Mark MoxonApr 19

Sometimes it's the small projects that are the most enjoyable.

Case in point: this month I'm building !EliteNet, which connects the #Archimedes version of #Elite to the Econet multiplayer scoreboard, so ArcElite players can compete against #BBCMicro players.

I last wrote a RISC OS application in 1995. That's 30 years ago! Turns out that BBC BASIC V is still a great language to code in.

And I've never written a RISC OS relocatable module before, so even now, this old dog is learning new ARM-based tricks.

And… ArcElite! ❤️

I absolutely love this hobby.

#retrogaming #retrocomputing #riscos

Show threadWintermute_BBSApr 19
@markmoxon got to get that old RPi 1B+ ready with RiscOS so I can test it...
Show threadMark MoxonApr 19

@Wintermute_BBS I love firing up my RPi 1 for a bit of modern retro RISC OS! Does Elite work on RISC OS 5? I’ll have to check, I thought it might be 24-bit only… but if it does, I bet it goes like a bat out of hell!

Even if it doesn’t, it’s always a good idea to take the old RPi 1 out for a spin. 😀

Show threadWintermute_BBSApr 20

@markmoxon there's an article on the web describing the steps required to get Elite running. it involves the ArcEm emulator for RiscOS

EDIT: There's an article in #MagPi iussue no. 13 about how to get it done.

Show threadMark MoxonApr 20

@Wintermute_BBS Found it, thanks! Good to see it can be done, even if it isn’t a native RO5 version. I’ve never really thought of running ArcEm on RISC OS tbh - I use it all the time on my PC, but of course there’s a RO version too. Very clever.

That said, neither ArcEm nor the Pi support Econet, so unfortunately this won’t let you join the scoreboard - for that you need a real Econet-enabled machine. BeebEm is the only emulator I know that emulates Econet, but that’s obviously BBC-only - it works well, though:

https://elite.bbcelite.com/hacks/elite_over_econet_in_an_emulator.html

The Econet requirement makes it all a bit niche! But Beebs don’t do Ethernet out of the box, so “Elite over Econet” it is…

Playing Elite over Econet in an emulator - Elite on the 6502

How to set up BeebEm with an emulated Econet network that runs Elite

Show threadWintermute_BBS

@markmoxon Hmm, in that case I may just set up an emulated machine on my Linux box and take that road - see: it's that version of the game I'm after, not neccessarily the hardware itself.

But I found out about "RiscOS Direct" for Raspberry Pi which is an "all-in" distro of RiscOS 5.3 with lots of stuff pre-installed.

That's not to say that it will run Elite, but it may be worth taking a look at just out of curiosity.

EDIT: guess what? It does run Elite - see here (at 11:35 play time):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjyCOj_WEOU&list=PL8Ltmk_Xax1paNYu8nYrSzIvj2iYDrozU

RISC OS Direct EP3 - Gaming & Emulation

YouTube
Apr 20 at 10:40amWeb
Show threadMark MoxonApr 20

@Wintermute_BBS That looks pretty good! I need to update RISC OS on my Pi, might be worth just going for the latest Direct package instead. Thanks for the suggestion.

I’m a diehard RISC OS 2 and 3.10 fan, really, but it’s always fun to see where the OS is going…