Introduction and query

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Jonskipop
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Aug 24, 2014 1:47 am
Location: Cork, Ireland

Introduction and query

Post by Jonskipop »

Hello, I am a former A3000 user/gamer who just bought their 12 year old son a Raspberry Pi for his birthday. I have little prior experience of nuts and bolts computing and my only real exposure to programming has come from going to CoderDojo and playing with Scratch. Today when I was looking over my son's shoulder at what he was doing, I noticed 'RISC OS' and 'ARM' on the (I don't even have a clue what it is called - start up screen?) and got all excited. I searched the Pi forum and found an interesting post about Jonathan Abbott's work with Archimedes games on the Pi and was about to post to that thread when I became embarrassed on three counts; that my first post to the Pi forum would be a query about how to make my old '90s computer games work; that the whole premise of my question was retarded in the first place and thirdly; I was probably asking it in the wrong place. So I came here instead :)

(Apologies this is already so long, I don't do short emails. I was going to PM Jon but the site wouldn't let me).
From browsing around a bit I think I may have already answered part of one of my questions - I had wondered if it were possible, using the software downloads and techniques listed on the Pi 'Native Archimedes' thread, to run original A3000 games from a disc drive plugged into a Pi. It's clear that much more work is involved to make individual games run correctly.
I have a lot of interest in the project and greatly admire the work that has been undertaken, I'm also left with a growing number of other questions but principally, is there anything that can be done to help? I expect I'm a bit like a man with no arms offering to tie someone's shoelaces, but you never know. I couldn't code my way out of a wet paper bag in a hurricane but I am keen to learn. Thanks!
JonAbbott
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Re: Introduction and query

Post by JonAbbott »

Ask away. If your first question was "Can I plug a USB flopping into a Pi and load games?" The answer is no, USB floppy drives don't support the Arc's sector size. We image the games on an original Archimedes and then usually spend months trying to figure out how to get them to run properly...and that's before trying them on a RiscPC or Pi :shock:

The Pi compatibility was started nine months ago, so is in its early stages and still beta. I'm spending every spare minute coding to improve compatibility, very little of it is straight forward, usually it involves trying different things until something works and invariably involves detailed knowledge of the RISCOS source code as lots of low level bits aren't documented.

So, in answer to your second question, "Can I help?" Possibly...

Before a games is released, a lot has to happen:

1. Manuals / boxes have to be scanned
2. Manuals and instructions need converting to PDF
3. Box artwork needs cleaning and assembling into JPG
4. Floppies need to be imaged
5. The game has to be tested in its native state on different hardware from the original A310 up to the Pi
6. The game has to be tested on different RISCOS versions, from 3.1 up to the latest 5.x
7. CPU compatibility has to be checked on ARM 600, 7500, StrongARM and ARM9
8. A boot script (Obey replacement for !Run) has to be coded to fix any compatibility issues. For most games a boot script is required to get them running on the A310, as a lot of the early games either didn't configure the memory to their needs, or did it in such a way as to trash your machine config. Certain developers also loved to use abbreviated commands, which now translate into completely different commands (eg *L. instead of *LOAD, *L. now translates to *LOGON). A few games also require bugs fixing, be it compiler errors or bugs that only became apparent on later hardware.

At this point the games are retested on every platform and OS version and provided we have rights, released on here. You can probably see why so few have been released...it's a lot of work for one man, so help is always welcome.

Due to the amount of coding required for Pi compatibility, I've not touched any of the above for the best part of two years, around 150 games have been scanned / imaged but have yet to be looked at. This hasn't been helped by the fact that when I started this project I wasn't working and two years in stupidly decided to go back to work. I took three months off to code the JIT and and now back working until the end of the year, I'm lucky if I get a few hours of coding in a week.

Coding wise, ADFFS is heavy going so you probably wouldn't want to get involved with that. The outstanding development is fairly technical, such as translating the sound system, adding 26bit module compatibility and WIMP interaction - all fairly complicated.

I'm always after testers as that's the biggest chunk of the time, this is somewhat limited on the Pi at the moment as so few games have been tested, so invariably involves writing a boot script (see !ADFFS.obey). These start life as a copy of the !Run and are then modified to add in compatibility.

