Elite Atari ST/Amiga v1.46

Modified Atari ST/Amiga Elite from Atari ST source code

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

13.09.2026 V1.46

• Added commander persistence for Stars ON/OFF in Atari ST and Amiga. Stars remain ON at startup, for default Jameson and when loading older saves. The 256-byte save format and cross-platform compatibility are preserved.
• Replaced the loading screen in both versions with the final supplied artwork, preserving its pixels and colours without additional dithering.

13.09.2026 V1.45

• Created new loading screen. No, this one isn’t AI-generated. It was painted by… me https://www.deviantart.com/ataribaby42/art/Leaving-Lave-971816512 ;)
• Added sparse white background stars (Idea by hitchhikr from lemonamiga.com forum) to Atari ST and Amiga, following ship rotation across all four views and drawn behind all objects and UI.
• Added Stars: ON/OFF to Game Options, enabled by default. Disabling stars skips their drawing and rotation calculations. Re-enabling them resets the sky orientation.
• The moving starfield is dark grey with Stars ON and yellow with Stars OFF. Coloured warp trails remain unchanged.
• Both star layers remain hidden after a failed hyperspace jump.
• Amiga: Fixed commander loading after swapping floppies, including loading directly from the title screen. Loading, saving and the catalog now use the disk inserted in the startup drive.
• Amiga: Prevented freezes caused by hidden AmigaDOS disk requesters. Errors are handled in-game, while HDD saves continue to use the current directory.

12.09.2026 V1.44

• Added pulsing red single-pixel anti-collision lights to the four corners of the Coriolis station’s docking face on Atari ST and Amiga, using the existing ship engine palette animation. Lights are hidden when viewed from behind.
• Fixed the scanner zoom indicator remaining at 2x after launch when the actual zoom had reset to 1x, on Atari ST and Amiga.
• Increased the AI laser random miss chance from 10% to 20% on both platforms.

12.09.2026 V1.43

• Added an Amiga-inspired hangar launch sound on Atari ST, using a rising PSG engine tone with noise, gradual onset and fade-out. The effect respects the Effects setting and is skipped when the launch animation is disabled.
• Fixed Atari ST hard disk startup with resident HDD drivers by relocating the game into available ST RAM. Verified on a real 1 MB Atari ST with PP HDD Driver. Floppy startup on 512 KB systems remains supported and was tested in Hatari.
• Added left and right Shift as alternative laser fire keys on Atari ST, allowing simultaneous steering in both axes and firing. The original A key remains supported.

12.09.2026 V1.42

• Fixed Mission 5 completion on Atari ST and Amiga when the Alien Space Station is destroyed by a missile or collision. Normal hyperspace now unlocks correctly, and docking awards the ECM Jammer once.
• Concealed Dodecahedron station registrations, displaying Alien Space Station ??-???.

11.09.2026 V1.41

• Fixed unwanted starfield rotation when engaging warp with the J key while pitching or rolling. Rotation now resets correctly during warp and after returning to normal flight, in all four views on both Atari ST and Amiga.
• Added ship and station registration IDs to IFF identification with the I key, including views without a fitted laser.
• Added the player's registration to the Status screen and commander saves, while retaining compatibility with existing save files.
• New and legacy commanders start with registration JS-042. A successful escape capsule launch assigns a new registration to the replacement ship.
• Pirates, Thargoids and Tharglets conceal their registration as ??-???. The Constrictor retains a visible registration, matching the C64 version.
• Station registrations identify the station model, galaxy and system. AI ships retain their assigned ID throughout their lifetime.
• Removed stray yellow pixels from the Beam and Military laser equipment labels in both Atari ST and Amiga versions.

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.