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Re: Angband variants

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Am Sun, 08 Aug 2021 21:15:18 +0100 schrieb Harriet Bazley:

> On 8 Aug 2021 as I do recall,
>           Sebastian Barthel  wrote:
> 
>> Am Sun, 08 Aug 2021 10:35:07 +0100 schrieb Alan Dawes:
>> 
>> > In article <e1824b5859.harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk>,
>> >    Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> wrote:
>> >> > > Antony Sidwell's site http://ajps.mine.au and its Angband-Kit no
>> >> > > longer seem to exist.
> 
> [snip]
> 
> 
>> > The Wayback Machine search works on the Iris browser on RiscOS but
>> > sadly the ajps site is reported as not archived.
>> 
>> 
>> That's not true !
>> 
>> It is archived - but the name ends with .nu (not .au)
>> 
>> At
>> 
>> <https://web.archive.org/web/20090130011516/http://ajps.mine.nu/
angband/ports/index.htm>
> 
> Nice detective work!
> 
> ... but by crawling around and looking at where those download links
> actually point, I can locate
> https://web.archive.org/web/20070126080114/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/
isparp1/angband/angband-kit.zip
> which *does* exist.  That archive seems to be seriously mangled (the end
> has been chopped off at some point, and there's no way of knowing what's
> missing), but using Infozip:zip -FF I can get a readable version of
> what's left:  version 1.31 of the porting kit as versus Musus' version
> 1.26.    Apparently it features "some 32-bit cleanup by Harriet Bazley",
> which I have to say I don't have any memory of at all, and don't
> remember ever being qualified to do, either!
> 
> By inspection of the actual zipfile I think it's probably only a few
> bytes of the zipfile central directory that got truncated and not the
> actual data as such, since the end of the archive consists of a list of
> filenames.   In fact, by comparison of the download with my 'fixed'
> version I think I can identify exactly where the file got cut off, which
> means there were 9432 bytes missing, all of which consist of filename
> data duplicated in the actual body of the archive.   So that means I've
> now got an entire working copy, with nothing missing save for (by the
> looks of it!) a certain amount of filetype data, which it should be
> possible to deduce from context.
> 
> And it's got the vital main-ros/c file, which creates a functioning RISC
> OS front end application....  (Having seen what happens with the SDL
> version - no offence meant - I'd say that's fairly essential for getting
> RISC OS users to accept the game.)


Sounds pomising. I would also say that a little WIMP aroundings are 
extremly helpful in acceptance. The version I knew had only the 
"mainframe variant" of save included, wich meant on had to use a save 
command from within the games control commands. Since I tried v 3.0.5 
yesterday the comfort has been increased VERY by the inclusion of a save 
dialog an the possibility to use F3 as the "normal" speedsave key. 
Extremley helpful. The other things like iconbar icon and a little menu 
with informations about the authors are essential for RISCOS to get a 
good feeling. E.g. Elite does this too - nobody needs this extra for the 
game, but its much better integrated into the desktop experience.
But the best thing in 3.0.5 has been the option to maximize or at least 
"blow up" the viewport of the game from its normal 40x24 (or so) to a 
much larger view of the dungeon. This gives a massive better game 
overview.
Short: WIMP integeration is a must. And its done already.

I've seen the Mulite module and a ZAPreadraw module. The latter one can 
eventually simply be replaced by a newer variant wich is > ARM7/SA clean 
and usable at the latest machines.


> (Ah, I've just located my contribution:  the BASIC source for the MuLite
> module, "reverse-engineered, bug-fixed and 32-bit-safed by H.Bazley 12th
> May 2003"!   I still have absolutely zero recollection of doing that,
> but it is at least vaguely plausible that I might once have been
> competent to do so.


Thats the point where one should think about his/her consciousness or 
rethink the use of to much beer in the lonesome nights. :)

Green tea is good alternative; 'cause there is a always an alternative.


> All the calls to that module could probably be
> dropped now, since all it does is supply *commands that didn't exist in
> RISC OS 3.1 and 2.)

But it should be kept save - eventually - if(!) anybody can be found who 
is willing to recompile the complete thing, it could be of much use if 
there are some other compiles of newer angband versions >= v4 wich then 
could be made run on older machines too.

