Meteoric Return to RISC OS
Posted by Steve Revill Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:43:00 GMT
The old favourite game “Meteors” has been added to the ‘Diversions’ in our standard RISC OS disc-based software release. This can be downloaded in the ‘beta’ HardDisc4 image from our downloads page.
Originally available for the BBC Micro, Neil Raine’s “Meteors” game first debuted in 1982 marketed under the Acornsoft brand. The game, like its Atari arcade machine equivalent “Asteroids”, requires you to steer a spacecraft to avoid tumbling boulders and destroy them to earn points.
Neil later joined Acorn full time and wrote parts of the Window Manager and Font Manager while there – even today there are over 100 references to him in the source code to RISC OS. He also updated Meteors in his spare time to run as a multitasking desktop application, with it featuring as a diversion on the default RISC OS disc image.
Sadly, Neil was killed in an accident in 2006. With all the source code being written for the 26 bit Arthur operating system this could have been the end of the line for the game. However, Neil’s wife Frances has kindly agreed to let RISC OS Open resurrect the game as part of their shared source initiative.
Following a brief update to make it run on both 26 and 32 bit systems, Meteors can once again feature in the disc distribution. To exercise your anger against space debris from the comfort of your chair simply go to downloads page and try out the beta hard disc image – the game is in the diversions directory and also features a refreshed application icon courtesy of Chris Wraight.
For the more curious readers, take a look at the sources too. Thanks so much Frances, Sprow and everyone else for this. RIP Neil.
Neil made a fantastic contribution to Acorn and RISC OS.
This is a lovely thing to include in the OS. Meteors is a pretty unforgiving, but fun game. I second Trevor’s sentiments. Rest in peace Neil.
Acornsoft Maze was another of his creations, and was a tense experience on the Beeb. A version of this for RISC OS, with 3D sound, would be awesome.
What’s cool is the original 6502 source code is there too