What's happening on csag?
If you don't follow newsgroups, this can be the place to be to keep up on the seedier side of the Acorn using community! Here is a daily roundup of the latest threads on the newsgroup comp.sys.acorn.games, and any new rumours that may be floating about. It only contains currently relevant articles, and articles may be updated as days go by, so remember to read them regularly, and to read the lot, not just the topmost articles!
If you want to catch up with the thread, you can do a search on DejaNews for the topic.
This page is maintained by Graham - please address any e-mail relating to this page to me.
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We must be an Award Winning Site for a reason! Mail us and help make us even better! Arcade is now back into full swing with exam season over, so keep watching the site!

MAME, MESS... they're all good for puns
The hugely popular arcade system retro games emulator MAME has reached version 0.33, and boasts support of 629 games. If you want to rediscover the days of arcade machines which really did go BEEP, then check out Gareth Long's website at: www.elecslns.demon.co.uk/MAME
Gareth is also working rapidly on bringing his multi-platform emulator MESS (which is, most notably, capable of Megadrive emulation) into a truly usable state. The website is at: www.elecslns.demon.co.uk/MESS

Voodoo-doo doo da-da da da (Is all I want to say to you)
A strange argument having something to do with the prospect of graphics cards like Voodoo in the Risc PC 2 has been going on, but I don't think more than about 10 programmers understand a word of it. To be honest I'm only writing about it so I can use the Police pun.

Nuclear Holocaust v2.5 almost here
The only program of note that I've ever written (because it took so long!), Holocaust has now been upgraded from the original, low-resolution MODE 13 screen display, to variable resolution as high as 1600x1200.
The name has been given a slight change, from Holocaust to Nuclear Holocaust, in the hope that this will avoid further confusion with the WWII massacre and accusations of tastelessness.
A number of other improvements are promised, as soon as bugtesting and fixing has finished, and the latest version will be made available to new and registered users by the end of the month at the latest.

Sunburst opinions
Having seen the demo released by Visions of the Impossible on their website, a number of views on their latest release are now coming in. Opinion would appear to have divided into two distinct camps: one that believes the game to be outdated in concept and design, with old-fashioned graphics, and those that think it is simply a good implementation of a fun genre that should not be allowed to die out in the onslaught of 3D graphics.
One point which is almost universally agreed on is that the game may be too highly priced to reap significant sales.

SNES is here
Gareth Long has released the second beta of a SNES emulator, SNES9X, which apparently emulates the Nintendo machine at an impressive rate on a StrongARM machine. The second version even has a limited level of sound support. Download it at: http://www.elecslns.demon.co.uk/SNES9X

R-Comp putting the brakes on
R-Comp, purveyors of a number of recent new releases (including DOOM and Syndicate) have suggested that they will be forced to slow down the releases of their software as the demand is not proving great enough to have their titles swamping the market. This may well delay the appearance of the rapidly progressing port of Descent, and will certainly hold back the so far unannounced projects until they begin to get return on their investment in the titles released so far.
It is R-Comp's approach to buy whole packs of the PC version of games and then bundle an Acorn player with them - this means a large capital investment before turnover is generated, so with relatively slowly selling products like Acorn games, their new policy is certainly understandable.

One in the Eidos
Andrew Rawnsley of R-Comp has admitted that the PC/console games company Eidos have proved incredibly negative about the possibility of conversions of their games to the Acorn. RCI have been in communication with them regarding Tomb Raider, which they were hoping to convert, but were knocked back with several excuses, mainly based on Eidos' own unpleasant experiences in the Acorn marketplace (they started up by producing video editing software for RISC OS).
Many people who have been asking for conversions of new classics like Final Fantasy VII will be disappointed with this, from a company which many expected would be more understanding than other companies with no experience of the Acorn marketplace.

DIY Kit problems
Many people have been asking for help with using the DIY Kit DOOM compiling instructions. The main problem appears to be with those who don't have a copy of !SparkFS, by David Pilling. Instructions are being written for those without this application which may require downloading of some free applications, probably to read the contents of the linuxdoom TAR archive.

R-Comp release DOOM network drivers
RCI have released Justin Fletcher's DOOM network drivers (finally!) for download in the entertainment section of their website. Also there are numerous utilities including a WAD manager and Alienate, the installer for AliensTC.

Descent battle goes public
The free port of Descent than has been being written for the last few months has now been made public, with the intention of rustling up programming assistance. The programmers, Rick Griffin and Matthew Bloch, are happy with the legal situation as the source's licence makes no provision for future termination, unlike Doom's.

Descent announced
RCI (of Doom and Syndicate fame) have announced that they have the exclusive rights for conversions of the game Descent for RISC OS, and that that the conversion is well underway. They also have the rights for the sequels, but work on these has not begun yet.
Descent is a 3D shootemup in the Doom vein, but with full 3D rotation as you pilot a ship around in all directions. The conversion is billed as StrongARM only, running in multiple resolutions, with full CD music.
Descent was slated a little on its original release for being slightly confusing (orientation is difficult when you can move in any direction) but remains one of the best of the huge selection of pre-Quake 1st-person shootemups.
RCI would appear to have pre-empted any possible repeat of the Doom conversion fiasco (in which they were criticised for trying to censor dubiously legitimate 'free' conversions based on the publically available source code) by securing the rights even to the use of the Descent name and logo. The authors of a previously secret PD conversion have now come forward and stated that they will certainly release their version regardless of any move of R-Comp's due to a licencing technicality.

Stunt Racer appeal
Acorn Arcade have started to collect material for a whole new section - Stunt Racer 2000. We have asked for anyone who has designed SR2000 levels to send them to sr2000@acornarcade.com for us to collate into a large downloads section.

LATEST UPDATE: 18:50 16/8/98 (on news of 16/8/98)