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Where are the best places to find Acorn PCs? |
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slannmage (16:36 4/2/2014)
arawnsley (16:49 4/2/2014)
slannmage (17:24 4/2/2014)
flibble (17:24 4/2/2014)
Phlamethrower (17:57 4/2/2014)
sirbod (19:29 4/2/2014)
slannmage (21:33 4/2/2014)
justice (23:54 7/2/2014)
sirbod (08:49 8/2/2014)
slannmage (22:28 8/2/2014)
Phlamethrower (01:50 9/2/2014)
slannmage (10:25 9/2/2014)
slannmage (11:03 9/2/2014)
tlsa (11:35 9/2/2014)
slannmage (13:18 9/2/2014)
Phlamethrower (13:57 9/2/2014)
slannmage (14:08 9/2/2014)
tlsa (14:58 12/2/2014)
slannmage (18:41 12/2/2014)
swirlythingy (12:01 14/2/2014)
arawnsley (12:16 14/2/2014)
slannmage (14:24 14/2/2014)
Zarchos (09:56 15/2/2014)
helpful (02:54 16/2/2014)
Zarchos (08:58 16/2/2014)
swirlythingy (05:22 16/2/2014)
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John Smith |
Message #122995, posted by slannmage at 16:36, 4/2/2014 |
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Posts: 10
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I've tried eBay, there is barely anything, so when something does get on there it goes for a lot, also they're always collection only and miles away. I've tried going to schools and asking what they done with them all and no one seems to have answers...
Where are people finding them these days?
I found a load of games I had a kid and really want to play them again, especially Star Fighter 3000, sadly I cannot find a machine to play it on.
Thanx. |
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Andrew Rawnsley |
Message #122996, posted by arawnsley at 16:49, 4/2/2014, in reply to message #122995 |
R-Comp chap
Posts: 600
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Dealers and RISC OS companies generally have the for sale. However, it helps to know where you're based when you say things like "there's always miles away..."
I know we (R-Comp) have a loft full of systems and parts, and are happy to ship. Ditto for CJE, APDL and so on. Also Orpheus Internet have a lot of machines going too (I was speaking to Richard about that just the other day).
Shipping via interparcel.com shouldn't be more than about 12ukp at the most (that's a tenner+VAT), maybe less.
That said, collection is always safest - we did see a RiscPC mangled by a forklift during shipping last year. Rare, but these things can happen  |
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John Smith |
Message #122998, posted by slannmage at 17:24, 4/2/2014, in reply to message #122996 |
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Based in Bedfordshire but I just Bicycle everywhere so I don't have a lot of range.
I found all my old Acorn games, I would love to play them again but my Mum swapped my Amiga and Acorn for a Megadrive back in the day.
The Amiga 1200 has been easy to find but I've done some research and the Acorn A3020 seems like my best bet, but I cannot find one any where. There is the A5000, but they seem even rarer and the 3010 seems like it has too many limitations. I've heard you can get the A3000 and put an ARM 3 in it, but that is beyond me...
I tried Raspberry Pi but the thing has too many compatibility issues and my USB floppy drive didn't seem to work.
All this for Star Fighter 3000 :\
There is a Risc PC on eBay, but that'll probably go for loads and I'v heard lots of games don't work with them. |
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Peter Howkins |
Message #122999, posted by flibble at 17:24, 4/2/2014, in reply to message #122996 |
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I've tried eBay, there is barely anything, so when something does get on there it goes for a lot If you thought Ebay was expensive your should see the hoarders^Wdealers prices.
The best way is generally to know someone with a pile who's happy to give stuff away.
I got an Iyonix the other week, free of charge, that I mainly accepted to stop CJE from selling for several hundred quid (or more likely sitting in a stock room for 20 years artificially inflating prices). |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #123000, posted by Phlamethrower at 17:57, 4/2/2014, in reply to message #122999 |
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I tried Raspberry Pi but the thing has too many compatibility issues and my USB floppy drive didn't seem to work. Unfortunately 99% of USB floppy drives follow a standard which is incompatible with the disc format used by ADFS, so are pretty useless for reading old Acorn floppies. And the 1% of floppy drives which don't follow that standard (e.g. KryoFlux) are generally aimed at preservation projects and require custom drivers to function! (which don't exist for RISC OS) |
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Jon Abbott |
Message #123001, posted by sirbod at 19:29, 4/2/2014, in reply to message #122995 |
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There are machines on eBay, you just need to be patient. I've purchased half a dozen over the past two years and not paid more than £50 which was for a StrongARM RPC. Oh, I did pay £100 for an Iyonix, which was the biggest waste of money ever as it bricked as soon as I flashed the ROM.
