ÿÿÿÿISSUE1/4DMAZE/INDEX.HTM Issue 1, 4TH Dimension Maze Games CD
4th Dimension Maze Games CD
Matthew Thompson
This month we look at a collection of maze games, some good, some not so good, this CD includes the following 10 games:
Spobbleoid Fantas
Man At Arm
Ground Ho
Antigrav
Bot Killer
Iron Lor
Pysank
Inerti
Dalet
Xo
As with the previous 4th Dimension CD collections, installation is easy, simply follow the on screen instructions and the games will soon be installed on your hard disc.
SPOBBLEOID FANTASY
Spobbleoid is, for me, the star of the compilation. I always liked this game when it was first released, and it is good to see it back again, updated for the newer machines. You take control of Spobbleoid who is described as a small robotic orange, and you have to guide Spobbleoid around a number of levels collecting all the objects which have been stolen by evil alien pepperpots!
The game is easy to play, the early levels are very simple, you have to collect up all the objects on each screen before the time limit runs out and then you can move onto the next level. The game screen scrolls up and downwards so the actual playing area is several times larger than the what is displayed on your screen.
There are a number of different objects that must be collected before the time runs out the objects are mainly fruit and food but there are also other objects to collect which include small spobbleoids which give you an extra life. Speed up pills which make you move quicker, Flasks which give temporary invulnerability to monsters and also clocks which will reset the time.
In order to obtain all the objects on each screen various blocks and hazards will get in your way, you need to collect keys to open doors, these are all colour coded so you need the right one for the right doors.
You can push most blocks around the screen providing there is nothing in their way, some blocks do not move and some have special properties. If a block has a screw in the middle it will not move, a block with arrows on them can only be moved in the direction of the arrow. There are also timelock blocks which, once the timer has run, out you cannot move. There are also a number of other types of block, but I'll let you discover them for yourself.
It is very easy to mess up a level and push blocks into the wrong place, run out of time or trap one of the collectible objects, so many of the levels need a bit of practice to figure out the correct route through.
Monsters feature on most of the levels, and they can easily be disposed of by shoving a block in their general direction to hear a satisfying splat noise indicating they are no more! In the early levels you don't need to kill them, only if you have the urge to, but on later levels all monsters need squashing before you can finish the level.
Spobbleoid is controlled with the keyboard, just direction keys and a push block key, the game is also joystick compatible with an A3010 just in case anyone is interested.
The visuals of Spobbleoid are excellent and they still look good now, with plenty of attention to detail. They are colourful and effective. The game was written by the author of Enter The Realm, so it is not surprising to see quality graphics here. The levels of the game are divided up into zones - each zone has it's own theme. For example there is a Sweet Shop, Woodland, Haunted House and Fairground. Each has different background graphics, as you progress through these zones different obstacles will appear as the difficulty level increases.
Between each zone there is a bonus game in which you have to guess the ingredients which make up a milkshake. Guess correctly and you are rewarded, guess wrong and you aren't! This section reminded me a bit of the old children's classic TV show Bod where in one of the sub-programmes Alberto frog had a milkshake and you had to guess the flavour. The zones are passworded but to complete the game properly you have to go from start to finish in one go !
As with all of Graeme Richardson's RISC OS games, the audio is excellent, there are some really good tunes played during the game. These sound even better with the external speakers turned up.
Each zone has it's own tune, and there are plenty of in game noises with the pepperpot things grunting, a good splat noise when you kill them, a loud alarm when the time runs out and many other effects.
Also included is a level designer so once you have finished the supplied levels, you can make your own. Did anybody ever make any additional levels?
Overall Spobbleoid Fantasy is an excellent game. The sound and visuals are superb and the game itself is great fun to play, easy to get into with a good learning curve. This compilation is worth having just for this game! Highly recommended.
Note for VirtualRiscPC users only - There is a problem running Spobbleoid on VRPC. It will work but you will need to create an additional hard disc. To do this go to !Boot>discs>adfs discs and then change the Hardisc value from 0 to 1 - OK it , and on the icon bar you should now have a new hard disc called "IDEDISC4" Put the Spobbleoid directory and it's contents on that drive and then the game will run perfectly, on the normal hard disc the game keeps asking for a floppy disc to be inserted which obviously you can't being as this is a CD-ROM collection! This hard disc setup is on RISC OS Select 3i3 but the principle is the same on all other variations of RISC OS.
MAN AT ARMS
This is an early RISC OS game, from 1990, and it is a scrolling maze game set in medieval times. The object of the game is to take over each of the four castles, which are spread over four levels. Once a castle is taken the level is complete and you move on to the next one. A castle is taken by achieving a certain number of points. These points are gained by killing enemies and collecting treasure. You are also against the clock, so when your time runs out you will lose a life.
Playing the game is relatively straight forward. You control the character (who looks a bit like a cross between a gladiator and He-man) with the keyboard, mouse or a joystick. I found the keyboard the best option for this, although I haven't tested it with a joystick, but I doubt I would have preferred it over keyboard control. You can move left, right, up and down and also have a sword at your disposal to get rid of any enemies who get in the way.
This sword is also used to remove certain parts of the scenery in order to progress further into the level. However this is limited so make sure you use the sword to destroy the correct parts of the landscape otherwise you will have to start again. Potions are also available which can make you invincible for a short period of time.
There are many objects that you will encounter during the game. These all have different characteristics and you need to understand how they behave in order to deal with them. For example, stone boulders will fall downwards if unsupported (sounds familiar that one!). Wood panels when pushed will fall downwards providing what is beneath isn't solid otherwise they won't go anywhere.
Hourglasses provide valuable extra time. Thorns will grow and block off areas so you need to stop them from doing so. There are lots of other objects on the levels which will help or hinder your progress, some aren't even documented in the instruction manual so who knows what else lurks out there!!
The levels are large and it will take a while to work your way through them. It's a pity there is no map available (unless I missed it) as that would have been very helpful to working out the route through the level. Maybe that's the point; not including a map makes it more challenging.
A password facility is available so you can jump early levels, although to complete the game properly I would imagine you have to complete all four levels one after another as this usually seems to be the case.
The graphics of Man At Arms are reasonably good. They don't look particularly dated, and I thought that all the characters and items look like what they are supposed to be; snakes, barrels, shields to name but a few.
On the audio side of things you have a choice. You can have just music playing and there are five available tunes, or you can have just the sound effects instead. The music is a bit too fast so a program such as !Vsync will do the job and play it at the correct speed. The tunes are medieval sounding in style and suit the game well.
Overall this isn't a bad game, but I didn't find it to be a particularly good one either. I found it a bit annoying and difficult to get into and to progress through the levels, I usually like games like this but just was something with this that I couldn't get on with, but not sure what it was really.
GROUNDHOG
At the time of writing I, unfortunately, have no instructions for this game. So I have no proper idea of what this game is about or the exact aim of it all, however after playing it a few times I think I have figured out what this game is all about.
You are controlling what looks like a Hamster around a maze (surely it's a groundhog - Ed), and the object is to get to the exit. However access to the exit is restricted by a number of doors. These need to be opened in order to pass through and continue on your way. This is not as easy as it sounds and this is where the name of the game Groundhog comes in.
When you begin the game you will notice there is a white clock in the top right hand corner, this is your time limit on the level. You need to do as much as possible in order to help yourself complete the level, so your first task is to make sure you step on the pressure points which release doors. There are two of these to go for, a green one with a triangle on and another green one with a # on. Make sure you go over both of these so you are not restricted to only one door.
When the time runs out another hamster (no it's another groundhog - Ed) will appear on the screen and will follow exactly the same route around the maze that your hamster has just done (hence the name Groundhog). This is the trick to get through the doors, so once hamster number two comes onto the screen you head for a door and when the second hamster steps onto the pressure point the door will open and you can now go through either the triangle door or the # door. Either one will do the choice is yours.
Now you are in the other part of the maze and the next task is to step on the green circle pressure point. Then you need to go back to one of the other doors then wait for the third hamster to appear. Once this hamster appears it will copy everything that your hamster has done so far, and when it steps onto the pressure pads you can go through the door from the first time and then it will step on the green circular pressure point then you can go through the door and get to the exit and the level is complete!
Each time the time limit runs out another hamster will appear and the whole screen can get very congested. Do not come into contact with any of the other hamsters, if you do you will lose a life. Your hamster is equipped with a gun of some sort and this seems to be used to dispose of nasty creatures on later levels, as I saw it on the demo mode. Sdo not shoot another hamster (because you would be shooting yourself- Ed) with it or you lose a life!
The game is easy to play and despite the lack of instructions it didn't take me too long to figure out what to do in the game and complete the first level, the hamster is controlled by the keyboard with directional keys and Return to fire, there maybe other keys used but I don't know what they might be unfortunately.
The graphics of Groundhog are OK and suit the game quite well. The sounds of the game include a continuous backing track and some in game sound effects of a hamster squeaking noise, door sliding noises and gunfire.
Overall Groundhog isn't a particularly amazing game but it is certainly different from your usual maze games. It is a challenging game to play and it is worth watching the demo mode to see how the levels work and how you can complete levels as it's the same idea for each level. Certainly worth giving it a go.
ANTIGRAV2
As the title of this game suggests it might have something to do with the lack of gravity, and this is indeed the case. You control a small craft around an Oxygen plant which is having a bit of trouble. You have to get the filters working again which provide oxygen to all underwater accommodation.
The game is therefore set under water and each level is a maze and you have to navigate your way round each maze resetting the filters. This is done by positioning your craft above the filter and landing on top of them to reset them. There are a number of them on each level and when they are all working again the level is complete.
Playing the game is quite difficult as the gravity means your craft always moves downwards so you have to constantly boost it back upwards otherwise you'll crash. Any contact with the wall means a life lost. When you lose a life there is a small time of invulnerability to help prevent you from immediately crashing into another wall !
Graphically the game isn't that impressive. There are bits of seaweed to give the impression of being in the sea, and some bubbles floating about, but other than that it's quite basic. As for the sounds, well there is a reasonably jolly tune on the title page, plus a background tune in the game. The in-game sound effects are well done which include breathing noises and a bubbling noise to give the impression of being in water - it works well and sounds good.
There is also a level editor supplied with the game so you can create your own underwater levels if you want to. One useful feature accompanying the editor is a drawfile keystrip so you will know what keys to press in the editor rather than having find the manual again.
I only played the game on the first level and didn't really find it particularly thrilling or want to carry on playing it so I don't know what happens after the first level. More of the same probably, but I didn't really have the urge to keep playing and find out. I'm sure it will appeal to plenty of gamers but I'm not one of them.
BOTKILLER2
Originally released by Artex Software, Botkiller2 is a sideways scrolling platform game in which you control a Special Forces Trooper and must save a skyscraper belonging to SpaceTronic Inc from malfunctioning. This is done by working your way down to the underground installations below the skyscraper to shut down it's main reactor - and save the day !
Upon loading a quick animation sequence shows you being dropped from the helicopter onto the roof of the building. The the program will then take you to the main menu from where there are a number of options available, including redefinition of keys, enter password, high score table and game help.
You start the game on the 19th floor of the building, and the aim of each level is to get to the exit. However you have to complete a number of tasks before the exit is accessible. For example, on the first level you need to get a blue key card to open a door in front of the exit.
In order to get to the exit of the level, you need to work your way round it. This is done by using lifts, teleporters and destroying droids that get in the way. The first level is very easy indeed, not very large and you should easily complete it within a couple of goes. As you progress the levels get bigger and become more difficult to complete.
There are plenty of items and objects on each level which will be needed in order to help you complete the levels. These include restart points (pink dots) very useful after you've lost a life, you get returned to last restart point passed rather than having to go back to the start of the level.
Canisters can be shot to obtain extra pick ups and coins. Collect the coins and then when you visit the shop you can use them to buy new items and weapons to help you in your mission. There are three types of canister that I have so far encountered; the standard grey ones which contain nothing, the ones with red on contain coins, and the ones with blue on contain items and bonuses. It is always useful to destroy these canisters as they can get in the way and block routes.
During levels you will encounter terminals. You can access these and gain information about the objective of that particular level.
Playing BotKiller2 is easy enough. The early levels are not that difficult and you should find you have finished quite a few after a few goes. You control your trooper from the keyboard with directional keys, there is also an "Activate" button (Shift). By pressing this button you can carry out a particular action. For example press Shift and the directional up key you can go up in the lift and shift and directional down brings it back again. You also enter the shop and the exit, plus you use teleporters by standing in front of them and pressing the Shift key.
Botkiller2 also comes with a level editor so you can create your own levels when you have completed the 19 levels of the game.
Graphically Botkiller2 is nothing spectacular, but I think it looks alright. The level components are well drawn and look the part. The sound effects consist of an in-game tune which isn't the best one I've ever heard but it's OK. There are also plenty of sound effects during the game too.
Overall BotKiller2 is not the greatest game ever, but it's not bad and is quite an entertaining game - it's certainly worth giving it a go.
IRONLORD
You have returned to your homeland after years of fighting in the Holy land, to discover that your father, King Tibor, has been murdered by his brother, who now rules the kingdom. It is now a shadow of its former self where evil rules and the land is terrorised by all sorts of nasty characters.
So the scene is set, the good warrior must do battle with some nasty evil tyrant type person who is trying to take over everything. A familiar storyline, but the game Ironlord isn't your everyday medieval adventure game.
Ironlord was originally released back in the early 1990s by UBI Soft, and was converted to RISC OS machines by Cygnus Software.
The game is divided into a number of different sections, the first part involves a number of activities such as archery. You must also travel the kingdom in search of soldiers to help you on your quest. Once you have enough for an army you then return to your ruined castle and the battle begins.
