comp.sys.acorn.games Google Group

Re: Zarch for the Archimedes

tommowal...@gmail.com (TomWalker) — Sun, 12 Dec 2009 16:57:11 UT

Nope. It doesn't wait before or after flipping the screen buffers
either, so on faster machines you get horrible flickering. Not the
best bit of coding...
Tom

Re: Zarch for the Archimedes

simon_use...@helvellyn.plus.com (Simon Challands) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:25:43 UT

In message <59a64f65-deba-49bd-a1ad-cbecb 2c8b...@k4g2000yqb.googlegrou
ps.com>
You might be right, I have a vague recollection of something like
that, but I'm not that sure. You could try turning the cache off
(*CACHE OFF) and see if that slows it down enough to be playable.

Re: Zarch for the Archimedes

blakes...@gmail.com (blakespot) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:47:28 UT

On Dec 11, 7:31 pm, Simon Challands <simon_use...@helvellyn.plus.c om>
wrote:
Hm. There wasn't a screen-sync to keep the framerate constant? Is
there a slow-down util for the A4000/A5000?
I wish the game existed as an image somewhere. At least Arculator has
a ARM2 mode. :-(
bp

Re: Zarch for the Archimedes

simon_use...@helvellyn.plus.com (Simon Challands) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:31:45 UT

In message <38bb539a-d982-4cde-bf10-6e9b5 bb50...@r13g2000vbb.googlegro
ups.com>
From what I recall of trying to play it on the A5000 it was rather on
the fast side. It was written when ARM2 machines were the only
Archimedes there were (nearly said RISC OS, but it predates RO2).

Re: Zarch for the Archimedes

blakes...@gmail.com (blakespot) — Fri, 12 Dec 2009 20:12:21 UT

Lander (at least) was written in 1987 when the Archimedes 300 and 400
machines were circulating, with 8MHz ARM2's (or so). Lander under
Arculator (emulator) set to ARM2 or ARM250 plays fine, but when set to
ARM3 25 or 33, it's rather fast. Does the commercial Zarch handle
more horsepower a bit more gracefully, or is it, like Lander, a

Re: Zarch for the Archimedes

tr...@cwazy.co.uk (trevj) — Thu, 12 Dec 2009 09:05:32 UT

Expect to pay >£20 s/h when one next comes up on ebay!
[link]

Zarch for the Archimedes

blakes...@gmail.com (blakespot) — Wed, 12 Dec 2009 12:15:37 UT

So I've setup an Archimedes A5000 for the express purpose of playing
Zarch. But I can't find Zarch.
Is there a place I can get the image (has it been released freely?) or
a place I can buy the floppy? Thanks. (I do have Lander.)
bp

Re: xjig

alan_...@hotmail.com (Alan) — Fri, 12 Dec 2009 13:02:25 UT

I've had a look at the source code and done some experimentation and
my
conclusions are:
1. The RISC OS port doesn't support the PPM image format.
2. It will support jpegs, but you need to give it a unix style file
name with
a jpg or jpeg extension.
In my test I successfully loaded a jpeg by using the following for the

xjig

baz...@feathermail.co.uk (Harriet Bazley) — Thu, 12 Dec 2009 19:43:05 UT

The 'jigsaw' game xjig (port from
[link] ) states in its
help file that 'Any image-file in GIF, JPEG, or PPM format can be used
as the source for the puzzle' - however in practice it only seems to
accept GIF files. Every JPEG I've tried produces the error "not a GIF,

Re: N-body shooter game name

j...@rwebster.co.uk (REW) — Fri, 11 Nov 2009 22:10:59 UT

The game was called Stellar on the Archimedes.

Re: Spheres of Chaos for A-Models?

amin....@kharchi.eu (Amin Kharchi) — Tue, 11 Nov 2009 07:19:20 UT

Hello!
Rob White schrieb:
I have now this file and the game works on my A3010. :-)
Regards
Amin

Re: Spheres of Chaos for A-Models?

nos...@archifishal.co.uk (Alex Macfarlane Smith) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 22:59:59 UT

[link]
I did email him about the original Archimedes version, but didn't get a
response as yet.
Alex.

