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    BBC Micro / Acorn Electron Emu

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Ideas and Development
    bbcacornmodel belectronbbc micro
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    • FollyF
      Folly @Lister of Smeg
      last edited by Folly

      @lister-of-smeg

      Nice job !

      If you want to, you can also use some of my svg's.
      Electron is in there too. (but it's from the carbon theme)

      https://github.com/FollyMaddy/es-theme-mamedev-carbon

      Lister of SmegL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • Lister of SmegL
        Lister of Smeg @Folly
        last edited by

        @folly
        Thanks for the offer - themes are getting tricky with so many new systems being added
        which brings me nicely to - the acorn atom. Hoglet released a version of atomulator called Optima for the pi.
        I couldn't get it to compile but there was a release binary V4 that just works (it does include some software on an emulated eMMC so i'm not sure about posting a link? - but it is from the usual acorn forum)
        I'll try to spend some time playing over the next couple of days to see if it's worth bothering with

        optima_1210705_201612.png optima_1210705_203105.png

        FollyF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • FollyF
          Folly @Lister of Smeg
          last edited by Folly

          @lister-of-smeg

          Well perhaps I can compile.
          Will have a look this week.

          Edit :

          It's possible to compile !
          Download the source from and extract :
          https://github.com/hoglet67

          Go into the src directory of the Atomulator source.
          Do :

          make -f Makefile.linux
          

          The binary will be placed next to the windows exe binary.
          ( 1 directory up )

          Lister of SmegL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Lister of SmegL
            Lister of Smeg @Folly
            last edited by Lister of Smeg

            @folly
            got it compiled! - - ?why don't they put a Makefile.linux in the linux versions?
            this is not an easy machine to use :( - it's not bad with the emmc just some of the keymappings seem off

            at best I could see this as a 'curiosity' maybe in retropie's ports section - i'm guessing the user would have to find the eMMC files for themselves

            certainly a 'niche' machine
            here is the precompiled version I found in the forum - i've removed the software from the mmc folder but recommend you find Atom Software Archive V11 and add it back in - this gives a more 'out of the box' experience
            then again, as a system, maybe it's just not meant for retropie?
            https://www37.zippyshare.com/v/bKj7nOKo/file.html

            FollyF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • FollyF
              Folly @Lister of Smeg
              last edited by Folly

              @lister-of-smeg said in BBC Micro / Acorn Electron Emu:

              @folly
              got it compiled! - - ?why don't they put a Makefile.linux in the linux versions?

              Compiled ! That's nice !
              Don't know.

              this is not an easy machine to use :( - it's not bad with the emmc just some of the keymappings seem off

              Indeed, never grew up with Acorn machines.
              New for me too.
              This one seems quite odd when having the first look at it.

              at best I could see this as a 'curiosity' maybe in retropie's ports section - i'm guessing the user would have to find the eMMC files for themselves

              I don't think it belongs in a port section.
              It's just a regular emulator.

              certainly a 'niche' machine
              here is the precompiled version I found in the forum - i've removed the software from the mmc folder but recommend you find Atom Software Archive V11 and add it back in - this gives a more 'out of the box' experience
              then again, as a system, maybe it's just not meant for retropie?
              https://www37.zippyshare.com/v/bKj7nOKo/file.html

              I think the binary is now obsolete.
              Is there any difference with the compiled file ?
              You can compare with sums, for example :
              sha1sum <file>
              If the sums for both files are the same then there is no difference.

              Will try to find the software.
              Hope I can load some but I am not so sure yet ;-)

              Lister of SmegL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Lister of SmegL
                Lister of Smeg @Folly
                last edited by

                @folly
                the file sizes are different
                'Atom Software Archive V11' should get you all you need
                shift + f12 to load the menu
                < & > to navigate

                the binary is not without issues - launching from terminal gives
                'pi@retropie:~$ /home/pi/Programs/atomulator/Atomulator
                Atomulator: /home/pi/allegro-5.1.8/addons/font/text.c:298: al_get_font_line_height: Assertion `f' failed.
                Aborted'
                yet double clicking on the binary launches straight into full screen

                a private message function would be useful for the forum

                FollyF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • FollyF
                  Folly @Lister of Smeg
                  last edited by Folly

                  @lister-of-smeg

                  Ok, thanks.

                  Found it :
                  First game on the Atom :
                  SCREEN.png

                  Lister of SmegL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Lister of SmegL
                    Lister of Smeg @Folly
                    last edited by

                    @folly
                    :D
                    surreal to think that the basic for the atom was written by Sophie Wilson who went on to design the first arm processor
                    It's a bit like the pi is having it's great grandparents round to visit

                    FollyF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • FollyF
                      Folly @Lister of Smeg
                      last edited by Folly

                      @lister-of-smeg

                      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Wilson
                      https://hackaday.com/2018/05/08/sophie-wilson-arm-and-how-making-things-simpler-made-them-faster-more-efficient/

                      I did know some stuff but learned some history too !

