(Soon to be) New RISC OS Pi user with many questions, mostly about games
James (2358) 8 posts |
First: I know there are pretty specific questions here that may not exactly be best answered on this forum, I’m crossposting this on three different sites (ROOL, RPI RISC Forum, JASPP) to get a general consensus. If you want to share your expertise then by all means do so but I’m not expecting answers to every question :) I’m about to be a new user of RISC OS, I have a RBP coming tomorrow that I bought specifically to run it, mainly because I know it can run (a very few) Archimedes games natively. The ADFFS project looks very interesting to me because I’m from the US and never got a chance to experience Archimedes gaming. I understand that it’s in it’s early stages and I’m not going to be able to play the vast majority of games natively right away, but from what I gather the Archimedes emulator on RISC OS Pi is much better than it is on non-ARM systems, and with the two combined I can play a good portion of the library. I just have a few questions about what I’m getting into: 1. Will there be any problems running ADFFS/ArcEm under R11, or do I need to upgrade to R12? 2. Is there any USB gamepad support on RISC OS Pi? 3. Aemulator seems like a more elegant solution than ArcEm, combined with ADFFS to load .adf images will it load the 26-bit games that ADFFS will not on it’s own? Is Aemulator even designed to run games or is it more about getting older apps to run? 4. Is there a good F/OSS IRC client for RISC OS Pi? I know Grapevine exists, but can’t really spend the money at the moment. 5. I prefer using CRT monitors, will I have a problem using an HDMI→VGA converter (specifically this one: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1151 ) with RISC OS Pi? 4:3 resolutions OK? 6. Is sound supported and does it come from HDMI, stereo speaker connection or both? 7. I have a PS/2 3 button mouse I’d like to use, because middle clicking with the scroll wheel is kind of annoying. Is PS/2→USB converter OK with RISC OS? 8. What are the benefits of upgrading to R12 and is there a reason it is available for purchase but not as a downloadable image? Does it contain proprietary code? 9. Are there any general roadblocks someone with my interests should know about? 10. The RISC/Archimedes community seems very touchy about “abandonware” compared to, say, the Amiga community. Can someone explain this? I’m not knocking it, just trying to figure out the etiquette and the reasons/history behind it. |
David R. Lane (77) 766 posts |
I can answer part of Q8. RC12 is free from this ROOL website. I have just downloaded it: Go to Software then click on Essentials – ROM images etc., and scroll down the new page. |
patric aristide (434) 418 posts |
Grapevine works nicely and it’s part of the NutPi bundle if you change your mind. There is however a free (as in beer) IRC client called LIRC: http://www.armware.dk/files/lirc/
Since you already have the mouse just give it a try :) |
Jeffrey Lee (213) 6048 posts |
ArcEm will be fine with either version. Not sure about ADFFS – it’s possible there’s some improvements/bugfixes in RC12 that the latest version of ADFFS might require. One thing to bear in mind is that although RC12 is a fairly recent release, it’s still pretty far behind the latest development builds in terms of features.
No.
Using a VGA adapter should be fine. However you might need to tweak the settings in config.txt, as they suggest. Note that currently RISC OS is unable to change the screen mode/resolution that the GPU uses (you can change screen mode from within RISC OS, but all that does it tell the GPU to scale the RISC OS screen up to whatever resolution the GPU is using). So you might need to spend some time tweaking your config.txt until the Pi is driving your monitor at a sutiable resolution. There’s a guide here which covers all the settings you can make.
Sound is supported. Use the settings in the config.txt file to control whether it’s sent over HDMI or the headphone socket. 7. I have a PS/2 3 button mouse I’d like to use, because middle clicking with the scroll wheel is kind of annoying. Is PS/2→USB converter OK with RISC OS? As far as I know this should work fine. |
Rick Murray (539) 13840 posts |
Shouldn’t be any problems.
Not that I’m aware of, yet.
I believe Aemulor is aimed more at older applications. It is fairly comprehensive, I believe (the demo refused to work on my Pi) but you should check the specific functionality you require – for example custom VIDC1 screen modes and the extent of VIDC1 audio capabilities…
See above. ;-) BTW, do any of the free ones support XDCC?
“Should work”. I can’t say about your particular one as the internal hardware can differ. Certainly, I have no problems using an adaptor based upon the Lontium LT8511A chip. Yours does look similar… You might want to read this first: http://www.heyrick.co.uk/blog/index.php?diary=20130729
A configuration in the “config.txt” tells the GPU whether you want sound from the stereo jack or from the HDMI. My HDMI→VGA adaptor decodes sound, so I have it routed that way.
