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Article archives

Cloverleaf drops promise of including retro games with Kickstarter rewards (Updated)

Posted by Andrew Poole on 17:53, 22/12/2020 | , , , ,
 
Banned from CloverleafFollowing an odd saga over the weekend involving Facebook group bans, deleted comments and generally hostile responses, the Cloverleaf project have this evening posted an update to their Kickstarter page noting that due to legal concerns, their previous promises of including a large collection of games with the project's rewards will no longer be fulfilled. Instead, Cloverleaf will provide a way to download games from other sources.
 
Previously, Cloverleaf had promised a number of emulators and "enough games to discover and play for at least 1 year" as well as illustrating their project's posts with pictures of popular games such as Doom, Lemmings, Elite, Myst and Duke Nukem 3D.
 
In the short statement on the Kickstarter project's updates page, Cloverleaf explained:
 
Continue reading "Cloverleaf drops promise of including retro games with Kickstarter rewards (Updated)" | Comment in the forums

Own a Unique Silver Deuce Case... for Charity

Posted by Steve Fryatt on 23:50, 1/9/2020 | , ,
 
A special announcement from WROCC:
Along with the more obvious problems associated with the cancellation of
this year's Wakefield Acorn & RISC OS Computer Show came two less expected
ones.
 
As befitted the 25th show organised by the Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club,
Andy Marks of RISCOSbits had produced us a very special silver edition Deuce
case for the first prize in the raffle that we had intended to hold. With no
show and no raffle, the Club is now in possession of a totally unique, and
very special item.
 
The case is silver coloured, with the Club's acorn logo on the lid, and the
Wakefield 2020 (25 years) show banner engraved on the side. It is designed
to take a Raspberry Pi 3+, and comes with an adaptor plate for a Pi 4.
 
Details and photos can be found at:
 
https://www.wrocc.org.uk/silver-deuce
 
The loss of the show also meant that we were unable to organise our regular
Charity Stall in support of Wakefield Hospice. Over the years the stall has
raised in excess of £20,000 to support their work, and at a time when
COVID-19 is having a great impact on charities, it was a shame not to be
able to add to that figure.
 
To this end, the Club will be listing the silver edition case for auction on
eBay on Thursday 3rd September, with the specific intention of raising money
for Wakefield Hospice. The retail price of the standard case is £30, but
given the unique nature of this particular one, we are very much hoping that
we can raise even more for the Hospice.
 
We would like to think that those who bid on the case and fail to win would
consider donating a similar amount in order to support the important work of
the Hospice in its 30th anniversary year at this difficult time. This can be
done via our JustGiving page, which passes the money direct to the Hospice:
 
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/wakefield-2020
 
In addition, donations from all members of the RISC OS community will be
gratefully received.
 
The Club would like to thank all of our exhibitors and visitors at past
Wakefield Shows, and hope that we will be able to see you all again in
person in April 2021.

 
1 comment in the forums

Episode VI - Return of the JFPatch

Posted by George Lucas on 00:00, 1/4/2020 | , , ,
 
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
 
*cue Star Wars theme*
Finally, it's here[1] - the cloud service that absolutely nobody asked
for, nobody wanted, and nobody will ever need!
 
JFPatch-as-a-service is now available at https://jfpatch.riscos.online/.
 
Harnessing the awesome power of cloud computing to provide the astounding
ability to build ARM assembly in a format that hardly anyone but the
author ever used. In the cloud. Did I mention that it's cloud based?
Because that makes it cool. Marvel at the astounding ability to create
26bit RISC OS modules that no modern hardware can run. Be shocked by the
complete lack of speed of building.
 
[1] For a short period.

*cut to C-3PO and R2-D2 making their way across Tatooine's surface*
 
R2-D2: Bleep bloop bleep
 
C-3PO: What do you mean you've never heard of JFPatch? It was written last century by one of the greatest RISC OS programmers of the time, gerph, who also went by the name -
 
R2-D2: Bleep bloop bleep
 
C-3PO: - yes, that's right. It allowed him to create many software patches and utilities which he then shared for free with people over the Internet. A true hero of his time! Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse when -
 
R2-D2: Bleep bloop bleep
 
C-3PO: - yes, that's right. For many years nothing was heard from him, and much of his software was lost from the Internet. But now he's back, and he's brought JFPatch with him! How marvellous!
 
R2-D2: Bleep bloop bleep
 
C-3PO: Yes, I know that he hasn't said how long he's back for or what his future plans are, but in these hard times we need to be thankful for every good thing that comes our way.
 
R2-D2: Bleep bloop bleep
 
C-3PO: *stops walking* Wait, it's just a "trendy" closed-source cloud service which could vanish at any moment, and doesn't work when accessed using NetSurf? Well, f -
 
*hard cut to next scene*
 

2 comments in the forums

RISC OS London Show 2018

Posted by Jeffrey Lee on 09:00, 5/10/2018 | , ,
 
This year's London Show is due to take place on Saturday the 27th of October, at the usual location of the St. Giles Hotel in Feltham. The show runs from 11 AM to 5 PM, with tickets being £5 at the door (and under-16's free). Exhibitors this year are set to include:If that's not enough, there's also likely to be a full set of theatre presentations, from presenters including CJE, R-CompInfo, RISC OS Developments, and RISC OS Open.
 
Be sure to visit the show's website for up-to-the-minute news in the run-up to the show.
 
