AcornGamez

R Kinton, more widely known as Tank, has produced a module called PCIParallel which works together with PCISerial to provide Parallel_Op SWI's supporting any of several different third party PCI cards for the Iyonix with serial and parallel ports. He has also released a 32-bit version of the Joypad module, which supports a PSX joypad, including the extra buttons and the second joystick.

This is great news for Iyonix gamers! Tank comments that it works well with StarFighter 3000, our favourite game! (Although we're told by the experts that the best way to play StarFighter 3000 is still with the mouse, apparently.)

The software download, and information about suitable PCI cards, is at http://www.tankstage.co.uk/Software/

I am nearing my completion of my !Monopoly theme if anone plays it could you give me tips for the next one.

My map will be on the BOTX website with a link to download the game, this is the first time I have publicly posted about the map.

Games enthusiasts were left wondering, earlier in April, when David Holden "didn't bother to reply to this thread because the solution (even if it were necessary) is self evident".

What was this all about?  Well, the fact it's suggested that RISC OS 6 might not support bank switching or shadow modes.  For many games enthusiasts, this is seen as a major problem.  For David and others, it's a minor historical event.

David, a RISCOS Ltd director, contradicted what had earlier been suggested by ROL's Managing Director Paul Middleton, when he said that "if you really do want to play an old game that (for whatever reason) won't work using RO6 then just hold the 'Z' key at switch on to revert to the 'base' OS. Then play your games."

David went on to say that he knows how much interest there is in older games such as the 4D collections, and indeed has sold some low spec Risc PC systems just for people who already have a modern RISC computer (such as an Iyonix or A9home) but still want to play older games.

There still seems to be some uncertainty about precisely what is not supported in RISC OS 6.  With the operating system itself now rather late, and no-one really sure whether RISC OS 6 is a delayed RISC OS 4 Select, a delayed fix for the A9home, or something else, it's not totally clear if the alleged changes are really a threat to RISC OS gamers or not.

The way forward for RISC OS games still seems to be the use of 3D acceleration and similar technologies.  RISC OS 6 doesn't address these needs, as far as we know - but there are projects for the Iyonix that might take advantage of hardware 3D graphics acceleration in the future.  The AcornGamez news desk will be keeping an eye on events to see what comes out of the various plans...

As you probably know, Acorn Gamez has had a make over and now, a new domain with articles, links including a link to this blog! You can visit it here.

Another brilliant game available for all users to play again. 

Wocki has updated the full version of Nebulus as a disc image on his website, great stuff! It would be nice to get versions of the games that are on his site and the Wocki Acorn Revival CD that will run on real RISC OS machines, including Virtual RiscPC.