Initial Setup

Tried to get everything ready on Tuesday and ensure that the machines were working etc.
I was going to take 2 A3000s and have them connected to the Risc PC via Ethernet and use Acorn Access to share the Risc PCs hard disk, this would allow me to play some of the older games that only work on the original Archimedes range.

I found several of my A3000s and found that only one had the serial chips fitted (this was an extra purchase and had a set of chips installed into sockets inside the machine) as I wanted to run some multi-player serial connected games.

So instead I decided to take 2 A3010s which are the same format as the A3000 but of a newer design. They also have dual joystick ports and serial built in. I found 2 and got them fired up, dug out a few mice and a joystick and they were working ok.

One was already fitted with an Ethernet card so I had a look to see if I could get that to work with the Risc PCs shared disks, after cabling them up I found that the card is an older one without Acorn Access built into the ROM. Luckily I found another card which I have had working with my A3000 before and has Access built in. After swapping out the cards I tried again, nothing, the system can see that the cable is connected but will not create a link with the switch, I tried another old 10mb switch, still no joy. Don't know why its not working any more, will have a proper look some other time.

So checked that the Risc PC had all of my games loaded onto the hard disk, at which point the machine crashed nastily, it then did this several times in a row. Thinking this might be loose memory I took the machine apart and instantly found the problem. The battery had leaked onto the board and caused track damage, I've removed all of the other batteries from every Risc PC I have due to this problem. This one was ok last time I looked but has leaked since and damaged the machine.

So grabbed another from the cupboard and swapped out the cards etc to get another working machine.

RONWUG Meeting

On the Wednesday met everyone for RONWUG (Risc OS North West User Group) so that we could play with a few of the older games for the Archimedes range of Acorn computers.

We set up the 2 A3010s on a table with 2 of my monitors and were able to use the large plasma TV on the wall if required.

The Risc PC sat on the floor and shared the plasma or a monitor when needed.

Due to networking not working I took a large box of floppy disks along to use, a few were starting to get to the point where they won't read, luckily I'm in the middle of creating a disk archive of all of them.
I does show though how floppies that are now 20+ years old are starting to oxidise and die, no matter how well you try to keep them.

So we tried out a few of the classic Acorn games such as Chocks Away (which was quite amusing to watch everyone trying to land without crashing), Conqueror, SWIV, Black Angel, Lotus Turbo Challenge, Dune 2, Stunt Racer 2000 and of course Granny's Garden :)

On the left Black Angel and too the right is SWIV.

Note the graphics are squashed due to the use of newer monitors, would like to have taken my older monitors which work great with old games but they are bulky and awkward to transport so I opted for these instead.

We also dug out Granny's Garden (Archimedes version) for a giggle.