Archimedes Software Preservation Project

[tlsa]

Has everyone seen the Archimedes Software Preservation Project?

They are aiming to make all the old Archimedes software available, and they are acquiring the legal rights to distribute it for free. They are starting out with games.

So far they have obtained the rights to all the old Krisalis releases. There's a press release listing the games that are included here.


The current preservation state of each known game is in this post:

http://www.iconbar.com/forums/viewthrea ... e=2#121252


Also, the guy who's running the Archimedes Software Preservation Project has created a program that allows disc images to be used instead of actual floppies on real hardware as well as emulators. It's called ADFFS. It also supports running floppy disc images with the copy protection intact.


I don't have an Archimedes any more, but ArcEm runs pretty well under RISC OS on the Raspberry Pi.

[nOmArch]

Yep

[paulv]

I don't have an Archimedes any more, but ArcEm runs pretty well under RISC OS on the Raspberry Pi.

I've been playing with ArcEm on the Pi this last couple of days.

I used ShareFS to transfer stuff from my real Arcs over to the HostFS folder on the Raspberry Pi and I've been having great fun using ADFFS to run Arc games on the Pi. I haven't yet tried Zarch but have been playing Hamsters quite a bit and the speed and sound playback is excellent.

This is made even better as the only system I can hook the Pi up to at the moment is my main 40" Bravia which has a full 7.2 surround amp and B&W speakers connected to it. In stereo it sounds great, using some of the amp's enhancer modes make it sound awesome.

I've had to give up the TV for a while but when I get a chance, Zarch will be the next game on the big screen

None of this would be possible without the Jon's ADFFS as some of the games I have insist on running from a real floppy drive and ADFFS gets around that particular issue very nicely indeed

Paul

[tlsa]

Yep

Ah, I missed that lot.

Still, it's pretty exciting that they've got permission for the Krisalis games.

[tlsa]

I've had to give up the TV for a while but when I get a chance, Zarch will be the next game on the big screen

Spheres of Chaos was always a favourite of mine. It has great sound too.

[MatthewThompson]

This a brilliant project, as I have felt for a long time there needs to be a proper Archimedes games archive.

Even better news that the Krisalis games have been allowed to be included, let's hope more will be able to be added too.

I am helping with the project too, if anyone has any of the obscure Arc games then get in touch.

Particulary games such as Cascade and Nosher.

[tlsa]

Even better news that the Krisalis games have been allowed to be included, let's hope more will be able to be added too.

Yeah, it's great news. Also, before the Krisalis announcement, there was this news: "2 - License owners that have given permission to give their software away for free", so there are other titles for which permission has been obtained. I don't know which though.

I am helping with the project too

Cool.

if anyone has any of the obscure Arc games then get in touch.

Yeah, it would be good to get rare stuff like NetWork23's games Provocator and Deadline preserved. I just remember screenshots of them in Acorn User etc. Also Eterna's games seem really rare.

Particulary games such as Cascade and Nosher.

Heh, I've not even heard of them.

[davidb]

Yeah, it would be good to get rare stuff like NetWork23's games Provocator and Deadline preserved. I just remember screenshots of them in Acorn User etc. Also Eterna's games seem really rare.

I have the files for Deadline backed up, just not an authentic image. Yes, they were backed up from an original disk...

I'd like to see Provocator, too.

[MatthewThompson]

You'll be pleased to know I have all the Eterna games, so they are OK, I have Deadline also, but if anyone has Provocator then shout!! I haven't got that game and it looks good.

Cascade was a Cataclysm clone, and Nosher was a Pacman style game, I have a demo for Nosher but not the full version, they were both mail order games published by the author (I think) which is probably why they are obscure.

[MatthewThompson]

Even better news that the Krisalis games have been allowed to be included, let's hope more will be able to be added too.

Yeah, it's great news. Also, before the Krisalis announcement, there was this news: "2 - License owners that have given permission to give their software away for free", so there are other titles for which permission has been obtained. I don't know which though.

Maybe it was the Gremlin Graphics games ? as Zool and Premier Manager are included and they weren't Krisalis games.

[tlsa]

Maybe it was the Gremlin Graphics games ? as Zool and Premier Manager are included and they weren't Krisalis games.

No, they were part of the Krisalis deal too. I only mentioned Krisalis because they're more well known / have more games.

