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I've written a program in BASIC for the BBC Micro which I also want to run on an Archimedes emulator on a Raspberry Pi . On the Archimedes, the colour palette is different. Is there a command in BBC Basic that will return a unique result for BBC Micro so I can set one set of colours for the BBC and...

It also seems that RISC OS 3 simply doesn't like an A305. This is "a bit weird" since I did test RISC OS 3 on Arculator confugured as an A305, and it's fine there and I had understood that IanS had an A305 with RISC OS 3 running from ArcFlash, but I'm not sure now -- Ian? Has anyone else ...

The keyboard connectors aren't available any more. What I do (and anecodtally others successfully have also done) is replace the connector with a stanadrd 0.1" pin strip, then put these 'Clincher' connectors on the flexi. This also makes it much less scary removing the keyboard the next time y...

Think you’ve got it. IIRC the lower half of the pages were used, upper ignored. There’s an interesting chunk of code in the RISC OS ROM that crunches through the different page size possibilities and determines the layout and memory size at boot up. Expect for multi-MEMC support added in RISC OS 2, ...

Unfortunately there is/was no standard for >1 ‘filecore’ partition under RISC OS, so BITD each IDE interface manufacture created their own different approach to provide multiple partitions, but even now RISC OS 5 doesn’t know about these, so still only looks for (and reads) the first partition. Does...

Is the POSTbox incorrectly setting up a 4kb page size for 512kb, when it should be 8kb? Well: control = (0x036E0000 | os_mode << 12 | sound_dma << 11 | video_dma << 10 | refresh << 8 | high_rom_time << 6 | low_rom_time << 4 | page_size << 2) We pass in page_size = 0 for a 512K machine, setting 4K p...

Is the POSTbox incorrectly setting up a 4kb page size for 512kb, when it should be 8kb?

That ST506 reader looks interesting, and could be ideal, but I really think/hope it should be possible to read from software, if I can get past the first track... The solenoid clunk sounds fine and you can hear the heads move on power-up (sound clip above seems identical to YouTube clips of an ident...

Oh dear, you've voided the warranty now! Oops :wink: with those hidden torx screws they really didn't want anyone getting in...! I am sure you will be able to do a direct disc sector read of the drive using a SYS ADFS_DiscOp loop to retrieve the contents. Should have been clearer above... That's ex...

Ok, so still no luck with this RODIME ST506 HDD. I did take the plunge and pop it open for a peak (in our dust-minimised kitchen!) - but nothing blocking the movement of the heads, and the platters spin freely (photos attached - note the hidden screws under the label). So I've packaged it back up an...

Really interesting detective work Phil!

One question... you said "swapping in one of the 32MB modules sadly hasn't helped" - any thoughts why?

I suppose in the world of disc images it would be impossible to feed it the equivalent of an unformatted disc so perhaps "formatting" an image file has been confined to laying out the filesystem structure Oh yes, very good point - this could be an emulation issue rather than RISC OS 5, de...

Well, it is because when ADFS formats the disc (or is it FileCore formats it?) it only initialises the disc (i.e. puts down the Boot Map, Disc Record, Allocation/Free Space Map, and Root directory) while leaving the rest intact. Interesting, I wonder if this is a RISC OS 5 "feature"? I've...

If those pictures are of your RiscPC, then you have a prototype! Both points you mention are the clues. The PCB issue "B" is a give-away since release versions were numbered. As is the VIDC20 chip in the photo marked "PROTO A USA" - this is not present on the release versions. Do...

There was a welcome guide that explained all the windows stuff... like how to hold a mouse :) http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/Manuals/Acorn_A3000WG.pdf That's the A3000 / RISC OS 2 user guide. I think only the A305/A310/A440 Arthur user guides went into the full details of BAS...

Wow, another mind-bending retro-protection write up! I really like the simplicity of this method, but as others have above, I wonder about ability to mass-produce. When I was (briefly) involved with copy protection on the Archimedes, the requirement was that the system had to be compatible with a di...

I did find that line. I found that even deleting it entirely made no difference [-X Ahh yes the pains of UniBoot... I thought that'd do the trick, but if not, things get more challenging because there are many other places it claims and releases RMA, it even creates a RAM disc for temporary use if ...

From memory...Look in “!Boot.Utils.BootRun”, you’ll find a line stating “AddToRMA 764k” (or similar), try reducing that until the Boot fails, then add back a bit.

...clocked at 26MHz for that little bit faster experience

"Bad screen mode" usually means not enough memory for the screen mode. So 4mb will certainly help, but first try changing to a larger memory screen mode, like MODE15, before starting...which could solve it straight away. Changing mode won't help the sound though. I've not played Dune II fo...

I doubt it would be a fully RISC iX format drive, since RISC OS would hang for a minute each reboot, and with this being the only HDD in the computer, the previous owner would have had to load !RISCiX startup software off a floppy... but not impossible I suppose. From what I've heard about Risc iX,...

There's no chance it's -just- a RiscIX format drive is there? That'd explain why ADFS barfs. The audio sounds better than an ST506 drive I recently got hold of that's working just fine, so don't worry about that. I would strongly advise against opening the drive - the tolerances on an ST506-era dri...

Those are perfectly normal Rodime spin up and spin down noises. As it's been transplanted to a different machine, and the controller is in the machine rather than the drive, it might need reminding of its geometry with a mode select. I don't know how the Archimedes ST506 interface stores the disc g...

Thanks Ian! Just to follow up on this, the software in your zip "adfsread" looks perfect for the job, so I connected everything up ready to give this a go and powered the ST506 drive up for the first time in >20 years... and it sounded OK. Spun up, a few clicks, steady spin speed. :) But i...

Bit of a thread resurrection here, but with a different ST506 drive, related to much of what is discussed above. (And I just realised that I started actually this thread, with a post about my A410/1 ST506 drive - so just to update, I never did get that drive working, but didn't take any drastic step...

I've recently taken possession of two old HDDs from Archimedes - a Connor CP30100 100mb SCSI HDD from an A540 and a ST506 drive from an R140, both in unknown condition, and likely not used in >20 years. My hope was that the discs were in good operational condition and could be reused for a proper ea...

I've also pulled out my "EpromRyter" to check but completely forgot that mine is not an EpromRyter, but the older Epromer II. It is same style as George's EpromRyter in the post here: https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8688 I can measure the voltages, but from above, it ...

Finally got round to doing a compilable disassembly of Electron Exile, and was astonished to find the vertical stripes of code/data down the sides are no such thing ! They're just 'randomish' generated values. Wow. :shock: Not suggesting anything untoward, but as I read this, something in the way y...

Maye not the same thing, but I definitely recall playing Zarch on a very early A310 (or possibly A305) at a friend's house, in 1987... and there was a distinct loud interference buzz through the internal speaker which increased in pitch when the quantity of on-screen graphics reduced - so would have...

Wow, that's a great find!

I've only had a quick peak but spotted a "3.60" directory in there, and a "Morris2" one - can it build any earlier versions, 3.70 or 3.60?