Help running RPCEmu

Hi everyone

Before I start, I should probably say that I’m not good with computers / programming / coding… I’m just trying to do a favour for my dad. He’s been such a massive help to me recently and I owe him massively. We used to have a Risc OS Acorn Archimedes when I was young, and had all sorts of awesome games like Zool, The Last Ninja and Haunted House. Well, one game that my dad loved was Cataclysm. I’ve used roms and emulators before, but not for Risc OS, so I thought maybe I could find one for him so he could play it again and it could be this big surprise / present for him.

So I’ve got as far as getting RPCEmu to run (on Mac OS Sierra), and I’ve found a Cataclysm rom. I’ve loaded the rom in the 0 drive and got the Cataclysm logo to come up, but when I click on it, I get a message about there not being enough memory. I’m not running any other applications so I can’t close any down to free up any space. I looked in Preferences and selected an option to increase RAM from 64MB to 256MB or something like that, but nothing is working.

So my question to you guys is, how can I get this to work for my dad?? I’d much appreciate any help you can give.

Thank you!
Claire

I get a message about there not being enough memory.

Not a games person myself, but I’d say there’s quite a collection of things it could be.

Assuming the game would actually run on the RPC then the usual source of memory messages was the lack of default assigned memory space for system sprites (where a lot of games used to just dump elements of the graphics) so right click on the right hand-most icon on the icon bar and scroll down in the window that opens. click and drag the system sprite memory out by a number of meg then try running the application.

Of course if what you’re trying to set up is largely a gaming experience you’ll probably want to look at the absolute ultimate collection of games and the means of running them details here

Jon does read these forums, but you will get a quicker reply there. As well as all the info on the largest acorn games collection you’re ever going to find.

Hi Steve

Thank you so much for the reply.

I’ve tried to drag out the System Sprite memory and although it allows me to do this, when I return to the game and try to run it, I get the same message – and when I return to the previous window, the bar I dragged out has gone back to 0. Not sure if I’m doing it properly!!

Claire

I tried dragging the entire bar to max and got a message saying 760k of free space was needed to run it, but even when I allowed for that, it said there wasn’t enough memory.

So I’ve got as far as getting RPCEmu to run (on Mac OS Sierra), and I’ve found a Cataclysm rom. I’ve loaded the rom in the 0 drive and got the Cataclysm logo to come up, but when I click on it, I get a message about there not being enough memory.

Cataclysm, as found here, is not 32bit so will not run directly on OS5. It does start up in OS4.02 for a fiver.

RPCEmu on Sierra here too.

I was just about to post that. ;-) If you can find RISC OS 3.70, it should work with the older system.

Probably a quirk of the game that you will need ADFFS to deal with.

More specific page to read on the JASPP site is this link and Cataclysm is in the list of games – it’s a long list so you’ll be busy :)

If you can find RISC OS 3.70, it should work with the older system.

Looking a bit harder, I found I do have OS3.71 for RPCEmu, it works.

OS 3.71 on RPCEmu. https://www.4corn.co.uk/articles/rpcemu371win/

There is a MacOS version of Arculator https://www.g7jjf.com/arculator.htm which is a lot better at playing games from the old times (RISC OS 3.1). Maybe you could try that.

Although the screen says 3.7, the name of the rom is actually the same as the one you linked, Dave. So I suspect I am using 3.71 already.

Steve, I have no idea what ADFFS or JASPP are, I’m afraid!

Steve, I have no idea what ADFFS or JASPP are, I’m afraid!

ADFFS is a means of running lots of old games on newer machines with newer OS revisions than they were originally written for.

Follow the link

The thing is that the games you’re thinking of are a few decades old and the hardware is long gone, as you probably realise since you’re working with an emulator of a machine that came after most of the games.
Running an RPC emulator on your current hardware (Mac) is one option but you probably still need something like ADFFS to deal older games.
Getting hold of a Pi and running RO5.23 and ADFFS for a bundle of games is another option and it won’t break the bank. Oh, and your dad gets a new bit of ARM kit to play with besides gaming.

There’s also the option that Stefan quoted of emulating one of those older machines.

I tried Arculator but something seems to go wrong… I loaded the same 3.7 disk image and renamed it to ROM at the end instead of rom, but nothing happens except in a side screen… I couldn’t tell you what it doing but I couldn’t get out of it.

Looking at that Risc OS website scares me!! I literally have zero understanding of any of it. I don’t mind paying for things but I’m worried I won’t be able to get them to work. Do I just purchase the Risc OS 4 ‘upgrade’ and then use it with an emulator?

I had to look up what a Pi was and I can tell you that my mum isn’t going to want THAT hanging around the house lol. The emulator is definitely the best option I think, if I can make it work.

Looking at that Risc OS website scares me!! I literally have zero understanding of any of it. I don’t mind paying for things but I’m worried I won’t be able to get them to work. Do I just purchase the Risc OS 4 ‘upgrade’ and then use it with an emulator?

Things changed in the OS as well as the hardware, even back when Acorn still existed. The very things that are different in the late Acorn versions are even more so in the RO4 that you’re looking at.

To run the games you need to be using older OS revisions and probably the Arc emulator or you need to run a modern maintained version of OS and run ADFFS on top of that. Shelling out even a minimal amount for something that is “neither fish nor fowl” and won’t do what you’re aiming for isn’t a good idea. Honestly, I have software from the era of the change and even some non-games stuff got broken by changes in RO4.

Follow the link I gave and ask all the questions you need to about setting up ADFFS and running all the listed games. Jon doesn’t bite :)

I had to look up what a Pi was and I can tell you that my mum isn’t going to want THAT hanging around the house lol.

Sat in a small housing behind the TV and plumbed in on one of the HDMI inputs I dare say that except on dusting sessions it would hardly get noticed. Especially if the keyboard / mouse were wireless.
But, I suppose when you consider it, popping an emulator on a portable machine is even less intrusive.

I’ve had some success running Res OS 3.1 on Arculator, but it won’t let me click out of the Arculator window; I have to use other shortcuts to get back to the desktop or any other apps, like my browser. This means I also can’t select the Arculator window when it’s open, which means I can’t select and load games. It seems I keep hitting walls with everything I try!

Wait – solved that one. Should’ve read the instructions on the website…

I’ve managed to get other games to run on 3.1 (Lemmings, Spheres of Chaos…) But Cataclysm still won’t work. I seem to get a different error message every time. Is Risc OS 4 the answer?

I seem to get a different error message every time. Is Risc OS 4 the answer?

RISCOS 4 won’t help, what are the error messages you’re getting? Where did you get the copy of Cataclysm? It could be an issue with that particular copy.

The original Cataclysm hooks into the FileV vector and decrypts files as they’re read from the floppy, this does cause issues for some setups. This may not be the case with the copy you have is it could also be the StrongARM version or a pirated copy with the protection removed.

My bad! I didn’t load disc 2! It’s working perfectly now. My dad is very pleased!! Brings back so many memories.

Thank you all so much for your help!

Looking at that Risc OS website scares me!! I literally have zero understanding of any of it. I don’t mind paying for things but I’m worried I won’t be able to get them to work. Do I just purchase the Risc OS 4 ‘upgrade’ and then use it with an emulator?

My bad! Finger trouble this end, posted the wrong link, it should have been http://www.riscos.com/shop/products/102/index.htm