running RISC OS 3.1 applications under emulation
rob
help.
I used the Acorn Electron, the BBC and Archimedes way back in the day.
I recently found an archive of software, and in particular old
graphical demos and i've been working on getting them running again so
I can make some videos to archive them and allow others to enjoy the
old demo scene.
I have been running the Red Squirrel emulator and have sucessfully got
RISC OS 3.1 running. I have been testing with some public domain
applications. I have two problems.
1. Whenever I double click on the !Application, instead of running
the !Boot file and starting the !RunImage, it opens up the !Boot file
in !Edit. How do I make it executable?
2. Some files from the archive do not have any type information (eg
file extension) and the unix 'file' command has been unable to guess
their type. Included below is a dump of the first few lines of the
file in question. Can anyone tell me what type of file this is, and
how I might convert it into an application that can be launched under
RISC OS.
Thanks for any help. I would just love to see some of these demos one
more time.
00000000 1a 82 21 46 69 73 68 44 65 6d 6f 53 00 73 68 a3 |..!
FishDemoS.sh.|
00000010 be 02 00 9f 15 92 6c 0b 60 a3 be 02 00 42 dc fd
|......l.`....B..|
00000020 ff 5b fb 4d dc 33 00 00 00 1a 82 21 42 6f 6f 74 |.[.M.
3.....!Boot|
00000030 00 21 42 6f 6f 74 00 ff 36 00 00 00 79 15 00 4f |.!Boot..
6...y..O|
00000040 50 a9 36 00 00 00 42 eb ff ff 2e b1 af c9 03 00 |P.
6...B.........|
00000050 00 00 52 55 4e 20 3c 4f 62 65 79 24 44 69 72 3e |..RUN
<Obey$Dir>|
00000060 2e 43 48 4b 53 50 52 0d 49 43 4f 4e 53 50 52 49
|.CHKSPR.ICONSPRI|
00000070 54 45 53 20 3c 4f 62 65 79 24 44 69 72 3e 2e 21 |TES <Obey
$Dir>.!|
00000080 53 70 72 69 74 65 73 0d 1a 88 21 48 65 6c 70 00 |
Sprites...!Help.|
00000090 21 48 65 6c 70 00 ff 44 01 00 00 8d 15 67 78 64 |!
Help..D.....gxd|
000000a0 ed 7e 01 00 00 42 ff ff ff 12 de 10 d3 03 00 00
|.~...B..........|
000000b0 00 0c 54 d0 a4 99 03 22 4c 9b 30 7a d2 b8 39 03 |..T...."L.
0z..9.|
000000c0 82 4c 99 36 6f 40 a0 09 43 f0 8d 9b 32 20 da 28 |.L.
6o@..C...2 .(|
000000d0 7c 23 a7 a1 9c 30 77 c4 84 19 b3 46 87 82 24 74 ||#...
0w....F..$t|
000000e0 1a be 29 33 c7 cd 89 94 72 ea b8 01 61 91 26 1b
|..)3....r...a.&.|
000000f0 32 19 47 0a bc 38 87 45 41 82 74 d0 94 c9 53 50 |2.G..
8.EA.t...SP|
00000100 0e 46 3a 6f 20 15 00 31 87 cd 9b 3b 21 40 a0 20 |.F:o ..
1...;!@. |
00000110 52 e7 68 c4 89 76 14 32 7c 73 53 41 93 22 4d 86 |R.h..v.2|
sSA."M.|
00000120 c4 00 31 46 20 1c 82 0a e7 d0 29 13 06 e7 1b 33 |..
1F .....)....3|
00000130 20 82 62 bc 78 a7 4c c7 26 0f c7 c4 08 93 c2 05
| .b.x.L.&.......|
.........
David Pitt
ps.com>
rob <r...@mintmedia.co.nz> wrote:
> Here is a challenging problem for the group. I wonder if anyone can
> help.
> I used the Acorn Electron, the BBC and Archimedes way back in the day.
> I recently found an archive of software, and in particular old
> graphical demos and i've been working on getting them running again so
> I can make some videos to archive them and allow others to enjoy the
> old demo scene.
> I have been running the Red Squirrel emulator and have sucessfully got
> RISC OS 3.1 running. I have been testing with some public domain
> applications. I have two problems.
> 1. Whenever I double click on the !Application, instead of running
> the !Boot file and starting the !RunImage, it opens up the !Boot file
> in !Edit. How do I make it executable?
It is the !Run file that calls !RunImage. Both !Run and !Boot within
the application should be filetyped as 'Obey'.
> 2. Some files from the archive do not have any type information (eg
> file extension) and the unix 'file' command has been unable to guess
> their type. Included below is a dump of the first few lines of the
> file in question. Can anyone tell me what type of file this is, and
> how I might convert it into an application that can be launched under
> RISC OS.
> Thanks for any help. I would just love to see some of these demos one
> more time.
> 00000000 1a 82 21 46 69 73 68 44 65 6d 6f 53 00 73 68 a3 |..!
> FishDemoS.sh.|
The first byte of &1A indicates this file to be an 'Archive', &DDC,
file.