Unless you want to wait for an A30x0 to appear cheap, look for an A5000 or if you want the real retro "no cache" feel, an A4000. A4000's go for less than £20, A5000's for around £30 - nobody wants them as they're pig ugly and in the case of the A5000, the fan it rather loud until you modify it.
You should also check on stardot.org.uk, as they have a sale forum.
For gaming on the Pi...We're working on it, there's a few games running which you can download. Very much work in progress with games starting to run daily, Jahangir Khan World Championship Squash ran for the first time today for example.
[Edited by sirbod at 19:34, 4/2/2014] |
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John Smith |
Message #123002, posted by slannmage at 21:33, 4/2/2014, in reply to message #123001 |
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You need to get Star Fighter 3000 to work lol, how is game compatibility with the Risc PC 600 and 700s?
Where do these dealers get them from though? Surely I can just go to the same places they do? |
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Dave Lawton |
Message #123010, posted by justice at 23:54, 7/2/2014, in reply to message #123001 |
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Oh, I did pay £100 for an Iyonix, which was the biggest waste of money ever as it bricked as soon as I flashed the ROM. Jon, if you need help getting it back in working order, just shout.
Dave |
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Jon Abbott |
Message #123011, posted by sirbod at 08:49, 8/2/2014, in reply to message #123010 |
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if you need help getting it back in working order, just shout. SHOUT
Drop me a mail: jon at jaspp dot org dot uk |
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John Smith |
Message #123013, posted by slannmage at 22:28, 8/2/2014, in reply to message #122995 |
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Managed to get a machine but man Risc OS isn't user friendly, I cannot remember how everything works.
I installed Star Fighter 3000 but it just crashes the machine each time, it is a Risc PC 600.
So I went to the website and saw a patch for more modern Risc machines, it tells you to double click and hold shift and to drag the files over... don't get what it means though, a bit complicated on what to drag where. All icons like !boot after copying them over just are white with a question mark in them and wont wont.
Why can't old games just be as easy as Steam is today?
For example...
http://s29.postimg.org/8uwnt1rcn/WP_20140208_22_29_19_Pro.jpg
That is a no disc thing as I don't want to have to put the floppy in each time and the patch does the same with the icons...
Why are they all white with a question mark and not like the stuff installed from the floppy?
[Edited by slannmage at 22:34, 8/2/2014]
Omg I got the game to run, but it was running from the floppy, so I quit out and now I cannot replicate it lol.
[Edited by slannmage at 22:42, 8/2/2014] |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #123014, posted by Phlamethrower at 01:50, 9/2/2014, in reply to message #123013 |
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Posts: 15100
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Why are they all white with a question mark and not like the stuff installed from the floppy? That's the result of using a PC or Mac or some other non-RISC OS machine to extract the contents of the zip file. You should try and avoid doing that at all costs. Most OS's use filename extensions to indicate the type of a file (.exe, .txt, etc.), but RISC OS uses special metadata. The problem is that most other OS's either don't understand the RISC OS metadata or don't have anywhere sensible to store it. So if you extract an Acorn zipfile on a Windows PC then the filetype metadata will be lost and when you view the files under RISC OS, RISC OS won't have a clue what types they are.
So instead of extracting the archives on your PC, copy them to your RiscPC as-is and then use some RISC OS software like ArcFS or SparkPlug to extract them. |
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John Smith |
Message #123015, posted by slannmage at 10:25, 9/2/2014, in reply to message #123014 |
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So all that worked but now I need Window Manager 3.80, no idea where to find that, the only thing I can think that means is I need Risc OS 3.8... |
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John Smith |
Message #123016, posted by slannmage at 11:03, 9/2/2014, in reply to message #123015 |
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http://s30.postimg.org/zffki4ukx/WP_20140209_10_53_19_Pro.jpg
Woo got it to work!