However this is not the end of the game as after the battle (should you be successful) you then have to chase Zolphar through a Labyrinth before the final confrontation.
When the game has loaded you will see a view of the kingdom. To select a village to go to, simply move the mouse pointer to the appropriate village and click the select button. You cannot access all the places on the map to start with.
When you select a village a small window will open showing you riding on your horse, and you will see a small character on a horse move about the landscape to your chosen destination.
When you reach your destination the screen will change to a detailed image to depict where you are on the left of the screen and on the right hand side of the screen are two windows. The top one is now the game area and in there is the village that you have arrived at. This is viewed from above.
From here you guide your character around the village using the keyboard and you can enter certain buildings by pressing Return. Once in a building you can engage in conversation with whoever is in there and buy and exchange items. More often than not the person in the building will set you a task, and if you find the item they want you will be rewarded with a useful item to help you on your quest.
The other window on the screen, in the bottom right corner, gives information on where you are in the kingdom, what buildings of interest are there and who lives there who might be of help to you. As you move round the village the information will change telling you more about where you are and things to look out for.
During the game assassins will appear. They have been sent to stop you, so you need to keep a look out for them. They will appear randomly throughout the game and you must fight with them and kill them otherwise they will kill you.
Graphically, I think Iron Lord looks good. The map of kingdom and images of the locations you are at are well drawn and detailed and the graphics in the village are small but do the job well. The graphics look good and are quite typical of the games of the time this was first released.
On the audio side there doesn't seem to be any sound effects. That doesn't mean to say there aren't any, there are plenty of tunes, when you visit each village the music changes, but the main game tune is a very appropriate and authentic medieval sounding tune. It sounds good but does go on a bit!
The manual for Ironlord is rather brief, and I would imagine this is because that is how it was originally. However if you are into playing Ironlord then I would check out
Overall Ironlord is a decent enough game, but I didn't play it for long, not because it's bad but because it is not really my sort of thing. It's not an arcade game at all, more of strategic adventure. There is a lot to this game, what I've said here and seen of the game is barely touching the surface. This is no five minute game. Ironlord with certainly have it's fans, and if you like strategic adventure games then this might well be worth a look.
PYSANKI
Pysanki is a sort of futuristic follow up to Man At Arms. The game looks and feels very similar in a number of ways, the menu, the style of graphics and gameplay, but it is different enough to be a totally new game.
This was one of my first RISC OS games that I bought all those years ago, and back then I had the added bonus of having a local Acorn dealer who I could visit and buy the latest games straight off the shelves rather than have to do the usual mail order ritual. On one particular visit I purchased a copy of Pysanki. The Acorn dealer in question, in case anyone is interested, was Absolute Computers in Oxford, who also provided my A3000.
The game is set in the future on the freighter Pysanki, which is on a fossil egg collection expedition (if you can imagine such a thing). However something has gone wrong and you have been sent in to clear the decks of the freighter.
A deck is cleared when a certain number of points has been obtained. This is achieved by collecting certain eggs and also by killing the various nasties who inhabit the them. When the points total is reached the level is then complete and you can move onto the next one. There are eight levels and, as you would expect, they start off relatively easy and get more difficult as the game goes on.
As you have probably guessed there will be plenty of obstacles and hazards on each deck. Some of these are useful and you need to find them, others can harm you or are just generally irritating. Some of the objects worth looking out for are Ammo racks (extra rockets), Nutrient (extra life) and a portal which gives instant level completion! Good to see that a map feature is included - makes such a difference when you are trying to plan a route through the level.
Obstacles on the levels to help hinder your progress include sliding doors, some open easily, others do not. Containers in different colours which can be useful or useless. By trial and error you will find out with ones to avoid. Also watch out for the slime which will kill you on contact.
Playing the game is exactly the same as Man At Arms, you can use the keyboard, joystick or the mouse if you prefer, and you control your spaceman character around the maze using the directional keys. You are equipped with energy rockets, and have the ability to become invisible for short periods of time if you have enough points available, and you can also teleport around the level.
Pysanki is not a particularly difficult game to play. It starts off relatively simple but after a while you need to start thinking about what you are actually doing and how to do complete a level. It is certainly possible to do one thing wrong and then you'll have to start it all again.
Graphically speaking I think Pysanki looks good, the graphics are bright and colourful and do the job well. They don't look the 16 years old that they are, and the objects look like what they are supposed to be. Perhaps it's because the game is futuristic that the graphics don't look dated ?
Unfortunately there is currently a problem with the sound on Pysanki - there isn't any. This is a known problem, and will hopefully be sorted out in the future so keep an eye on the APDL website for any future updates. For those who have never played the game before, you can have a choice of just in game music or just sound effects. From memory the music was quite good and the sound effects were good as well with digitised effects and speech. However seeing as it didn't work on anything past RISC OS 2, so it's an achievement to have it working at all!
Overall, as with Man At Arms, it's not a bad game and if you liked that game then you will probably like this one as well. Despite the similarities I preferred this one and did manage to progress much further. Maybe I'll give it another go one day and see if I do any better. One final point what does Pysanki mean, if anything ?
INERTIA
Inertia is another highlight of this compilation, and was another one of the first games I bought for RISC OS as part of the Real McCoy 2 compilation. I thought back then that this was an excellent game and it still is now.
You control a small yellow spinning craft around a massive landscape, the object being that you must collect all of the pink tiles scattered about in order to finish the level.
From the title screen you can choose one of two landscapes to play. The first one is the one to start with, this level starts off easy and gets more difficult the further you progress into it. The second landscape, as you have probably guessed, is the harder level and will take a fair bit of practice and skill to complete.
Playing Inertia is easy enough, but it's best to get used to the controls first as it is all too easy to go zooming off the edge of the landscape and lose a life. To control the craft you just move it left, right, up and down and if you want to stop the craft, a quick press of the Return key will bring it to a halt, you can also control the craft with the mouse if you prefer to do so.
As you progress around the landscape you will encounter various hazards and obstacles. At first it will be nothing more than small ramps which you have to manoeuvre your craft up, but later on you will encounter hazards such as Ice - once on this you cannot change direction. There are also conveyor belts which will move the craft along in a particular direction and also the Jump tiles. If you come in contact with one of these it will make your craft jump up into the air and hopefully land back down on the landscape, these are used to access other parts of the landscape which you otherwise can't reach.
During the game, if you press the middle mouse button, you can access the status menu. From here a number of options are available including on screen help, view the landscape map (recommended) audio options, control options and quit game.
Graphically Inertia is quite blocky and basic as you can see from the screenshots but this does not spoil the game at all. I think it suits the game and it works well. Each of the different types of hazards appear as different coloured tiles so you can spot them easily enough.
Each landscape has it's own tune to accompany you through the game. I liked the easiest levels tune the best, there are also a number of in game sounds for when you collect a pink tile or when you lose a life.
Overall then, Inertia is still an excellent game, quite challenging and certainly well worth playing, I never finished either of the landscapes but came close to completing the first one. Maybe I'll give it another go sometime. Definitely recommended.
DALETH
You are Brother Daleth and you have been sentenced to perish in the Halls of Testing. You have been sent there as you have been accused of committing a sin. It is therefore now up to you to prove your innocence and if you do you will be allowed to go free. In order to do this you must collect all of the yellow diamonds which can be found throughout the twelve halls.
The quest begins in the monastery where you originate from, throughout the passages are twelve doors, each door is numbered, 1 to 12, and behind each door is one of the Halls of Testing. To start with only one door can be entered but as you complete halls other doors will become unlocked.
Doors which can be entered are open, ones which you can't go through are shut (sort of logical really!). To go through a door press 'Backspace' and you will be transported to that hall. There are are twelve halls, and these are different types including underwater, outer space and monastery halls.
Controlling Brother Daleth is easy enough, move him left and right and he can jump and fire a weapon (after it has been collected). Control is from the keyboard only. Once you are into a Hall then you have to collect all the yellow diamonds. As you would expect there are things in the halls which will try to make the task a bit more difficult. There are plenty of nasties who will harm you so destroy them if you have a weapon available.
I did find jump control a bit iffy. Many times instead of jumping a gap I fell off the edge and either lost a life or had to find the way round again. This could have just been me, but might not have been.
Throughout the halls there are some blocks which are marked with a "?". These should be hit from below and then will reveal an item, some useful others not so useful. Items that can be obtained from these blocks include score increase, extra life, weapon, a jet pack and also halos which provide invulnerability for a short time.
The graphics of Daleth are quite basic and unfortunately they show the signs of being an old game as you can see from the screenshots. As for the sounds they are reasonable - the music is typical soundtracker tunes and there are plenty of in game noises.
Overall Daleth is nothing spectacular, it looks a bit dated now, but I quite liked it. It reminded me a bit of the classic platformer Son Of Gyrinus. Definitely worth playing but don't expect too much.
Please Note
If your copy of Daleth does not work properly then you need the patch from the
XOR
This will be a familiar game to anyone who used to own a BBC Micro. Originally released back in 1987 by Logotron Software. It is a maze game in which you control a shield around a maze and must collect all of the masks and solve various puzzles in order to complete the level and move on to the next one.
There are 15 different mazes to complete. The first level is relatively easy but they get progressively difficult as the later levels introduce new obstacles to make your task harder. On the first level you will only have to deal with force fields. These can only be entered from certain sides, some from the left only and others from the top only.
Later levels include Fish and Chickens. These will fall and move about the maze under certain conditions, for example the fish if unsupported will fall down until they hit something - like the boulders in Repton. There are also bombs and dolls on other levels, I don't think you encounter all of these on the same levels, but as I haven't completed much of the game I could be wrong.
Playing Xor is easy, you use the cursor keys to control the shield around the maze. There are two shields which you will take control of during the game and you switch from one to the other by pressing Return. Both these shields are needed to complete the game.
The graphics of Xor have been fully updated to take advantage of the better graphics modes which are available on RISC OS machines, and you can see the improvements with the comparisons of RISC OS version and the BBC Micro version in the screenshots below :
XOR on RISC OS
XOR on th BBC Micro
Unfortunately the sound is the games weak point, there isn't any - well I didn't hear any on my machine, bit of a shame really, as the original version had quite a good in game tune, and an update of that would have been really good.
Xor is a challenging puzzle game, it is not one you will complete quickly, it will take a lot of thought to work out the correct solution for each level, and one wrong move, and you can easily mess the whole thing up and have to start again.
It is good to see a RISC OS version of Xor to keep this classic game alive on next generation machines. It runs in a window in the desktop, it's just a shame it runs in silence, apart from that a very good update.
All of these games have been updated to work on RISC OS 4 and Select machines as many of them did not work before. So if you want to play these games again on newer hardware then now you can. As for Iyonix compatibility, none of them work natively as expected, but with Aemulor Pro running the results are quite good.
Botkiller2 - this worked fine with Aemulor Pro, but the sound effects and music seem to be corrupted and strange, apart from that it seems to be OK
Anitgrav2 - works fine under Aemulor Pro, no problems at all
Groundhog - didn't work, gave an error message.
Spobbleoid Fantasy - worked perfectly - no problems at all, surprised to see this one work, I was convinced it would fail
Man At Arms - didn't work, but I didn't really expect it to
Daleth - with the amended "Time" file this will work under Aemulor Pro fine
Interia- Again this game worked fine
Iron Lord - The game worked fine, no problems
Pysanki - didn't work, but as Man At Arms didn't I wasn't expecting this to work either
XOR - works perfectly in the Iyonix desktop but you need to change the desktop mode to 256 colours first
Quite a success there, 10 games in the collection and 7 of them work fine, only Man At Arms, Groundhog and Pysanki failed to work. On my machine they all ran in squashed letterbox modes but that maybe due to the fact I am using an LCD screen and may not have the correct MDF to get a full screen display, but they work and that is the main thing.
Overall This isn't the greatest collection of RISC OS games ever, and compared to the previous 4th Dimension collections, it is a bit disappointing. The stars of the collection are without doubt Spobbleoid Fantasy and Inertia, it is still worth buying this release just for these two games, as they are excellent games still worth playing today.
As for the other games in the collection it is a bit of a mixed bag. Man at Arms and Pysanki are reasonable maze games, but I found them to be quite difficult to play and didn't really hold my interest. Ironlord will certainly find fans I'm sure as it is a well produced game but just not my thing really. Botkiller2 is an OK game, as is Groundhog, XOR is a decent game, and I quite liked Daleth, but didn't really think much to Antigrav2 and would say that it is the weakest game in the collection.
Product details
Product:
Maze Games C
Supplier:
APD
Price:
£14.9
Address:
39 Knighton Park Road Sydenham London SE26 5R
Tel:
0208 778265
WWW:
Matthew Thompson
ÿÿÿÿISSUE1/ARTWORKS/INDEX.HTM Issue 1, ArtWorks Made Easy
This book was originally published in 1993 and so is based on Computer Concepts' ArtWorks, that is, versions of ArtWorks up to 1.7. Later versions of ArtWorks produced by Martin Wuerthner (ArtWorks 2) have many extra tools and some dialogue boxes may have additional buttons and icons. These are described in the documentation supplied with these versions. However, ArtWorks' main drawing tools are the same and so this book still provides a very good basic guide for anyone new to ArtWorks.
Some minor changes have been made to the book to bring it slightly more up to date, but some sections, particularly Chapter 2 Installing ArtWorks, which refers to the "dongle" used in early versions, do not apply to later versions but have been retained for completeness.
Who won copies of the latest Retro computer magazines?
Those with a long memory might remember that in the issue before last, i.e. three issues ago (Or 3/5ths of a Qercus - HJ) we ran a competition to win copies of Retro Survival, Retro Player and Retro Fusion.
