Speed and sync issue in games

[retrofan]

Hello everyone and happy new year!
I'm relatively new to the Archimedes world, but I've found a lot of useful tips here and now on my pi 3, I have RiscOS with ArcEm emulator, which works very well, too well in fact.
I installed the latest ADFFS and the games run very well, but I have a problem with some games running too fast (Zarch) or the sound is out of sync (Flashback), making them pretty unplayable.
Flashback is one of my favorite games and it's particularly interesting, because fmv sequences go too fast, as does the sound, while the in-game effects (shooting a gun) lag behind the action preety much.
I have the adf version on 6 disks, which seems to have already removed the copy protection and works out of the box, even after I copied it to HD, without using the obey file.
Is there some way to somehow synchronize the speed and sound in the game, to make it fully playable ?
Maybe I still need to replace existing !Run with obey file, to reduce speed ?
Zarch is also a real pain, because it works blazing fast, while some other games, like SWIV or Star Fighter 3000, work perfectly.
Also, I tried booting those problematic games in native RiscOS on Pi, but they wouldn't work.
I haven't configured internet yet on my Pi3 and tried with Pacman manager, maybe that's the solution?
And of course, many thanks to everyone involved in this great project, amazing job indeed.
Cheers.

[JonAbbott]

You should be using PackMan on the Pi to download the pre-packaged games. They will all run at the correct speed and you'll also be able to use a USB Joystick, such as an XB360 controller.

For the games that aren't sourced via PackMan, you're more or less on your own, but I'd suggest installing them natively on the Pi by following any HD install instruction in their Boot scripts.

Those scripts are all written for original releases, so may not work with hacked/modified games.

Within ArcEm, you can slow down some games with CTRL-SHIFT-PgUp / PgDn - refer to the !ADFFS.Help file (Menu on !ADFFS and select Help)

[retrofan]

You should be using PackMan on the Pi to download the pre-packaged games. They will all run at the correct speed and you'll also be able to use a USB Joystick, such as an XB360 controller.

For the games that aren't sourced via PackMan, you're more or less on your own, but I'd suggest installing them natively on the Pi by following any HD install instruction in their Boot scripts.

Those scripts are all written for original releases, so may not work with hacked/modified games.

Within ArcEm, you can slow down some games with CTRL-SHIFT-PgUp / PgDn - refer to the !ADFFS.Help file (Menu on !ADFFS and select Help)

First of all, thanks Jon for the answer and helpful tips.
I read the Help file and tried CTRL+SHIFT+PgUp/Down.
This works just fine with some games (like Zarch), but Flashback is not responding at all and the sound is still out of sync.
Actually, I'm not quite sure if slowing down or speeding up would fix this sound sync issue, because ingame action runs at normal speed, but the sound effects lag quite a bit.
Maybe some command like ADFForceVSync could help or some other solution is possible ?
I also tried with original adf release, with obey file, it works now, but the sync problem remained the same.
Then, I tested Flashback with windows pc emulators as well.
RPC Emu has exactly the same behaviour, but Virtual Acorn gives perfectly synchronized sound.
I also tested the Beebit emulator under native Raspberry Pi RiscOS, it works fine with full speed, but no sound at all.
Shame, it wolud be really nice to have BBC B/Master emulated, under modern RiscOS environment.

[JonAbbott]

This works just fine with some games

It will only work with games that either call OS_Byte 19 to wait for the Vsync, or use OS_Byte 112 to bank switch. All other games are covered by patches in the ADFFS Boot scripts.

Flashback is not responding at all and the sound is still out of sync.

You can refer to the Flashback !Help for more info, but "Rate" in the !Run should be "TV" or "VGA" depending on the monitor type being emulated. ADFFS defaults to "TV" as its blitter emulates a 50Hz TV.

ingame action runs at normal speed, but the sound effects lag quite a bit.

Is this within ArcEm or running natively with ADFFS?

