Retro Video Gamer

hey guys, I think I may have been too young to truly appreciate the 8bit personal computer love, I had a spectrum etc and my dad had a crazy commodore that he was nuts on but when I was at secondary school we had these awesome Acorn computers, pre windows, they remind me of the Apricot pc my dad bought home one time in the early 90s.

Fondest memories of the Acorns are playing Chaos, Moonquake and lemmings in the corner while the teacher wandered round eyeing up all the fit 15 year old girls in my class lol

I'm pretty sure the Apricot at home ran windows 3.1 but can anyone explain what the Acorns ran? was it a custom operating system? Or archimedes? I know nothing about these old systems as I was too young and far too busy playing games on them !!

anyway lets share the archimedes love!!

The Archimedes was the very first computer to use the ARM RISC chip as a processor that we now find a version of in just about every single mobile device out there! I would be willing to bet your phone has one for a start.

It was a very powerful computer but cost a lot of money so you only really saw them in schools as a replacement to the trusty BBC Micro. When I was at school we had 3 of them along side 15 BBC's and I also knew somebody who owned one too. There was some cool games on it but they were mostly just conversions of stuff I had on my ST.

yeah I think a lot of the games were copies of Atari games, but it was pretty good fun and they had a room full of them at Rickmansworth school when I joined in 1993!! They were Acorns though, is that the same as Archimedes?

Quote from: "dcultrapro"yeah I think a lot of the games were copies of Atari games, but it was pretty good fun and they had a room full of them at Rickmansworth school when I joined in 1993!! They were Acorns though, is that the same as Archimedes?

Yep Acorn Archimedes, they replaced BBC Micro's as the UK school computers some actually had BBC badges on them.

Would have probably been one of these models:

(http://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos/Acorn_A3000_System_2.jpg)

A3000 designed to compete with the ST & Amiga

(http://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos/Acorn_Archi440_System_S1.jpg)

The A4000 designed as a PC competitor

Yeah that 3rd one looks right, i loved those things!! We had bbc machines at my primary school and acorns at secondary until about 96 then we got proper windows pcs.i remember one acorn could run win 95 in the library, it was epic! My first time on the internet... aaah memories lol

I don't remember playing games much on the Beeb, but I used them all the time at school. Mostly programming - I didn't dirty my hands with machine code (which I now regret) but it had a very powerful BASIC. It wasn't the most user-friendly BASIC either - lots of VDU commands to do stuff like UDGs, drawing triangles and the like, but certainly a huge step up from Commodore 64 BASIC which I was lumbered with at home.

The Archimedes I'm a big fan of, too. At our school the head of IT was a huge Acorn fanboy (did fanboys exist back then?) and he bought in loads of Archimedes machines for the computer suite and other rooms around the school. It had a terrific WIMP environment, an improvement over the ST and Amiga in my view, and it was many years before PCs had such an easy-to-use WIMP. Also we did play games on them at lunchtime, mostly Mad Professor Mariarti, Terramex, Zarch and Twin World.

Here's a Youtube video of Twin World, if anyone's interested:

Twin World Acorn Games Video Archive A3010/TV Card (//http)

If I can get my Raspberry Pi (if it ever arrives) running RISC OS5 (if it ever gets ported), I wonder if I'll be able to run some of these old games?

Fred Harris Introduces the Acorn Archimedes BBC A3000 Part 1 (//http)

I never owned one of these, something I aim to change one day. Was there many games?

Quote from: "zapiy"I never owned one of these, something I aim to change one day. Was there many games?

A few but no where near as many as other computers

I only ever saw about a dozen or so, maybe even less, I think the following were the best but I might have the names wrong:

Moonquake
Chaos
Lemmings
Lander (you basically just launch and land a strange looking polygonal shape, the scenary is pretty polygonal etc)
tank (from a first person view you drive around and the graphics were JUST green wire frame)


I actually can't remember any more after that! literally, you could fit all of those games on a floppy disk lol, I remember being one of the few rebels relied on to have them in class lol

The one you called Lander is Zarch, which was released on the Amiga and ST as Virus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALfnZjCiuUQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALfnZjCiuUQ)

that's the badger! I could NEVER figure out how it worked as the game would load and 9/10 the ship would blow up before leaving the ground lol

I always remember playing this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwWXloIzqAg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwWXloIzqAg)

E-Type, a very average Outrun clone.

I only have the poor little Acorn Electron  Nothing as flash as the archimedes

I saw this game recently, I have the Saturn version and had no idea it was originally an Archimedes game! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8yLRZExpJM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8yLRZExpJM)

Shit man that is AWESOME!! What version was that video of? Is that the archimedes one?? thats brilliant, how old is that? is that pre-Saturn/Jaguar? Pretty impressive polygons if it is

Quote from: "dcultrapro"Shit man that is AWESOME!! What version was that video of? Is that the archimedes one?? thats brilliant, how old is that? is that pre-Saturn/Jaguar? Pretty impressive polygons if it is

Yes that is the Arc version! Being played on a very high spec 32-bit A7000.