Well due to unexplained circumstances we then forgot about it, until some entries came in. So having sifted carefully through them we have a winner. As I am sure you remember the competition was to come up with a good joke that got me laughing. Our lucky winner is Andy Brown from Lockerbie with:
A polar bear goes into a bar and says "Can I have a pint of . . . . . .Beer please?"
The barmaid says "Why the big pause ?"
So well done to Andy! The magazines should be sent out to you shortly. We hope to have some more competitions shortly, once we find some other goodies (I think you mean old tat - DH) to give away.
Aaron
ÿÿÿÿISSUE1/DISC/INDEX.HTM Issue 1, DiscWorld
DiscWorld
Aaron Timbrell rounds up the software directory
Welcome to the first DiscWorld column of Volume 7. This time we are giving every reader a free copy of Desktop Repton! For those that don't know Repton is the classic Maze game. This is the full 32bit version that runs on the Iyonix and the A9 from Advantage Six.
Desktop Repton - original rrp £19.90
Although this special RISC World edition of Repton is not restricted in any way, for copyright reasons some levels have been omitted. However, Alligata media, who publish the RISC OS version of Repton, are offering a special deal for RISC World subscribers and you can upgrade to the very latest version with all the addional levels and hi-res graphics for just £6 including UK carriage. See the flyer enclosed with this issue or the Index page for more details.
The complete DiscWorld line up
As per usual we have our collections of the latest RISC OS games and applications, as well as support files for this issues articles. So the full DiscWorld line up looks something like this:
Games
All the games from this issues games world column.
PD
All the latest PD, shareware and freeware releases from the PD column.
Repton
A full version of Desktop Repton.
ToolBox
This contains two sets of Toolbox Modules. The Castle archive contains the latest 26/32 bit neutral system components, required if you want to run a lot of new software releases on 26bit machines. The RISCOS Ltd archive contains later and improved versions of a number of modules and is suitable for all versions of RISC OS from 3.1 onwards. We have also included copies of SharedUnixLib and UnixHome as these are needed by some programs.
VA
Resources for VirtualAcorn users.
Wake
Hi-res Wakefield show photos.
Aaron Timbrell
ÿÿÿÿISSUE1/DVDMEDIA/INDEX.HTM Issue 1, DVD Media Buyers Guide
Buyers Guide: DVD Media
Just added a DVD writer to your RISC OS computer? You'll need some good quality media for it. David Bradforth takes you through some of the options.
Gone are the days when a floppy disk could meet our data storage needs on the family computer. With families investing in gadgets such as video cameras, and much being said in favour of music over the Internet, our data storage requirements are rapidly rising to the point where even a CD-R can barely hold enough data.
Recognising this RISC OS Adjust includes support for DVD ROM drives. Not only can you now read DVD discs (and hopefully you’ll soon be able to play movies) you can write them using Stefan Huber’s new version of CD Burn (aptly named CDVD Burn).
However when you first look to purchase media for the home computer it’s a daunting prospect. Over a hundred different brands are available (some with established names such as TDK and Sony; others more generic) with prices ranging from under 50p a disc to over £2 a disc. Then we have three different standards to consider as well.
Over the course of this article we’ll talk you through identifying the type of media you need, explain some of the terminology you may come across and make some recommendations as to media types to buy and places to go for a good deal.
Identifying the media you need
When in the market for DVD media, the first thing you need to do is find out which type of drive you have installed in your machine.
Look initially at the front fascia of the drive. Located usually towards the bottom right of the case will be a ‘DVD’ logo, underneath which some text will appear stating either ‘R’ (for wRitable), ‘R/RW’ (for Re-Writable) or ‘RAM’ (for DVD-RAM drives).
With a DVD writer installed in your computer, you’ll only be able to use media that has been designed for one-write use. There are major advantages to supplying data to friends and relatives on one-write medium, the obvious being that they cannot save any changes they make to it back to the original medium.
DVD re-writers allow, when the appropriate media is used, for data to be stored on disc and removed as and when your needs demand. The media is slightly more expensive, but in the long run you can use it many times over allowing for significant cost savings.
A DVD-RAM drive treats its discs as a separate hard disc within a computer. The first DVD-RAM discs were installed into a caddy, which was then inserted into a caddy slot drive within a PC. Mainly used for backups at the time, you’ll find DVD-RAM discs used within video cameras and computer systems requiring intensive read-write operations to the disc. In comparison to media designed for the other two drive types, DVD-RAM discs are very expensive; but can be reused for up to 100,000 disc writes whereas the standard rewritable discs will survive around a thousand.
At the moment I’ve been unable to discover if CDVD Burn will support DVD-RAM drives, or even RISC OS itself.
Different standards
While there are universal standards in place for reading DVD discs, to date there are two different standards (not including DVD-RAM) for writing to them. You hence need to make sure you buy the correct media for your drive.
Located near the DVD symbol you should find further text – this will either state DVD-Rewriter or DVD+Rewriter. The DVD-/+ element needs to be noted, as this is the only type of media you’ll be able to write to with the drive installed in your computer.
A quick indicator as to the status of your drive is the presence of the ‘RW’ logo. If this is on your DVD writer, your drive makes use of the ‘+’ standard so you should keep your eye out for this logo on media within the retail marketplace.
Some drives can now support both standards. This is indicated on the front of the drive; and frequently stated within any printed documentation that accompanies it.
Buying quality media
When it comes to buying quality media, you need to remember that the brand means nothing. Irrespective of the name on the label, whether it's TDK, Sony, Verbatim, Emtec or an unbranded alternative, it's going to have been made by one of 40 companies located predominantly within Asia.
To a certain extent, the price you pay will reflect the quality of the product. However this is no longer a benchmark as with the economies of scale now present manufacturers have been able to bring prices right down. There are two ways of identifying whether or not you have a high quality media product.
The first, simply enough, is logic. Major brands, such as TDK and Sony, place their reputation on providing high-quality products and will often have two lines within the same market. If you wish to ensure a quality media, make a point of buying the line that's slightly more expensive.
The second is to look for the media code of the disc. A table is provided below with some of the most popular brands; in order of good to poor quality. If buying for backup, your primary concern has to be the data integrity. Buying good quality media is a step in the right direction; and you should always remember that a 'Lifetime media guarantee' while nice does nothing to replace any corrupted data lost as a result of a disc error.
Where to buy quality media
If you need media in a hurry, the best place to buy will be from a retailer specialising in audio equipment. You'll pay a premium price, and should only buy the 'premium' branded products to be sure of the quality you're getting. If you've got a little more time available, looking towards the Internet will often provide some very good value for money deals.
DVD and Media (www.dvd-and-media.com)
DVD and Media offers a wide range of DVD media products in +, - and RAM formats. Prices are highly competitive, getting cheaper with the greater quantities you buy, but are initially quoted exclusive of VAT. You need to be selective in choice of media, as occasionally some lower grade product will appear on the site but this is indicated by its considerably lower price.
For DVD media purchases in bulk, irrespective of the format you require, consider a look at the DVD and Media website. With bulk purchases, discs are usually supplied on a spindle with the option to buy DVD cases, jewel cases or plastic wallets elsewhere on the site. Many descriptions appear on the site to help prospective purchasers identify their requirements, and with a telephone number provided at the head of the site you can always call for advice.
Burn Media (www.burn-media.co.uk)
Burn-media.co.uk specialises in media for CD and DVD writers. Every product they offer states the media code on the website, allowing you to keep an eye on the quality of the product before you’ve bought it. They have some very good deals on bulk product – 600 unbranded discs, for printing, £160 (plus carriage). They also have sample media packs available for under £5, allowing you to experiment with products from their range before committing to a larger purchase.
With the provision of media codes on the website, Burn Media have ensured that those looking for truly high-grade product can buy it quickly and easily. With carriage starting at £6 (for next working day delivery), but the choice available to the purchaser of collection from their warehouse, Burn Media put choice into the hands of the purchaser making them an attractive choice for media purchasing.
DABS.com (www.dabs.com)
Established online retailer dabs.com have a huge range of DVD media available, with prices per disc ranging from over £1 to under 40p depending on the quantities purchased. In buying from dabs.com you’ll not be able to identify the media code, which seems a shame as their online system has full support for such details. Occasionally they have end-of-line deals that can make their prices incredibly competitive.
For buying online, you need look no further than dabs.com. As a long-established company with interests in many fields, they have a technical support service that’s second to very few and are quite prepared to help with any pre-sales queries you may have. Delivery is usually within a timely fashion, and the quality of product they sell cannot be understated.
We’re impressed by DABS.com, and have had very few problems with the company in dealings with them over the last twenty years. (The company was originally known as Dabs Press, with two partners - David Atherton and Bruce Smith. Both journalists at the time of the creation, they are best known to RISC World readers as writers within Acorn User. A number of very popular books, including ArtWorks Made Easy, happened as a direct result).
Price versus Quality?
At the end of the day, the decision you make on media purchase will come down to one of two factors. The price you’re prepared to pay, and the data integrity you need for the data being written to the discs.
The higher the price you pay for the disc then generally the better quality it will be. Avoid ‘house’ brands for retailers, as they are often low-grade media that will prove to be more hassle than they’re worth particularly when dealing with vital data.
If your needs aren’t so much data integrity as they are making a lot of data available to a lot of people cheaply, then look to an online retailer for a bulk deal. They won’t be the best quality media in the world, but they’ll certainly meet your pricing needs.
When you run into problems buying or selling online, the RISC World helpdesk is here to help. We welcome new questions to the address at the bottom of the article; after all we're here to help. And if we don't know the answer, Aaron knows a man who does...
It has been an age since RISC World included a Q&A page, so I felt it time to bring it back. Our focus this time is very much on what I had to hand - eBay. Having just completed eBay Advisor magazine, I felt a large chunk of this would be relevant to RISC OS users so what I've brought below is a selection of questions and answers covering online commerce.
We're looking to bring the HelpDesk back to RISC World on a regular basis. If you do have any questions for the RISC World helpdesk, direct them to me directly (david.bradforth@ebayadvisormag.co.uk) and I'll answer directly. We'll then put your answers into print for the benefit of everybody else.
Sound good? Okay, let's begin....
Lost passwordHelp! I have not been on the QXL auction site for a while and I now find that I cannot remember my password. What can I do? Alison Stevens
You can get your password emailed to you. Just go to http://my.qxl.co.uk/form/lostpassword.asp and enter your email address. However, you will not receive the password if you have changed your email address because your new one will not be registered with the site. In this case, you could try contacting the customer service department on 011 3236 0640 or enquiries@qxl.com or simply create a new account with a new alias and password.
Wrong feedback
I am a new member on eBay and have been trying to get a good feedback rating. I have received five feedback comments and they are all positive. However, if I look at my member profile, it says that my feedback score is only three. Is the fault at eBay's end or with my computer? I should have a score of five. Rachael Thomas
Neither eBay nor your computer is at fault and it is actually possible to have a feedback score that is different to the number of feedback ratings that have been left. The reason is that for feedback to increase your score, it must come from different people. You cannot buy 10 items from the same person and then get a score of 10. Your member profile page will show the 10 feedback comments, but your score would only be one, because only one person has left feedback.
Cutting costs
It is all very well selling things on eBay, but all the costs add up. A listing costs money when you create the auction, another fee is added when you sell something, and fees go to PayPal when the buyer pays for it. Sometimes there isn't much profit left! How can I cut costs? Phillip Jackson
One way to cut costs is to wait until eBay has a special offer. Keeps your eyes peeled and watch for notices of when these will take place because they can happen at any time. For example eBay regularly has 5p listing days at which every item you list (in a basic auction or buy it now format) costs just 5p per insertion.
PayPal does not charge you for sending or receiving money if you have a Personal account, so it sounds like you have a Premier account. This is compulsory if you want people to be able to pay you using a credit card, but then PayPal slaps on a charge. The only way to avoid the charges is not to use it. You could tell your customers that you prefer payment via a cheque. Of course, this is not as convenient and is a step back rather than forward.
eBay is huge and it sometimes seems that everyone is using it, but there are several other auction Web sites that you could try. Some are cheaper than eBay. For example, QXL (www.qxl.co.uk), charges just 5p to create an auction listing for items up to £4.99, whereas eBay charges 20p. The savings are even greater for more expensive items. QXL's final value fee is just 3.75% for the first £29.99, but eBay charges 5.25%. There are more savings for higher priced items.
It is certainly wise to shop around and don't just use eBay because it is the best known. Take a look at the others like QXL, which is cheaper and eBid (www.ebid.tv), where you can create auctions for free.
Size Matters
Can you tell me what the maximum size of a parcel is that I can send via second class post? I have just started selling some larger items and want to use the cheapest postal method. Stephen Stewart
If the parcel is rectangular, then the maximum size of a second class item is 610mm x 460mm x 460mm. However, if the item is cylindrical, such as a rolled up poster, then it can be up to 900mm long, but the length plus twice the diameter must not exceed 1040mm. Best get your calculator out for that! Second class items also have a weight restriction and they must be under 750g.
These size limitations apply to first class post items too. However, you can send slightly heavier items and the maximum permitted weight is 2Kg. Anything over this size or weight must be sent using the Standard Parcels service which has fewer limitations.
It's worth adding that the UK postal system will, in August, be going through a tremendous shake up. A new system where you are charged by the size of your item will be introduced - pricing in proportion. We'll have an update on the implications for online sellers in a future issue of RISC World.
Mailing charges
I am in the process of setting up an online store to sell some items I currently make as a hobby for friends and relatives. The idea is to run this as a small business from home in my spare time. My problem is that I don't know what to charge for postage and packaging. Without driving to town and getting each item weighed at the Post Office, how can I tell how much they will cost to post? Gary Taylor
Go to the Post Office's Web site at www.royalmail.co.uk. The design of the site changes occasionally, but the information that you need is always there somewhere. When we visited, there was a drop-down list on the right-hand side from which you can select either first class or second class post and a wide range of other services like recorded delivery, special delivery by 9.00am next day, HM Forces Mail and so on. Just select the one you want and click the Go button.