Try it. It should appear as a generic mouse. I wish I could buy a little touchpad. Years of using netbooks and laptops, it feels really weird to go back to a chunky “dumb” mouse.
The image is available at RaspberryPi.org. However it is out of date. This is because ROOL need to put together a good image (and test it all works), then send it to the RPi guys, who need to update their site (and the various servers). ROOL, on the other hand, can put together the image and…erm…that’s it. What I did was to download the RC11 image and burn an SD. There might have been a few things that needed patching up, I don’t remember, but that’s a quick and simple way to get the latest version. Oh, and once you have your system set up nicely – pop the SD card into a PC and take an image of the entire thing. Then a restore or making a dupe is just a matter or making yourself another copy.
Don’t know your skill level or experience, so it’s sort of impossible to answer that. ;-)
I think it depends upon the person/company involved. Some don’t mind. Some have released old stuff as open source. And some call the lawyers… It is my belief that a very lackadaisical attitude to abandonware is prevalent within the Amiga community. On the other hand, Apple is the polar opposite and known for enforcing their intellectual rights (most visibly in the Samsung-Apple game of ping-pong).
Basic copyright law. All this stuff is under copyright. Sometimes the copyright situation is messy, companies fold, companies are acquired by others and so on, and once in a while you get a loony character that treats it as an “all your base are belong to us” situation. But, by and large, in the absence of a clear message from the copyright holder stating otherwise – all the stuff (even from the ‘80s) is under copyright. Calling it “abandonware” does not change this. It is all down to whether or not the copyright holder wants to prosecute. Some do to make a point, some do it because they can… but most realise that in any sane legal jurisdiction, they will probably have a hard time trying to claim loss and harm from a quarter century old product that the company stopped developing about…a quarter century ago…and kicking the dead carcass will cost them more than they’re ever likely to see returned. I would, however, encourage those who cease developing a product to consider making it open source. There have been many good programs that have fallen by the wayside thanks to various changes in the RISC OS world (26→32 bit, the unaligned rotate issue, and so on). If you, the original developer, is no longer interested – perhaps your software can be taken over by people who are interested in it, for the benefit of those who still use the software… Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. This message does not constitute legal advice. I am not an expert on copyright law. The only degree I have is my body temperature. I’m neither infallible nor omnipotent (if I was, there would be lots of cookies and not the http kind). I do not resemble persons living or dead other than myself (and some mornings, I doubt even that much). |
patric aristide (434) 418 posts |
Thanks to Thomas Millius there’s an ARMv7 compatible version here: Some scripts won’t work but in general it’s ok. Comments, bug reports etc to Thomas. |
James (2358) 8 posts |
Thank you all for your helpful replies. I got my RPI yesterday, installing the newest beta over RC11 was no problem. I’m able to play all the games ADFFS supports and I’m very happy with everything so far, what a great OS!
I am unable to get this working however. First it complains about a module called ZapRedraw, when I remove the line that calls it from !LIRC’S “!Run” obey script, I get an error that says something along the lines of “SWI Name not known at line 33018”, and can’t figure out what to do after that.
EDIT: Disregard that, Snapper has hotkeys |
Steve Pampling (1551) 8170 posts |
Looks like it has the ZapRedraw module in there to speed the redraw, but that copy isn’t 32 bit. |
James (2358) 8 posts |
I don’t see anything here called ZapRedraw, is there a specific file I need from this directory? |
David Pitt (102) 743 posts |
The 32bit ZapRedraw module, 0.48 20 Aug 2005, is in There is an ARMv7 ZapRedraw with the same version number but a later date, 0.48 07 Apr 2010. However the SWI call not found by !LIRC is “XSpeak_Ready”, !eSpeak is required. !LIRC does then make it to the icon bar. |
Steve Pampling (1551) 8170 posts |
There should be an RMEnsure in the !Run to ensure the required module is in place or the use gets a message saying it is needed. |
patric aristide (434) 418 posts |
If you don’t want to install Zap (a very nice editor) just grab the zapfont zip. Drop it on SparkFS, there’s a little readme in there. Open your !Boot by pressing Shift while select clicking and copy ZapFonts to Boot.Resources The eSpeak error isn’t a fatal one. If you click continue instead of quit or describe LIRC will lauch. Since eSpeak itself has been 32 bitted now you could pester Thomas for a more elegant solution. |
James (2358) 8 posts |
I got it working thanks to you guys, the interface is a bit of a trip but I’ll manage, it seems pretty full featured once you get used to it! Thank you so much for all your support and help, what an awesome community this is. |