I bought 4 of these from a school 10 years ago - I kept one. In the 90s I spent ages writing a filled polygon drawing routine on this in Arm assembler. The machine was so good, I optimised this (with some tricks to reduce the processor branching) to 1 pixel per microsecond (8 clock cycles). I prefer this shape arch as it is similar to 80s home micros and I still have Acorn BBC micro that mostly I learnt to program on. Like many UK teens this set me up for a career in programming
Nice video. Some of my favourites are not here so a shout out to: Saloon Cars Deluxe (and the original) Chocks Away Interdictor Dreadnoughts Manchester United Manchester United Europe Chopper Force Break 147 James Pond Going for Gold You did include Superior Golf and Fireball II which I liked a lot. Missing also was Lander which was a wierd game but not a big favourite. Great memories! Most people only saw these at school but my parents thought the educational value would outweigh the Amiga which was more of a gaming machine so we had an A3000 at home.
Love your videos man! Nice, in depth reviews with not too much information overload. I never had an Acorn as they weren't too common here in Ireland. Blown away by starfighter; although low-poly it actually looks quite nice for a game of it's time. Serious respect for the gamedevs who worked on systems like these. Makes Unity/Windows game developers like myself look like amateurs!
Wow, talking about key mapping, it reminds me of the old Q,A,O,P,Space map that most Spec/Amstrad/C64 games had.. lol. That 3D Tank game reminds me of the BattleZone arcade game, man I loved that as it had proper tank style controls of left track and right track sticks...
Cannon Fodder was great, as was Mad Professor Mariati. Also, game name drops: Fervour, Big Bang, Arkanoid, The Dungeon, Chopper Force, Risky Game. All great games.
Ahh the memories. Starfighter 3000 was revolutionary. In the same level you would go from destroying an orbiting space station to dive-bombing back through the atmosphere to dog fight around low-poly mountains. The "F" Buttons also allowed you to switch camera, even to follow the missiles you had fired to watch them hit home whilst you boosted back into the atmosphere. I managed to pick up an ancient PC version of it on ebay a few years ago but didn't manage to get it running sadly. Bug Hunter! - Never completed it but there where levels where you eventually made it into space. E-type - Not just you, those mouse controls where that bad. Mad Professor - Amazing game, you had to learn the levels and a silly mistake could ruin your whole run. Trick was to not upgrade your spanners until you could afford the laser gun. I think you also make it into space with this game too. There was a lot of Space with the Risc OS machines...
There needs to be a proper top list of the best games on the Archimedes. There are actually tons of amazing games such as Stunt Racer 2000 (a very smooth Race Drivin' clone). Lander remains amazing and I remember playing Cannon Fodder in the IT room once. But people tend only to remember the games they played. I was at my dad's school and shut in a room and given some discs to play with including Pacmania and E-Type. It's not the E-Type in this video or any I can find on the internet though. It was a very close Out Run clone with stripey road and some columns tunnels you go through all running really fast and smooth, and a good looking car sprite I think it was in green and squarely from the back. Maybe I'm imagining it... Oh yes and the classic Chocks Away. PS. I like the fragrant stealing of the Blockbuster buzzing in sound.
I had an Acorn - an A310 upgraded to 33Mhz. Loved watching your games! I enjoyed star fighter 3000 very much. Very nostalgic. Kudos for doing this video!
I had a Archimedes A310, I did buy a new MEMC1a chip (memory controller) because demos and some games did lag a little. Later I actually owned a A3010. It was amazing. Today I do own Acorn A4 laptop and RiscPC 600 with StrongARM chip. Both work great. I never knew Populous and Speedball had come out for Acorn. That was new. But I did play Chuck Rock a lot, mostly for the intro which was hilarious. I also did own a few Amiga systems. Amiga had more games but software quality was significantly better on the Acorn. The software we had was even today quite awesome. Like !Poster, I wish I had it today. Illustrator is way to expensive and complicated to do the things we did in !Poster. !ArtWorks and word processing was just million miles from the Amiga, and the speed of these machines when you did not need a floating point co-processor was simply mindblowing. Loved these machines.