[tlsa]

You'll be pleased to know I have all the Eterna games, so they are OK, I have Deadline also, but if anyone has Provocator then shout!! I haven't got that game and it looks good.

Woo, cool. Was Deadline fun to play? I like vertical scrolling shooters, and iirc, it had a very nice cartooony art style.

It's good you have all the Eterna games too, I thought they were really rare.

Cascade was a Cataclysm clone, and Nosher was a Pacman style game, I have a demo for Nosher but not the full version, they were both mail order games published by the author (I think) which is probably why they are obscure.

Ah, thanks for the info. The obscure ones always seem interesting.

[Garrettimus]

Fantastic!

[tautology]

I'm not certain I understand their "missing/incomplete" list; what does it mean if there's no marker next to the item (as I have some of those games)?

Also I wish they'd spell licence correctly (pet hate of mine).

In terms of Burn 'Out and Inferno, they can download Burn 'Out and contact the author at his website. He may or may not release the rights to Inferno as I believe its for sale on the Apple Store.

[tlsa]

I'm not certain I understand their "missing/incomplete" list; what does it mean if there's no marker next to the item (as I have some of those games)?

Hmm, not sure. I'll ask Jon.

[tlsa]

I'm not certain I understand their "missing/incomplete" list; what does it mean if there's no marker next to the item (as I have some of those games)?

Jon's updated the list of games to make it clearer now:

http://www.iconbar.com/forums/viewthrea ... e=2#121252

[tautology]

I did drop him an email, so that may have helped (either that or other people commented).

[MatthewThompson]

You'll be pleased to know I have all the Eterna games, so they are OK, I have Deadline also, but if anyone has Provocator then shout!! I haven't got that game and it looks good.

>Woo, cool. Was Deadline fun to play? I like vertical scrolling shooters, and iirc, it had a very nice cartooony art style.

It's an excellent Commando/Saigon type game, remember playing it a lot, shame it was overlooked as it is well worth playing.

>It's good you have all the Eterna games too, I thought they were really rare.

They are rare which is why I was keen to get hold of them, the quality of the games is above a lot of the Archimedes games, there is a lot of attention to detail with excellent sounds and graphics is the games, the only negative is they tend to be rather hard to play.

Which is the same of the Coin Age games too, very well presented but hard to play, meaning Gribblys Day Out, Paradroid 2000, Pesky Muskrats.

[sirbod]

I'm glad to see interest in the project is picking up, we now have full permission for 47 titles and partial permission to a further 14. That's a long way off the 443 commercial titles we have documented, but we've barely started contacting publishers and developers.

The website is now under development, so hopefully we'll be able to make some of these titles available soon. Unfortunately, we're missing most of the titles we have permission for, so we're keen to track them down:

Battle Chess
Cannon Fodder (missing just the box scans)
Cascade
Champions
Drop Rock
Drop Rock [RPC version]
Escape from Exeria
Escape from Exeria [RPC version]
Floopy
Gods
Guardians of the Labyrinth
Hero Quest
Jahangir Khan World Championship Squash
James Pond
Lemmings & Oh, No! More Lemmings (the single disc version with both on)
Lemmings & Oh, No! More Lemmings [RPC version]
Lemmings [RPC version]
Lemmings 2: The Tribes
Mad Professor Mariarti
Magic Pockets
Manchester United Europe
Nebulus
Omar Sharif's Bridge
Populous
Premier Manager
Quest For Gold
Revelation
Sim City
SimCity 2000 [A5000 version]
SimCity 2000 [RPC version]
Speedball 2
World Championship Boxing Manager
World Class Leaderboard
Zool - Ninja of the 'Nth' Dimension

If you have an original of any of the above and can scan or image them, please contact me: jon at jaspp dot org dot uk

[tlsa]

It's an excellent Commando/Saigon type game, remember playing it a lot, shame it was overlooked as it is well worth playing.

Wow, sounds awesome!

They are rare which is why I was keen to get hold of them, the quality of the games is above a lot of the Archimedes games, there is a lot of attention to detail with excellent sounds and graphics is the games, the only negative is they tend to be rather hard to play.

Cool. Homegrown titles with good production values wern't overly common.

Which is the same of the Coin Age games too, very well presented but hard to play, meaning Gribblys Day Out, Paradroid 2000, Pesky Muskrats.

I've not seen them either! Is Gribblys Day Out a port from the C64?

