Acorn Archimedes Core

[lister_of_smeg]

Game compatibility for this core seems to be very hit and miss. I spent most of this afternoon going through my collection, and many of the best games on the system don't work (e.g. Bug Hunter 2, Fervour, Inferno (Paradise), Overload (Paradise)), and even when they did there were often technical issues (Legend of the Lost Temple, Zelanites). I also had some issues with keyboard input. If a game uses Z & X to move left / right, inputs seemed to be not always registered, and sometimes keys would stick or act erratically. Not had this issue on other cores so it's not an issue with my keyboard. Additionally, many Archimedes game rips use jfd or apd format disc rips, which this core doesn't support.

I've certainly had problems with keyboard input being erratic - pretty much as you describe, with Pacmania/Gribbley's Day Out on the Arc being especially unplayable.
It does seem to be a problem with the core itself, because joystick input works fine on games that support the A3010-style joysticks that the core implements - but, if you map a joystick to keys in the MiSTer settings you will get the same issues as if you were using the keyboard directly.
A workaround I've been using for games which don't support A3010 joysticks is to patch them using Joykeys (https://ian.jeffray.co.uk/riscos/joypad/) which can map joystick input to keypresses inside RISC OS. However, the problem with this is you are limited to just the one fire button.

As _paul_ said, JFD images should work fine - bear in mind they're not intended to be used by emulators, but instead used within RISC OS itself using !ADFFS (https://forums.jaspp.org.uk). This software can also mount APD images.

Can't say I put this core through a stress test, but your issues surprised me a bit. I could run Bughunter 2 and Fervour and play those games on the Archie core. I don't have images of the other games you mention. Note that I do use an older core version v201101 because that supports 15KHz monitors.

You don't have any keyboard issues with the older core? That's interesting to know! Looking at the GitHub commits since that core, I notice this one which tweaks the IOC implementation is a possible culprit:-

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Archie_ ... d5ef411871

I'll take a look this evening when I get home.

[_paul_]

Can't say I put this core through a stress test, but your issues surprised me a bit. I could run Bughunter 2 and Fervour and play those games on the Archie core. I don't have images of the other games you mention. Note that I do use an older core version v201101 because that supports 15KHz monitors.

You don't have any keyboard issues with the older core? That's interesting to know! …

I have not specifically tried to replicate the reported keyboard input issues, I just fired up some of the games that wmd reported as “not working”.

I’ll give Pacmania a spin later today and see if that struggles with the keyboard input.

Edit: tried Pacmania on v201101 and noticed that, indeed, sometimes it did not register key presses. Switching to an old USB Apple keyboard helped, it did not miss a keypress at all with the apple keyboard. Same behaviour for v220221.

Also tried Bughunter 2 and Fervour on the newer core. Bughunter 2 crashed on me once. I could not get it to crash a second time so not sure it's a 220221-specific issue.

[wmd]

Can't say I put this core through a stress test, but your issues surprised me a bit. I could run Bughunter 2 and Fervour and play those games on the Archie core. I don't have images of the other games you mention. Note that I do use an older core version v201101 because that supports 15KHz monitors.

What issues do you run into if you try to run these games?

They just don't load. Some get as far as the loading screen, but no further. Legend of the Lost Temple allows you to start the game, but the scrolling is completely broken. I am using the latest version of the core though, so will try the older v201101 as it seems to be more compatible.

The traditional way of reading jfd or adp images on an arc is to use !ADFFS on the Arc, which I use on this core and works fine. Would be cool to be able to use the format natively from the MiSTer menu though.

Thanks for the info, I will try out !ADFFS. Would be great especially to play some of the old Eterna games again, which all seem to be jfd only.

[wmd]

Can't say I put this core through a stress test, but your issues surprised me a bit. I could run Bughunter 2 and Fervour and play those games on the Archie core. I don't have images of the other games you mention. Note that I do use an older core version v201101 because that supports 15KHz monitors.

How do I downgrade my version of Archie? I was using the latest version, but wanted to try v201101 so I could use it with a 15KHz PVM. I deleted the latest version from my _Computer folder, and saved Archie_20201101.rbf into the same folder. However, when I select it from the MiSTer menu, I just get a black screen and not even the MiSTer menu will open. Is there something else I am missing to get this older version running?

[jca]

I just tried and I don't have such problem. HDMI at 1080p.

[wmd]

Weird. On my 15KHz CRT I get a black screen, and on my plasma via HDMI I get a No Signal message.

[wmd]

OK, sorted it. Somehow my riscos.rom file became corrupted. Replacing it has fixed the issue. I now have the core running at 15KHz on a PVM. Compatibility still seems hit and miss, e.g. Zelanites on the Superior compilation Disk now not working - loads but all graphics are garbled. Some games that weren't working on the latest version are working on v201101 though, such as Bug Hunter 2. Will try more out now.

[wmd]

Could anyone please upload a hdf hard drive image with !ADFFS installed onto it? I am having issues finding how to get it onto my MiSTer SD card.

[wmd]

Does anyone know how I can copy the ADFFS zip file from Arculator HostFS to my HDF image (both within Arculator)? I tried copying the zip from HostFS to my HDF image, but ArcFS will not open the file, even if I change the ADFFS zip type to DDC (ArcFS).

[wmd]

I managed to get ADFFS installed onto an HDF HDD image. Instructions on how to do it can be found here (see sirbod's first post):

https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9246

However, it was mostly a waste of effort as hardly any of the protected games I tested worked on the Archie core.