Re: Port of Freeciv released

baz...@feathermail.co.uk (Harriet Bazley) — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 19:40:37 UT

On 7 Nov 2009 as I do recall,
I can confirm that this works (a pretty steep learning curve for anyone
who hasn't played the Sid Meier versions!)
It does apparently need a Wimpslot of over 28Mb, so presumably
RISC OS 5 only? (At any rate, it died silently on start-up until I
quit Aemulor....)

Re: Spheres of Chaos for A-Models?

wul...@hame.the.noo.invalid (William McNee) — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 12:23:27 UT

I had it. When I had an A5000 I bought the first retail version when it
first came out, and then upgraded it whenever Iain McLeod brought out a
newer version. Some of the upgrades were paid for, but I didn't mind as
it was well worth it.
I have just recently downloaded it for the PC so I can relive the many

Re: Spheres of Chaos for A-Models?

mfl...@dsl.pipex.com (Rob White) — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 11:18:25 UT

In message <2853dfbd50.harr...@blueyonder .co.uk>
I remember playing it on (I think) a 2mb A3020. Might need to free up
as much memory as possible - Setting the screen mode to 0 for those
extra precious few kbs.
Has anybody else got the newer version of SoC? I got it years ago at
the Epsom Downs show but it seemed to have quite a muted launch. It

Re: Spheres of Chaos for A-Models?

baz...@feathermail.co.uk (Harriet Bazley) — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 21:52:13 UT

[Posted and mailed]
On 17 Nov 2009 as I do recall,
I have this freebie version, which works perfectly on an A5000. I
don't know if it would work on a 2Mb machine.

Re: Spheres of Chaos for A-Models?

paulstew...@phawfaux.co.uk (Paul Stewart) — Tue, 11 Nov 2009 18:44:18 UT

In message <d58d80bb50....@aqus02.dsl.pip ex.com>
I only recall seeing a demo version.
A full version of Interdictor was released. However if memory serves
it had a rather annoying colour chart protection system included.
Regards

Re: Spheres of Chaos for A-Models?

mfl...@dsl.pipex.com (Rob White) — Tue, 11 Nov 2009 07:24:39 UT

In message <00f436bb50.P...@phawfaux.co.u k>
I'm pretty sure that a full version of SoC appeared on an Acorn User
coverdisk....
Cheers,
Rob

Re: Spheres of Chaos for A-Models?

paulstew...@phawfaux.co.uk (Paul Stewart) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 18:00:44 UT

In message <hd24gt$8o...@news.albasani.ne t>
CJE micros will probably be able to sell you a copy.
Alternatively there was demo version done for one of the magazine
cover disks.
Regards

Re: RISC OS Christmas Games Proposal

h...@realh.co.uk (Tony Houghton) — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 20:41:52 UT

In <hdn1dh$ja...@news.eternal-sep tember.org>,
I reckon fillets-ng (Fish Fillets) would go down well.

RISC OS Christmas Games Proposal

pe...@chocky.org (Peter Naulls) — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 19:45:53 UT

In case you haven't seen it yet, riscos.info is again offering to port
games to RISC OS in time for Christmas. More details here:
[link]

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

s...@softrock.co.uk (Vince M Hudd) — Thu, 11 Nov 2009 18:38:06 UT

[...]
READ WRITING should have worked, unless I did something really stupid to
prevent it.
The way the "WORDS" is that the first word on the line is the keyword that
is used in the script for recognising what the player has entered, with the
rest on each line being seen as synonyms for that word.
So for a line in the words file that reads:

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Thu, 11 Nov 2009 16:30:17 UT

The following bytes were arranged on 11 Nov 2009 by Vince M Hudd :
The adventure - I only found one that I know of, that below.
It wasn't so much there only being two of them, it was the fact that one
of them was incomplete! As a result, the only way to read the text was
to type 'READ TEXT', not 'READ WRITING' or 'READ GRAFFITI', etc. - took

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

s...@softrock.co.uk (Vince M Hudd) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:55:00 UT

[...]

