Acorn Archimedes Emulator?


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RatchetMan

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Does anyone know if it would be possible to create an Acorn Archimedes emulator for the GP32. How different is the ARM3 used in the Acorn machines from the ARM9 used in the GP32?

For those of you who have never heard of the Acorn Archimedes, it was an ARM3 based desktop machine of the early 90s which had some good games. It is still being commecialy produced in the UK today..
 
Shirohagen posted on Sep 23 2004 at 09:42 AM said:
I used to play that Virus clone on it (Was it called Lander?) for hours!

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Lander was the demo, Zarch was the full game. Also Zarch was the original with Virus being the port to other 16 bit machines.
 
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There was even a spectrum version of virus. It was surprisingly good really...

Anyway - I don't think that an acorn archimedes emulator is that likely. But as I used one of these great computers for most of the 90's It would be terrific if someone proved me wrong.

Of the 3 PC emulators only one of them is open source(this one) and by sods law it is the least developed of the 3 emu's meaning that even if we did get a port of it I'm guessing there would still be a LOT of work involved to get games running and a useable emulator out of it.

If you have a linux PC maybe you could try playing with it to determine how fast it is etc. but the windows version is a bit of a non-starter. I don't think it compares with Archie or Redsquirrel.
 
A bit OT but whats a good version of Virus to try on the GP32? I fancy having another go at it, I wonder how playable it would be with the stick...

Maybe we'll get BBC Micro emulation before Archimedes, I'm still holding out for that.

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Atari ST I think - Castaway to the rescue again!

Luckily quite a few of my favourite games from that era that have ST versions I have definately played Virus on Castaway not too long ago.
 
don't bother trying to play virus/zarch/lander on a GP32.
The control system relies heavily on fine adjustments using the mouse.
The control system _is_ the game really.

Fantastic game, once you get the hang of the controls (mouse).

It's toss playing it on keys - it defeats the object of the game.

Speccy version is rubbish as well. looks good but without a mouse the game is pants.
 
That's what I was thinking Miner49er, but I'm going to track it down and have a go - nothing ventured nothing gained!

There are a few games which suffer from this problem on the GP32, I always loved "Shufflepuck Café" and found the ST version as I used to have it on the Amiga & Mac, but can't get on with it on CaSTaway with the GP32 stick. I've found Populous a bit frustrating too. Even games like Lemmings, Cannon Fodder etc suffer to a lesser extent, but they got console translations which used the joypad.

Sorry, pretty Off Topic again.

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Miner49er posted on Sep 23 2004 at 11:46 AM said:
don't bother trying to play virus/zarch/lander on a GP32.
The control system relies heavily on fine adjustments using the mouse.
The control system _is_ the game really.

Fantastic game, once you get the hang of the controls (mouse).

It's toss playing it on keys - it defeats the object of the game.

Speccy version is rubbish as well. looks good but without a mouse the game is pants.
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Not true, after a bit of practice you will find that Virus on Castaway rules. Especially if you take the time to create your own config file for the controls. Its one of my favourite games on castaway and plays really well when you overclock to 166.
 
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Most people remeber Zarch, but the following were also very good and would be awesome on the gp32.

Chocks Away : A Wings of War Clone.

Star Fighter 3000: A 3d space shooter. This is still the only game that I know of which allows you to move freely into orbit from the planets surface without loading screens or cut scenes.

Apocolypse: Another 3D shooter in which you scream across a 3D landscape blowing the hell out of flying saucers and gun towers.

plus many others..
 
RatchetMan posted on Sep 23 2004 at 01:04 PM said:
Star Fighter 3000: A 3d space shooter. This is still the only game that I know of which allows you to move freely into orbit from the planets surface without loading screens or cut scenes.
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What about Mercenary on the C64?
 
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thingley posted on Sep 23 2004 at 09:27 AM said:
There was even a spectrum version of virus. It was surprisingly good really...

Anyway - I don't think that an acorn archimedes emulator is that likely. But as I used one of these great computers for most of the 90's It would be terrific if someone proved me wrong.

Of the 3 PC emulators only one of them is open source(this one) and by sods law it is the least developed of the 3 emu's meaning that even if we did get a port of it I'm guessing there would still be a LOT of work involved to get games running and a useable emulator out of it.

If you have a linux PC maybe you could try playing with it to determine how fast it is etc. but the windows version is a bit of a non-starter. I don't think it compares with Archie or Redsquirrel.
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Remember though, the PC has a completely different CPU than the Archie. The GP32 has an ARM (AcornRiscMachine as it was called) as did the Archie. I am not sure if they are compatible instruction for instruction but I would imagine they would be pretty close. If that were the case the CPU would net need emulation (frees up alot of cycles) only the other chips. The thing is I am not familiar with it so I don't know what the other chips were.

I remember in the day the Archimedes was touted as an "Amiga killer".
 
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yeah, i used to look at screenshots of Archie Zarch and wish my atari st versino of virus looked as good.

Has anyone ever got Zarch running on an archie emu on the pc?

I was a major fan of Virus (and probably the best at it in the world) but would love to play the true original version.

I am interested in getting it to run on Castaway though, from the positive report a few posts up...
 
i have a msdos version of riscos emulator but it needs a lot of cpu power and i dout we could aquire the source code for it eather....
 
Miner49er said:
don't bother trying to play virus/zarch/lander on a GP32.
The control system relies heavily on fine adjustments using the mouse.
The control system _is_ the game really.

Fantastic game, once you get the hang of the controls (mouse).

It's toss playing it on keys - it defeats the object of the game.

Speccy version is rubbish as well. looks good but without a mouse the game is pants.
Click to expand...
Well, I've completed dozens of levels on the Amiga version using intelligently selected keys. I agree that if you use the joy to control pitch and yaw, you'd become a nervous wreck :) A good control for GP2x might be to only have yaw on the joy, pitch down+up on A+X (or Y+B), thrust on L and fire on R.

(This is because of the way you play it - you rarely adjust pitch, and when you do, only a little - so you don't want to accidentally trigger it while turning. Only dab on A+X to adjust it. You rarely ONLY turn while thrusting, so put that on the same left side as turn (joy yaw). You don't want to put thrust/fire on buttons, because then you have to move your right thumb. You DO want to press fire at any time, especially while turning (spray around to hit a circling enemy), so put it on R - you can trigger/hold it by pressing with the first segment of your right index finger.)

Since I've coded asm on the Archie I'd be happy to adapt the asm source to the GP2x - I'm between jobs right now... It should even be possible with 'infinite' terrain(!) I would also have two sound sets - 'original' and 'good' ;)

I remember I did get it running under Windows (Zarch, not Lander) after fiddling with the memory settings. Or maybe started it from the command line. I I'm using Arculator 0.9 now, don't remember if that was the one though.

I'm not a cracker, so I've no idea how to disasm binaries on the Archie. Any tips appreciated, and PM/email me if you like :)
 
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What is it with people who join, search the boards, and then start replying to threads that are nearly 3 years old? :blink:
 
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