Back in the day, all of our secondary school computers were Archimedes 3010s. We had a really cool teacher who would pirate the newest games and install them on the hard drives for us to play before school started and during our lunch breaks. I've got many a fond memory of playing Speedball 2, Mad Professor Mariarti, Repton, Virus and Manchester United...but it always seemed to me that Archimedes entire library was made up of nothing but Amiga ports or crummy homebrew.
Gorm was amazing, and really well designed, and funny. I got most of the way to doing a JavaScript port of it (the original was BBC BASIC) but then real life got in the way. I still think it deserves a wider audience.
Hold on, I read that wrong the first time around! I thought you had put that was one of your favorites not that you had made the game. Do you still have the rights to it? It would be great to see it come out on a mobile device. I remember Dick Spanner, it reminded me a lot of Round the Bend, if you remember that show?
Hi, yes I have the rights, thanks to the nice people at Minerva Software. I wrote these games when I was 16. Been doing other stuff since but now coming back round to writing games again. Planning iOS/Android versions of Bug Hunter to come out next year. Got something else I'm working on first; a puzzle game. Anyway thanks for the video, its nice that people remember games for so long!
I was fortunate to have access to an Arch in the late 80s - I did some arm assembly programming for polygon drawing on it. I was proud to get it optimised to 1 million pixels per sec fill rate!
Amazed you've never met another person who's heard of this system, at school classrooms were full of them, and on the weekends me and a friend would spend hours playing games on his machine at home.
I remember a game that we used to play in primary school. no idea what it was called, but i remember specifically to solve pretty much all puzzles you had to draw shapes. one puzzle in particular involved drawing a diamond to fit into a slot. there was another puzzle , which in a sense worked like tetris. we had to draw blocks of different shapes and sizes as they dropped into a container. I think it was all set in a jungle-like environment.
+David J ...that sounds strangely familiar, with the drawing part of the game did you have to click to place a to create points which automatically generated a line between the two, or was it more of a drag and draw sort of thing? In my head I have dotted lines.
well, I dont remember a lot, but I think we had to put in numbers designating the angles and then the computer would create the shapes. I think there was a temple or jungle setting to the game. that makes sense to me, as I certainly recall the bit with drawing shapes to fill a container was up in a jungle tree or similar.
We used to have these computers in our school 🇬🇧 games I remember Lemmings Gravity Moon quake Sheep race Super 8 pool Pipe mania James pond Lotus racing Plus others Many more I can’t remember lol
Populous is a good game, and Populous II is even better. I really recommend grabbing a copy of the manual and following the tutorial section while playing a normal game. Don't use the tutorial game option, it runs way too fast. For those who don't want to read the manual, here's how to play in a nutshell; You play a god and in order to win, your followers have to wipe out the other god's followers. You get more followers by flattening the land so that your people can settle on it. Sink rocks into the water to get rid of them. The larger the area of land you flatten, the larger a settlement your people will build. Larger settlements are better defended and turn out stronger followers, but take longer to produce people. Smaller settlements are weaker, turn out weaker followers, but work faster. If you have a large settlement, you can temporarily raise a piece of land to reduce the settlement size and force it to produce a follower, although they will be weaker than if you waited. You can only raise/lower ground if it's near your people. To move your people to a specific area, you place the Papal Magnet, then tell your people to go to it. You can only place the PM if you have a leader. If the leader dies, the PM is placed where he died. If that happens, the first person to reach the PM becomes the new leader. You can also tell your people to merge to make them stronger. The more followers you have, the more power you have. Once you have enough power, you can scroll over to the enemy's land and inflict disasters like earthquakes on him. Be careful with floods though, they flood the whole map and can kill your people if they're on low ground. You can also turn your leader into a knight and send him rampaging through the enemy's land. So, flatten land so your people can settle and multiply, use disasters to reduce the enemy population and when you have enough followers send them into enemy territory and tell them to fight. If you have enough energy you can cast Armageddon which starts an all out battle between the two sides.