!SparkPlug 2.26 will expand that properly. !SparkPlug does not check
the RISC OS filetype of the archive but it it finds a valid archive in
the file it will decompress it and filetype the archive file
http://www.davidpilling.net/free.html
Go for the self-extracting version.
Something that one should never do on usenet is to test an answer
before posting, I am beginning to wish I hadn't as that self
extracting archive is corrupt.
Take 2
There is a self extracting read only SparkFS at :-
https://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/other-zipfiles
Save the downloaded page then once it is on RISC OS convert its
filetype to 'Utility'. This should be OK on 3.10 but it does need
resources from the !Boot application.
--
David Pitt
MessengerPro 6 on an ARMini running RISC OS 5
David Holden
On 25-Jul-2011, rob <r...@mintmedia.co.nz> wrote:
> I have been running the Red Squirrel emulator and have sucessfully got
> RISC OS 3.1 running. I have been testing with some public domain
> applications. I have two problems.
>
> 1. Whenever I double click on the !Application, instead of running
> the !Boot file and starting the !RunImage, it opens up the !Boot file
> in !Edit. How do I make it executable?
>
> 2. Some files from the archive do not have any type information (eg
> file extension) and the unix 'file' command has been unable to guess
> their type. Included below is a dump of the first few lines of the
> file in question. Can anyone tell me what type of file this is, and
> how I might convert it into an application that can be launched under
> RISC OS.
From the foregoing it sounds as if you might have de-archived this material
under some other OS. If you want to preserve the filetypes you MUST
de-archive using RISC OS.
The three most common archives used for RISC OS are archive (.arc) zip and
ArcFS. The former can be opened with SparkFS and the latter with ArcFS.
Self-extracting versions of both of these can be downloaded from the APDL
web site.
However before you spend a lot of time trying to get (possibly corrupt) old
material from dubious sources working take a look at the PD library on the
APDL site. You might find a lot of what you're looking for there.
--
David Holden - APDL - <http://www.apdl.co.uk>
Rick Murray
> 2. Some files from the archive do not have any type information (eg
> file extension) and the unix 'file' command has been unable to guess
> their type.
Never *ever* try to deal with Acorn files in another OS and expect them
to work. Acorn does not use file extensions, but rather metadata held
within the filesystem which is simply lost on other systems (Windows,
Unix...).
As others have said, get a copy of one of the popular RISC OS archivers,
and extract the software within the RISC OS environment.
> 00000000 1a
^^
Archive. ;-)
> 00000020 ff 5b fb 4d dc 33 00 00 00 1a 82 21 42 6f 6f 74 |.[.M.
> 3.....!Boot|
> 00000030 00 21 42 6f 6f 74 00 ff 36 00 00 00 79 15 00 4f |.!Boot..
> 6...y..O|
> 00000040 50 a9 36 00 00 00 42 eb ff ff 2e b1 af c9 03 00 |P.
> 6...B.........|
> 00000050 00 00 52 55 4e 20 3c 4f 62 65 79 24 44 69 72 3e |..RUN
> <Obey$Dir>|
> 00000060 2e 43 48 4b 53 50 52 0d 49 43 4f 4e 53 50 52 49
> |.CHKSPR.ICONSPRI|
> 00000070 54 45 53 20 3c 4f 62 65 79 24 44 69 72 3e 2e 21 |TES<Obey
> $Dir>.!|
> 00000080 53 70 72 69 74 65 73 0d 1a 88 21 48 65 6c 70 00 |
> Sprites...!Help.|
Another giveaway to an archive file is a list of contents at the start.
Best wishes,
Rick.
David Pilling
Yes the self extract SparkPlug 226 on my web site was corrupt, I've
replaced it with a fixed version.
SparkFS will open ArcFS archives, handled by the Spark module.
It looks like the self extract got corrupted because it has the
extension .bas, and file transfer software tends to assume that is a
text file and the line end codes can be messed about with.
Good luck convincing your browser to get a fresh copy and not use the
corrupt one it its cache.
David Pilling
John Williams (News)
<088aedcb-7a24-4e93...@y16g2000yqk.googlegroups.com>,
David Pilling <spa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Good luck convincing your browser to get a fresh copy and not use the
> corrupt one it its cache.
Add a ?a=6 or somesuch to the URL to fool the browser.
John
--
John Williams, Brittany, Northern France - no attachments to these addresses!
Non-RISC OS posters change user to johnrwilliams or put 'risc' in subject!
Who is John Williams? http://petit.four.free.fr/picindex/author/
Rick Murray
> Good luck convincing your browser to get a fresh copy and not use the
> corrupt one it its cache.
MSIE? All bets are off. It is my experience that IE has an extremely
screwy cache that caches when it shouldn't, doesn't cache when it
should, completely disobeys timeouts, and thanks to the integration with
the OS, you must be *very* careful when you try to clear things that it
doesn't have unwanted side-effects, like clearing the list of files
opened/used with the Win-R [Run] hotkey. IE8 is worse than earlier for
this sort of thing, IMHO.
Firefox? Tools [menu] -> Options -> Advanced [tab] -> Network [subtab]
Then click on "Clear Now" button.
You can use the URL "about:cache" to check.