The patch wouldn't work on my version so I had to use the original, I'm guessing the patch needs a newer version of Risc OS or something.
So I just put the no disc thing on which got the game to work instead of crashing which reading the floppy would always do. Then I had to use this pixel doubler thing from the website as it wouldn't display on the VGA monitor correctly...
FINALLY! What I bought it for, a Star Fighter 3000 machine and it is as good as I remembered! So ambitious and still most games today don't even achieve the scale it did back then.
The whole extracting in Risc OS only fixed all my issues I had previously, so thanx for that. Also though not being able to just drag and drop stuff to patch, weird how you have to do all this other stuff.
Got a headache now lol, so glad Operating Systems have moved on to being user friendly lol, though Windows 8 is worse. |
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Michael Drake |
Message #123017, posted by tlsa at 11:35, 9/2/2014, in reply to message #123016 |
Posts: 1097
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Window Manager 3.80 means it needs the Nested WIMP, which Acorn released for free when they produced Browse (their web browser), iirc. It's part of the Universal Boot Sequence.
Most links to it are broken now, because the new maintainers of riscos.com moved everything around, but it may be found here: http://www.riscos.com/ftp_space/generic/uniboot/index.htm
You'll need that to run most modernish software, I think. The patch to Star Fighter 3000 is really worthwhile, although a little bit is missing at the start of the intro. |
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John Smith |
Message #123018, posted by slannmage at 13:18, 9/2/2014, in reply to message #123017 |
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Uniboot1 link is broken No way else of putting files on it but floppy discs. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #123019, posted by Phlamethrower at 13:57, 9/2/2014, in reply to message #123018 |
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Posts: 15100
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Try the copy at http://www.arcsite.de/files/uniboot/ It's been split into four archives instead of two, but it should work just as well.
Remember to make a copy of your current !Boot before trying to replace it! |
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John Smith |
Message #123020, posted by slannmage at 14:08, 9/2/2014, in reply to message #123019 |
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Posts: 10
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Thanx, CDFS just kept saying it didn't support the all in one file.. dunno why, probably something to do with Windows and it conflicting again.
Got it installed but now it says it requires window 1.59 or later?
[Edited by slannmage at 14:49, 9/2/2014] |
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Michael Drake |
Message #123022, posted by tlsa at 14:58, 12/2/2014, in reply to message #123020 |
Posts: 1097
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I think you need the toolbox modules:
http://www.iyonix.com/32bit/system.shtml
Or maybe "System resources" from https://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/other-zipfiles
[Edited by tlsa at 15:02, 12/2/2014] |
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John Smith |
Message #123023, posted by slannmage at 18:41, 12/2/2014, in reply to message #123022 |
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Posts: 10
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n/m you cannot install from the floppy.
Thanx for that, all working now.
[Edited by slannmage at 19:27, 12/2/2014]
Does any one know what causes this on Doom? I downloaded that port a guy did which I found on Google but I just get this when I click on the Icon at the bottom right to launch it.
http://postimg.org/image/yyffe21gz/
[Edited by slannmage at 20:02, 12/2/2014] |
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Martin Bazley |
Message #123025, posted by swirlythingy at 12:01, 14/2/2014, in reply to message #123023 |
Posts: 460
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How old is this machine you got? The patch from http://www.starfighter.acornarcade.com/ should have just worked out of the box, and you most certainly can just drag and drop it over the original game. If the machine's been turned on at any point in the last fifteen years, it should have had the modern WindowManager installed already.
I think there are two main take-home lessons from this debacle:
1) It needs to be a hell of a lot easier to get hold of the components, such as the 3.80 Wimp, 32-bit SharedCLibrary and Toolbox modules, which are considered essential for any RiscPC or earlier machine but are not supplied by default. Right now your best option is probably to download the 'System resources' archive from this page, which is extremely badly advertised.