I've never actually made a video. I don't have any screen capture software and I refuse to be one of those people who points a video camera at the screen. Also, I don't have any real editing software for adding captions and voice-overs to videos.
My dad bought an Acorn 5000 and E-Type was one of the few games on it, I am now 41, but have never been as good at a game as I was on E-Type. I remember a primary school Fete they had it running where you would pay to play (Im sure it was 2p or something ridiculous!). I sat down and did the course at full speed on mouse with no crashes, and people were amazed. I still game and am mostly awful-medium at best, my dad still has his A5000 stored under his bed and I am tempted to get it out and crack out some E-Type. Would be interested to see if I remember any of the courses etc.
As much as i loved 4th Dimension games but i can not stand their "simple" arcade racing games. But i loved "Stunt Racer 2000" which is missing in this video, isn't it?
Starfighter 3000, I only had the demo, but I played it to death! Some other games I loved on it, Pandoras Box, Saloon Cars Deluxe, Chocks Away, Flashback and Grievously Bodily 'Arm which I wasnt allowed for a long time, then I think I got free on some Acorn User or Archimedes world. It was hard!! Well from my memory
Growing up I went from BBC Micro to the Archimedes and then the A320, before we finally gave up and got a windows PC. So many games and memories across both, stuff I would love to see or play again. Trying to stick to the Arc though, games I remember loving off the top of my head include Apocalypse, Chocks Away, Blitz and Twin World. You should definitely revisit Repton 3 as it is genuinely one of the best puzzle games you'll ever play, and if memory serves White Magic is more than a Gauntlet clone and worth another look.
Thundermonk was the only game I remember seeing on the Arch, had an old BBC Model B so enjoyed seeing Acorn doing well, even though I'd moved on to Amigas by then. Games on the Arch seemed really hit or miss, but in terms of raw power it pissed all over most Amigas
Starfighter on 3do has crazy render distance. And has nice textures. Starfighter on windows 95 looks like the saturn and ps1 version but plays as smooth as 2000 on the acorn. 3do Probably displays the graphics so well because the 3do has the same architecture as the acorn. It has an ARM Processor.
Arc Elite. Recognised as the best version Apocalypse Thats 2 of the top of my head. In my book they are fantastic machines. Still use the OS on a Raspberry PI 2. Good video Would love to see the 3010 vs amiga 1200 with common games 2d and 3d
My Primary school had 6 Acorn A3000 computers in the 1990s, all I knew at the time is that it was some odd computer that wasn't Windows or Mac. They were still there in 2001 even after the school got Acer PCs in the computer lab in 1998. I guess they were good for word processing.
10:40 Dude, that's not just some random "wireframe tank game!" That's a pretty authentic looking Battlezone port. Battlezone is a classic Atari made vector coin-op. Somehow, the game was also used by the army for tank training allegedly.
My school had a few of these knocking about and my form tutor had a small stack of games for it. One of them was a weird, licensed Crystal Maze game which I thought was brill.
ahaha Mad Professor Moriarty, I had totally forgotten what that game was called, my mate had an acorn when we were in primary school, it took us ages to complete. Nice one.
It was a shame that the a3000 never got any support from developers. Technically the A3000 was better than the Amiga and Atari ST. In fact the descendant of the CPU is used in the Raspberry Pi, iPhone etc....
Interesting, StarFighter 3000 is obviously a progenitor to StarFighter on the 3DO/Saturn/PS1. I had no idea there was a prior game... looks like I'll be going down that rabbit hole for the next little bit!
I hadn't finished watching that segment, haha! For the record, the Saturn version is absolutely terrible. 3DO is oddly the best, but the PS1 version is pretty much just as good, just obviously a conversion. I've never even heard of a PC version, so now I'm intrigued there as well! I always loved this on the 3DO... played for hours!
Did you ever get the chance to play a full version of Rick D? if its only a demo on the Arc there are full versions of both the original and the sequel for the Amiga, Atari ST, Spectrum, Amstrad and Commodore 64 and possibly other systems as well.
