Technodream on emulation

[arakeen]

Hi,

I'm keen to have another go through Technodream after 20+ years. Unfortunately I don't have any working Acorn hardware to use/extract my original disks and the copy protection is defeating me in emulation.

I've seen that an updated version has been available on CD with Nevryon from Matthew Thompson - he hasn't been active here for a while though, and I'm not yet approved to send PMs.

So, I have a few requests, one of which will hopefully get me going with this:

Does anyone know if Matthew Thompson is still supplying these CDs (whether physical or digital), and have alternative contact details?
Has anyone previously purchased one of the CDs and is willing to part with it (second hand purchase for at/around original price)?
Slightly grey area - does someone have working JFDs which they could supply offline (further proof of my ownership can be provided)?

(As I can't send or reply to PMs I'll need another way to get back to anyone who is able to help).

Thank you.

[arakeen]

Thanks for the PM, sorry but still can't reply directly. Thanks for clearing up the situation, I think I must have misunderstood things (gleaned from various sources across this board and elsewhere).

[MatthewThompson]

I have dug out this re-issue version I have , it was the original Superior packaging, but instead of the discs came with a ProAction CD-ROM which also contains the BBC version of Nevryon.

This version of Technodream does not require any floppy discs and runs perfectly on my ARMX6 (RISC OS 5.27) running in Acorn RISC OS 3 legacy mode.

I have attached a picture of what the product looks like and a picture of the game running on my ARMX6 .

Whether David Bradforth at ProAction still has any copies of this still available I don't know. I think he's still active in the RISC OS world in some capacity. But this is the version you need to run under emulation as it doesn't need any floppy discs to run.

[MatthewThompson]

the game running on ARMX6 (legacy mode - not the best picture but you can see it running)

[arakeen]

Thanks for the extra info - I'll maybe try and track him down, but it's looking like I've just left it all a bit too late on all counts

[acorndave]

There's one on ebay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nevryon-and- ... Swp49exn3Y

£30 staring bid though + £5 postage.

Nearly 6 days to run, might be worth watching. ...

Or too pricey ? Guess it depends how keen you are on it.

[arakeen]

Not quite that keen for something that was £6 originally

Thanks for letting me know though. I'm pretty sure that seller just puts it on repeatedly, every time I do another search for something I've missed I see it on there for the same price with a few days to run but still no takers... Next time I'm bored enough I might contact them to see if they'd put it on for less but it looks like they're holding out for the big profit.

[MatthewThompson]

I was going to mention I spotted that on Ebay , but that is just people out to cash in/rip off people, no need to sell it for that much,which is probably why it hasn't sold !!

There were another relase of Technodream later on, see the attached version that APDL/4th Dimension put out.

This maybe still available, i'm not sure, APDL does not really exist anymore, only a website here.

http://www.apdl.org.uk/

But it might be worth contacting CJE Micros who own 4D they might be able to help or might even one in stock - worth a try

http://www.cjemicros.co.uk/

[philpem]

But it might be worth contacting CJE Micros who own 4D they might be able to help or might even one in stock - worth a try
http://www.cjemicros.co.uk/

CJE don't own the 4D software any more -- it was sold to APDL some years before David Holden's unfortunate passing.

[MatthewThompson]

But it might be worth contacting CJE Micros who own 4D they might be able to help or might even one in stock - worth a try
http://www.cjemicros.co.uk/

CJE don't own the 4D software any more -- it was sold to APDL some years before David Holden's unfortunate passing.

I didn't know that , they obviously just own the 4D name now, rather than the actual software, as the name is still used on their website.

Still worth asking them if they might have any of either re-issue in stock or could get one, they do have a lot of stuff !

[arakeen]

I tried "sales" at the old and current apdl domains with no response, a previously active apdl-proaction domain no longer exists either. CJE don't have it available. Really appreciate all the suggestions, thank you.

[acorndave]

The credits at the bottom of the apdl webpage mention Aaron Timbrell / 3QD. You could give him a try

http://www.riscos.com/contact_details/index.htm

[MatthewThompson]

The credits at the bottom of the apdl webpage mention Aaron Timbrell / 3QD. You could give him a try

http://www.riscos.com/contact_details/index.htm

Certainly worth a try, as Aaron was involved with APDL and (maybe) Proaction, but he might have a recent contact for David Bradforth, he had his Alligata Media operation but that seems defunct now and the email address there doesn't work.

