Fired up an Acorn for the first time in years
Discussion
I've always had a soft spot for these, having cut my teeth at an early age with an A3000 at home. I've now acquired an A3010 that another family member had, and have finally got round to getting it going for a bit of a nostalgia trip 
After a bit of figuring out how I could get a 20+ year old computer to display on a modern LCD panel, it turned out to be more straightforward than I'd imagined. Initially I was getting a signal to the monitor by the virtue that it was not going into sleep mode, but still no display. After a bit of trawling the web, it turned out that the A3010 is VGA compatible, but having been switched off for the last 10 years at least it had lost all its settings and was booting into the supervisor mode. Holding down the 'R' key and switching on does a full reset, and the desktop that I was so familiar with displays once more
Not all good news however as the mouse doesn't work (I was warned this might be the case). All 3 buttons work, but when I try and move the mouse, the pointer jerks about slightly and that's it. I've taken the mouse apart to try to trace the cause, but it all seems fine to me. Any ideas?
Seeing it up and running again just reminds me how far ahead of time Acorn were with RISC OS & it's easy to see why the ARM architecture now is so successful.
Glad to have been a part of something different at a time when all my friends at school had PCs/Amigas/Nintendos...
After a bit of figuring out how I could get a 20+ year old computer to display on a modern LCD panel, it turned out to be more straightforward than I'd imagined. Initially I was getting a signal to the monitor by the virtue that it was not going into sleep mode, but still no display. After a bit of trawling the web, it turned out that the A3010 is VGA compatible, but having been switched off for the last 10 years at least it had lost all its settings and was booting into the supervisor mode. Holding down the 'R' key and switching on does a full reset, and the desktop that I was so familiar with displays once more
Not all good news however as the mouse doesn't work (I was warned this might be the case). All 3 buttons work, but when I try and move the mouse, the pointer jerks about slightly and that's it. I've taken the mouse apart to try to trace the cause, but it all seems fine to me. Any ideas?
Seeing it up and running again just reminds me how far ahead of time Acorn were with RISC OS & it's easy to see why the ARM architecture now is so successful.
Glad to have been a part of something different at a time when all my friends at school had PCs/Amigas/Nintendos...
cknotty said:
Seeing it up and running again just reminds me how far ahead of time Acorn were with RISC OS & it's easy to see why the ARM architecture now is so successful.
Glad to have been a part of something different at a time when all my friends at school had PCs/Amigas/Nintendos...
There are still elements of the Risc OS interface that I prefer - instead of left clicking on a window scroll bar, right click and you could move left/right as well as up/down. And the 3 button interface (select/menu/adjust?) is still probably the best option.Glad to have been a part of something different at a time when all my friends at school had PCs/Amigas/Nintendos...
And it boots up fast, very fast. Imagine what it would be like running on a more modern ARM processor!
The success of ARM is down to its simplicity and price - it is only sold as a design to various fabricators for a minimal charge, and can be produced at very low cost.
Adjust was the best thing ever, Windows still doesn't use 3 buttons properly for stuff like that, you tend to use keyboard modifiers.
We had an Archimedes A310, then an A5000, then a RiscPC. The RiscPC got a StrongARM eventually and when I got my student loan I got myself one I think my dad still has the A5000 and RiscPC.
I keep thinking about trying one of the emulators that are around.
Most of the OS was in ROM which is why it was so quick to boot. Programs didn't install stuff all over the place either so it was really easy to keep clean. Any issues, just boot into command line from ROM and flatten the drive
We had an Archimedes A310, then an A5000, then a RiscPC. The RiscPC got a StrongARM eventually and when I got my student loan I got myself one
I think my dad still has the A5000 and RiscPC.I keep thinking about trying one of the emulators that are around.
Most of the OS was in ROM which is why it was so quick to boot. Programs didn't install stuff all over the place either so it was really easy to keep clean. Any issues, just boot into command line from ROM and flatten the drive
I too had an Archimedes. By the standards of the time it absolutely flew. Think it cost me about a grand ... and that was 1989 or 90 and I was earning equivalent of maybe 6k as a gap year student.
Last week I picked up a Raspberry Pi for 30 quid and had it dual booting into Risc Os in about 30 mins. Took a bit of random clicking to remember the UI but it soon all came back.
Last week I picked up a Raspberry Pi for 30 quid and had it dual booting into Risc Os in about 30 mins. Took a bit of random clicking to remember the UI but it soon all came back.
Nice to hear!
