Acorn Archimedes Software Preservation

[vexation]

Originally Posted by MarkYoungIW

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ACORN-WORLD-TI...d=p3286.c0.m14

Wow, Acorn World still going! And they'll have the Domesday System there! Man I miss that stuff.. I remember going to an Acorn Convention and buying Dunjunz for the BBC when I was a kid. Old school.

A shame there's no mention of Paul Vigay - the guy contributed so much to the Archie scene back in the day, I was gutted to hear of his death earlier in the year. Would be nice to see some.. memorial of him I guess. Although I guess some would see that as stupid/tacky.

[mr.vince]

Originally Posted by MarkYoungIW

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ACORN-WORLD-TI...d=p3286.c0.m14

@SPS
I havent forgotten about imaging for you, I am working on it, just time is as always an issue!!

Happens to all of us. Take your time, when you have something we can inspect, let us know.

Best,
Chris

[Retroplay]

http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html

Arculator 0.99 is out.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Retroplay

Arculator 0.99 is out.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=46763

[Retroplay]

D'oh.. /me is too slow. *headslap*

[MarkYoungIW]

@Tom,
Noticed the shots of RPCEmu running in Windows CE on your website, really fancy this with Arculator, as I carry my XDA round with me everywhere, and just fancied being a bit of a geek!! I am running Windows Mobile 6, so some guidance would be fantastic. Thanks. BTW. Many many thanks for the new version of Arculator.

**EDIT**
Think I should have read a bit more before I posted, sounds like the port to Windows CE wasnt as easy as I might have thought (a simple recompiling job!!) Portable RiscOS does sound very good though!!

Glad to know the English Acorn scene is still alive and well! It's been frustrating to see sites that have tried to preserve the games pulled down due to various copyright infringements - i only hope the wolves stay at bay and realise there is no point in trying to make money from +15 year old games! The only people who bother to play them are us Acorn lovers who like to delve into some nostalgia once in a while! Most of us actually bought the games years ago, just lost the copies over the years...

That said I still have a load of my old Acorn disks and have converted them all to ADFs. I've uploaded a few to Charlie's great server, including a version of Pandora's Box without copy protection. My original disk one got corrupted so I spent days and nights with a friends copy trying to hack out the copy protection to finish the game! I'm sure I'll go to hell for it, but at least it can still be played!

[MarkYoungIW]

Can anyone else get slamdunks version of Pandora to load with Arculator!? Might just be me, but I'm having trouble.

BTW. Welcome along slamdunk!!

Hey Mark,

What trouble are you having? Works fine for me - latest version of Arculator and the following settings:
Arm 3 33mhz
4mb RAM
RISC OS 3 (New FDC)

If it gives you a sprite memory area, just put some memory into System Sprites in the task manager. Otherwise send over your error message and I will look for you!

[MarkYoungIW]

Hmm....Same settings, only I get this:-



Then this:-



Very stange.

[MarkYoungIW]

I have spoken to Jan Rinze who ported RPCemu to WindowsCE, and unfortunately time constraints leave him unable to look at doing a WM6 port of Arculator, although he has stated his willingness to assist anyone else who fancies coding this. Just really trying to persuade the widespread porting of Arculator to other platforms too. In theory Arculator should run much better on a PPC than RPCEmu due to the speed difference in the machines.

Naturally its not just because I want RiscOS on my PPC!!

[Tom Walker]

RPCemu is a better bet for WinCE, as it's actually faster! Arculator is much more accurate, and hence slower.

[MarkYoungIW]

Thanks for that Tom, perhaps in time then, with faster PDA's.

I will be hopefully back to testing more stuff with Arculator soon. Will have another look at Magic Pockets as soon as I get a moment. Think Charlie was going to do the same too. Will strive to test the emulator as much as possible, with as many titles as possible.

Will have to have a dig around again and see what else I have!! Sensible Soccer somewhere!!!

[killergorilla]

Originally Posted by MarkYoungIW

Will have to have a dig around again and see what else I have!! Sensible Soccer somewhere!!!

What have you just done?!!?

[MarkYoungIW]

I couldnt help myself!!!

In all seriousness though, we need to have a good look around and take stock what people have to image for SPS and to test with Arculator and apd.

We will have to get a page up and running with Arc titles on it, who has them, if they have been tested working with Arculator in adf, apd formats and if they have been sent to sps, if they are HD installable and if so how.

Do we agree, and is there anyone here who can set up this page!? Charlie!?

I know I have been a bit quiet on this subject recently, but with winter coming, I have less work on, so more time to spend on this.

Hello again, I trust everyone is keeping well. What is the current state of the project? Just to get a recap after these 6 pages.

[MarkYoungIW]

Good to hear from you again. Yeah, still working on this.

Quick recap is still a little up in the air.

Tom Walker has created a file format (.apd) for Arculator that supports copy protected discs.