Scroll down the page and you will see a table showing weights and costs. For small items up to a kilogram or so, you can use ordinary kitchen scales to find the weight and then look up the cost on the site. Remember that the weight includes packaging too, so either weigh it packaged or add a bit more to allow for it. You can also add a bit more to the cost of posting to cover your time too, after all, you have to wrap up the item and take it to the post office.
Trade Secrets: Be a success
Do you wish that your auctions were better? Are you struggling to sell items that should be going like hot cakes? Do you want to make more money online? Of course you do, but how do you go about it? The secrets of success are revealed in a free publication you can get from the iBusiness School. The book is called 5 Ways To Be Successful On eBay and to get your free copy, just go to www.ibizschool.com/supporting/reading_ebay.htm and type in your name, email address and company (if relevant). The book shows how to get started, present your listings, pricing strategies, fraud issues, and building a store.
Using Online Auctions to kit yourself out in your favourite sporting memorabilia
Sporting memorabilia has recently become big business. What was previously the territory of the thermos-toting anorak brigade has become very profitable and even the revered auctions house Christie's now holds dedicated sports memorabilia auctions. While your unlikely to find Pele's 1970 world cup shirt or Bobby Moore's 1966 medal for sale at an online auction, you are guaranteed to find some none the less interesting and rare items of memorabilia relating to your favourite sport.
Be it football, cricket, boxing or rugby the big auction sites hold a treasure trove for the dedicated fan.
A quick search on eBay at the time of writing reveals; a Chelsea shirt signed by John Terry, a signed photograph of Michael Vaughan, a boxing glove signed by Mohammad Ali and a crash helmet signed by Michael Schumacher. An enviable collection indeed. In fact all of the "big 4" UK auction sites have a category dedicated to sports memorabilia. eBay's is the easiest to find and, of course, the largest while the likes of eBid, eBay, QXL, and Amazon all have sports memorabilia sub-categories proving just how popular buying autographed memorabilia has become.
Of course it doesn't have to be signed to be of interest however.
Wherever you find a life-long dedication to a sport or a team you'll find a keen sense of nostalgia too and if you want to track down the program from the first game you attended or a replica of the shirt worn during your last FA cup run then an internet auction site is the perfect place to do so.
Bid4Sport.com is one of the few sites dedicated to guaranteed authentic memorabilia. And if it isn't, you'll get your money back!
So you've got your yearly bonus or savings burning a whole in your virtual pocket and you want to spend it on a rare and valued treasure celebrating and commemorating your beloved team. You've managed to convince your spouse that it will appreciate in value over time and that it's an "investment". Logging on to your favoured Internet auction site leads to discover just the item you're looking for.... Before you get the plastic out or start measuring up for a display case think carefully about the item you are about to purchase.
Beware of fakes
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that there is a large amount of money to be made via auction sites by anyone in possession of a pile of replica shirts and a magic marker. With this in mind, potential buyers should beware when buying such items from online auctions. That's not to say it should be avoided altogether though as there are a number of steps that can be taken to determine an item's authenticity.
Check the feedback!
The golden rule of Internet actions still holds true so make sure you check the feedback of any seller of sports merchandise. If there are 400 plus positive feedback entries from past customers then you can rest a little easier. Many sellers have online shops as well that explain a little more about the source of their goods so click "View sellers other items" and take a look.
Ask lots of questions
If a seller seems reluctant to answer questions about an item then find another one. Make sure you ask lots of questions about the item concerning when and where the signing took place. Ask them if they got the item signed personally or if it came to them second hand. Any fan worth their salt should know the movements of their team so if the seller tells you an item was signed at a certain hotel the night before a certain game consult your fixtures list to check the dates. Also be doubly sure to check that the autograph is not merely printed on the picture/ball/shirt. There are many such items available for purchase, particularly photos, and it's not always made clear that this is the case.
Certificates of authenticity
Many items of sporting memorabilia found on auction sites come with a certificate of authenticity (COA) guaranteeing the item. Taking a quick look at eBay's policy on autographed merchandise reveals that "Not all certificates provide meaningful protection" so buyers are advised to look carefully at any information regarding a COA and try to determine the following.
If the certificate was issued after the item was signed, does the issuer have any particular expertise that qualifies him/her to give an opinion about the autograph
What is the relationship between the seller and the issuer of the certificate
Does the certificate give the buyer any rights? If a qualified expert later declares that the item is a forgery, can the buyer get a refund? Is there any time limit
Many certificates are in fact issued by the seller themselves and are in fact worthless. Make sure you email the seller asking these questions before you lump in with a huge maximum bid. While there are a number of scammers and con men active on auction sites they can be avoided or identified if you follow these guidelines ensuring that your treasured item of memorabilia is indeed a real treasure.
A certificate of authenticity from the seller offers little in the way of guarantee that the item is authentic. Be sure of any guarantees before spending huge amounts of money.
Selling sports memorabilia online
Why would anyone want to sell a treasured item of sporting memorabilia? Gambling debts? A bad divorce lawyer? A crack habit? We're not sure. Maybe you've decided that visiting sporting venues, obtaining some signatures and flogging them online is preferable to the 9 to 5 grind. Whatever the reasons there are a few pointers and guidelines that would be sellers should take note of when selling unique pieces of sports nostalgia online.
Make sure you include...
There's plenty of advice in this magazine about how to list your item effectively so make sure you read up before listing. In your item description be sure that you include the following information, this is actually recommended by eBay in their policy on autographed items but it remains good advice regardless of the auction site you are using.
Include a clear scanned or photographed image of the autograph in close up, as well as a picture of the item as a whole. Also include all information about how the autograph was obtained including date and location. You should also include an explanation of any certificate of authenticity that you have for the item and stating that you will refund the buyer if they are not fully satisfied is always a good idea. Should you choose to sell on eBay then be aware that any listing not following these guidelines can be removed...
Photographic proof
Many people have realised that there is a profit to be made from selling sporting memorabilia online and dedicate a great deal of time to collecting purely for the purpose of selling. Should you decide to do this then photographic proof of authenticity is certain to install confidence in potential buyers. Take a snap of yourself and the sporting celebrity in question and include it with your listing, it will encourage a sale and you'll get a nice souvenir to boot.
Getting a COA
You might think it a good idea to get a professional COA for your item but in reality the cost of paying a reputable third party to do so will make a big dent in any profit you stand to make from the sale. If you are really serious about getting into the online memorabilia game then you might want to think about joining the Universal Autograph Collectors Club. While they will not issue COA's they can add you to their list of registered dealers, find out more at www.uacc.org.
Final whistle
As we have demonstrated here, online auctions are a great place to find rare, unusual and even valuable pieces of sporting memorabilia. Although the market is rife with fakes and forgeries with a little common sense and the right know how it's possible to unearth some real gems that will make you the envy of the pre-match pub or clubhouse.
David Bradforth
ÿÿÿÿISSUE1/EBAY3/INDEX.HTM Issue 1, True Life Stories: The man who sold it all on eBay
True Life Story: John Freyer
The auction spotlight is placed firmly on the experiences of online auctioneers, allowing you to draw both inspiration and advice from their accounts.
Having a clearout is a worldwide tradition usually partaken before moving, during spring or just when the mood takes us.
Old junk can be hard to part with, but is normally thrown out in favour of reclaiming some lost storage room for yet more rubbish. In October 2000, John Freyer decided to get rid of a few of his possessions, then most of them and finally everything he owned, even including his family’s unopened Christmas presents.
To most of us this seems like madness - purging your life of everything you’ve worked hard to acquire in one simple act. What started on eBay as a project spiralled into a phenomenon, spawning a book All My Life For Sale and many countrywide journeys for John, who subsequently decided to track down his sold belongings.
Almost a year later, everything was gone, with over £2,500 as profit and 1,927 bids received on eBay.
What first lead you to get involved with eBay?
I started using eBay in 1999, when I needed a power supply for an old PowerBook that I bought at a surplus shop. A new power supply would have cost more than what I paid for the computer itself. Being new to eBay, I bid $15 on four separate auctions, thinking that I would win at least one of them. Instead I won three out of four, and honoured my obligation by paying for each of them and having them shipped to my house. Thus, I learned that eBay was a place where people like myself would buy things that they didn’t even need.
What made you decide to sell everything?
The decision to sell everything evolved from wanting to sell a few things to the nearly impossible goal of selling off everything I owned. It started when I was returning from a summer in New York City, I wanted to stay in New York, but I had an apartment in Iowa City overflowing with stuff that I had to return to. So on the road, somewhere in Ohio, I decided that I would sell off what was there and move back to New York. Eventually I created an online catalogue of the things I was selling and registered the domain name ‘Allmylifeforsale.com’.
How many items did you sell in total?
I sold 600 or so things on eBay, had a huge yard sale for the remaining large items and carted a good number of items to the dump.
What was the most you made from a single item?
At the end of the project I sold the domain ‘Allmylifeforsale.com’ to the University of Iowa Museum of Art. They bid $1,165 for it on eBay. But the highest price I received for an individual item was $183.52 for a Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Where was the furthest location travelled to?
Sadly, I never made it to London to visit the brick I sold, or Japan to see the fried pork skins. But I did go from coast to coast in the USA, from Highway 1 on the Maine Coast to Highway 1 on the West Coast.
What do you think was the strangest use of one of your items?
My US Army chair is in the Library of the Museum of Modern Art; my false teeth are at the University of Iowa Museum of Art and my salt shaker and salt are in Paine Hamilton's kitchen in Portland, Maine.
What was the reaction like from your family?
My family thought I was crazy, especially when I listed their wrapped Christmas gifts on eBay and forced them to bid on their own gifts. But they got over it.
Are you worried about people copying your idea, and would you advise them against it?
I am not worried about people copying the project; rather, I encourage it. An artist in Australia got about halfway through her life’s possessions before giving up due to illness, and currently a man named Brian Thompson of Dallas, Texas is to do the project all over again at www.allmylifeforsale.net.
Do you ever get the urge to do it all again?
There are days when I walk into my crowded studio space and think a good eBay purge would do me some good. Does anyone need a can of Lady Lee green beans? My wife Sasha warned me not to sell off any of our daughter Georgia’s toys. I have an exhibition in the fall for which the curator is trying to collect all of the items that I sold during the project - she is trying to track down the owner of the brick in London!
What tips would you give to our readers to be a successful seller?
I’m kind of bad at eBay selling - most of the fragile stuff I sold broke in shipping. I always underestimated the shipping costs - so many times I lost money on the items I sold. I would recommend using a good photo and an interesting story to sell items on eBay. In the last few years, eBay has become more of a retail store than a junk shop. I prefer buying from individual sellers rather than the giant PowerSellers with warehouses full of new and refurbished items. I’ve always preferred the ‘mom and pop’ shops.
So, here we are at the start of Volume 7 of RISCWorld and I'm knackered. The reason that I'm in this state is because I am writing this the week after the Wakefield show. Although the show may only be one day, it's a very long day, as indeed are all the days for several weeks before the show. As you are no doubt aware we launched two new versions of VirtualAcorn at the show, which meant the usual round of coding, compiling, testing, bug fixing etc. This is a surprisingly time consuming process. Everything needs to be tested but before it's tested it needs to be written. This meant that Graeme was writing the new Windows stuff and I was writing the new RISC OS stuff. Then the two have to be combined, disc builds produced, then tested, then tested again and of course finally, once we are both happy, duplicated.
Of course packaging also needs to be produced. OK, it might not look like much, but when you want to make 200 DVD cases that equates to 200 covers that need printing and cut; 200 manuals that have to be printed, folded, stapled and cut. Then there are two registration cards per pack, so 400 in total, and again these have to be printed and cut. It's a lot of work. In fact it takes a full day and a half to assemble the packaging. When you add in the regular work of answering the phone, dealing with e-mails etc it's flippin tiring.
Add in the CD duplication and other odds and ends and you are looking at several weeks work to produce the final products (that's after the usual testing etc). I was working 18 hours days for the 7 days before the show to make sure we were ready. A couple of days before the show, and once I was happy we were going to make the deadline, I sent out press releases announcing the new StrongArm VirtualAcorns. What was the first two comments I saw on the newsgroups? "Wot, No Linux version?", then the next comment was "Wot no Mac version?". Great, thanks guys. We've busted a gut getting new versions out, we are developing our products and the first comments are complaints that we haven't done something else. So here is an idea. Instead of moaning about the companies that do produce new products, why not raise issue with those that don't? I nearly posted back to the newsgroup, my comment was going to be "Wot no Iyonix2? Wot no Oregano3? Wot no ImpressionX?". Oh, and before I forget, "Wot No Qercus...again?"
Here's a final thought. Do you know what, in my opinion, causes most damage to the RISC OS market? Is it the divergence between RISC OS 5 and RISC OS 4? No. Is it the lack of Flash support? No. Is it the lack of a decent modern browser? No. I'll tell you what I think it is. It's the continual whinging on newsgroups, news websites and almost any place else. Anyone interested in finding out about RISC OS is going to quickly find a bunch of rude, opinionated twits, moaning about all and sundry. So here's an idea, instead of going off on a rant these people should sit down and work out what they can do to promote RISC OS to the wider world and help out. It's a small market, we all need to work together to promote RISC OS. I can understand users being unhappy because there is something that can't be done on RISC OS, but instead of complaining loudly, why not try and do something to resolve the problem. Help not hinder, that's my motto.
Editors Rant of the month
The following is about the vehicular faith, not specifically about computing.