Some good memories there. Links ( I thinkit was called) was a good golf game. Chuck Rock, Populous, Mad Prof Moriarty, Super 8 and Twin Worlds were the best games I can remember playing on this cpu. Does anyone remember an art program on this cpu called Atelier or something. It did alien backgrounds if you added certain figures/numbers. It also had a part where it could turn bottles inside out or something?
loads of games there that I'd forgotten about wowsers ... although I DO recommend Repton 3 (and the whole Repton family for that matter) Repton Infinity anyone?
This video was very remniscent of my childhood. One's I'd add: Cannon Fodder, Apocalpyse, Lander, Sensible Soccer, Inertia, Chuck Rock, James Pond, Holed Out! (Golf) and Zool. Man I played Mad Professor Mariarty so many times! Pretty sure we got ours cloned on a floppy disk from my mate's older brother across the road. He had copying games worked out! Populous... I had that game worked out at 8 years old. Its not that hard! Flatten, flatten, flatten. Build, upgrade - as fast as you can (it got pretty reflexive). Build loads of knights to fuck stuff up. Earthquake or flood the other lot. For E-type, i wonder if the emulation was off. It wasn't too bad once you got the hang of it.
Would have sold my sole as a kid in when the Arc came out, I loved zarch! aka Virus on 16bit amiga ST ect. ay buy one new (Regret selling my BBC B) Any ideas for a good place to buy a mint Arc? thanks great video
Great video. I'm new to Acorn Archimedes gaming. Trying to track down a copy of Descent, but can't find anything on eBay or even a youtube video. Any suggestions?
it's a tough one to track down! I have been looking for a copy of star fighter 3000 with no prevail. The easiest option of course is to get do it the old piracy way, either buy a floppy drive or a 1.2gb hard drive and pre load everything. Though I am a fan of legitimate copies, I think it would be down to blind luck finding any software, if you are in the UK you will be aware of carboot sales and charity shops, always a good place worth checking!
I am late to this party clearly! Me and my brother had an Archimedes and it was a great Computer for its time! Had the best version of Elite aswell. There was also a game I can remember that I have seen here called Imogen I think which was a puzzle based platformer in which you could morph into different characters pending on the puzzle, like a monkey where a rope is. Also Boffin, but I think that was BBC Master Compact?
Please please please tell me you can find and video you playing my old favourite game Boogy Buggie, I used to love it. So hard to find any footage on the Internet! Great video by the way!
I always found it odd how garish Archimedes games were. Especially given how generally well done ST and Amiga were shading wise even with less colours.
I always thought the Archimedes was some sort of Atari ST... something that lived in the shadows of the Amiga and had no redeeming qualities. It appears I was shamefully wrong! Time to look for some Archimedes videos and see how Raspberry Pi emulation looks. :) Thanks for the video!
Alright, I have this system on my Hyperspin but cant seem to find the bios for the emulator.. could you possibly supply a link or mega upload your setup? I have over 200 systems setup, if u need anything, cheers
Thank you so much for making this video. I've been trying to scout if this system has any worthwhile exclusives. Acorn seems to be a very elusive system, it's easier to find english footage&info of X68000 and its games than about this system. So, are there any stand out games you can't find from any other system (that aren't completely forgettable and mediocre)? Star Fighter got ported to other systems. Edit: Forgot to say: I like your style. Nice concise analysis and some funny moments here and there.
+90sgamer92Eng thank you very much for the comment matey. it's such a strange system the Acorn, mainly because I don't know anyone else that has ever owned one, even people that used to come round to mine to play it don't remember it. It was never exclusive heavy from what I remember, there is one game that I used to love that I could not get to work for the life of me, and I'm buggered if I can remember the name of it. You played as a ball in space and you moved forward over a track made of intermittent squares trying not to fall through and die. I will find out what it is called, I know there is one RU-vid video of it circulating. Edit: The game is called Fervour ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-misN2jbpo1Y.html
Oh that looks nice, I know a similar but more advanced Super Monkey Ball-esque game where you control a marble's momentum and try to steer it away from pitfalls (Marble Blast Ultra). I guess I might cover Fervour if I ever make a video on arcadey puzzle games like that, though if you could never get it to work on an emulator, it's unlikely that I will. And since the system goes for 200+ pounds, I likely wont buy a real unit either, I'd rather use the space and money on a system with more exclusives.