I had a 3100, a 5000 and my pride and joy, a RiscPC. So quick and clean and just 'nice' to use compared with what else was around (286 PCs on early windows etc. then the upgraded chips and bloat ware.
Have to use Microsoft using PCs for work but moved to Mac for own use and often wish that Acorn had survived and prospered. I wonder how good they'd be now.
I had a 3100, a 5000 and my pride and joy, a RiscPC. So quick and clean and just 'nice' to use compared with what else was around (286 PCs on early windows etc. then the upgraded chips and bloat ware.
Have to use Microsoft using PCs for work but moved to Mac for own use and often wish that Acorn had survived and prospered. I wonder how good they'd be now.
Edited by FwdConvert on Tuesday 22 April 14:05
I started with an A310, eventually upgraded with Risc OS 3, a massive 20mb drive and the best upgrade - a 25mHz ARM3.
Talking of emulations, I used it during my degree for Intel MCS51 development. Ran the PC Emulator on the Arch, then within DOS had the MCS51 emulator running. All worked perfectly. Shame one of my fellow students blew up the hardware that the software was supposed to be running on .... and he did a runner before we found out about his incompetence.
Following that habit, I've run Risc OS on a Raspberry PI emulator. Felt weird having the old desktop running on Windows 7, but pretty darned cool.
Talking of emulations, I used it during my degree for Intel MCS51 development. Ran the PC Emulator on the Arch, then within DOS had the MCS51 emulator running. All worked perfectly. Shame one of my fellow students blew up the hardware that the software was supposed to be running on .... and he did a runner before we found out about his incompetence.
Following that habit, I've run Risc OS on a Raspberry PI emulator. Felt weird having the old desktop running on Windows 7, but pretty darned cool.
Tiggsy said:
me too.
chucky egg was my game of choice
Chucky Egg was brilliant. Can't really say the same of the Electron; I tried using one after having had a Model B for a few years. In isolation the Electron may have been good, but compared to its big brother, it was kinda lame.chucky egg was my game of choice
Although my Model B had an upgraded CPU, running at a mammoth 4mHz. Truly a beast!
Had quite a few games for the A3000, admittedly several were Amiga ports...
However, all my favourites were anything by The Fourth Dimension. Case in point: Saloon Cars - bloody difficult but absolutely loved thrashing that Astra GTE round Silverstone!
Hands up, who used to read Archimedes World??
Damn, I really need to get that mouse fixed: got a lot of old games to revive!
However, all my favourites were anything by The Fourth Dimension. Case in point: Saloon Cars - bloody difficult but absolutely loved thrashing that Astra GTE round Silverstone!
Hands up, who used to read Archimedes World??
Damn, I really need to get that mouse fixed: got a lot of old games to revive!
cknotty said:
Had quite a few games for the A3000, admittedly several were Amiga ports...
However, all my favourites were anything by The Fourth Dimension. Case in point: Saloon Cars - bloody difficult but absolutely loved thrashing that Astra GTE round Silverstone!
Hands up, who used to read Archimedes World??
Damn, I really need to get that mouse fixed: got a lot of old games to revive!
http://www.apdl.co.uk/mice.htmHowever, all my favourites were anything by The Fourth Dimension. Case in point: Saloon Cars - bloody difficult but absolutely loved thrashing that Astra GTE round Silverstone!
Hands up, who used to read Archimedes World??
Damn, I really need to get that mouse fixed: got a lot of old games to revive!
http://www.ian-nic.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mouse/
But in the first instance I'd take the thing to pieces and see whether the rollers and optical wheel are clogged with dust. You might also have a sticky ball. Fnarr.
davepoth said:
But in the first instance I'd take the thing to pieces and see whether the rollers and optical wheel are clogged with dust.
Cheers for the links, will check them out. I've already had the mouse apart and everything looks to be where it should, nothing appears broken. Perhaps the optical sensors for each axis are misaligned?davepoth said:
You might also have a sticky ball. Fnarr.
cknotty said:
Not all good news however as the mouse doesn't work (I was warned this might be the case). All 3 buttons work, but when I try and move the mouse, the pointer jerks about slightly and that's it. I've taken the mouse apart to try to trace the cause, but it all seems fine to me. Any ideas?
That used to happen on the Amiga when the mouse was plugged in the joystick port.curlyks2 said:
I spent/wasted hours playing that and others on our Electron. There was a bug in Boxer though: if you scored over 99999 the score counter restarted from 0 again.
I seem to remember a text based adventure game (exploring pyramids or similar) it was quite difficult and frequently displayed something like "You fell down a dark hole and died"Can't remember the name of it for the life of me.
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