The first version came out in 1994 so just after the release of the Jag and just before the Saturn, which of course got a version of that game too.

Yeah I remember this wen it came out being quite a big thing for the AA though of course not big enough to save it, funny enough where I work someone sent a phone in for repair in an old Starfighter 3000 box about 3 weeks ago!

The 3do version wasnt bad too, liked the way you could fire at the ground at it would set alight!

I would love one after seeing this thread. Looks a fantastic bit of kit.

Here is another Acorn Archimedes game I came across that looks bloody good . . . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy6VeQtunoY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy6VeQtunoY)

wow, that looks better than Virtua Racing! nice, and seriously eye opening

Better than VR!?  it looks ok, a cross between Hard Drivin and Stunt car racer! Nothing groundbreaking by the looks, good for the Archi though.

well yeah, VR has a lot of inconsistent textures or maybe its the draw distance, that game Laird showed seems pretty solid and the polygons are pretty clean... still it could just be me lol

Quote from: "dcultrapro"well yeah, VR has a lot of inconsistent textures or maybe its the draw distance, that game Laird showed seems pretty solid and the polygons are pretty clean... still it could just be me lol

Ah well I took 'looks better' as a whole game itself not just looks, if you are just comparing looks then VR may have a bit of pop up which was quite common in 1991-92 but then you could say it looks better than Daytona which also has popup but it obviously doesn't compare graphically at all!
VR on the Megadrive, now that's more of a comparison!

I didn't realise Virtua Racing was 92, I thought it was about 94/95! So when did Archimedes start making polygonal titles then? I knew that VR was one of the first if not THE first polygonal game in history, but then I thought it came out later than 92 as I said so I started thinking maybe some of these Archimedes games were older... all gets a little confusing lol

Quote from: "dcultrapro"I didn't realise Virtua Racing was 92, I thought it was about 94/95! So when did Archimedes start making polygonal titles then? I knew that VR was one of the first if not THE first polygonal game in history, but then I thought it came out later than 92 as I said so I started thinking maybe some of these Archimedes games were older... all gets a little confusing lol

Far from it. There were loads of polygon games before VR. Atari were a big pioneer of polygons, such as the arcade game I Robot from 1983.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmvWxG2zvs8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmvWxG2zvs8)

The Acorn Archimedes is 25 years old this month. The first machines based on the company's ARM (Acorn Risc Machine) processor were announced in June 1987, the year after the 32-bit chip itself was launched.

FULL STORY! (//http)

They were good computers, though trouble was they were too expensive for gaming, well until the A3010 arrived at the end of 92, but even that was still £500 and obviously the Amiga and ST had the cheaper computer sector covered by that point, there is a few interesting exclusives for it, but most were just 16bit ports and it didn't get enough 3rd party support and died an early death, shame really.

Here's another good example of a 3D game on the Arc:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9isahgcuHdU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9isahgcuHdU)

I may have to watch out for one of these, could easily fool the wife into thinking its a pc. Lol.

I posted this in modern gaming too but a group of guys have just converted an old Arc game to the Xbox 360:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB1yxW6BRw4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB1yxW6BRw4)

looks wicked, I think I remember that game! what's it called again? is it out yet?

Quote from: "dcultrapro"looks wicked, I think I remember that game! what's it called again? is it out yet?

On the Arc it was called Cataclysm.

Its out on 360 though yes, my brother has it.

This looks like a lot of fun. 
I tried finding it on XBLA but had no luck. I'm assuming it's in the indie section?
Is this only in the UK or am I just blind?

Quote from: "Shadowrunner"This looks like a lot of fun. 
I tried finding it on XBLA but had no luck. I'm assuming it's in the indie section?
Is this only in the UK or am I just blind?

Pretty sure it's in the indie section as my brother downloaded it when he was round here a few weeks back, maybe it is UK only but that would be a little strange. Ask in the XBLA thread in modern gaming here, somebody might be able to help more.

Just saw the thread over in modern gaming.
I was looking for Cataclysm, now I see it's actually called Aqualibrium.
Woops. 
That should make it easier to find. LOL

Quote from: "Shadowrunner"Just saw the thread over in modern gaming.
I was looking for Cataclysm, now I see it's actually called Aqualibrium.
Woops.  ;)

At my old secondary school they were used in the CDT block.  They had a CAD program on them.  Plus, there was a word processing program.  There was a plotter hooked up to them(via those printer switchboxes) and several dot matrix printers. 

Enough of the serious stuff though, they did get used for games.  The CDT teacher used to get an Archie magazine with a coverdisk.  Loads of demos on them, and at lunchtime they got played on.  I do remember we played Lemmings and SWIV on them.  We even managed to get the full version of Lemmings for the machines. 

A pretty good gaming machine.  Especially when it took advantage of the ports for the 16 bit machines.  You could get a joystick adapter for it, as well as a model with a TV modulator.

Here is that Arc version of SWIV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IcgqOewerw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IcgqOewerw)

Cheers fella.  Thats a nice looking version..