I also tried with original adf release, with obey file, it works now, but the sync problem remained the same.
Then, I tested Flashback with windows pc emulators as well.
RPC Emu has exactly the same behaviour, but Virtual Acorn gives perfectly synchronized sound.

I doubt the ADF is "original" - its probably been tampered with as the game has protection.

I also tested the Beebit emulator under native Raspberry Pi RiscOS, it works fine with full speed, but no sound at all.

There are definitely BBC emulators for the Pi that work. Try one from Index of links to 8-bit Acorn Emulators on Stardot.

[retrofan]

@JonAbbott

Ok, I finally made a breakthrough today.
First I did clean RiscOS install, tested Flashback adf version (protection bypassed with obey file) natively and it works perfectly.
After that I experimented with ArcEm and also solved the lag issue by changing the screen mode from default 27 to 39.
Finally, on the stardot forum I found another BBC emulator for RiscOS, 6502Em, which works really great.
The emulator is open source and can be found here:
https://github.com/murkle/6502Em
Thanks again Jon for the helpful tips, now I can enjoy playing Flashback and other great Archimedes titles.

[retrofan]

Meanwhile, I continued to experiment with hd installations and ArcEm emulator and ran into a strange issue.
Some games that I wanted to back up and transfer to PC ended up with the 68e extension (or file type) and when I put them back on risc os and arcem, I couldn't access them anymore.
It seems to me that the windows file system somehow corrupts these Archimedes native files and folders, but I don't know how to restore them again in risc os.
When I looked at the header of one of those files (MrDoo,68e) in the text viewer, the first line looked like this:
PACK hostfs::HardDisc4.$.Games.MrDoo
Any help about this ?

[JonAbbott]

Some games that I wanted to back up and transfer to PC ended up with the 68e extension (or file type) and when I put them back on risc os and arcem, I couldn't access them anymore.

If you need to transfer files via a host OS, ZIP them within the source RISC OS machine first (using !SparkFS) to retain the filetypes when you extract them within the destination RISC OS machine.

The File Types documentation says 6E8 is PackdDir.

[retrofan]

Some games that I wanted to back up and transfer to PC ended up with the 68e extension (or file type) and when I put them back on risc os and arcem, I couldn't access them anymore.

If you need to transfer files via a host OS, ZIP them within the source RISC OS machine first (using !SparkFS) to retain the filetypes when you extract them within the destination RISC OS machine.

The File Types documentation says 6E8 is PackdDir.

Thanks Jon, for your kind help, I learned a lot in this short time.
From now on I use ZipEE for everything I want to back up to the pc, to make sure the RiscOS file system remains intact.
Sorry if I bothered you during the holidays, I just would like to ask you for help with one more question.
I'm a big fan of emulators and have found some that work really well on RiscOS.
Atari ST emulator (Hatari), I found it through Packman manager and the other two are Vice (CBM machine) and the most interesting to me SZ81 emulator of SInclair ZX80 and ZX81 models.
All three work very well, but I have a problem using tape images for the SZ81 in .p format.
When I try to load a .p zx81 image file and type Load"", it keeps giving me a "Failed" error message.
I asked for advice on the sinclairzx forum but no one answered so far.
This same emulator works fine with .p files in windows version.
I assume that there is also a file type or permission problem here, but I don't know how to solve it.
The emulator is open source, here is the link where I found the RiscOS version.
https://riscosports.co.uk/sz81.zip
https://github.com/SegHaxx/sz81

[JonAbbott]

When I try to load a .p zx81 image file and type Load"", it keeps giving me a "Failed" error message.

Probably a question to ask on Stardot, or ROOL if it's sourced via PackMan.

[retrofan]

When I try to load a .p zx81 image file and type Load"", it keeps giving me a "Failed" error message.

Probably a question to ask on Stardot, or ROOL if it's sourced via PackMan.

Thanks, I asked a question on stardot too.
btw, only the Hatari emulator is from Packman, I found this one elsewhere from the link I posted.