulses; Beam and Military display continuous beams between damage ticks.
• Added laser=dualbeam (default) and laser=singlebeam build options for two converging beams or one central beam.
• Added player laser colours from the existing palette: Pulse red, Beam orange, Military white and Mining instrument-bar magenta.
• AI lasers originate from each model’s gun_node and use the firing ship’s depth for occlusion. Corrected centred muzzle positions for Sidewinder, Gecko, Adder and Moray.
• Successful AI hits apply a random 2×, 3× or 4× multiplier to the original base damage, approximating repeated damage from the former projectiles.
• Added a 10% random miss chance for correctly aimed AI shots, alongside existing aiming checks. Misses still display a beam but cause no damage or impact sound.
• AI beam colours follow player rating: Harmless–Poor red, Average–Competent orange and Dangerous–Elite white. Constrictor beams are always white.
• Added aifiresound=no|yes, defaulting to no, to control AI firing sounds independently of impact and player weapon sounds.
• Fixed “Entering Hyperspace” text being covered by tunnel circles. The message remains visible throughout normal and galactic hyperspace.
• Amiga: Repositioned the intro credit to fit entirely inside the viewport without overlapping the cockpit.
• Atari ST and Amiga: Restored slow starfield drift at zero throttle in all four views. Increased maximum starfield speed by 50%, with smooth linear scaling across the entire throttle range.
• Atari ST and Amiga: Fixed stars accumulating in columns along the rear-view edges during climbing and diving. Vertical departures now re-enter through the opposite edge with randomized horizontal positions and preserved fractional overshoot, preventing synchronized rows.
• Amiga: Replaced ST-derived music with the original four-channel Blue Danube arrangement from the Amiga ADF, including seven sampled instruments. Used for the title, docking computer and Elite congratulations screen, with click-free shutdown and cache-safe playback.
• Atari ST and Amiga: Added commander=max, giving the default commander 1,000,000 Cr when starting or resetting a game. Use commander=default to restore the original 100 Cr. Existing saved commanders retain their balances.
• Halved manual acceleration and deceleration in the Atari ST and Amiga versions, reducing the speed change from 2 to 1 unit per game frame for finer throttle control.
• Fixed starfield clustering in side views immediately after launch by correctly initializing rotation values.
• Fixed horizontal rows of stars forming during sustained roll by preserving each star’s movement past the viewport edge when respawning.
• Reduced control damping from 8 to 2 units per game frame in the Atari ST and Amiga versions. With Damping ON, roll and pitch now return to neutral more gradually, taking 20 frames from full deflection.
• Updated rendering order on Amiga and Atari ST: stars now appear over the planet and sun, while ships, stations and other 3D objects obscure them.
• Kept lasers, the targeting sight and viewport text above the starfield, preserving depth order within each object layer.
• Replaced the Amiga and Atari ST starfield with a native adaptation of the BBC/C64 Elite model.
• Added depth-dependent movement and view-specific star recycling, including incoming-edge spawning in side views.
• Improved steering motion while keeping every star exactly one pixel.
• Preserved retro rocket support and coloured warp trails.
• Removed obsolete starfield lookup files, freeing approximately 29 KB of RAM.
• Fixed viewport clipping on Amiga and Atari ST: hangar scenes, 3D objects, planets and the sun now fill the complete 256 × 112 viewport without missing edge columns.
• Applied sun-flare clipping after expansion to prevent drawing over the cockpit border.
• Updated starfield bounds and movement tables to support the full viewport width and prevent out-of-bounds lookups.
• Fixed corrupted missile indicators and options icons on CPUs with instruction caches in both the Amiga and Atari ST versions. Replaced self-modifying sprite code with fixed rotation routines, preserving fast rendering on the 68000.
• Added the original Atari title image to Amiga startup, displayed with native Amiga graphics and colours while game assets load. The game continues automatically when loading finishes.
• Optimized viewport clearing on Amiga and Atari ST using larger MOVEM.L transfers.
• Accelerated Amiga vertical lines, horizontal spans and block fills by caching plane colours.
• Optimized diagonal line drawing on both platforms by caching colour masks and reducing memory accesses.
• Added MC68000 regression tests covering rendering accuracy, viewport boundaries, register preservation and VBL synchronization.
• Amiga port and noprotect=yes build option for disabling novella check at start.
• Fixed slow vertical starfield movement in all cockpit views to match object movement during turns, preserving fractional pixels for smoother motion.
• Fixed reversed vertical starfield movement when rolling in the left and right cockpit views.