Bugs? Those within the adventure, or those within Trellis? (As I discovered
when I worked on Quicksand - it's absolutely full of bugs and some terrible
programming.)
Probably just down to a lack of imagination or thought on my part at the
time. The game's own history may be a factor as well, since it has origins

Re: ScummVM updated

t...@art-it-services.co.uk (Thomas Kenyon) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:17:15 UT

For a laugh, I thought I'd see how my (kinetic) RPC handled curse of
monkey island (the most complicated game it runs).
I was suprised to see that it is nearly playable. I would expect every
other game to be playable.
I'm considering playing all the Monkey Island games in order, in the run
up to the release of Chapter 5 of Tales of Monkey Island.

Re: ScummVM updated

ch...@skipton.demon.co.uk (C J Craig) — Tue, 11 Nov 2009 18:24:30 UT

[snip]
Mine works too!
Just I don't know what to do with it?
Chris

Re: ScummVM updated

ds...@freeuk.com (David) — Tue, 11 Nov 2009 09:19:53 UT

In message <5328b9b750.dougjw...@btintern et.com>
And mine too. Many thanks.

Re: ScummVM updated

doug.j.w...@btinternet.com (Doug Webb) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 23:18:06 UT

In message <hda7jt$l5...@news.eternal-sep tember.org>
Peter, setting it to 13000K now lets it work
Thanks for the updated port

Re: ScummVM updated

pe...@chocky.org (Peter Naulls) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 23:11:57 UT

You can assume I put that in there to test that anyone was using it ;-)
I think I forgot to increase the Wimpslot in the new version - you'll
need to bump that in the !Run by 1-2MB.

Re: ScummVM updated

t...@bowie.freeserve.co.uk (TerryK) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 21:23:25 UT

In message <hd759q$cm...@news.eternal-sep tember.org>
Many thanks for this Peter. The number of games that it deals with has
expanded considerably since the version 0.80.
However, I'm seeing and immediate error on trying to load ScummVM, ie
"no writable memory at this address". I'm using SharedULib v1.11 and

Re: Desktop Repton Plus

newsrea...@boulsworth.co.uk (Joyce Haslam) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 18:13:58 UT

404 not found errors
It works fine now :)
Joyce.

Re: Desktop Repton Plus

wul...@hame.the.noo.invalid (William McNee) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 15:25:41 UT

Seems to working ok here, with Firefox on the PC...
William

Re: Desktop Repton Plus

use...@ollieclark.com (Ollie Clark) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 14:34:51 UT

Seems to work fine for me. What errors do you get?
Cheers,
Ollie

Re: Desktop Repton Plus

pen...@ukgateway.invalid (Joyce Haslam) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 11:39:41 UT

In article <0_ednT2z_pSLYhLXnZ2dnUVZ8iydn ...@bt.com>, Gerald
Is this web page still up? I get only errors.
Joyce.

Re: Star Fighter 3000 on BeagleBoard

tr...@cwazy.co.uk (trevj) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 01:27:41 UT

Great, Chris :-) For anyone who's looking for further details (and
confirmation of Beagleboard compatibility!), check out this piece on
The Icon bar:
[link]

ScummVM updated

pe...@chocky.org (Peter Naulls) — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 19:14:02 UT

I've updated my port of ScummVM to the latest 1.0.0-rc1 version:
[link]

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 16:06:54 UT

The following bytes were arranged on 8 Nov 2009 by Vince M Hudd :
[big snip]
[snip some more]
Regarding your points above, and your earlier comments on my conversion
of Pyramid...
When I converted Pyramid, I was determined that it should be as faithful
a conversion as possible - even including original bugs if necessary.