I am assuming Starfighter did not run as well on real HW as on this emulator, if it did then damn that's impressive, and I though Guardian on the Amiga 1200 looked good.
I had Amigas at home but Acorns' 3D always blew me away. It was so high fps. There were just a few games that showed how insanely powerful the Archimedes was. Frustrating that it didn't have many devs taking advantage of it fully. :/ Chocks away, Zarch, and some space shooter that I cant remember the name of (so frustrating!) all seemed a bit crazy at the time.
I'm curious, what emulator are you using? I've downloaded a few different ones, including copies of Virtual Acorn, but I never did much with them. Enigma - This is a clone of the Taito game Puzznic. Populous - You can find copies of the manual online (any version should do) and the best way to learn to play the game is to follow the tutorial in the manual. However, DO NOT select the tutorial option in the game! For whatever reason, the tutorial game runs at an accelerated rate and you end up losing before you can even figure out what you're doing. The normal game takes place at a much slower pace and allows you to follow the manual tutorial better. At least that's how I learned to play after completely failing to understand the tutorial game. Once you master Populous, you'll be right at home playing the even better Populous II. In a nutshell: You can't directly control the people, you can only use the icons to tell them what to do. Use the mouse to flatten land (you can only alter the land within sight of your people), then click the Settle icon and they will build structures and multiply. More flat land = larger structures = stronger people but slower rate. Less land = smaller structures = weaker people, but higher rate. Place the Papal Magnet where you want the leader to go and send him to it. If you have no leader, the first person to reach the magnet becomes the leader. Have the people follow him to reach new land for settling, or to attack the enemy. The more people you have, the more God powers you have, shown on the top-right gauge. Use them to hit the enemy with disasters. Create knights to rampage through the enemy settlements. Eliminate the enemy to win.
lurkerrekrul Sorry late reply, the emulator I used I'm not sure of the exact name but google rpcemu07w and it should come up, there are two exe's you can run from, the interpreter and the recompiler, some games work depending on which one you load.
Full Install No problem on the late reply. :) I just checked and RPCEmu is up to 0.8.12. I only tried Archimedes emulation once before. I think I was using Red Squirrel at the time. Back then I could only find a copy of Elite (the game I wanted most to play) as an archive and the instructions for decompressing it and setting it up for hard drive play kind of scared me off. I've download a bunch of disk images, a couple different emulators and various OS ROMs, but never seem to get around to actually setting it up and trying it.
My main computer today is a RISC OS (same OS as the Archimedes) based Raspberry Pi B+ (Spiritual descendant of the Archimedes, same series of CPU). My first thirty two bit computer was an Acorn Archimedes A310.
Not an Acorn exclusive but my favourite game was TwinWorld. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-W6z1Fh1xk4g.html I also loved Stunt Racer 2000
WOW a FULL on arch user and owner:) Could you please help me Emulate this machine on my PC I8700k as a kid I drooled at ZARCH compared to my Amiga version called Virus. Your Help and reply would be gratefully received, Thank you.
Although I like your intro - Its a little long and noisy.I'd suggest cutting down to around 8 seconds of it and picking a different noise - maybe a disk check instead of a dial up? Otherwise, great video. Keep it up man.
Yeah I did think that after I made it, but also never thought anyone would watch any of my videos so decided to leave it the same, I had an idea for a new one so I might give it a bash. And thanks :)
No problem man - I saw your gunman video and it was a real blast from the past. I loved that game and I do love old games. So, I figured I'd follow the channel. You could really build yourself a nice niche audience of old-game lovers if you keep at it! Best of luck in the future.