Pac-Mania on the Arc:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iycn28nA ... re=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iycn28nAetY&feature=related)

Very nice version. It seemed to run smooth.

That is looking good.

Some recommendations I posted over at Stardot:

Aggressor (Side-scrolling shoot-'em-up, requires a little more thought than, say, Contra.)
Conqueror (Zarch/Lander with tanks!)
Mad Professor Mariarti (Side-scrolling platform puzzler.)
Moonquake (Bomberman clone... well, not exactly a clone; it's a bit more rudimentary.)
Chocks Away! (Arcade bi-plane flight sim.)
Cataclysm (It's... a waterfall simulator!)
Fireball II (Arkanoid clone - includes a remix of the Comic Bakery theme tune. )
E-Type (3rd person racing game - more like Out Run than a racing game, actually)
Guile (Lander/Zarch, but with quests. And caves.)
Terramex (Crazy side-scrolling platform puzzler. You get to fly a hoover...)
Pandora's Box (Isometric 3D adventure.)
Aliped (The wing-footed! Platform puzzler.)

You also might want to try Scorpius, which only saw the light of day as a demo. Probably the closest the Archie came to R-Type or Air Buster/Aero Blasters.

Quote from: "Sureshot"You also might want to try Scorpius, which only saw the light of day as a demo. Probably the closest the Archie came to R-Type or Air Buster/Aero Blasters.

Just looked this up, quite impressive but the sprites are a bit big.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw1fnarunoA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw1fnarunoA)

looks awesome! your telling me that would run on an Acorn system? would it have to be modified or anything?

Quote from: "dcultrapro"looks awesome! your telling me that would run on an Acorn system? would it have to be modified or anything?

The Archimedes is a 32-bit RISC based system remember, it was actually the first system to have a RISC chip long before the Atari Jaguar or 3DO. Its CPU is the ancestor of the ARM chips that are now found in just about every mobile device in the world right now. ARM was a part of Acorn and their legacy still lives on today in this respect.

I used to play it on a bog-standard A3000. Archies were powerful machines.

Zool on the Arc:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOy2ljdeMT8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOy2ljdeMT8)

Acorn Archimedes feature from The One:

(http://i.imgur.com/WdLiOMo.jpg?1)(http://i.imgur.com/G62nHGv.jpg?1)

[align=center:22utd06b]A really long video this but a classic blast to the past:

Acorn Computers Ltd - 1987 (//http)[/align:22utd06b]

Very interesting stuff there mate..I'll have booked this for late night screening

oh yes, I have had a 305 with all kind of SDK for about 4000 Eur. finally it was a waste of money because there was no demand for it beside england. I've bought them to be able to port games from Amiga, Atari ST and PC as I've done so far for many titles - but no publisher have had one project for it!

So I played a little bit around watching the impressive speed and gfx/sound capability but as there were no titles available in europe I've sold them finally after 2 years for less.....

[align=center:20xfprpp]A few more Archimedes games in action:

Fireball II (Acorn Archimedes, 1990) (//http)

Apocalypse - Acorn archimedes (//http)

Hero quest - Acorn archimedes (//http)[/align:20xfprpp]

H Guys, we have a RiscPC600 with hardly any software for it. Is their a website where we can download game demo's or games for the RiscPC600?

Pete 

http://www.acorn-gaming.org.uk/index.php3?p=Download/index (//http) hows this pal?

Thanks Zapiy, I'll check it out.

Pete 

Since we started the Amigos podcast, over the course of my research I've found quite a few Amiga games that were ported over to the Acorn Archimedes. Since then, I've become somewhat fascinated by the machine.


Did anyone here own one back in the day? What drove you to purchase one instead of an ST or an Amiga? Did the BBC Micro's connection to schools make it a reliable choice for schools wanting to get into 16 bit systems, and by extension, their students' families?

I know next to nothing about the Acorn, but this thread has some of the info you're looking for. http://www.retrovideogamer.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=328.0


Welcome to the site :)

Perfect, thanks! I did search but didn't find that thread.

Merged, I never owned one, would love to just to experience the games first hard on real hardware.

I was around 14-18 when our school had an IT suite with A3000s in it. Zarch (Virus on the ST and Amiga) was great if little tough, Chocks Away was a decent enough 3D flight sim that could eat into your dinner hour, Lemmings was a decent conversion,  Conqueror was a great tank simulator that was on the Zarch engine I seem to remember getting battered by a King Tiger on that game. Ive just seen it was on the Amiga too but seemed to run far slowed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p04EZboXc5M (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p04EZboXc5M)

E-Type was ok as a racing game, Pacmania was a great conversion of the arcade game, Manchester United a decent football game that appeared on lots of 8bit and 16 bit platforms.

Looking at the Wiki page the system ahd got a decent hit rate when looking how many games were released.

I would of had a A500 with 1MB at the time, the Ark always felt like there was lots of power in the risc based chipset, if was more popular it could of been a really decent games platform.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Acorn_Archimedes_games (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Acorn_Archimedes_games)

That Tank game looks all kinds of awesome.

Woah, that's really cool! I need to see if I can get an emulator up and running...