                      Lister of SmegL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • Lister of SmegL
                        Lister of Smeg @Folly
                        last edited by Lister of Smeg

                        @folly
                        don't know if you've seen this, but it outlines acorn's history and rivalry with Sinclair in an entertaining docu-drama

                        btw
                        i'm currently trying to get arculator (acorn archimedes) to compile
                        https://github.com/sarah-walker-pcem/arculator
                        I think it should work but I keep getting errors (currently reinstalling wxWidgets to see if that fixes it)
                        nope - building still fails

                        wx-hd_new.cc:82:17: error: 'uint8_t' was not declared in this scope
                                         uint8_t sector_buf[512];
                                         ^
                        wx-hd_new.cc:82:25: error: expected ';' before 'sector_buf'
                                         uint8_t sector_buf[512];
                                                 ^
                        wx-hd_new.cc:84:24: error: 'sector_buf' was not declared in this scope
                                         memset(sector_buf, 0, 512);
                                                ^
                        Makefile:1395: recipe for target 'arculator-wx-hd_new.o' failed
                        make[1]: *** [arculator-wx-hd_new.o] Error 1
                        make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/pi/Desktop/arculator-master/src'
                        Makefile:398: recipe for target 'all-recursive' failed
                        make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
                        
                        

                        i'll try again later with a 'fresh head'

                        FollyF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • FollyF
                          Folly @Lister of Smeg
                          last edited by Folly

                          @lister-of-smeg

                          I installed wxWidgets with :

                          sudo apt install libwxgtk3.0-dev
                          

                          It doesn't complain about wx but it does complain about undefined reference to.
                          So I can't compile right now.

                          Edit :
                          In the stardot thread "Arculator v2.0 released!" they refer to an other fork, as sarah didn't update some things :
                          https://github.com/pdjstone/arculator

                          I compiled succesfully !

                          RiscOS311.png

                          Lister of SmegL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • Lister of SmegL
                            Lister of Smeg @Folly
                            last edited by Lister of Smeg

                            @folly
                            same here :D - I tried again with the buster image I was testing b-em with and used the source at https://github.com/pdjstone/arculator
                            ./configure --enable-release-build
                            make

                            then ./arculator to run.

                            added the 3.1.1 roms and It lives! . . . but only at 60% speed on pi3b+

                            not sure how to run floppies yet - but progress is progress (the windows version has a gui for this)
                            i'm tired
                            ** 'The menu is a pop-up menu in the Linux port. Right-click on the main window when mouse is not
                            captured.' 'readme-linux was a big hint
                            OK - very nice emulator - just slow on a pi3b+
                            from the forum it appears there is currently no way to launch a config and game via commands, but if you are happy to run from desktop and have a pi4 - could be good
                            2021-07-08-204149_1824x984_scrot_cr.png

                            *not related in any way but RPCEmu compiles easily and runs riscos 3.7 well enough (not compatible with archimedes software)
                            source, extras and instructions on this site http://www.marutan.net/rpcemu/index.php#downloads

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • R
                              retrofan
                              last edited by retrofan

                              Nice progress guys, well done!
                              I just installed this b-em allegro4 version with Folly's script and it works fine through ES, but I have no sound.
                              I tried to uninstall / reinstall but still no sound.
                              Pi 3+, latest fresh retropie installation, log file doesnt show anything wrong.
                              Btw, is there a way to start this emulator directly from the command line, without using ES, since it has its own internal menu and file browser?
                              In the meantime i try to compile this b-em v2.2 under standard latest Raspbian Buster distro and everything works fine, including sound.
                              Or maybe theres possibilities to run under faster GL driver ?
                              It seems that some of demanding Master games, like Prince of Persia or SCR, have some stuttering in sound playback, without frame skipping.
                              For now, i am struggling to get sound in both ways with retropie... Any hint, maybe ?

                              FollyF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • FollyF
                                Folly @retrofan
                                last edited by Folly

                                @retrofan

                                No sound, problematic.
                                Do you have no sound on both HDMI and AV-jack with b-em ?
                                Do you have sound in emulationstation and on what port ?

                                As I run RetroPie on top of a Desktop-enviroment I switch my output in the Desktop.
                                Then both work in the Desktop or when I boot emulationstation from the cli (booted into cli).
                                If I try to change my audio device from within emulationstation then it will not work.
                                So it can have something to do with this setting, but really not sure.

                                See what happens if you use raspi-config for selecting the audio port, this works for me too.

                                sudo raspi-config
                                
                                Lister of SmegL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • Lister of SmegL
                                  Lister of Smeg @Folly
                                  last edited by

                                  @folly @retrofan
                                  hi,
                                  I have both a working and non-working image which i'm trying to compare with each other (pi3b+ same kernels - both uptodate)
                                  config.txt is the same - any ideas where other audio settings are stored so I can have a look at those and maybe get to the bottom of this?

