FOSSPicks
Atari ST emulator
Hatari
When it comes to emulation, the Atari ST is often overlooked in favor of the Commodore Amiga. This could be because Commodore's story is the more romantic: an underdog with superior hardware under the custodianship of an owner incapable of building on its advantage. The Atari ST was also hugely successful in the 80s, to such an extent that it became the bane of every Amiga owner as they suffered substandard game ports from its rival, the lowest common denominator. But it's still a huge chunk of many childhoods, and as a result, great fun to play with via an emulator like Hatari. What's also great about Hatari is that it has very few dependencies, it's cross-platform, and you can easily build it yourself. All you need to get rolling is a legal copy of Atari's ROM or a copy of the free EmuTOS ROM.
If the emulator locates your ROM, it will launch and present you with the old GEM desktop in all its wonderful green and gray glory. Hatari's UI is equally austere, looking like something built in the Unix/X windows/Motif era, but also totally fitting with the late 1980s. As with the Amiga emulator, UAE, you press F12 to bring up the options overlay. From here, you can insert floppy disk images, hard disks, joysticks, and upgrade the memory and CPU with a click of a checkbox, although this may break compatibility. And compatibility is brilliant. We raced through lots of old games, from Captain Blood to Midwinter, and everything seems to work faultlessly. The emulator also handles MIDI for controlling keyboards and synthesizers. This means that Hatari could be used for more than nostalgia as there's a growing trend for modern musicians to go back to old software for its simplicity and durability.
Project Website

Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Direct Download
Read full article as PDF:
Price $2.95
News
-
OpenMandriva Lx ROME Technical Preview Released
OpenMandriva’s rolling release distribution technical preview has been released for testing purposes and adds some of the latest/greatest software into the mix.
-
Linux Mint 21 is Now Available
The latest iteration of Linux Mint, codenamed Vanessa, has been released with a new upgrade tool and other fantastic features.
-
Firefox Adds Long-Anticipated Feature
Firefox 103 has arrived and it now includes a feature users have long awaited…sort of.
-
System76 Refreshes Their Popular Oryx Pro Laptop with a New CPU
The System76 Oryx Pro laptop has been relaunched with a 12th Gen CPU and more powerful graphics options.
-
Elive Has Released a New Beta
The Elive team is proud to announce the latest beta version (3.8.30) of its Enlightenment-centric Linux distribution.
-
Rocky Linux 9 Has Arrived
The latest iteration of Rocky Linux is now available and includes a host of new features and support for new architecture.
-
Slimbook Executive Linux Ultrabook Upgrading Their CPUs
The Spanish-based company, Slimbook, has made available their next generation Slimbook Executive Linux ultrabooks with a 12th Gen Intel Alder Lake CPU.
-
Fedora Linux is Coming to the Raspberry Pi 4
Thanks to significant work in the upstream, the upcoming release of Fedora 37 will introduce support for the Raspberry Pi 4.
-
New Linux Ultrabook from TUXEDO Computers
TUXEDO Computers has released a new 15" Ultrabook running Linux.
-
GNOME 43 To Bring Some Exciting New Features
GNOME 43 is getting close to the first alpha development release and it promises to add one particular feature that should be exciting to several users.