Let's talk about welding. Why welding? Well those who have been reading my editorials for a while might have guessed that I have decided that it's VW Camper time. As most people know the Camper has been sitting in the garden since we moved here over a year ago. No work was done on it for almost a year before we moved. So it's been sitting there quietly rusting for nearly two years since I last raised a welding torch in anger.
Anyway with the Easter bank holiday coming up I decided it was time to see where I had got to. The answer was actually quite a long way. The structural welding on the passenger side is complete, as was the welding at the rear. So it was time for a quick look at the drivers side. This was a bit more messy. The outer sill was missing, presumed lost, and the centre sill was incomplete, so that looked like a good place to start. I am still having trouble finding tools since I haven't yet got a proper garage built, but the welder was easy to find. It's been sitting under the kitchen table for months, conveniently positioned for tripping up guests when they arrive.
Anyway, having located all my other welding paraphernalia, masks, gloves, grinder, cutters etc, I was ready for inaction. But that won't get the job done, so instead I dived in. Only I didn't. I needed some sheet steel to make a panel for the sill, and this was inside the camper. Not a problem you might think, and you would be wrong. It was buried under boxes of spares, repair panels, wheels and what looked suspiciously like rusted components of the Forth bridge (why the Forth bridge? Well the first three fell down).
So we (Hayley) emptied the camper contents all over the garden to see what he had, and there was my sheet steel. So off I went like a mad thing. Cutting, welding grinding, swearing, welding, swearing, swearing, getting burnt and finally getting annoyed. However I did get nearly three days of work done. This meant I was able to repair the cab floor on the drivers side, remove the front wheelarch and repair behind it, make the centre sill, weld plates over the inner sill and finally weld on an outer sill. Lovely.However whilst cleaning up the side panel above the new sill a nasty hole appeared. It seems as though it had previously been repaired with filler, the VW repair medium of choice. OK, so I'll pop a plate behind it and level the outside with filler. No I won't. I can't get to it. So this time we (me) have to empty the camper again to get to the hole. When I finally do examine it I discover the hole extends to the main floor (you can't see it from underneath as the suspension is in the way) and also along the top of the sill as seen from inside. Blast.
So I break out the tin snips. Then it starts raining and I have to quickly get all the new panels back inside the camper before they get too wet. I haven't been back to look at the hole again yet, I will do it after Wakefield, promise...if it doesn't rain...
Printing RISC World
The new look of RISC World means that you will no longer get the yellow background when printing articles from RISCWorld. However you will still get the blue border on the left unless you turn off the printing of background images. The example below shows the print dialogue box from Fresco.
As you can see the option "No Background" is ticked. If you want to print out any of the RISCWorld pages and don't want to waste ink on a blue border then make sure you have clicked a similar option in your browser.
A free unrestricted commercial game from RISCWorld.
Welcome...
... to this update of Repton 3 for all versions of RISC OS from 3.10 upwards. It has been completely rewritten with forward compatibility, particularly XScale, in mind.
We hope that you enjoy this as much as you did the first - or second - time around... I'm sure that you won't really need this manual, but here it is anyway.
Hello and welcome. It's been a fairly quiet couple of months on the gaming front, however I still have a couple of classic Acorn games for you to enjoy.
ChuckieEgg (32Bit) - Michael Foot
Michael Foot has updated his previous port of ChuckieEgg (the classic BBC game) to make it 32bit compatible. As such it should now run on both the Iyonix and the A9.
For those that don't know, and I can't believe that there could be many of you, ChuckieEgg is a classic platforming game where you, as the farmer, need to collect all the corn and all the eggs from each level whilst avoiding the birds. ChuckieEgg supports a number of players so you can have multiplayer matches to see who an get the highest scores.
The control keys are:
Up -
Down -
Left -
Right -
Jump - Spac
Hold -
Abort - Escape +
Quit - Escape (only from menu screen
Inside the game application directory is a configuration file named !Config. Loading this into a text editor will allow you to change the game options
Initially, the options are set to:
Lives=
Level=
SingleHeight - Set this parameter to 1 to force 640x256 256 colour mode
RetroFont- Set this parameter to 1 to use a scaled version of the system font instead of outline font used currently
BugHunterII (BugHunter in Space) - Ian Richardson
Ian Richardson recently released BugHunter in Space as freeware. This was a real RISC OS classic title and followed on from the earlier BugHunter, which was only available as part of a compilation, mainly due to it's small size. BugHunter in Space (or BugHunterII) is a much larger game. It was originally published by Minerva software in 1990, bur despite being 16 years old it still stands up today as a great platform/puzzle game.
The background and Instructions to BugHunterII can be found by pressing I from the main screen, however to make things easier I have reproduced the text, having ripped it from the game, below.
"Genus Hysteron Proteron was originally designed by the bio-engineers to be an incredibly strong, intelligent and loyal super-soldier. What they actually got was a six inch bipedal invertebrate with a stupidly large mouth and an irrational dislike for insects. The multi million pound mistake managed to show its value to the world, however, by becoming the most entertaining to watch insect exterminator in history. (Why not buy the original bug hunter game -its available at only £17.95 from Minerva software- for the full story?) now, several years have passed and orbiting radar systems detect a fleet of alien craft on the edge of the solar system."
"Are aliens hell bent on destroying all life on earth? You bet they are. Due to some highly improbable chain of events, earth rulers decide against nuking the fleet and take the rather unusual option of sending in one small bipedal invertebrate to destroy the aliens. Thus you must guide Hysteron Proteron around the alien craft killing the aliens, stopping the engines and shutting down the reactors."
Hysteron Proteron has sucker feet which allow him to walk up walls and along ceilings, but has no weapons of his own and so must kill the aliens by dropping objects onto them or using the weapons found around the spacecraft.
The control the keys are:
z-walk lef
x-walk righ
shift-jump,pickup,drop return-activate - you cannot jump while carrying an object
Return can be used to activate devices you are carrying or ,if you aren't carrying anything, devices you are standing by
m-see ma
k-kill yourself (when you get stuck!
copy-paus
delete-continu
q-sound of
s-sound on
The mouse buttons can also be used instead of z,x and shift. Press escape before the music starts on the introduction to return to the desktop. when you have killed all the aliens on a screen, walk into the blue teleport to reach the next screen. If the spacecraft is moving you must also shut down its engines and on the last screen of each craft you must trigger the crafts reactor and escape from the ship before it explodes. You will then be given a codeword allowing you to restart the game at the next spacecraft. contact with the aliens will cause you to lose one of your 3 lives. It may be worthwhile to spend a few of your lives experimenting if you are stuck. it is possible to complete all the screens without losing any lives, so if it seems impossible you are missing something!"
So that's all from me for this issue. What will I have for the July issue? Well you will have to wait and see!
Paul Brett
ÿÿÿÿISSUE1/HUGHJ/INDEX.HTM Issue 1, The Hugh Jampton Experience
The Hugh Jampton Experience
Available, only due to contractual obligation,...it's...Hugh...Jampton!
Welcome one and all to my wonderful corner of RISCWorld. A sunny place littered with Diet Coke bottles and discarded Domino's pizza boxes. Anyway by routing through the rubbish I am able to find...wait for it...
The caption competition
As you know, well those who read this column know, every issue I publish a photo and ask RISCWorld readers to come up with an amusing caption. Last issue I gave you this!
So what was in the bulging e-mail sack?
"Bird flu's a bitch"
David Bradforth
Dave then went on to ask if he would win. Here's a clue, the answer rhymes with Hoe.
"Orville goes to the "quacks" for some "tweetment"
Matt Thompson
"So, Mr Grates, exactly which RISCOS version were you trying to mess up?"
Thomas Shevels
"Bird flu, it's not all bad news!"
Kevin Simpson
However our clear winner is.
"DO NOT RESUSCITATE!!"
Tony Stutters
Congratulations to Tony. A lorry load of air is being delivered as we speak. Anyway before we move on to this issues caption we need to move back, in true Dr Who style, to the caption from last issue. At the time I complained that nobody has entered. Having been shamed into submission a couple of readers managed to reach the keyboard and reply. This is what Chris newman had to say...
Dear Hugh,
Suitably admonished for lack of effort & thus chagrined (Boo hoo, sob, sniffle) us loyal readers (snivelling toady syndrome) can't let all your hard work & creative powers go to waste, so herewith some captions for the latest pic.
1."So doctor, what makes you think I've got bird flu?"
2.When I asked my fairy godmother for a bird with striking features who was powerless to say "No" I got this.....
3.Could the use of animal organs as spare parts in humans have gone too far? asks The Lancet.
4."Of course it was a stag night stunt you pillock. You don't think I wear this all the time do you?"
On seeing the cyclist picture again, in retrospect, knowing alas & alack it's too late now (story of my life) but herewith.....
"Our satellite navigation system for cyclists obviously still needs a few tweaks," said a bemused spokesman for the firm.
Keep up the good work Hugh,
We all love you madly,
Chris Newman
Thanks Chris, it's nice to have the unsolicited testimonials, exactly as I asked for. Anyway Chris wasn't the only reader who sent in a caption for the last issue we also had:
"New Cycle lanes marking cause confusion!"
Thomas Shevels
So since I can't be bothered to re-write the first part of my column I will declare Chris the winner of last issues caption competition. He wins a luxury all expenses paid enema (hosepipe included). I must say that it's great to see that RISC OS users aren't behind the times!
Lets move on and see what you can come up with for this little beauty.
Send your entries to hughj@riscworld.co.uk.
Now we have the funny pictures, then everyone can go to bed, because it's getting a bit late.
Hugh's picture gallery
Firstly a quick warning, if you are easily offended, then tough luck.
First a quick safety warning.
After all the driving perhaps a nice snack might be in order?
And something to wash it down with?
And after the food and drink don't forget the essentials.
Now a quick word from our sponsors.
And returning to the motorcycle theme.
Finally a warning you shouldn't ignore
Don't forget your Horlicks...goodnight John Boy...
Unfortunately there's not a huge amount of stuff this issue, but it was going to be hard to follow up last months new ROM release and the USB radio to name but a few things. However the Wakefield show is not too far away, so hopefully there will be some new releases and updates for next months column.
Geminus
A new module has been added to the Geminus graphics enhancement suite of programs, this new release gives JPEG rotation and acceleration, which means that the Iyonix can now render JPEG images three times faster than it could before.
This new module will be of great interest to users who use digital cameras and deal with images frequently, the full details of this new module are as follows :
Decoding and rendering on the IYONIX is about 3 times faster than the RISC OS 5 SpriteExtend module. Other machines also exhibit faster rendering than the RISC OS 4/Select/Adjust SpriteExtend module but the difference is not as great because these versions already have faster JPEG decoding.
Decoding and rendering of JPEGs is now performed in USR mode so that audio playback and ShareFS network traffic, for example, will continue even when decoding and rendering large images. (This also allows the code to be Alt-Breaked in the event that an incorrect/corrupted file exposes a flaw in the decoder.)
Greater robustness against incorrectly coded images. (RISC OS 5 SpriteExtend will often crash the machine if presented with spurious information.)
A modified version of the 'djpeg' utility will be released as open source code allowing other applications to benefit from the faster JPEG decoding by calling the Geminus module.
!OpenVector has been updated to allow rotated JPEGs.
The JPEG rotation and acceleration module costs £25.00 + VAT for more information and to order your copy visit
The open source web browser Netsurf continues to be developed, it is hoped that the first proper release will be available in the not too distant future. There are a few issues and some bugs that need to be sorted out before it is ready for a proper release and it remains a test/beta piece of software until V.1 is released.
Even though it is not completed yet Netsurf is a very good web browser and does a better job with some websites that other RISC OS browsers fail on, and is it definitely worth a try especially as it's free - what have you got to lose?
However do be aware that some things don't work properly at the moment such as cookies but these should be all sorted out for the first version release, and hopefully the development won't stop there either.
The latest build of Netsurf can be downloaded from
It's Vice free!
There are no Vice updates this month (the first time since writing this column!!) but one update to a program which I've found very useful is the new rewritten version of !ScGrabber (V2.16) by Christopher Bazley, and it has been used to create the screenshots used in this months 4th Dimension games CD review (well the ones that worked on the Iyonix with Aemulor Pro)
It is easy to use, the program installs on the icon bar and to get a screen grab press "Print Screen" and you should now see a spritefile on your hardisc. You can download this new version from
USB Hubs
Seeing as my Iyonix has USB 2, I thought it was about time that my USB hub was upgraded to the same, so to benefit from the speed increase.
I carried on using my MP3 player and Pen drive on a USB 2 machine through a USB1 hub, so gained no speed increase whatsoever, I didn't realise at first that there were USB1 & USB 2 hubs, so I had just carried on as before! but when I did change the difference was more than evident.
I bought the following from a certain RISC OS dealer who just happened to have it in stock!
Belkin 7 Port USB 2.0 Hub (Powered)
The device plugs into any of the USB Ports on the Iyonix, (I used one on the back of the machine), then just plug in the power supply and thats all there is to it. USB Hubs with their own power supply tend to be better as they are not being powered by the computer and operate better, and I can see this to be true as my KVM switch does not have it's own power supply and often gets in a mess and doesn't seem to know what it's doing! (Non powered hubs also draw all the power for devices from the main computer, not a good idea if you have a number of devices- ED)
The hub has 5 USB ports at the back and 2 on the top, the 5 at the back are ideal for plugging in Keyboards, Mice, Printers, Scanners etc, currently mine just has the Printer plugged in, but the top USB ports are ideal for Pen drives and MP3 players, plug them in transfer the data, then unplug them again, quick and easy and very useful.