1 comment in the forums

Acorn World at Cambridge computer museum, 8-9th Sept 2018

Posted by Bryan Hogan on 02:55, 1/9/2018 | , ,
 
Acorn World 2018
Sat 8th & Sun 9th September, 10am-5pm
@ The Centre for Computing History, Cambridge
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/43277/Acorn-World-Exhibition-8th-9th-September-2018/
 
The Acorn & BBC User Group in association with the Centre for Computing History, Cambridge’s premier computer museum, are pleased to announce Acorn World 2018.
 
This exhibition will feature machines and software from across Acorn’s history and beyond, showing how they started, the innovative systems produced along the way, and the legacy of successful technology they left behind.
 
There will be a range of Acorn-era computers on display – and in many cases running for visitors to try out for themselves – covering everything from the System 1, through to the iconic RiscPC – which many recognise as the the pinnacle of Acorn’s computer designs – and beyond, including the never-released Phoebe, and a number of rare prototypes. The vintage displays will also include classic magazines, sure to set those nostalgic flames burning, and software which enthralled, entertained, and educated many users – and even inspired some to go into programming themselves.
Some of those classic computers have been given a new lease of life by enthusiastic users, with modern add-ons and other clever innovations – and there will be a number of these on display as well.
 
The exhibition doesn’t just stop at machines that came directly from the Acorn stable, though – there will also be post-Acorn systems, including the ultra-cheap Raspberry Pi and at the other end of the scale, the ‘slightly pricier’ Titanium – both of which are themselves children of Cambridge.
 
Tickets are only £8 for adults, £7 for over 60s, and £6 for children. This includes access to all the museum’s exhibits featuring mainframe, mini, home computers and games consoles from the past 50 years, plus the Guinness World Record holding MegaProcessor. This is a fund raising event for the museum to help continue their important work preserving and archiving computing history.
 
The Centre for Computing History, Rene Court, Coldhams Rd, Cambridge, CB1 3EW
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/
 
1 comment in the forums

RISC OS London Show 2017

Posted by Jeffrey Lee on 23:30, 12/10/2017 | , ,
 
This year's London Show is due to take place on Saturday the 28th of October, at the usual location of the St. Giles Hotel in Feltham. The show runs from 11 AM to 5 PM, with tickets being £5 at the door (and under-16's free). Exhibitors this year are set to include:The theatre schedule is yet to be finalised, and with the number of new and interesting exhibitors it's anyone's guess who's going to be filling the slots. What are your predictions?
 
For up-to-the-minute show news, remember to check out the show website.
 
1 comment in the forums

RISC OS London Show 2016

Posted by Jeffrey Lee on 21:10, 19/10/2016 | , ,
 
This year's London Show is due to take place on Saturday the 29th of October, at the usual location of the St. Giles Hotel in Feltham. The show runs from 11 AM to 5 PM, with tickets being £5 at the door (and under-16's free). Exhibitors this year are set to include:The theatre schedule is yet to be finalised, but presentations are expected to include CJEInfo, R-CompInfo, ROOL, Sine Nomine Software, and newcomer Ident Computer who are showing off their BBC Micro inspired Raspberry Pi keyboard/case (although if BBC Micro keyboard nostalgia is your thing, there's only really one winner).
 
For up-to-the-minute show news, remember to check out the show website.
 
Comment in the forums

Mysterious new product to be announced at London Show the day before London show

Posted by Jeffrey Lee on 20:30, 23/10/2015 | , , ,
 
In a surprise announcement, ROOL have revealed the existence of "Titanium", a new RISC OS machine based around a dual-core Cortex-A15 SoC. No - it's not CJE's dual-core Cortex A15 IGEPv5 machine - it's an entirely new board design produced by Elesar Limited, and utilising TI's 1.5GHz AM5728 (a cousin of the also-1.5GHz TI OMAP5 used in the IGEPv5). And unlike the IGEPv5 or the Wandboard (as used in R-Comp's ARMX6), which are technically meant to be for embedded or developer/prototyping markets, the Titanium board seems to be aimed squarely at the desktop PC and server markets - it utilises the standard ATX form factor and power connector, has dual DVI video output, dual gigabit Ethernet, four SATA ports, eight USB 2 ports, and even two PCI-E slots.
 
It's unclear exactly how much of the hardware is currently working under RISC OS, apart from SATA, which is called out as using a new version of ADFS developed by Piccolo Systems (previously known for the RISC OS 5 SDFS driver and related disc management utilities). However with the machine launch expected to be only a few weeks away, and with pre-production units being on display at the London Show tomorrow, expect to see much more information about the new machine appear over the next few days.
 
The Titanium board is available to pre-order now through Elesar's website (with choice of RISC OS or Linux as the OS) - however that will only get your the bare board. Users are encouraged to wait for news from CJE and R-Comp, who are both on board with the project (if you pardon my pun) and will be announcing their own plans for fully cased consumer units within the near future (quite possibly at the London Show tomorrow).
 
Also, have we mentioned that it's the London Show tomorrow?
 
6 comments in the forums

ROUGOL & London Show news

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RISC OS London Show 2014 [Updated]

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RISC OS Midsummer MUG Show 2014 - Saturday 12th July

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Wakefield Acorn & RISC OS Show, 26th April 2014

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London show approaches

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Midlands RISC OS Show

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