"RISC OS Pi" SD card for the RPi with all the Archimedes Software Preservation Project software and games already preloaded

Any chance of a version of the excellent “RISC OS Pi” SD card for the RPi with all the Archimedes Software Preservation Project software and games already preloaded on the same card?

With so many of the great games from the late ’80s and ’90s ported to the Archimedes and over 10 million Raspberry Pis sold, such an SD card could be very popular.

Any chance of a version of the excellent “RISC OS Pi” SD card for the RPi with all the Archimedes Software Preservation Project software and games already preloaded on the same card?

I think you would have to direct that question to Jon Abbott – he will know the details of the terms and conditions on him being allowed to distribute the games. If there is a restriction on him charging then it’s a no go.

A while ago, I asked Jon. I intended to create an all-in-one image… A basic RISC OS Pi with ADFFS, all ready to run. But there are licensing complications that prevent it.

It isn’t too hard to set up, though. Please post any issues here or on the ADFFS forum.

The issue is sub-licensing, provided the project is distributing it, there’s no issue. The problem with an image however is that it needs maintaining, which is rather a time consuming process when you consider the number of changes the happen to the scripts whilst it’s still being developed.

Ideally I’d like to use PackMan to distribute both ADFFS and the games, so they’re kept up to date and can be distributed to both old and new machines. I really need to pick this up with Alan, as creating/maintaining so many packages is not viable with the current tool (there’s around 250 that need distributing among testers). I need an automated way of building the packages, so they’re automatically updated if the games are modified.

It’s one of many things on my list to look at. If anyone would like to join the project and pick this up with Alan on my behalf, please get in touch via the JASPP forum, or via eMail.

Ideally I’d like to use PackMan to distribute both ADFFS and the games

Jon, anything I can do to help let me know. My email is in the PackMan help file. Figuring it all out and setting up the control files, description and copyright the first time round may take a little time. Once it’s done it’s fairly easy to write programs/shell scripts or make files that update versions and just rezip everything up in a package files. But you can always start small with just ADFFS and a few games to try it out and add more games when time permits.
If you email me, I’ll ask a few questions then have a go at creating something for you to look at.