It would appear that Castle Technology are on the move again, so there new address and contacts details are :
Castle Technology
8 Britannia House
Bentwaters Business Park
Rendlesham
IP12 2TW
The Telephone number 0870 383 4543 stays the same, as does the Fax number 0870 705 8879. All contact details should be on their website at www.iyonix.com (although their terms and conditions still show the registered office as Framlingham, where they moved from a year ago - ED).
Iyonix support list
The Iyonix support list has moved from Smartgroups due to it being unreliable and there being problems with postings taking forever and a day to actually appear, which is not a lot of use if you want some help with an urgent problem!
So as from now the Iyonix support list is being run on freelists.org ,if you were already a subscriber to the Smartgroups list then you should have received an email from John Ballance explaining the changeover.
There is no need to subscribe to this new list, everything will carry on as it was before.
That's pretty much it for this month, not a great deal happening at the moment. I think a lot of developers will be holding back anything significant until the Wakefield show.
As ever, any comments or any release info, or anything Iyonix related, feel free to contact the Iyonix column atIyonix@riscos.org.
Amazingly the letters page has been allowed back onto a normal ward...
Once again the RISCWorld letters page has survived the night and the consultants are happy enough with it's progress to allow it onto a normal mixed ward. This does mean it has to compete with other articles for attention from the nursing staff...
Dear Aaron,
I have subscribed to RISCworld for some time now and have had no trouble. Now, with Vol. 6, which contains all back issues from 1 to 6, I have a problem. After loading the disc and shutting down, on trying to start up again a window comes up asking me to re-insert the RISCworld disc, which I don't want to have to do. Something must have got into the boot sequence.
Can you suggest a cure?
My machine is a PC600 with StrongARM and operating system 4. (something or other; I forget)
Bryan Foster
Obviously your computer knows a good CD when it sees it and demands to have it returned to the drive so it can keep the machine happy. As you have discovered removing the CD upsets the machine so the CD should be kept in the drive at all times!.
On the other hand, and being somewhat more sensible, it's far more likely that you have either:
Saved a desktop Boot file with a filer window for the RISCWorld DVD open
Dragged an item off the DVD to your pinboard
I should say a quick word about saving Desktop Boot files. Don't! There, that was quick wasn't it? The facility for saving desktop boot files was depreciated by Acorn themselves after they discovered the problems it can cause. If you want to add things to the RISC OS !Boot sequence do it properly using the Boot option from the RISC OS Configuration window.
Now a mouses tale...
Dear Aaron,
If I can find somewhere here that sells microswitches, I might have
go at fixing my Acorn mouse, now that I have read your tips on what t
do (and not do - those are always the most important bits). You see,
have a mouse problem. Well, it's not the mouse, it's the OS, I think.
When my original Acorn mouse started to show its age, I got myself
3-button serial mouse, and for some years I have been happily using i
under RO3. I just told the computer to use it by the simple (an
official) RO3 expedient of double-clicking on !Boot and selecting th
appropriate mouse type from the menu under Mouse.
All went well until I upgraded the RPC700 to RO 4.39, which has a rathe
more swept-up version of the same tool. Naturally, the first time I ra
it I had of course to use *configure to get the serial mouse going (I'
forgotten about the non-standard mouse, and was actually perplexed fo
a few minutes). However, when I turned the computer back on next day
once again, no mouse! What's more, issuing a *configure mousetype
command didn't reactivate the serial mouse. To get mousing again, I ha
to dig out the old Acorn mouse and issue *configure mousetype 0, whe
all worked well again, but with the old mouse. Then I could select th
serial mouse using RO4's Configure tool, and of course it worked. However
yet again, when I turned the computer back on, I had no mouse until
activated the old Acorn mouse via the command line. (Yes, I had bee
clicking on both "Set" buttons on the way back out of Configure.)
The old Acorn mouse really is getting a bit doddery and in need o
retirement (it's got the double-click problem your article described), s
I finally decided the answer might be to put an Obey file containin
"configure mousetype 1" in Predesk, so the computer would use the seria
mouse even though it seems to "forget" its Configure setting whe
switched off. Well, it is and it isn't.
Having made up the file, I double-clicked on it, and sure enough th
serial mouse came to life. However, when I restarted the computer - n
mouse! I couldn't bring it back to life with a *configure mousetype
command, either. However, *configure mousetype 0 brought the Acorn mous
back to life, following which *configure mousetype 1 revived the seria
mouse.
My Predesk Obey file now contains the following two lines:
configure mousetype 0
configure mousetype 1
Now when I start the computer, the serial mouse comes alive (but onl
after the contents of Predesk have been run, prior to which th
hourglass can't be moved around the screen as no mouse is active).
As far as I can see, the problem is due to shutting down the compute
with mousetype 1 set. If mousetype is 1 on shutdown, no mouse can b
activated until a *configure mousetype 0 command has been issued. I
mousetype is 0 on shutdown, there is no problem: the Acorn mous
functions happily as the default, and the serial mouse can subsequentl
be selected, either via Configure or via the command line (I don't hav
any other alternative mouse types to test, so I don't know if thos
settings would have the same problem and solution).
Incidentally, as far as I am aware, only the mouse setting has thi
problem. All my other configuration settings seem to be preserved over
restart, as they should be.
This seems weird. This problem absolutely does not occur with the ol
RO3.60, under which, once set, the serial mouse stayed set. I'
wondering whether I have found a bug in RO 4.39, or I have missed som
vital step peculiar to RO4. If I have missed a step, it's something RO
didn't need done.
Mr. "I hates meeces to pieces" Jinks has my sympathy!
Otherwise, the upgrade to RO4 was definitely a good move. The machin
runs much better with it, not to speak of the advantages of having a
up to date OS.
Regards
Michael Poole
That's certainly very weird, have you reported the problem to RISCOS Ltd, just in case it is an issue with Adjust? I know that on VirtualAcorn setting the mouse type works OK, but I don't have 4.39 fitted in a "real" machine to test. I would normally suggest that the CMOS memory is failing and data isn't getting kept, but you say that all other config changes are stored OK. My first test would be to set the mousetype to serial, set the machine so it doesn't run the boot sequence and see if the setting stays, that would rule out any boot sequence problems as it's possible that something else is setting the mousetype wrongly before your obey file is called.
(Although APDL have been offering a mouse overhaul service for many years, to make it easier for people to do the job themselves we can now supply a "mouse overhaul kit" which contains those hard to find microswitches and a heavy mouse ball for just £3 including post. What a bargain. D.H.)
Dear Aaron and the world,
Just thought I'd help you fill your letters page with a little warning
to those, like me, who are maybe sitting there quietly, still usin
older RPCs etc. and being to complacent about our platforms' apparent
longevity and coziness.
I have 2 RISC systems at home (a bought RiscStation 7500+ with Canon
6100 printer and an Acorn RPC SRP11 (1996 model) with an Epson Stylus
850 printer). This latter kit was kindly donated when I left my work
at a local college 18 months previous, and it had been upgraded to ROS
4.02 in 2000 (as no one else could use it!).
Now, the Epson 850 did get some hammering during it's college years
and, just before Xmas, the black head decided it had done enough an
started to smudge and streak. So I popped into my local computer shop
to see if repairs were possible. Only it would cost more than a ne
printer after adding labour charges and VAT! 'Why not have a new one
he cried. 'OK', said I, 'how much'? 'Only £60 for a new Epson' (bu
it's USB connection only - driver? what, for Acorn? no chance mate).
Well I do have a Unipod fitted, but I want to keep that for my camer
and it's the devils own work to pull the machine out from the wall an
swap leads (which of course will eventually break due to being swappe
continually!) 'Why not buy a hub as well', cried he? 'Oh yes and som
leads - don't forget the driving software'?. Ye (minor)gods, man, I'
not made of money! This was getting silly, all I wanted was a simpl
colour inkjet with parallel connection! 'Oh, WE' (Mickysoft, he means
'don't make them anymore'! What!? Why!? (apparently they're to
slow!!! -- my Canon BJC6100 spews pages out faster than I can collat
them, so just HOW fast do you WANT to print, in heavens name?).
So I hit the Acorn dealers on the net (not many left eh?) and it wa
the same story - all parallel printers have been sold/destroyed
kidnapped, as no one wants them! "I" want them!!
Luckily, those very nice people at CJE Micros trashed their stock roo
and found the very last one - a refurbished Canon i550 + driver for
miserly £130 Nice printer. (it's also much cheaper to run - cart'
around £8). So I bought it on the spot.
So if you, like me, are sitting there all smug and thumbing your nos
at Mickeysoft's little US enterprise, watch out! - they have done u
all up yet again!
(Next year: it'll be monitors - they must now be able to float at sea
Thomas Shevels
Printers can be a problem for older RISC OS computers, both in terms of physical connection and drivers. I can't really comment on the driver situation but the reason parallel printers can't be found is really that nobody wants them any more. Why? Bandwidth. A USB port can get data down to the printer much quicker than a parallel port. Although this might not matter for a letter, it does matter when you are trying to print a hi-res digital camera photo, and that's what a lot of users want to do. It's called progress, but it does mean that RISC OS users can get left behind. I really don't think you can blame Microsoft as they don't make printers, or PCs for that matter.
I'm glad you have a Unipod, I think this is an essential upgrade for older machines, adding a USB hub is also very sensible. I have one on the main office workhorse PC, it's a Nonamo powered hub and cost £10 three years ago. So you don't need to break the bank to get one, indeed you will often find that the USB cables cost more than the hub!
Regarding the cartridges costing £8 each, a quick look on
Finally it's time for the Vince Hudd moment...
Dear Aaron,
Please do not read this letter, for the very purpose of its existence is to not be read.
Vince Hudd
Sorry, but I have read it. Since it didn't vanish afterwards I am forced to conclude that it must have another purpose. I will use it to pad out the letters page. If that is it's real purpose it will then vanish, if not we will need further investigation at my special "economy" rates.
Well that's it for this issue. If you would like to write to us then use the following e-mail address savetheletterspage@riscworld.co.uk, if, on the other hand, you don't want to write to us then send an e-mail to imnotwritingtoyou@riscworld.co.uk.
Aaron Timbrell
ÿÿÿÿISSUE1/PCCASE/INDEX.HTM Issue 1, Fitting a RiscPC into a PC case
Fitting a RiscPC into a PC case
Dave Holden takes out his toolkit...
Part 2 - Altering the case.
In the first article in this series I dealt with some general points, in this instalment I shall describe the main alterations made to a PC tower case to allow the RiscPC motherboard to be fitted.
You could, of course, use an A7000+ (or even an A7000) motherboard instead, and this would be massively liberating bearing in mind the cramped A7000 case, allowing you to fit expansion cards and a CD ROM drive plus a decent sized power supply. The only difference when it comes to physically fitting an A7000+ motherboard is that the A7000+ doesn't have the metal backplate of the RiscPC. However, all the ports are in an identical position so the RiscPC backplate fits perfectly on an A7000+ motherboard. I do have a number of these spare so if anyone is contemplating this exercise contact me and I may be able to supply one. The electrical wiring is, of course, different and this will be dealt with in the appropriate place.
The case in question previously housed my PC. This has now been transplanted into another case, but the one left vacant is almost ideal for fitting a RiscPC motherboard. I therefore decided to use it as the example for this article.
A general view of the case is shown below. As you can see it has the usual removable sides, much better than the old style cases where the top and sides were a single piece. The front of this case is slightly unusual in that instead of the usual contoured plastic moulding it consists of flat sheet of coloured steel covered by a thick piece of transparent acrylic. I quite like this appearance, and cases like this are readily available if you do too. However, although the case's appearance is different from the more usual type with a moulded, contoured plastic front its construction is almost the same.
Note that with this picture and many of those that follow clicking on the picture will display a much larger version.
Because of the design of the front panel it is secured by six large chrome screws which can be clearly seen in the picture. Moulded front panels are usually secured either with screws from the inside of the case or "snap" lugs which need to be released to remove the panel.
The next picture shows the rear of the case. At this stage the power supply has been removed and it still has the standard arrangement for fitting a full size PC motherboard. When choosing a case look for something with a similar appearance to this with six or more slots for expansion cards. Cases with only four slots are intended to take a "mini ATX" motherboard and may not be large enough to take a RiscPC board. It is often possible to use a mini ATX case but you will almost certainly need to use a smaller power supply and it will require a lot more work, so best avoided, at least for your first attempt.
The next picture is a front view of the case with its front and side panels removed. Behind the front panel the "skeleton" metalwork is identical to similar cases with more conventional front mouldings.
On the left hand side beside the floppy disc aperture are the sockets for USB and audio connectors. These can be ignored. Of course, if you have a USB card you may wish to use these sockets rather than those on the rear of the card, but you will need to contact the supplier to find out how to connect the leads.
Opposite these on the right hand side of the case are, at the top the power switch, at the bottom the reset button, and between them the hard drive and power LEDs. The two LEDs are waving about on the ends of their leads with the front panel removed as they are secured by fitting them into sockets in the front panel.
Note that the power switch is a separate switch, screwed to the front of the case itself and is not attached to the front panel. This type of construction is much to be preferred as it is a lot simpler to carry out the first job which is to replace the power switch.
The power switch
With an ATX type PC the computer is switched on with a simple momentary action pushbutton. There is no "proper" mains switch on the front of the machine, although it is common to have a mains switch on the rear of the actual power supply unit so that the machine can be isolated from the mains when required. A RiscPC doesn't have this type of "soft" power switching so it needs a real mains on/off switch instead of a pushbutton. The best solution is therefore to use an AT power supply rather than an ATX as this does have a mains switch as it is not designed for soft power switching.
Although AT power supplies are now obsolete they are still supplied new as spare parts (usually very cheaply) and secondhand units are almost always available on eBay. They are physically identical to an ATX type so will fit into a standard modern PC case without modification. The smallest size available is usually around 200 watts, more than enough power for even a "fully loaded" RiscPC.