 
> Right, I've been through setting all the filetypes by analogy with the
> old version of the toolkit (and a little deduction), and I'm pretty sure
> I've now got what ought to be a working version of the Angband porting
> kit, with its complete instructions for cross-compilation etc.   So
> given the source for an Angband variant circa 2004, a C compiler
> suitable for targeting the modern processors, and a sufficient knowledge
> of C programming, makefiles, etc., it *should* be possible to recompile
> Angband for RISC OS and/or debug the cause of the various weird
> errors...!
> 
> I can put it on my website, though it would be better hosted somewhere
> else.
> http://www.bazleyfamily.co.uk/angband/angband-kit.zip (217Kb)


Together with the last version v 3.0.9 this would be a very good move 
towards a "NEW" game for the new and forthcoming generations RISCOS 
computers.


<https://web.archive.org/web/20200221040230/http://rephial.org/
downloads/3.0/angband-3.0.9-src.tar.gz>


If You have an account at ROOL You eventually could do a new thread with 
links to the angband-kit.zip to v 3.0.9 and to the Quickband Sources. 
With some good luck this will activate somebody who is willing to do the 
(little) conversions and the recompiling.


>> The version I mentioned above and wich had been installed "here" is the
>> topmost - the "Red Dragon" one. This one did fine - ages ago.
>> 
> I had version 3.0.9 from July 2007, which did fine... on the other
> computer!  On the ARMX6 it just gives errors with the terrain definition
> files on the Cortex A9 processor.
> 
> The port on this page (version 3.0.6) crashes in a new and original way
> with a "no writable memory at this address" error, and I have to type
> *Desktop to get back control.  Aemulor makes no difference to either of
> them.

I would give not too much on this kind of errors. Since the ROOL Code 
remodelled the RAM usage (page zero(?)) and especially since the 
exclusion of pre 32Bit programs their are many errors with older 
software. And Aemulor - as good as its existence is for usability of the 
big productive programs - doesn't allow to run all of the older stuff in 
a way one would expect it.


By the way - I used the Angband v 3.0.5 I wrote about on a !RPCEmu with 
RISCOS 3.7 where it could be used in all its flavours. And it took at 
least 2 hours - then I died in the deeper dungeon at Level 3 beeing 
beaten by two big an poisened spider; no Chance; all 37 healthpoints gone 
away in seconds. Too bad. :( ....  ;)

But: the same thing didn't started in RISCOS 5.22 (with and without the 
free Aeomulor module); the RPi test will be done sometimes, but I think it 
will give the same result.

We'll see.


All the best, 
SBn

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Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-07-29 23:52 +0100
  Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-03 19:10 +0100
    Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-07 11:33 +0000
      Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-07 15:12 +0100
        Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-07 19:36 +0100
          Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-07 23:04 +0000
            Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-08 03:06 +0100
              Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-08 19:02 +0000
                Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-08 22:03 +0100
              Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-09 12:54 +0100
          Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-08 00:04 +0000
            Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-08 03:40 +0100
        Re: Angband variants Alan Dawes <alan.dawes@argonet.co.uk> - 2021-08-08 10:35 +0100
          Re: Angband variants Chris Gransden <chrisg@care4free.net> - 2021-08-08 13:38 +0100
            Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-08 16:16 +0100
              Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-19 00:39 +0100
                Re: Angband variants Toronto Backlawn <joe@arthwere.tzq> - 2021-08-21 16:02 +0000
            Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-10 13:05 +0000
              Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-10 14:17 +0000
              Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-10 21:23 +0100
                Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-10 21:11 +0000
                Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-10 23:51 +0100
              Re: Angband variants Chris Gransden <chrisg@care4free.net> - 2021-08-13 16:24 +0100
                Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-13 18:49 +0000
              Re: Angband variants Chris Gransden <chrisg@care4free.net> - 2021-08-13 16:28 +0100
          Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-08 15:55 +0000
            Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-08 21:15 +0100
              Re: Angband variants Sebastian Barthel <naitsabes@freenet.de> - 2021-08-09 12:06 +0000
                Re: Angband variants Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> - 2021-08-09 15:34 +0100

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