Playing Archimedes Elite on PC
Alexander Higginson
of the Elite games) on a PC?
If so how?
Louis J.M
>Is it possible to play Archimedes Elite version (supposed to be the best
>of the Elite games) on a PC?
>
>If so how?
If the PC in question has a 500/600 mhz processor and a lot of memory
(For some reason I don't know) it "may" be able to emulate an Acorn.
It's strange, that unit is over 7 years old - I'd think first off it could be
emulated off of a 386.
There is currently (I'm assuming) no effort going into making an emulator
for this computer as I guess it's a tedious task and one that would only pay
off with at sucessfully getting ArcElite to work with it. Which also would be
a task in itself.
Louis J.M
-- Lead Programmer --
James MacDonald
<Lou...@Mediaone.net> wrote (in 21 lines):
>If the PC in question has a 500/600 mhz processor and a lot of memory
>(For some reason I don't know) it "may" be able to emulate an Acorn.
But you still need ROM images from Acorn owners. Who won't give you
them, 'cos they want to you buy an Acorn and share their happiness!
>It's strange, that unit is over 7 years old
B.S.
Can you say "Phoebe"? There is more than one model of Acorn.
>Some< models are even more than 7 years old - the A305 was released in
1987 with the less-than-useless Arthur (A RISC operating system by
THURsday), then RISC OS 2 machines in 1988 such as the A310, A440, A3000
etc., then the A5000 in 1992, RiscPC in 1994, and now Phoebe in 1998!
That's without mentioning the A400 or the A540, or the R140/R260 (which
ran UNIX - RISCix - too, BTW!)
> - I'd think first off it could be
>emulated off of a 386.
It's tough to emulate such a world-beater on such a puny thing as an
x86. You have two options - a powerful Alpha or powerful Phoebe (Phoebe
being an Acorn herself and much nicer looking than a DEC).
>There is currently (I'm assuming) no effort going into making an emulator
>for this computer as I guess it's a tedious task and one that would only pay
>off with at sucessfully getting ArcElite to work with it.
I own both Acorn (have Phoebe on order, BTW), Alpha, and x86 kit. The
difficulties are:
1) ROM - you need a 512K (RISC OS 2) or a 2048K (RISC OS 3.1) ROM image
to run ArcElite, since it uses the OS. Acorn are, needless to say, very
protective of this - they won't even let you have BBC Micro ROM images -
you'll only get an Arc ROM if you own an Arc in the first place.
2) Custom stuff - documentation on VIDC, IOC and MEMC is quite hard to
find, and these chips must be emulated well for RISC OS 3.1 to pass the
POST.
3) The processor - emulation of an ARM 2 only is required, but there's
no ARM 2 emulator as yet - you need to use an ARM610 emulation engine
written by ARM. It's in C. Sloooooooow.
4) The fact that Phoebe is coming and that we're trying to push you into
buying her ;-)
--
UNIX - Saving you from the Gates of Hell.
George Russell
wrote:
>If the PC in question has a 500/600 mhz processor and a lot of memory
>(For some reason I don't know) it "may" be able to emulate an Acorn.
>It's strange, that unit is over 7 years old - I'd think first off it could be
>emulated off of a 386.
There is a Linux based emulator fro archimedes. Its called arcem.
Its at version 0.4. As a measure of completeness, ArmLinux boots in
the emulator. To play ArcElite, i'd guess RiscOS is needed, and no
effort is maid to emulate that AFAIK.
George Russell
James MacDonald
<george....@clara.net> wrote (in 14 lines):
>There is a Linux based emulator fro archimedes. Its called arcem.
>Its at version 0.4. As a measure of completeness, ArmLinux boots in
>the emulator. To play ArcElite, i'd guess RiscOS is needed, and no
>effort is maid to emulate that AFAIK.
RiscOS emulation is not required, only the hardware must be emulated. If
you have RiscOS ROM images, then you can use them. RiscOS >is< required
to play ArcElite.
must die.yahoo.com
wrote:
>Alexander Higginson wrote in message <35CB319B...@parallax.co.uk>...
>>Is it possible to play Archimedes Elite version (supposed to be the best
>>of the Elite games) on a PC?
>>
>>If so how?
>
>If the PC in question has a 500/600 mhz processor and a lot of memory
>(For some reason I don't know) it "may" be able to emulate an Acorn.
>It's strange, that unit is over 7 years old - I'd think first off it could be
>emulated off of a 386.
>
>There is currently (I'm assuming) no effort going into making an emulator
>for this computer as I guess it's a tedious task and one that would only pay
>off with at sucessfully getting ArcElite to work with it. Which also would be
>a task in itself.
>
>Louis J.M
>-- Lead Programmer --
>
>
>
Somebody is actually making an Acorn Archimedes emulator, although i
cant remember who, if you were to check Ian Bells page it might tell
you seeing as he has ArcElite on there..
Squits
George Russell
wrote:
>If the PC in question has a 500/600 mhz processor and a lot of memory
>(For some reason I don't know) it "may" be able to emulate an Acorn.