I don't actually know who owns the copyright to this re-issued Technodream release as it is different to the original Superior release, at a guess I would say Proaction/ADPL do , but I could be wrong.

[MatthewThompson]

The credits at the bottom of the apdl webpage mention Aaron Timbrell / 3QD. You could give him a try

http://www.riscos.com/contact_details/index.htm

Certainly worth a try, as Aaron was involved with APDL and (maybe) Proaction, but he might have a recent contact for David Bradforth, he had his Alligata Media operation but that seems defunct now and the email address there doesn't work.

I don't actually know who owns the copyright to this re-issued Technodream release as it is different to the original Superior release, at a guess I would say Proaction/ADPL do , but I could be wrong.

[arakeen]

Thank you again - I've popped him a message at the address on that page, I'll post again with any updates.

[arakeen]

Aaron replied a few days ago after my email ended up in his spam folder. He's not in a position to help at the moment as he gets lots of queries looking for support, but it sounds like he doesn't have a stock of these CDs available anyway. He is still hoping to make "all the APDL software available as downloads" (suggesting that distribution isn't an issue) but has been struggling to find the time to complete the work needed.

He's happy for me to post this info, hope it's of interest to know that this and other APDL software may become available in the future.

[dmitrysimlyansky]

I have 3 ADF of Technodream! But I can use them with GOTEK on real hardware only.

[wmd]

I don't actually know who owns the copyright to this re-issued Technodream release as it is different to the original Superior release, at a guess I would say Proaction/ADPL do , but I could be wrong.

When you say the releases are different, in what way?

[wmd]

Technodream is on the APDL Shoot-Up Games Collection.iso.zip 4.58 MB:

http://www.arcarc.nl/games.html

However, I can not get the installer working. After reading the ISO on Windows, then copying to HostFS on Arculator, you get this:



Note that there is no icon to drag! Anyone know how to fix this? I tried using CDFaker within RISC OS to read the ISO directly, but it does not work. For reference, for all the data files in the DATA folder, when transferring to HostFS I set the data type to FFD (Arbitrary data type). Not sure if that has any bearing on things. Maybe someone could check if they can read the ISO on real hardware?

[IanJeffray]

Note that there is no icon to drag!

What do you mean? It's right there - the joystick icon. Do you mean, it's undraggable for you? It might just appear as a dotty drag-box, depending on your machine settings.

Look, here's me dragging it... woo!

drag.png (34.16 KiB) Viewed 1559 times

[wmd]

That icon isn't draggable on Arculator running RISC OS 3.11.

[IanS]

I don't have a CD setup in arculator, but using RPCEmu to open the ISO image and copy the !Install to hostfs, and then transferring that to a arculator hostfs folder, it happily allowed me to drag the joystick icon and install the games.

[IanJeffray]

That icon isn't draggable on Arculator running RISC OS 3.11.

That's a rather strong statement

Can we change your mind?...

[IanJeffray]

With no !Boot or other stuff loaded - just the bare OS - and in low resolution mode too - it still seems fine too...

[wmd]

Not working here, using Arculator v2.0. What are the file types for the files in your DATA folder? I wonder if they need to be set to a certain type and I have them as the wrong type.

[wmd]

I also suspect it's because I am running the installer from HostFS.

[wmd]

Nope, got it working. Simply upgrading to Arculator v2.2 fixed it. Weird.

[IanJeffray]

Nope, got it working. Simply upgrading to Arculator v2.2 fixed it. Weird.

Interesting, though Arculator 2.0 is over 3.5 years old at this point.

[wmd]

Got it onto my A3020, but not working, I get an error:

Code: Select all

Message from Pro Action

Please click on your monitor type

But nothing else is shown on screen to select monitor type from. Clicking OK on that error brings up another error:

Code: Select all

Drive Empty

Same errors on Arculator too.

[sirbod]

Code: Select all

Message from Pro Action

Please click on your monitor type

!Setup requires a newer version of Window Manager to show the Monitor selection buttons.

If you update !Boot.Resources.!System.310.Modules.Wimp with the latest version from System resources, it might run okay. Don't be tempted to perform a !System merge, just copy that one Module across...and assuming you have a proper !Boot sequence, it should update the Wimp during start-up.

That said, there might be other dependencies, but it runs okay for me under RO3.1x