                                  FollyF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • FollyF
                                    Folly @Lister of Smeg
                                    last edited by Folly

                                    @lister-of-smeg

                                    When I use raspi-config the settings are changed in the file :
                                    /home/pi/.config/pulse/XXXXXXXXXXXX-default-sink
                                    Containing :

                                    alsa_output.platform-bcm2835_audio.analog-stereo
                                    

                                    or :

                                    alsa_output.platform-bcm2835_audio.digital-stereo
                                    

                                    The audio icon in the Desktop writes and reads from the same file.
                                    So this is presumably pulseaudio.

                                    When I peek into /usr/bin/raspi-config the alsa audio configs, if using alsa, are presumably stored in :
                                    /home/pi/.asoundrc
                                    But I don't have that file on my OS.

                                    Here are my outputs of some commands to detect audio setting or hardware (I extracted these commands from raspi-config)

                                    pi@raspberrypi:~ $ pacmd list-sinks | grep -e index -e alsa.name
                                      * index: 0
                                    		alsa.name = "bcm2835 HDMI 1"
                                        index: 1
                                    		alsa.name = "bcm2835 Headphones"
                                    
                                    pi@raspberrypi:~ $ aplay -l
                                    **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
                                    card 0: b1 [bcm2835 HDMI 1], device 0: bcm2835 HDMI 1 [bcm2835 HDMI 1]
                                      Subdevices: 4/4
                                      Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
                                      Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
                                      Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
                                      Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
                                    card 1: Headphones [bcm2835 Headphones], device 0: bcm2835 Headphones [bcm2835 Headphones]
                                      Subdevices: 4/4
                                      Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
                                      Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
                                      Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
                                      Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
                                    

                                    I checked also in the RetroPie-Setup :

                                    • Configuration / tools
                                      • audiosettings

                                    Then I can see that the default for me is on ALSA which is wrong I think.
                                    You can enable pulseaudio also in there, but this doesn't seem to work.
                                    After setting pulseaudio it keeps saying ALSA as default and the settings don't seem to change.

                                    Lister of SmegL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • Lister of SmegL
                                      Lister of Smeg @Folly
                                      last edited by Lister of Smeg

                                      @folly
                                      thanks for looking
                                      my non working install was missing 'alsa_output.platform-bcm2835_audio.digital-stereo' from /home/pi/.config/pulse/XXXXXXXXXXXX-default-sink
                                      (just a blank file)
                                      added the line and rebooted but still no audio

                                      the commands on the non working install give the same results as you have listed
                                      tried setting pulse audio to default, but still no sound

                                      went to RetroPie-Setup Configuration / tools
                                      audiosettings mixer - pressed 'M' so that '00' was displayed at the bottom of the volume bar and that seems to get sound working (still have the 'failed to find mixer...' message)
                                      @retrofan could you have a look at your setup and see if any of the above helps?
                                      (i've previously tried unmuting that volume bar so perhaps it was the missing line in /home/pi/.config/pulse/XXXXXXXXXXXX-default-sink
                                      that was preventing sound from working on my setup at least)
                                      thanks again folly - I was ready to start again with a fresh install on that sd card

                                      R FollyF 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • R
                                        retrofan @Lister of Smeg
                                        last edited by

                                        @Folly @lister-of-smeg

                                        I checked the audio settings in raspi-config, everything looks normal, HDMI 1 is set as the default, but I don't have a pulse folder in "/home/pi/.config/" at all !?
                                        Sound effects in the ES menus are present, but no sound in the emulator.
                                        Also, I tried my retropie image with b-em pico version and worknig sound, but again there is no sound with this allegro4 version.
                                        Very strange, at first glance everything looks fine, I literally just added Folly's script to scriptmodules/emulators and successfully installed, didn't change anything else.

                                        Lister of SmegL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • FollyF
                                          Folly @Lister of Smeg
                                          last edited by Folly

                                          @lister-of-smeg

                                          Nice to hear my information helped you to get the sound.

                                          audiosettings mixer - pressed 'M' so that '00

                                          Btw. If you use this command it will do the same :

                                          alsamixer
                                          

                                          @retrofan
                                          Which retropie image are you using ?

                                          Perhaps we can find a solution in this thread :
                                          https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/26628/audio-issues-after-latest-raspbian-updates-june-2020

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • Lister of SmegL
                                            Lister of Smeg @retrofan
                                            last edited by

                                            @retrofan
                                            it's certainly a weird issue - folly's script is absolutely fine
                                            what I don't understand are the differences seen with the pulse audio and missing files
                                            my 'newest' image was downloaded and updated only a week ago - b-em-allegro4 just worked
                                            have you tried updating via command line with sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade ?

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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