Later I will describe how you can modify an ATX power supply so that it can be used with a RiscPC motherboard but this is not the best option and you are strongly advised to use an AT supply if at all possible.
You will need a push on/push off (or "latching") mains switch. If you buy an AT power supply then, especially if it's secondhand, it may well come complete with switch, if not you will have to buy one. They are normally sold as spares for TVs, and a good place to find one is a supplier of domestic appliance parts such as CPC.
Shown below on the left is the original switch. It is secured to the case by two screws and the shaft of the switch passes through the front of the case. This is by far the easiest type of switch to replace. Avoid a case where the switch is moulded into the front panel. These are far more difficult and will require a lot more ingenuity. As it is used to switch only very low voltage and current it, and its wiring, are very small. Compare it with the double pole mains switch on the right that is to replace it. Don't forget that the mains switch will not only switch the power supply but also, with an AT supply, the monitor power socket, so it needs to be able to handle at least 3 amps.
Shown with the replacement switch are two long screws that will be used to secure it and two spacers that will be needed to move the switch back from the front of the case so that only the tip of the shaft pokes through. Normally the pushbutton itself is "captive" on the front moulding so all you need to do is make sure that just the right amount of shaft protrudes for correct operation. With this case, because there is no moulded front, the button just pushes onto the end of the shaft, but otherwise the method of fitting is identical. Since the switch shaft is soft plastic it can be trimmed using a small file or a sharp knife so that it is exactly the right length.
The next picture shows the power switch in place. You can see that it is at an angle and not vertical. This resulted from using the original screw holes, and if I had wanted it to be vertical I could easily have drilled two new holes. However mounting the switch at an angle ensured that the switch terminals and power leads were kept out of the way of the reset button.
Once you have fitted the switch you can replace the front panel.
Modifying the back.
This is the most difficult part of the operation and you will need to work out the exact dimensions of the components required and the best way to proceed depending upon the nature of the case you are using. Since the case used for the purpose of this article is fairly typical it will serve to indicate the general principles.
You will need to cut out a large part of the back of the case so that you can replace it with something to suit the RiscPC motherboard and, more particularly, the cutouts to enable podules to be fitted. It is this latter requirement that causes the most complication.
The first stage is to remove the recessed section which holds the expansion cards and the cutouts for the other ports. This is usually retained by a series of pop rivets around its outer edge. Drill out the rivets (it's best to use a small drill in case of mistakes) and you should be able to remove this section as shown below. When extracting the rivets make sure you only drill the ones that hold the part of the case you want to remove. There may be various other rivets in this area which hold other parts of the case. If you do accidentally drill a wrong rivet don't worry, you can easily replace it as long as you haven't enlarged the hole!
The following picture shows the case with this section removed. Laying beside the case is the backplate from a RiscPC motherboard to give some idea of scale. This demonstrates that with this type of PC case there is plenty of room for the motherboard.
The "hatched" area drawn on the case is the location of the two cutouts required for the podules. This is for illustration only, in fact the whole of this part of the case is going to be cut away and the next picture shows the case after this operation. The best tool for this job is a junior hacksaw with a sharp blade. It might seem that a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade would be easier, but the metal is rather thin and hence tends to vibrate and make the saw bounce about rather too much. A junior hacksaw held at a shallow angle is much less hassle and leaves a cleaner edge, even if it does take a few minutes longer.
Once you've cut out the necessary metalwork you will need to use a fine file and/or a small grinding wheel to remove any sharp edges and burrs. Although the cut edges won't be visible from the outside so you might think that neatness is not overly important they will be visible inside and, perhaps more importantly, readily available for attacking fingers and knuckles when you are working inside the case.
You can see that the vertical dividing pillar has also been removed. This is done by cutting it off close to the bottom and then neatly grinding or filing away any remnants so that the backplate of the motherboard can sit onto the lip as shown.
One other minor job that needs to be done is to cut away the fillet at the bottom right of the opening in the picture. This originally had a neat rounded fillet as you can see from the earlier pictures but this would stop the motherboard backplate from fitting closely into the corner so it should be cut away. Once again this can be done with a few strokes from a junior hacksaw and then tidied up with a small file.
The next step is to make a new back for the case. This is best fabricated from sheet aluminium. There are two methods you can use.
Use a single piece of aluminium with rectangular cutouts for the podules.
Use a number of separate rectangular pieces.
The following picture illustrated the first method with the back of a case fabricated as a single piece.
This method is neater but it does require the cutting of one or two rectangular holes for the podules and even more work if you are not using the existing aperture for the power supply. Cutting holes in sheet metal is an awkward job and so the second method is much easier as it only requires the use of three rectangular pieces of metal. Since they are all rectangles and there is no need to make cutouts for the podules this is a much simpler method.
Whichever method you use you first need to decide how many podules your case can accommodate. Very few desktop cases are high enough to accept a four slot backplane so you will be limited to only two podules. A four slot backplane rises 16 cm. above the motherboard and every tower case I have seen has been wide enough to accept this. The narrowest case I have used is 18 cm. wide, and there was just room even in this. Even if you only have a two slot backplane at present and don't think you need any more I would advise that if the case you are using can accommodate a four slot backplane you make provision for it now as if the time ever does come when you need the extra podules it will be much more difficult to alter the case after it's finished.
The following diagram shows the principle dimensions that you will need.
The 'datum point' for these measurements is the top right hand corner of the motherboard backplate, when viewed from the rear. This is why the pictures of the back of the computer case during construction show it laid on its side to correspond with this diagram.
The first thing to understand is that you will need to extend the metalwork to the right of the diagram to overlap the case. You will also need to extend it downwards about 4 mm. over the motherboard backplate. Without this overlap there will be nothing to restrain the motherboard to stop it sliding out of the back of the case.
The next diagram illustrates how the back can be fabricated from these three main sections of aluminium.
The darker rectangle represents the motherboard backplate. The three lighter shaded rectangles are the main sections of the new back of the case. The two smaller rectangles drawn with dotted lines represent pieces which are used to fill in the gaps between the two pairs of podules cutouts and between the lower pair of podule cutouts and the top of the motherboard backplate. Obviously if you are using a desktop case which is not high enough to accommodate a four slot backplane or if you are using only a two slot backplane for other reasons then the upper aperture won't exists and so there will be no need for the section between the two openings.
Note that the largest section overlaps the motherboard backplate as described earlier and also extends to the right to overlap the case (actually the bottom of the case with a tower case).
The exact dimensions of these pieces will obviously depend on the case you are using. The picture below shows the three pieces cut ready to drill and attach to the case.
Putting the back together
Shown below is the case with the three back sections riveted into place.
At this stage the centre bar between the upper and lower two podule cutouts hasn't been fitted. The motherboard has been placed in position and you can see how it is prevented from falling out of the back of the case by the small overlapping lip at formed by the bottom edge of the largest section of aluminium. This picture also illustrates how the motherboard backplate fits tightly into the corner of the case at the bottom right where the rounded fillet was cut away earlier.
You will see that the aluminium sections stop some way short of the edges of the case, the top and bottom edges in the picture but actually the left and right edges when the case is standing upright. This is necessary because the sides of the case have a lip which wraps around the back at this point. If the aluminium pieces went right to the edge of the case they would prevent the sides from fitting properly. This can present a problem with the long section to the left of the photo as there is normally not enough metal to obtain sufficient overlap to attach this. There is, however, a simple solution as I shall indicate later.
This particular problem doesn't exist with desktop cases as there will be no lip to consider in this area, but there is another problem. At the top and sides of the case it may not be possible to keep the aluminium sections outside the area of the lip. This means that the case top is going to be displaced rearwards by the thickness of the metalwork. You can minimise this by using sheet steel instead of aluminium as this can be thinner for the same stiffness. You will also probably need to drill holes in the lip corresponding with the positions of the rivet heads. If you take these precautions then the small displacement of the top of the case will not be noticeable.
You will also notice that there is one essential piece that hasn't yet been mentioned. This is a length of 13 mm. aluminium angle, part of which can be seen running across the top of the motherboard backplate at the bottom of the podule aperture. This can be more clearly seen in the next photo.
This picture shows an internal view with the motherboard in place. You can see how the section of aluminium angle runs across the back and is riveted to the bottom of the rear plates. This serves three purposes.
It supports the bottom of the largest section which otherwise is not restrained in one corner and also stiffens the whole structure.
It fills the gap between the top of the motherboard backplate and the lowest podule.
As it is positioned so that it fits tightly against the top of the motherboard backplate it stops the motherboard from moving upwards.
As mentioned earlier there is not enough overlap for the thin vertical section to be riveted at the bottom. To fasten this piece a small scrap of aluminium was bent into a right angle to make a bracket and this can be seen in the photo above. This bracket performs a second important function. By positioning it such that it abuts against the end of the motherboard backplate it acts as a stop to prevent the motherboard from moving in that direction.
Podule blanking plates
By the time I get to this stage I'm normally getting impatient to put the computer together and see it working so I tend to leave this 'til last, but now is really the right time to do it while the case is still empty.
You may be intending to use the blanking plates from the 'donor' RiscPC or have some steel blanking plates from and old Archimedes machine in which case you can skip the next piece on making the blanking plates.
If you are making your own blanking plates then the diagram below shows the principal dimensions.
The width shown is 132 mm. which is actually 4 mm. wider than the standard Acorn backplate at 128 mm. The reason for this is that with the standard width backplate the holes are rather close to the edge, only 1.5 mm. away. This is a bit cramped and so I prefer the make the plate slightly wider as it makes drilling easier. You can, of course, use the standard width if you prefer.
You can use a variety of materials for the blanking plates. The obvious one is sheet aluminium, but this does need to be a reasonable thickness, at least 26 gauge. Steel is probably better as it is stiffer, and the ideal material would be 25 mm. wide 28 gauge strip. Whichever material you use if possible use an old blanking plate as a jig when drilling the holes to ensure that they are accurately positioned.
You will also need to fit the crosspiece between the upper and lower pairs of podule cutouts. Of course, if you only have cutouts for two podules, as will be the situation with most desktop cases since they aren't high enough to accommodate a four slot backplane, then you won't need to do this. As this gap is only 15 mm. wide a simple strip of aluminium will be a bit too flexible, but a good alternative is to use two pieces, one the same thickness as the backplate and cut the same width as the podule cutout and the other wider to overlap the cutout. These can then be riveted together and then the longer section's extensions riveted inside the back so that the shorter, outer part is flush with the outside of the case, making a neat finish.
Instead of a flat piece of aluminium inside you could, of course, use another length of the same 13 mm. aluminium angle used across the bottom of the back. If you do this put the inward projecting part at the bottom to ensure that it can't foul any protrusions underneath a podule installed above it.
You can now use the blanking plates you've made (or blanking plates from a RiscPC) to mark out and drill the holes for the screws. The diameter of these holes will depend upon the retaining screws you intend to use. Easiest is to use small self tappers, but if you do want to use the original screws you will need to tap the holes. Of course you should use a proper tap for this but if you don't have one and if the metalwork is aluminium then you can make do with a modified set screw.
Drill the holes to 2 mm. Now take a spare screw and cut two grooves in it with a junior hacksaw or the edge of a miniature half round file, one groove each side. This turns the screw into a crude tap, not ideal but perfectly OK for cutting a thread in soft metal sheet like aluminium.
To be continued...
We now have a PC case with the main metalwork completed ready to have the motherboard and other internal components fitted.
In the next instalment I will deal with mounting the motherboard and the power and other connections, plus fitting a brace for the backplane.
Dave Holden
ÿÿÿÿISSUE1/PD/INDEX.HTM Issue 1, PD World
PD World
Paul Brett with the latest freeware and PD releases for RISC OS.
It's been a busy couple of months for me, so I haven't been able to keep track of all the latest software releases for RISC OS. I wasn't able to attend the RISC OS Wakefield show this year due to a previous engagement on the Saturday. If the show had been over the usual two days then I would have been able to make a visit on Sunday. It's a little annoying and I hope the show will revert to being a 2 day affair next year. Still, let us see what delights have been released by developers since my last column.
Armalyser - David Ruck
!Armalyser is an essential utility for RISC OS programmers. It allows the user to examine ARM code files, including executable, module, utility, object and library formats. It can output disassembler or ObjAsm assembler styles, in plain text, fully hyperlinked and syntax coloured HTML, XML, or custom formats for import into Impression, TechWriter and Ovation Pro.
It has extensive analysis features to detect problems that may be encountered when converting code to 32bit, and to highlight performance issues on different ARM variants. The assembler output may be used as a basis to produce 32 bit versions of code where the sources are not available (provided you have the permission of the copyright holder, something some "hackers" tend to forget about - ED). It is available for RISC OS with a desktop front end, and is built with GCC and UnixLib which does not require a 32bit SharedCLibrary.
Armalyser
GhostScript 8.53 - ported by Martin Wuerthner
GhostScript is a PostScript interpreter that can turn PostScript and PDF files into raster image files and PostScript files into PDF files. PostScript and PDF are industry-standard page description languages defined by Adobe that describe the appearance of documents with multiple pages containing text, bitmap images and vector graphics.
This new port of GhostScript 8.53 replaces all previous versions of GhostScript. The original RISC OS port of GhostScript was done by Graham Jones (see his GhostScript for RISC OS page). Most importantly, he has written the RISC OS sprite device that allows you to create sprite files using GhostScript, which is most useful, in particular in conjunction with the GView front-end, so credits are due to him for doing this work.