Tom is also looking at .ipf support, but until SPS have actually released any titles for him to test with, this is all a bit on hold.

Once ipf's do start to come through, they can should be able to be used on the original hardware using Hxc Floppy Emulator.

C20 is still under construction, but once done, C20 will not only be able to dump files which SPS will create IPF's out of, but it will also be able to recreate these on actual floppy disc media.

At the moment, still the best way forward is to create .apd's for Tom, and dump for SPS to eventually create ipf's out of.

This at the moment can only be done with an A1200, of which I now have one capable of doing just this.

At the moment I am exceptionally busy, but I think that the best way forward will be for me to send you my A1200, and instructions on dumping for both formats.

Let me know if your happy to do that, believe me though, dumping does seem to take some time!!!

[Photon]

Tempt him with a trade for a big pile'o'lego!

[antom]

Hi,

I've been a member here for quite a while but never posted, probably because I know very little about the Amiga and have never owned one... (sorry!)

I am, however, a fairly avid collector of Acorn Archimedes games and have plenty of original discs that I've bought over the years. I've subscribed to the thread via email for updates etc.

Here's a list of games I definitely own original copies of (mostly boxed, some loose)

4D:
- Apocalypse
- Arcade Soccer
- Birds Of War
- Black Angel
- Boogie Buggy
- Break 147 & Superpool
- Carnage Inc. (Unfortunatly the discs are corrupt - only got as far as running the intro animation on an A3010 - disc repair possible?)
- Cataclysm
- Chocks Away + Extra Missions
- Chopper Force
- Drop Ship (one copy protected, one without)
- The Dungeon
- Enter The Realm
- E-Type (+ Track Designer)
- Exotic Adventures of Sylvia Layne, The
- Galactic Dan
- Grievous Bodily 'ARM
- Holed Out Compendium (Holed Out / Extra Courses 1+2 / Designer)
- Inertia
- Pandora's Box
- Powerband
- Pysanki
- Spobbleoid Fantasy
- Stunt Racer 2000 (+ Extra Tracks)
- U.I.M
- X-Fire
- The WIMP Game
- Nevryon

Cambridge International Software (aka. CIS)
- Fireball II (with screen editor + original Fireball)

CDS
- Leeds United: Champions!

Clares
- Fervour

Coin-Age Ltd
- Boogie Buggy (released by 4D but developed by Coin-Age)
- Pesky Muskrats

Dabs Press/Alien Images
- Alerion
- Arcendium

Eterna
- BallArena

Fednet
- Star Fighter 3000

Gremlin
- Zool (both HD and FD versions)

Hex/Psycore:
- Big Bang
- Revolver
- Top Banana (original, not the Superior PIAS release)

Hybrid
- Elite

Krysalis:
- Alone In The Dark
- Cannon Fodder
- Chuck Rock
- Gods
- Lemmings II: The Tribes
- Lotus Turbo Challenge II
- Manchester United: The Official Computer Game
- Mad Professor Mariati
- Nebulus
- Populous
- Quest For Gold
- Revelation
- Sim City
- Swiv
- Terremex

Matt Black
- Blood Sport

Magnetic Scrolls
- Corruption
- Wonderland

Millennium:
- Diggers
- Magic Pockets

Minerva:
- Battle Tank
- Bug Hunter / Moondash
- Bug Hunter II: In Space
- Freddy's Folly
- Hovebod
- Ibix The Viking
- Jet Fighter
- Maddingley Hall
- Minotaur
- Missile Control
- Orion
- Talisman
- Thundermonk

Modus Software
- High Risc Racing

Powerslave
- Wolvenstein 3D

Software 42:
- Ixion

Sherson
- The Crystal Maze

Shibumi Software
- ArcPinball

Superior Software:
- Air Supremacy
- Conqueror
- Play It Again Sam 1 compilation (Conqueror, Rotor, No Excuses and Hostages)
- Repton 3
- Speech!
- Technodream (discs may be corrupt but run fine)
- Zarch

Systems Interrput:
- Phaethon

TBA Software:
- Axis
- Dragonball
- FTT

Turcan
- Dreadnaughts

U.S Gold
- Flashback (both FD & HD)
- Scrabble

Virgo Software
- Small

I've got a fair few more, just a case of tracking them down. Let me know if there's anything needed from the list above and what I'll need to do.

[vexation]

Originally Posted by antom

Hi,
I am, however, a fairly avid collector of Acorn Archimedes games and have plenty of original discs that I've bought over the years. I've subscribed to the thread via email for updates etc.

I'm beginning to think I'm the only one that ever played Eterna's games.. which I just find amazing considering they had the best graphics and gameplay of anything put out on the Archie back in the day.

Nice little collection of games you've got going there tho! =) I've got a sudden hankering to play to Wonderland again.. I remember when I finally figured out how to straighten the coathangers, put the paper under the door and push the key out onto it! Those were the days, don't think I ever managed to finish it tho.