Opera? Tools [menu] -> Preferences -> Advanced [tab] -> History [item]
Then click on the "Empty Now" button.
For best measure, close and restart the browser to discard anything in
memory. With Firefox, you can preserve open tabs across sessions (and if
you're like me and have a dozen+ tabs, try the BarTab extension, it's
great!).
I'll let somebody else fill in for Safari/Chrome, as I use neither.
See? Use a decent browser, it isn't hard to clear out the cache. ;-)
Best wishes,
Rick.
David Pilling
wrote:
> On 26/07/2011 23:21, David Pilling wrote:
>
> > Good luck convincing your browser to get a fresh copy and not use the
> > corrupt one it its cache.
>
> MSIE?
Chrome...
The tip about adding something to the URL is a good one, but you'll
have to extract the URL for the download from the web page. I just
wanted to hit F5 or similar, and it is less easy on a file than on a
web page.
Anyway, this is off topic.
David Pilling
rob
Thanks for the helpful info. I have got one step further. I have
downloaded and extracted the self-extracting !SparkPlug, however, as
you say, it does need the resources in !Boot to run ("System Resources
cannot be found"). I have a zip archive containing the !Boot
resources. So any ideas on how to unzip the archive in RISCOS so it
can be used? I searched for a self-extracting unzip utility but can't
find one. Can anyone help?
Rob
David Holden
On 9-Aug-2011, rob <r.ca...@auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
> Thanks for the helpful info. I have got one step further. I have
> downloaded and extracted the self-extracting !SparkPlug, however, as
> you say, it does need the resources in !Boot to run ("System Resources
> cannot be found"). I have a zip archive containing the !Boot
> resources. So any ideas on how to unzip the archive in RISCOS so it
> can be used? I searched for a self-extracting unzip utility but can't
> find one. Can anyone help?
!SparkPlug doen't actually need this so you can just comment out the line
which begins 'If <System$Path> = .....' by puttin a '|' at the start.
Alternatively you could download the read-only SparkFS from the APDL website
which is much better.
David Pitt
"David Holden" <Spa...@apdl.co.uk> wrote:
Oops.
From http://www.apdl.co.uk/freeware.htm
!SparkFS.!Run, line 31 :-
If "<System$Path>" = "" then Error 0 System resources cannot be found
Which needs to be commented out, in the same way as for !SparkPlug.
SG nws
[System Resources]
> !SparkPlug doen't actually need this so you can just comment
> out the line which begins 'If <System$Path> = .....'
Q. which arises in my mind: If it doesn't need it, why is it there?
--
Stewart Goldwater
http://janusg.co.nr
Steve Fryatt
<gemini.4e413e110019228202c0%nws...@ntlworld.com>:
> David Holden wrote: [System Resources]
>
> > !SparkPlug doen't actually need this so you can just comment out the
> > line which begins 'If <System$Path> = .....'
>
> Q. which arises in my mind: If it doesn't need it, why is it there?
The Shared C Library and RISC OS 2 compatibility, IIRC. David forgot the
"...on modern systems..." bit of that sentence.
--
Steve Fryatt - Leeds, England
rob
Thanks everyone. By editing the !Run file I was able to get !SparkPlug
to work, it decompresses the file and the demo can be run. However,
the demo itself begins to run, fills the screen with colour, but then
seems to crash. Originally I ran the demo on an A310 with 1MB of ram
and I also saw it running on an A3000. I'm using the supplied Model
configuration with Red Squirrel for A440 which I expected would be
about the right spec.
The emulator does not give me any log info. Strangely each time the
demo crashes the screen is painted a different colour. Perhaps I need
to set the emulation options better. Configs below it that helps at
all.
Rob
====================
Main config:
====================
[Model]
forceselect = 1
Name = "A440, RISC OS 3.1"
[DirectDrawRenderer]
free_scale = 0
CanChangeMode = 1
Border = 0
TripleBuffer = 0
FrameSkip = 0
AutoWindowResize = 1
FullScreenStartup = 0
[DirectXInput]
MenuKey = 1
MouseButton0 = 0
MouseButton1 = 2
MouseButton2 = 1
JoystickEnabled = 1
JoystickThreshold = 22
WindowsKeyIsBreak = 1
[DirectSound]
FilterLevel = 36864
Enabled = 1
[WinUI]
ShowSplash = 1
Version = 61
ProcessorPriority = 0
[SystemClock]
AutoDetectProcSpeed = 1
ProcessorSpeed = 3060
================
Model config
================
[PhysicalBus]
width = 26
[Arm2]
[Memc1a]
[Vidc1]
[Ioc1]
poweronreset = 0
[Rom]
filename = "Romsets\Riscos311\ROM311"
base = 0x3800000
range = 4m
[Ram]
base = 0x2000000
:size = 8m
size = 4m
[CmosRam]
filename = "cmos.ram"
[ClockChip]
[IocI2CBus]
[HostFS]
podule = 0
:mount0 = "HardDisk 'Hostfs\\Disk310' bootopt=2"
mount0 = "HardDisk 'Hostfs\DiskGames'"
[CallWin32Podule]
podule = 1
[ImageFloppyDrive]