[tlsa]

I'm glad to see interest in the project is picking up, we now have full permission for 47 titles and partial permission to a further 14. That's a long way off the 443 commercial titles we have documented, but we've barely started contacting publishers and developers.

Great, thanks for the update!

The website is now under development, so hopefully we'll be able to make some of these titles available soon.

Ooh, that's good news.

Might be worth posting the list on the comp.sys.acorn.announce newsgroup? I think it has a lot of readers who've been using the platform for ages and probably have plenty of software.

[MatthewThompson]

It's an excellent Commando/Saigon type game, remember playing it a lot, shame it was overlooked as it is well worth playing.

Wow, sounds awesome!

They are rare which is why I was keen to get hold of them, the quality of the games is above a lot of the Archimedes games, there is a lot of attention to detail with excellent sounds and graphics is the games, the only negative is they tend to be rather hard to play.

Cool. Homegrown titles with good production values wern't overly common.

Sadly no, but there were some good ones in there.

Which is the same of the Coin Age games too, very well presented but hard to play, meaning Gribblys Day Out, Paradroid 2000, Pesky Muskrats.

I've not seen them either! Is Gribblys Day Out a port from the C64?

Yes it is a port of the C64 game, and is of excellent quality, brilliant catchy music, high quality graphics, but it's hard !! and Retro Gamer despite mentioning Gribbly many times have never ackowledged this version even exists.

[tlsa]

Yes it is a port of the C64 game, and is of excellent quality, brilliant catchy music, high quality graphics, but it's hard !!

Sounds good.

Retro Gamer despite mentioning Gribbly many times have never ackowledged this version even exists.

Hopefully, once the Archimedes Software Preservation Project is fully online it will raise awareness of what the platform had to offer.

[MatthewThompson]

Yes it is a port of the C64 game, and is of excellent quality, brilliant catchy music, high quality graphics, but it's hard !!

Sounds good.

Retro Gamer despite mentioning Gribbly many times have never ackowledged this version even exists.

Hopefully, once the Archimedes Software Preservation Project is fully online it will raise awareness of what the platform had to offer.

I wouldn't hold your breath, Retro Gamer seem very oblivious to BBC and Archimedes versions of games, and usually manage to mention every version of a game in existence but seem to miss the BBC & Arc versions.

[tlsa]

I wouldn't hold your breath, Retro Gamer seem very oblivious to BBC and Archimedes versions of games, and usually manage to mention every version of a game in existence but seem to miss the BBC & Arc versions.

Well, I think it will make some kind of difference. Especially for people like me, who have an interest in the platform but missed most of the games because their pocket money was spent elsewhere back in the day. I'm really keen to see all the games I missed completely, and the games I could only read about in the magazines. Since I started following the preservation project I've learned of a load of stuff I never knew existed.

[MatthewThompson]

I wouldn't hold your breath, Retro Gamer seem very oblivious to BBC and Archimedes versions of games, and usually manage to mention every version of a game in existence but seem to miss the BBC & Arc versions.

Well, I think it will make some kind of difference. Especially for people like me, who have an interest in the platform but missed most of the games because their pocket money was spent elsewhere back in the day. I'm really keen to see all the games I missed completely, and the games I could only read about in the magazines. Since I started following the preservation project I've learned of a load of stuff I never knew existed.

We shall see I guess, but although I find Retro Gamer interesting to read, the coverage is very heavy towards Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad 8 bits and far too much coverage on beat-em-up games. The BBC basically did Elite, Repton and Grannys Garden and Archimedes has Zarch, nothing else of note happened.

Having said that in the issue of Retro Gamer, the feaure on Ultimate Play The Game seems to be well educated on BBC releases, maybe there is some hope after all !

[AndyGarton]

Is there a website for this yet where the games can be downloaded please?

[paulv]

Not yet but it is being worked on...

Paul

[NinjaRabbit]

I'm really looking forward to the debut of this stuff - it's high time there was an effort like this one to preserve the Archimedes' software.

Is there anything that can be said about progress at the moment beyond what's already been said (both here and in the thread at The Icon Bar), or is it all just a matter of waiting, now?

[MatthewThompson]

It's still in-progress, the games are being collected and imaged and manuals/inlays scanned. I have provided many games to the project, if anyone has anything which hasn't been obtained then get in touch, especially if you have the full version of Nosher or Crisis (personal choices!)

There has been some issues with getting a website set up but watch
this space as they say.

cheers
Matthew