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

s...@softrock.co.uk (Vince M Hudd) — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 13:26:39 UT

[...]
That's largely because you were clearly tackling the _whole_ job. A good
adventure writing system should attempt to take care of as much of this as
possible on your behalf. You'll still need to handle some of this, unless
you want the result to be _very_ basic, because no system can predict what

Star Fighter 3000 on BeagleBoard

chrisbaz...@bigfoot.com — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 00:13:30 UT

Thanks to the assistance and encouragement of Jeffrey Lee, the latest
release of venerable RISC OS flight action shooter 'Star Fighter 3000'
is believed to be compatible with RISC OS on BeagleBoard. As with
other software, this meant tracking down and eliminating unaligned
memory accesses.
You can download a patch to upgrade your copy of the game to version

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 17:40:37 UT

The following bytes were arranged on 7 Nov 2009 by n...@spam.invalid:
Briefly, yes, it's much, much quicker. And you'll get a more advanced
and user-friendly game for your time as well.

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 17:39:19 UT

The following bytes were arranged on 7 Nov 2009 by n...@spam.invalid:
Oh, right - in that case, it sounds as if BAABE was pretty much designed
for you! The entire thing - script included - is written in
bog-standard BASIC, but all the complicated stuff is already done for
you in the interpreter - player input parsing (with provision for

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

n...@spam.invalid — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 16:26:15 UT

In message <9b1d7db650.mar...@blueyonder. co.uk>
I'm not, I was hoping you could give an idea whether its worth using
or whether its better to spend the same amount of time and effort
writing a BASIC adventure yourself. All I found I had to get around
was the concept of moving around within a map and then realised even

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

n...@spam.invalid — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 16:29:55 UT

In message <01077eb650.mar...@blueyonder. co.uk>
I wrote the game from scratch in BASIC for the BBC Micro. The
"interpreter" was just breaking down text entered into component parts
and updating the players location and objects status. Another
complication was dialogue with game characters.
e.g. object can be taken: bit in object properties variable set as 1,

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 13:46:05 UT

The following bytes were arranged on 7 Nov 2009 by n...@spam.invalid:
'Indicators whether specific events have occurred': I'm not quite sure
how you plan to write any sort of adventure without using those.
'Variables to hold all the data': Sort of. All game-relevant ones are
taken care of for you; the variables you have to worry about are the

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 13:56:03 UT

The following bytes were arranged on 7 Nov 2009 by n...@spam.invalid:
Did you write the interpreter part yourself, or did you use an existing
system?
Without a doubt, the only complicated code required is that in the
interpreter. Most of the script is simple, and even repetitive; an
average line goes, "If the player hasn't done this yet, don't let him do

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

n...@spam.invalid — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 11:42:30 UT

In message <gemini.ksqkyz003rpga0420.s... @softrock.co.uk>
I've only written one but found the hardest part having to keep track
of all the flags for objects, tasks etc. The story you can just flesh
out along the way provided you have a basic set of locations.
This is what I mean by becoming bogged down with flags etc.

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

s...@softrock.co.uk (Vince M Hudd) — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 11:23:23 UT

As well as what Martin says below, I'd suggest that the absolute hardest
part of writing an adventure game is the thought and imagination that must
go into the fiction itself; planning the story that will unfold for the
player, mapping it, devising the puzzles, and writing all the descriptions
to go with all of that. All of which should be done before you even think

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

n...@spam.invalid — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 11:10:24 UT

In message <6cf126b650.mar...@blueyonder. co.uk>
In other words, indicators whether specific events have occurred,
variables to hold all the data, indexes for location, inventory etc.
Can you give an example of the script?
Andrew

Port of Freeciv released

pe...@chocky.org (Peter Naulls) — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 04:04:02 UT

I've updated the original very old port of Freeciv. More here:
[link]

Re: BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Fri, 11 Nov 2009 22:04:51 UT

The following bytes were arranged on 6 Nov 2009 by Andrew :
[snip]
You'll have to be more specific than that. What's a flag, what's a
variable and what's an index?
The main difference in most interpreters is the sophistication of the
adventure you can create solely from data files, without having to write