2) Every single distributor of RISC OS software who might conceivably find themselves supplying services to clueless newbies needs to have a big red flashing notice at the top of their page saying something along these lines:
UNZIP THESE FILES ONLY WITHIN RISC OS! YOU WILL IRREVERSIBLY CORRUPT THE ARCHIVE IF YOU ATTEMPT TO READ IT ON A WINDOWS, MAC OR LINUX COMPUTER!!!11!
(Preferably in <blink> tags, but the forum doesn't support them. Boo.) |
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Andrew Rawnsley |
Message #123026, posted by arawnsley at 12:16, 14/2/2014, in reply to message #123025 |
R-Comp chap
Posts: 600
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One of the problems is the classic "chicken and egg". In this case, the user obtained essentially a raw RiscPC, with effectively nothing on it.
It's not even practical to get new boot etc *onto* such a machine, as it is likely even CD isn't working. With no CD, a zip too large for floppies, and no network, such a RiscPC is basically useless until carefully sorted.
Which is why companies like Orpheus, CJE, APDL and ourselves would always pre-load the RiscPC ready to be useful (new boot sequence, working CD, probably recommend a network card). Unfortunately that costs time/money, which is where the retro community often draws the line.
Catch22
That said, a permanently active feature on iconbar.com entitled "How to recondition a RiscPC" would go a long way to helping, esp if the files could be hosted on iconbar.com Then, a user could read the article, download the software and at least know the process/pitfalls...
Such an article would need to mention the various OS versions for RiscPC, and explain the deficiencies of 3.5/3.6 (and maybe 3.7). Then explain about "new" !Boot sequence, and show how to download/install it. Complete with your Big Red Warning! |
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John Smith |
Message #123028, posted by slannmage at 14:24, 14/2/2014, in reply to message #123026 |
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Posts: 10
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Everything is working now, learnt a lot and all is well.
Only have two problems
1. When I transfer a zip to CD, the Risc PC doesn't recognise the CD and says some error. The CD Software is there now and I bought a 32bit version of Star Fighter 3000 from that website, this works. I just cannot transfer files I've put onto the CD from Windows for whatever reason.
2. Doom just displays that Error I posted above, I downloaded it from a website I found on Google, so it could just be that it isn't finished yet or whatever.
Everything else is all good though.
Trying to find a good priced Amiga 1200 now as I had one of those as a kid with Stealth Fighter on it. |
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Xavier Louis Tardy |
Message #123032, posted by Zarchos at 09:56, 15/2/2014, in reply to message #123028 |
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Posts: 47
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If you burn a CD on a PC in order to then read it on an Acorn Archie or RISC PC you must make sure you burn it with the right options.
I don't know what they are exactly, but I know as far as PC CD burner are concerned, there are many available ...
Could sbdy help on this ? Thanks in advance. |
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Bryan Hogan |
Message #123033, posted by helpful at 02:54, 16/2/2014, in reply to message #123028 |
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Posts: 255
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the Risc PC doesn't recognise the CD and says some error. On behalf of everyone who has ever had to do IT support, can I just say "Arrrgghhhh!". How are we supposed to help with that vague report?
I just cannot transfer files I've put onto the CD from Windows for whatever reason. If you simply drag files onto a CD in Windows, it writes them in UDF (packet) format. IIRC only RISC OS 4.39 and 6.x can read those, earlier versions require CDROMFS.
You need to use proper CD burning software and select Joliet or ISO9660 format. |
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Martin Bazley |
Message #123034, posted by swirlythingy at 05:22, 16/2/2014, in reply to message #123028 |
Posts: 460
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2. Doom just displays that Error I posted above, I downloaded it from a website I found on Google, so it could just be that it isn't finished yet or whatever. "A website I found on Google" is not a helpful description. Did you get the latest version from here?
I'm certainly suspicious of anything which makes reference to "Boot:Choices". This has never been valid behaviour, but some old applications do it anyway, and I don't think JeffDoom is one of them. |
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Xavier Louis Tardy |
Message #123035, posted by Zarchos at 08:58, 16/2/2014, in reply to message #123033 |
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You need to use proper CD burning software and select Joliet or ISO9660 format.
Aaahhh thanks for that, it's very helpful.
Info saved once and for all. |
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