Have installed Arculator on Linux for first time... now what lol

[Demmers]

I have already introduced myself on here a short while back, but life got in the way of giving me time to play around with Arculator once I figured out how to install it on my Linux Mint machine. Now I do have time, and I confess I literally don't know how to proceed from here! Purpose of all this? To play all the classic games that myself and family enjoyed on our old Acorn machines back in the day. Believe me, i've tried searching on here and everywhere else online, but every post seems to already be 1-2 steps ahead of where I need to start from. So, some stupid-basic follow-up questions:
One: When launching, say a A5000, why is the language defaulting to a foreign language, and therefore, how to change it?
Two: I have previously just had RPCEmu running OS 3.7.1, and would much prefer to be running this instead of 3.1. (I would have stuck with this, but then found too many posts saying Arculator is better for gaming). I thought I had cracked it by literally just copying over the ROM file to the respective Arculator ROM folder, but it isn't being recognised in the UI.
Three: Setting up the drives. I read about ADFS but not sure how to start. Given that the default drives are obviously empty, how/what am I configuring? Is there extra "software" I need/can install to make the OS experience better?
Four: Where are people downloading the games from? I think after downloading the respective files, I copy them into a configured drive?
Five: Is there a way to change the "screen" size?

TIA!

[SKS1]

Shock News: Arculator emulates Archimedes; RPCEmu emulates RISC PC! RISC OS 3.5 up require RISC PC hardware and do not run on Arcs.

[Sophira]

One: When launching, say a A5000, why is the language defaulting to a foreign language, and therefore, how to change it?

You probably selected RISC OS 3.19, which was a German translation of RISC OS. You want to be running 3.11 instead if you don't speak German.

Two: I have previously just had RPCEmu running OS 3.7.1, and would much prefer to be running this instead of 3.1. (I would have stuck with this, but then found too many posts saying Arculator is better for gaming). I thought I had cracked it by literally just copying over the ROM file to the respective Arculator ROM folder, but it isn't being recognised in the UI.

Arculator doesn't emulate the hardware needed to run versions of RISC OS greater than 3.19; if you want to run 3.71, you need to use RPCEmu. That said, most games run best on 3.11 so the people who recommended Arculator to you weren't lying.

Three: Setting up the drives. I read about ADFS but not sure how to start. Given that the default drives are obviously empty, how/what am I configuring? Is there extra "software" I need/can install to make the OS experience better?

If you do want to run 3.11, and you're setting up a hard disc/HostFS, you may want to install the Universal Boot sequence. A version of it suitable for 3.11, updated with suitable modules, is available from https://www.retro-kit.co.uk/UniBoot.html .

Four: Where are people downloading the games from? I think after downloading the respective files, I copy them into a configured drive?

The best place to get games from is https://arcarc.nl/ . It has a ton of games and software. Some of it comes on .adf floppy images which you can just load into a drive in Arculator (or run with !ADFFS in RISC OS, which is probably the way to go if you want to play games as a lot of them would otherwise mess with your CMOS settings), and others come in .zip files, which you want to copy to your hostfs directory and unzip in RISC OS using !SparkFS.

Five: Is there a way to change the "screen" size?

Yes - earlier versions of RISC OS used mode numbers instead of the mode selector dialogue. The default modes are 640x256 (mode 12, standard monitor) and 640x480 (mode 27, multisync/VGA), both of which are 16 colours. You switch mode numbers by clicking MENU over the palette icon, then going to the Mode menu and typing in a mode number in the blank entry at the bottom.

The largest resolution available in standard RISC OS is 800x600, in 2/4/16 colours only, and for multisync monitors only. You can use the 16 colours version by switching to mode 31.

There are applications you can get that replace the palette icon with a Risc PC-style mode selector, though you can't use mode definition lines like on a Risc PC. Still, it might be helpful for you! I can upload the app I use if you'd like.