Acorn Archimedes Software Preservation

[MarkYoungIW]

OK then, just a quick one to forward this in the absence of Cyclone20.

Who here has access to an A1200 capable of imaging to SPS and any Acorn Archimedes titles?

Please list what you have, and lets get them imaged for SPS and also into Toms .adp, of which Tom will make a tuturial of how to do this. Once we get some of this rolling, hopefully we can push this along a bit quicker for everyones benefit.

It is great there are so many people here, who can help get this done.

[starlord]

vexation, I would very much like to know what elite clone you are referring to. Is it sunburst?

[vexation]

Originally Posted by starlord

vexation, I would very much like to know what elite clone you are referring to. Is it sunburst?

Ahah! I browsed the list that Mark linked earlier and found the name.. Karma: The Flight Trainer the quote from that page is "Karma is one of the most eagerly awaited Acorn games - and has been for many, many years! It may yet see the light of delay, although I wouldn't hold your breath. The Flight Trainer was a rather dry introduction to the flight model, and you pretty much require a deep love of physics and astronomy to enjoy this to the full! Some problems reported with StrongARM use."

I just remember what I described, it played VERY similarly to Elite except without the emphasis on combat (i.e same cockpit type view etc) - there was also a heavy emphasis on physics. The game was hyped for a loooong time and got a release in the twilight years (so to speak) other than that I remember being bitterly disappointed!

[vexation]

Originally Posted by MarkYoungIW

Who here has access to an A1200 capable of imaging to SPS and any Acorn Archimedes titles?

I've got a boxed Stunt Racer 2000 knocking around somewhere, probably at my parents (this phrase seems to be a recurring theme amongst Archimedes users haha!) - unfortunately no A1200 tho. So all in all, i'm pretty useless. Good luck to the rest of you tho and appreciate your passion to get things done Mark.

[starlord]

Hmm, I don't know this one.

Let's be sure to preserve it, shall we?

[Tom Walker]

To prevent duplication, here's a list of games I have good APD dumps for :

Cycloids
Darkwood
Drop Ship
Fire & Ice
Last Ninja
Nevyron
Pandora's Box (RISC OS 2 only version)
Populous
Powerband
Star Fighter 3000
Stunt Racer 2000 (+ Extra Tracks)
The Dungeon
The Wimp Game
Wolfenstein 3D

I haven't bothered with unprotected games (eg most of the Krisalis games) as ADF will do the job perfectly well.

Hey gang, I'm still about and back to doing new videos using vga capture. I have the original boxed Karma. Its pretty hefty to play, need to learn how it works before I can video it.

ADP sounds great btw.

[Charlie]

Hmmm,
I REALLY must get round to rebuilding my A1200, then I can get on making some ADP images.
(Thanks Tom)

[MarkYoungIW]

Still trying so hard to buy an A1200. Trouble is they keep selling for so much, and as I intend to build a C20 as soon as its ready, how much do I want to spend!!!

Seems every A1200 goes for around the £50, should I bite the bullet, do my stuff and sell it again!!!

[prowler]

Hi All,

Readers of this thread may like to know that this month's Retro Gamer magazine, Issue65, out tommorrow, includes a feature on the Acorn Archimedes as a gaming platform.

prowler

[MarkYoungIW]

Sounds good!!!! May have to go and get a copy of that...........thats if any of the shops round here sell it!!

Might have an A1200 coming my way finally, think its a bog standard one though, so some modifcation will be required I guess.

[prowler]

I've got the magazine now. That article's definitely worth a read.

[vexation]

Nice little collection of software at http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Acorn-risc-computer-Games-software-collection_W0QQitemZ270410597640QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_VintageComputing_RL?hash=item3ef5ba4508&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1683|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

If anyones bidding on it.
Enter The Realm
Chopper Force
Heimdall
SWIV
Elite
Jet Fighter
James Pond
Arcendium
Demons Lair
Custom McCoy
Chocks Away
Wimp Game

I'd bid but not got the means to make an image anyway (or an Arc to play um on anymore heh.. emulation just doesn't seem to cut it)

[mfletcher]

I just placed a bid on that lot now - I promise I'll share the contents with folks for the purpose of making images if that helps.

[prowler]

[vexation]

Originally Posted by mfletcher

I just placed a bid on that lot now - I promise I'll share the contents with folks for the purpose of making images if that helps.

Awesome, good luck and thanks!

[MarkYoungIW]

@mfletcher

Any luck!?

[mfletcher]

Hey there -

Yep, winning bid! Just waiting for it to be delivered. So who do I send it to for the purposes of making images then?

[Tom Walker]

You could send it to me for APD images...

[MarkYoungIW]

Rather than posting your discs to anyone, the safer option would be to image them yourself depending on your A1200's spec.

What would be ideal at the moment is imaging the discs for SPS which I am sure if you need instruction, one of the SPS team can walk you through it, and also Tom is currently testing a format he has created to work with Arculator, which will be released soon, so he could do with being sent raw read dumps created in the following manner:-

You will also need rawread, this is available on Aminet.

Let's say you were going to dump Populous (as I am doing while writing this). You'd go to your Amiga, enter a shell, navigate to the directory with rawread in, and type

> rawread -f populous1 -r -e 82

Once this is done (which will take a little while), type in

> rawread -f populous2 -r -e 82

This is because two dumps of each disc are needed, as I've found that random errors get into the images occasionally, dumping twice works around this.

If you were dumping from an external drive, you'd use

> rawread -f populous1 -r -e 82 -u 1
> rawread -f populous2 -r -e 82 -u 1

Actually, if you have an external drive, I'd recommend taking one image from each drive.

Once you've done this, you should have two files populous1.adf and populous2.adf. Transfer these to a PC in whatever way you prefer (I use a null modem cable).

If the adf's created using the above process could then be sent to Tom, I am sure he would be very grateful, and it would help speed up the release of the new arculator.

Any problems at all, please post, and we will help you through this.

Well done on winning the auction, and thanks for your help.