This port is fully self-contained and will run on all existing RISC OS platforms. Most notably, they run under RISC OS 5 on the Iyonix and under Adjust32 on the A9Home. In addition to being 32-bit safe, these new versions of GhostScript have many improvements over the previous port of version 7.03, most notably when rendering PDF documents with transparency and when converting PostScript to PDF.
When using GhostScript, you are likely to be interested in GView as well: GView is a front-end for GhostScript. It displays PostScript and PDF documents in RISC OS windows, supports multi-page documents, allows you to go backward and forward in the document, jump to specific pages directly, save Sprite files for pages, convert complete documents to multiple Sprite files and gives you a range of output options.
PrintPDF - Steve Fryatt
I've featured PrintPDF before, but this new version is well worth including again as it has been updated following the release of GhostScript 8.5 by Martin Wuerthner. PrintPDF is a utility to automate the process of creating PDF documents with GhostScript. In conjunction with a dedicated PostScript printer driver in !Printers, it allows a 'PDF printer' to be set up. Printing to this from applications will open a Create PDF dialogue box, from which the conversion options (quality and PDF version) can be set and the new PDF dragged to a place on disc.
PrintPDF can take advantage of the improved support for Type 3 fonts in GhostScript 8.5. The new version has additional support for creating encrypted and protected PDFs: owner passwords can be applied to prevent a document being modified without permission, and access passwords can be applied to restrict who can read the document as well.
In addition, permissions can be set to limit the things that can be done to a PDF document: printing, exporting content, annotating, re-formatting and so on. Support is available for the full set of options in PDF versions 1.3 and 1.4.
PrintPDF
The new version also includes the option of transparently pre-processing the PostScript data received from !Printers using GhostScript's *ps2ps command. In some situations, this appears to clean up mis-formed output, and allow PDF conversions that would otherwise fail.
WebGenII - D E Stratford
WebGenII is designed to take a directory of images and create a website from them. Three types of website can be generated:
A site consisting of a single index page containing thumbnails only
A site consisting of a single index page containing thumbnails, each of which links to a separate page containing a larger version of that image
A site containing both the thumbnails, and a small piece of Javascript to enable the larger versions to be displayed alongside the thumbnails whenever the mouse pointer moves over the thumbnail. This option will not work well with too many images, nor with images which are not square, or very nearly square
When using the second option you can specify a file containing a single line caption for each image. A blank line will ensure no captions are created, and a line starting with | will be treated as a comment line and ignored.
WebGenII
The latest version of WebGenII contains the following improvements:
Background colour to certain error messages
Fix for use of background images when the path gets very long
Correct alignment of navigation arrows when using tables rather than CSS
Correct page navigation when page split is same ss total number
Signing off
I will return in the July issue with more new software.
Paul Brett
ÿÿÿÿISSUE1/VA/INDEX.HTM Issue 1, VirtualAcorn Tech Support
VirtualAcorn Tech Support
More from Aaron's tech support notebook
It's been a very busy couple of months at VirtualAcorn Towers. Firstly we have now released the new StrongArm versions of both VirtualAcorns. I did hint in the last column that we were working on new versions and now they are available as upgrades for existing users. More details are available from
Printing from BASIC
I quite often get asked if VirtualAcorn products can print from BASIC. The answer, of course, is yes, provided the application concerned is using the RISC OS printing method. However, what people really tend to mean is "Can I print from my old single tasking BASIC program that I wrote 22 years ago on the BBC?" The answer to this has always been no, you can't. The best idea is to update the program so it either works in the desktop, or saves a file that can subsequently be printed by another application.
Now of course the above isn't a very helpful answer. I do however point out that what someone really want to do is print out text directly. This method was great on dot matrix printers but many modern inkjet printers don't support text only printing any longer, but a surprising number of laser printers do. So anyway lets get to the point.I was contacted by Stuart Tyrell (of STD and AdvantageSix fame) who had run into the same problem, but had sat down and come up with a solution. The solution, like all good ideas was very simple, worked perfectly and yet seemed totally bonkers. Stuart provide me with a sample piece of code as follows:
10 : REM Printer Test 2 for V
20 : REM Stuart Tyrrel
30 : RE
40 : REM Set printer type 50 to point to the printe
50 : REM To check the printer name
60 : REM a) Install the printer under Window
70 : REM b) Run "showprinters" in the printing directory in RISC O
80 : REM c) Replace the bit after HostFS:: with the printer nam
140 : REM Turn off the printer ignore character, otherwise everythin
150 : REM appears on one line
160 : *fx 182,255,
170 :
180 : REM Print something
190 : VDU
200 : FOR T=1 TO 1
210 : PRINT SPC(T*4);"test!!!
220 : NEX
230 :
240 : REM Don't forget the page feed, especially on a laser
260 : VDU 1
261 :
262 : REM Bye
270 : VDU
As you can see the program sets up a printer type of 50, and then opens this printer, prints some text, then closes the printer. What had me stumped was that I couldn't see how it was working, especially as Windows itself can't do this trick! Eventually I realised what was happening. When VirtualAcorn prints it dumps data directly into the Windows print queue, by-passing most of the Windows printing system. The file that is generated by RISC OS simply gets sent straight to the printer with no further processing. So provided the printer "knows" what to do with plain text, it will print it. Of course most printers sold these days are so called GDI printers, meaning they have no God Damn Intelligence, and can't print "raw" text files. So before trying this method on your own programs make sure your printer can handle plain text files.
It's a very trivial task to alter any single tasking program that prints out text to work on VirtualAcorn and I thank Stuart for his creative solution to a long running issue for some users.
I have put the BASIC code in the software directory. Note that before using it you will need to set up the correct Printer$Type string. Information on doing this is reproduced in the REM statements at the start of the program.
And now some bug fixes...
VRPC-SA and VRPC-AdjustSA printing problem
As we have been on the subject of printing I ought to mention that a few users have had problems with printing anything at all on the new StrongArm VirtualAcorns. Graeme was able to quickly identify the problem and fix it. So if you do have a printing problem on an SA VirtualAcorn you will need to install the fix. I have put copies of these in the software directory of this issue. Note that these small upgrades are not for use with VirtualRPC-SE or VirtualRP-Adjust!
iSVPatch
All copies of VRPC come with the iSVPatch inside the Boot sequence. This patch is designed to allow non RO4 compatible versions of various iSVProducts software titles, such as Mr Clippy and DrawWorks Millennium to run on versions of RISC OS higher than 3.7. The patch was quickly knocked up in 1999 when I was given a copy of RISC Os 4 for testing, and discovered that a lot of the iSV titles wouldn't run properly. Anyway recently a couple of problems showed up. The most important one was with the new versions of GhostScript, as ported by Martin Wuerther. Initially I didn't think that the patch could be to blame as it had been in circulation for years with no reported problems.
However, Martin was correct, the patch was up the spout. It was a simple mistake, instead of using TEQ (Test Equivalence) commands, it used CMP (Compare) commands and make a mess of some file operations. Martin provided a sample program to show the problem and Dave Holden at APDL was able to fix the problem and produce a new patch. So, if you want to run the new versions of GhostScript, or any program that uses GhostScript, such as TechWriter on VRPC-SE or VirtualRPCAdjust (non StrongArm versions) you will need to install a new version of iSVPatch.
The patch normally lives in Boot.Choices.Boot.Tasks. (on RISC OS 4) or Boot.Choices.Default.Boot.Tasks (On RISC OS Adjust). Simply replace the existing version with the new version in the software directory. It might also be worth seeing if the old version of the patch is installed on any "real" machines as well, because it might also cause problems with GhostScript on "real" hardware.
That's it for this issue, I can't give you a hint as to what will be in the next column because at the moment I don't have a clue.
Aaron
ÿÿÿÿISSUE1/WAKE/INDEX.HTM Issue 1, Wakefield 2006
Wakefield 2006
It's a show report...of sorts...
It only seems like a few months since the last Wakefield show, but, rather obviously it's a full year. This year the show ran for one day only, rather than th usual two days. Since we moved to Derbyshire last year I no longer need to book a hotel, as Wakefield is dead easy to get to. I just drive up the A38 from Burton-on-Trent, then onto the M1, and it only takes an hour and a bit (the length of the bit depending on the length of the roadworks). So this year I left home just before 6:30 and was parked outside Thornes park at exactly 1 minute past 8.
As usual the every helpful Wakefield User Group were on hand to help me unload the car. Indeed they were so helpful I was going to ask them to check the oil and the tyres, but thought I had better not. Anyway I did my usual set up the stand routine, I;e done this so many times over the years that I an do it in my sleep. So once I had finished I woke up. I usually forget something but this year I managed to bring everything I needed. Unfortunately the mouse for th desktop PC I was using had decided to die in transit. I was able to get a new PS2 mouse from Dave Holden for a very reasonable fee and then I was ready for the off with nearly an hour to spare.
So with time on my hands, and other parts, I went for a quick wander around. Very little gives me more pleasure than annoying other exhibitors who haven't set up yet but I wasn't in luck as almost everyone else had finished as well, damn. Anyway whilst waiting for the show to open I "lent" some HSBC banking slips to Jack from Castle who didn't think her had enough with him. Fair enough. Especially when I no longer bank with HSBC anyway. With a few minutes to go before opening a queue started to form outside the doors. So I took a picture for posterity.
At 10:03 sharp (according to my £5 watch) the show opened. Within a couple of minutes I had a queue on the stand. This happy event continued for nearly 2 hours. Indeed the whole day was busy, with the only pauses coming during the talks in the lecture theatre and the usual lull for the last 1/2 hour of the show. As the show only ran for 1 day this year I didn't get as much time as I would have liked to talk to other exhibitors. So if I do miss out anyone I apologise.
Starting at the entrance to the show the first couple of stands were Castle Technology and OreganoUK Ltd. Castle were showing the usual range of Iyonix PCs and were apparently evaluating new processors for consideration in new computers. The latest beta of Oregano3 was on show, running on VirtualAcorn. Richard Brown of OreganoUK was saying that a lot of money had been invested in Oregano3 but that it would only be released when it was ready, which it apparently wasn't, which was a shame as the RISC OS world really could do with a single capable browser.
Across the way was APDL, with their usual wide collection of RISC OS software titles. New for the show were updates to Schema, including Excel file compatibility and a new collection of Fourth Dimension games. RISCOS Ltd were sharing the same stand and had an early version of Select4 on display, as well as special show offers on RISC OS Adjust ROMS. It had been hoped to have a finished Select4 on show, but it seems that the finished release of the A9 computer was the top priority.
RISCOS Ltd
This brings us round to Advantage6, who had a number of A9 machines on display, all running a wide variety of RISC OS software. They also had some fun gadgets on display, including a Bluetooth keyboard which uses a laser to project the image of keyboard onto any flat surface. So you can use anything as a keyboard. The Bluetooth "projector" for the keyboard was no bigger than a cigarette packet and would easily fit into a pocket. Nice. They also had some fun for customers who attended on of their talks in the lecture theatre, with Stuart making a mobile phone call to the A9 that Matt was using as a demonstration machine. Stuart's voice could be heard over the speakers and Matt was able to talk to him with his headset. I will certainly say this for Advantage Six, when it comes to giving interesting and exciting theatre talks thy really can't be beaten.
An A9 home
Whilst we are on the subject of theatre talks other talks were given by RISCOS Ltd, Castle Technology, Martin Wuerthner and John Cartmell of Qercus. The Qercus talk attracted a lot of interest with customers keen to know when they were going to get their next issue. John was reported as saying that 12 issues a year was a bit too ambitious and that the magazine would be scaled back to 6 to 8 issues a year. Given the current situation I would say that 3 issues a year seems too ambitious.
Martin Wuerthner was showing off the new PDF features in ArtWorks2, and very nice they were too. He had also been working on TechWriter and EasiWriter which have also benefited from his skill. TechWriter can now also generate PDF files with far more success that other RISC OS applications. Mike Glover at Icon Technology seemed to be very busy with upgrades, here's a photo of him with some money nearby.
Mike Glover
I tried to take another shot directly afterwards but the money had been secreted about his person. Earlier I mentioned Oregano3, but this wasn't the only browser on display, the Netsurf developers were also showing the latest version of their browser, and very good it looked to, even better it's free! Just pop along to the Netsurf Pages and download yourself a copy, you will be glad you did.
Netsurf
It's a shame that development on Firefox seems to have stalled with Peter Naulls moving to the states, but in my opinion, NetSurf looks like a far better bet for most RISC OS users, it's faster than FireFox and it's a proper RISC OS application, not a port from another platform. Anyway lets move on. Paul Beverly of Archive publications was selling subscriptions to both Archive and Living with Technology.
Archive Publications
Further down the hall R-Comp were doing brisk business with their wide range of RISC OS software, there was also a lot of interest in their range of RISCCube and RISCBook computers. They also announced updates to most of their range of software just before the show as well as launching UniScan, the counterpart to UniPrint. This allows RISC OS users to use a scanner connected to a PC over a network, given the problems with getting RISC OS drivers for scanners this has to be a most welcome addition to the RISC OS users armoury.
R-Comp
The other big RISC OS dealer, CJE Micros, has their usual giant stand packed with almost everything the RISC OS user could want. As the official sales agent for the A9 Home Chris Evans seemed very happy with the progress of the machine and was happily taking orders all day, as well as selling updates to their own range of products, including the Impact database.
There were many other exhibitors present but, due to time constraints I didn't get to see all of them, which was a shame as it would have been nice to have had time for a chat.
So that was Wakefield 2006, a very good show and certainly busier than last year. The only negative bit was that I didn't see Chris Williams, who had promised to come along to the stand to get a review copy of the RISCWorld DVD, still perhaps he would like to get in touch so we can post him a copy?
Oh, I nearly forgot. Here's a photo of the inside of the "exhibitors" fridge, lovely isn't it?
I bet you don't get that in any other show report!