>It's strange, that unit is over 7 years old - I'd think first off it could be
>emulated off of a 386.
There is a Linux based emulator fro archimedes. Its called arcem.
Its at version 0.4. As a measure of completeness, ArmLinux boots in
the emulator. To play ArcElite, i'd guess RiscOS is needed, and no
effort is maid to emulate that AFAIK.
George Russell
Thomas Harte
> cant remember who, if you were to check Ian Bells page it might tell
> you seeing as he has ArcElite on there..
I've seen a few Arc emulators in progress, but the one I am keeping track
of is Archie, at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Campus/5427/, if only
because the web page was updated recently. Don't get excited though, I quote :
"As you can see there is still a long way to go, but at least the POST
passes now! That only leaves the keyboard/mouse, floppy drive, hard drive,
sound, etc, etc..."
-Thomas
Richard Splinter
Alexander Higginson wrote:
> Is it possible to play Archimedes Elite version (supposed to be the best
> of the Elite games) on a PC?
I only know that there is a UNIX Acorn emulator, so that don't help
anything. It maybey easier to buy an 2nd hand 300 or 400 series
archimedes, they are really cheap now at the moment (I won't give anymore
than $50 for it).
Richard
>
>
> If so how?
Ted Douglas
wrote:
And you'll be able to play some other David Braben game that was
only released for the Archimedes, can't remember at the moment
what it was called, or what it was about.
Stephen Roffey
> And you'll be able to play some other David Braben game that was
> only released for the Archimedes, can't remember at the moment
> what it was called, or what it was about.
It is of course Zarch, the game that IIRC sold a lot of Archimedi
(!?) when it came out - demonstrated them very impressively.
Later it was ported to pretty much everything else, as `Virus` - the
48K Spectrum version was pretty kool.
You flew a little hovering ship over a filled-vector landscape,
shooting at stuff. Pretty difficult to play at first, but a great
laugh when you got the hang of it. The ship had a single drive mounted
to the underside - you had to pitch forward to move in that direction
whilst compensating for the effect of gravity. We all know how much
Braben likes physics! Too high up and the engine cut out, too low
and THWACK! You`re jellying up the sidewalk. Just not crashing was an
achievement, shooting something? Well, I knew a kid at school who
SAID he did it - you know the type...:-)
Steve
Richard Splinter
Ted Douglas wrote:
> On Tue, 11 Aug 1998 11:10:30 +0200, Richard Splinter <ri...@cistron.nl>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >Alexander Higginson wrote:
> >
> >> Is it possible to play Archimedes Elite version (supposed to be the best
> >> of the Elite games) on a PC?
> >
> >I only know that there is a UNIX Acorn emulator, so that don't help
> >anything. It maybey easier to buy an 2nd hand 300 or 400 series
> >archimedes, they are really cheap now at the moment (I won't give anymore
> >than $50 for it).
>
> And you'll be able to play some other David Braben game that was
> only released for the Archimedes, can't remember at the moment
> what it was called, or what it was about.
Virus? I heard that there going to be a new version for the PC soon to be
released: Virus2000.
Richard
graham.t...@sunderland.ac.uk
Richard Splinter <ri...@cistron.nl> wrote:
>
>
> Ted Douglas wrote:
<snip>
> > And you'll be able to play some other David Braben game that was
> > only released for the Archimedes, can't remember at the moment
> > what it was called, or what it was about.
>
> Virus? I heard that there going to be a new version for the PC soon to be
> released: Virus2000.
Zarch. It's the Arc version of Virus.
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graham.t...@sunderland.ac.uk
Richard Splinter <ri...@cistron.nl> wrote:
>
>
> Alexander Higginson wrote:
>
> > Is it possible to play Archimedes Elite version (supposed to be the best
> > of the Elite games) on a PC?
>
> I only know that there is a UNIX Acorn emulator, so that don't help
> anything. It maybey easier to buy an 2nd hand 300 or 400 series
> archimedes, they are really cheap now at the moment (I won't give anymore
> than $50 for it).
The prices of second hand Arcs have recently dropped, due to the imminent
arrival of Phoebe 2100 (aka Risc-PC 2). There was an advert in a recent Acorn
User (or Archimedes World) listing various 2nd hand Acorn machines.
The best deal at present is for a 2nd hand A5000 (former top-of-the range
Arc) for about £250 (pounds Sterling). This is a hell of a good price, and
you'll be able to run any Arc software, including ArcElite. The one to go for
is the 4Mb 33MHz variant, although the 25MHz one will do. If you've already
got a decent multisync monitor you only need the machine itself. An entry
level (A3000 series) machine will cost about £100, although getting one in
good condition is harder now.
If you really want to play ArcElite, getting a 2nd hand Arc is really the best
way to go, and certianly a hell of a lot cheaper than messing aboput with
getting OS ROMs, memory, faster processor etc to emulate one on your PC. And
you'll also get the best operating system in the world (RISC-OS) on the ROM.