Another area that people can help is in locating games we're missing. Physical game donations are more than welcome as are scans and floppy images. The one thing we are not asking for is money, this project is privately funded by myself and is non-profit.
Jonskipop
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Aug 24, 2014 1:47 am
Location: Cork, Ireland

Re: Introduction and query

Post by Jonskipop »

Hi Jon, Thanks for getting back to me! I thought I was rambling on dreadfully before but it actually looks quite concise in the cold light of morning. I was using my phone which always amplifies text volume. I'll go up in the attic shortly and make a list of the original boxed games I have. My personal area of expertise is digital graphics and design (and archaeology) so I appreciate that there is little beyond moral support and possibly testing I can practically assist with, but if there are other tasks relating to the project that I might be useful for remotely do let me know! You'll have my email address through my registration, it's probably safe to say I'll forget to check the message boards regularly enough to make it a reliable form of communication.

My main hindrance to using my A3000 is that my parents chucked out my monitor in about 2007 thinking it was 'just a monitor'. They are in Scotland and I've lived in the south of Ireland with my family for the last ten years so I wasn't on hand to tell them to keep it. I have since proved incapable of getting the A3000 to talk to any other kind of screen. I know the connector was a 9 pin to scart, but when i tried connecting it directly to my tv it wouldn't work and an adapter to turn the 9 pin to a vga failed to make the signal appear on a standard crt monitor or a flat panel dell thing, so i gave up but still thought about it often and all the sweet games that were sitting just out of reach. When I saw the mention of RISC and ARM for the Raspberry Pi it was like a sunbeam shot down on my face. I'm sure it is something straightforward that I am missing with the monitor hook up, but for whatever reason at the times I have tried I have had no success getting it going. Do you have any tips or advice to connect the A3000 to a modern screen? I'll send on the list of software asap. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! Jonathan
Jonskipop
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Aug 24, 2014 1:47 am
Location: Cork, Ireland

Re: Introduction and query

Post by Jonskipop »

The software I have full, boxed versions of is as follows:
Saloon Cars
Break 147/Super Pool
EType
Zool
Gods
Flashback
Real McCoy II (collection of ?4th Dimension games): Apocalypse, Holed Out, Olympics, Inertia
Pro Artisan
Investigator (a sort of file management software or something, not a game)

I have about 25 other games but they are illegitimate. I noticed on a thread seeking Krisalis games that you wanted Gods (Buzz Version). I think it's unlikely I have this version as I can't see 'Buzz' mentioned anywhere on the box, but I can forward photos of what I have if it is of any interest.
JonAbbott
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Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:13 pm
Location: Essex
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Re: Introduction and query

Post by JonAbbott »

Jonskipop wrote:I noticed on a thread seeking Krisalis games that you wanted Gods (Buzz Version). I think it's unlikely I have this version as I can't see 'Buzz' mentioned anywhere on the box, but I can forward photos of what I have if it is of any interest.
The Buzz versions are unmistakable, they're in CD size cardboard boxes with BUZZ is big letters - quite rare. In testing fact...the Buzz versions were protection free.

I believe we have most of the other games you've listed. I've been hunting around for a boxed copy of Flashback, preferably the HD version, as we're missing that one (it came on 2 HD floppies instead of 4 DD's)

Which reminds me, I think we can release Flashback...I must devote some time to getting games made available, I'd like to get all the ones we have pending that can be released, released. I'm not sure off hand which ones they are, I'll have to consult the database later.

Perhaps I should start a poll and see which ones I should prioritise :idea:
Jonskipop
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Aug 24, 2014 1:47 am
Location: Cork, Ireland

Re: Introduction and query

Post by Jonskipop »

Flashback is a great game, the version I have is on six low density disks though. My favourite game, pretty much of all time and on any platform, is Elite for A3000. Is there any practical way to export old saved games meaningfully for use on the Pi version? I think I mainly need to sort out my monitor problem and fire up the old platform!
JonAbbott
Posts: 2938
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:13 pm
Location: Essex
Contact:

Re: Introduction and query

Post by JonAbbott »

Jonskipop wrote:My favourite game, pretty much of all time and on any platform, is Elite for A3000. Is there any practical way to export old saved games meaningfully for use on the Pi version? I think I mainly need to sort out my monitor problem and fire up the old platform!
Copy them to a PC format floppy?
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