Following an odd saga over the weekend involving Facebook group bans, deleted comments and generally hostile responses, the Cloverleaf project have this evening posted an update to their Kickstarter page noting that due to legal concerns, their previous promises of including a large collection of games with the project's rewards will no longer be fulfilled. Instead, Cloverleaf will provide a way to download games from other sources.
 
Previously, Cloverleaf had promised a number of emulators and "enough games to discover and play for at least 1 year" as well as illustrating their project's posts with pictures of popular games such as Doom, Lemmings, Elite, Myst and Duke Nukem 3D.
 
In the short statement on the Kickstarter project's updates page, Cloverleaf explained:
 

A special announcement from WROCC:

Along with the more obvious problems associated with the cancellation of
this year's Wakefield Acorn & RISC OS Computer Show came two less expected
ones.
 
As befitted the 25th show organised by the Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club,
Andy Marks of RISCOSbits had produced us a very special silver edition Deuce
case for the first prize in the raffle that we had intended to hold. With no
show and no raffle, the Club is now in possession of a totally unique, and
very special item.
 
The case is silver coloured, with the Club's acorn logo on the lid, and the
Wakefield 2020 (25 years) show banner engraved on the side. It is designed
to take a Raspberry Pi 3+, and comes with an adaptor plate for a Pi 4.
 
Details and photos can be found at:
 
https://www.wrocc.org.uk/silver-deuce
 
The loss of the show also meant that we were unable to organise our regular
Charity Stall in support of Wakefield Hospice. Over the years the stall has
raised in excess of £20,000 to support their work, and at a time when
COVID-19 is having a great impact on charities, it was a shame not to be
able to add to that figure.
 
To this end, the Club will be listing the silver edition case for auction on
eBay on Thursday 3rd September, with the specific intention of raising money
for Wakefield Hospice. The retail price of the standard case is £30, but
given the unique nature of this particular one, we are very much hoping that
we can raise even more for the Hospice.
 
We would like to think that those who bid on the case and fail to win would
consider donating a similar amount in order to support the important work of
the Hospice in its 30th anniversary year at this difficult time. This can be
done via our JustGiving page, which passes the money direct to the Hospice:
 
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/wakefield-2020
 
In addition, donations from all members of the RISC OS community will be
gratefully received.
 
The Club would like to thank all of our exhibitors and visitors at past
Wakefield Shows, and hope that we will be able to see you all again in
person in April 2021.

 

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
 
*cue Star Wars theme*

Finally, it's here[1] - the cloud service that absolutely nobody asked
for, nobody wanted, and nobody will ever need!
 
JFPatch-as-a-service is now available at https://jfpatch.riscos.online/.
 
Harnessing the awesome power of cloud computing to provide the astounding
ability to build ARM assembly in a format that hardly anyone but the
author ever used. In the cloud. Did I mention that it's cloud based?
Because that makes it cool. Marvel at the astounding ability to create
26bit RISC OS modules that no modern hardware can run. Be shocked by the
complete lack of speed of building.
 
[1] For a short period.

*cut to C-3PO and R2-D2 making their way across Tatooine's surface*
 
R2-D2: Bleep bloop bleep
 
C-3PO: What do you mean you've never heard of JFPatch? It was written last century by one of the greatest RISC OS programmers of the time, gerph, who also went by the name -
 
R2-D2: Bleep bloop bleep
 
C-3PO: - yes, that's right. It allowed him to create many software patches and utilities which he then shared for free with people over the Internet. A true hero of his time! Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse when -
 
R2-D2: Bleep bloop bleep
 
C-3PO: - yes, that's right. For many years nothing was heard from him, and much of his software was lost from the Internet. But now he's back, and he's brought JFPatch with him! How marvellous!
 
R2-D2: Bleep bloop bleep
 
C-3PO: Yes, I know that he hasn't said how long he's back for or what his future plans are, but in these hard times we need to be thankful for every good thing that comes our way.
 
R2-D2: Bleep bloop bleep
 
C-3PO: *stops walking* Wait, it's just a "trendy" closed-source cloud service which could vanish at any moment, and doesn't work when accessed using NetSurf? Well, f -
 
*hard cut to next scene*
 

This year's London Show is due to take place on Saturday the 27th of October, at the usual location of the St. Giles Hotel in Feltham. The show runs from 11 AM to 5 PM, with tickets being £5 at the door (and under-16's free). Exhibitors this year are set to include:

• 3rd Event Technologies, with the AMCS Music Creation system
• ABUG, aka the Acorn and BBC Micro User Group
• Adrian Lees with Aemulour and Geminus
• Anthony Bartram of AMCOG Games, possibly with a brand new game ready for release
• Archive Magazine, who will be celebrating their 30th birthday
• BBC Media Preservation with Paul Emerton
• Chris Hall, who will be selling his new !FamTree app, as well as showing off his Raspberry Pi powered GPS unit
• CJE Micro's / The Fourth Dimension, who plan to have their band-new Pi-topRO v2 available, along with as many of their existing products as possible
• Drag 'n Drop Magazine
• Nigel WIllmott with Organizer
• R-Comp with many of their products, including the new mini.m (providing they haven't lost it down the back of the sofa)
• Retro Software, including some previews of in-development games
• Andy Marks of RISC OS Bits, who will also be showing off some of Ident Computers's products
• RISC OS Developments Ltd, who may have new information to share during their theatre presentation
• RISC OS Open Ltd, who are likely to have copies of RISC OS 5.24 available, along with progress updates on the bounty system and more
• Neil Fazakerley's Riscy Robots
• The RISC OS User Group Of London
• Matthew and Peter Howkins with the latest version of RPCEmu
• Sine Nomine Software
• Vince Hudd of Soft Rock Software
• Steve Drain with Basalt and other things
• Steve Fryatt with CashBook, PrintPDF and Locate2
• Richard Broadhurst's Tricky Gaming
• RobC's VideoNuLA addon for the BBC Micro
• And last but not least, the charity stand, who will be raising money for Combat Stress

If that's not enough, there's also likely to be a full set of theatre presentations, from presenters including CJE, R-Comp, RISC OS Developments, and RISC OS Open.
 
Be sure to visit the show's website for up-to-the-minute news in the run-up to the show.
 

Acorn World 2018
Sat 8th & Sun 9th September, 10am-5pm
@ The Centre for Computing History, Cambridge
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/43277/Acorn-World-Exhibition-8th-9th-September-2018/
 
The Acorn & BBC User Group in association with the Centre for Computing History, Cambridge’s premier computer museum, are pleased to announce Acorn World 2018.
 
This exhibition will feature machines and software from across Acorn’s history and beyond, showing how they started, the innovative systems produced along the way, and the legacy of successful technology they left behind.
 
There will be a range of Acorn-era computers on display – and in many cases running for visitors to try out for themselves – covering everything from the System 1, through to the iconic RiscPC – which many recognise as the the pinnacle of Acorn’s computer designs – and beyond, including the never-released Phoebe, and a number of rare prototypes. The vintage displays will also include classic magazines, sure to set those nostalgic flames burning, and software which enthralled, entertained, and educated many users – and even inspired some to go into programming themselves.
Some of those classic computers have been given a new lease of life by enthusiastic users, with modern add-ons and other clever innovations – and there will be a number of these on display as well.
 
The exhibition doesn’t just stop at machines that came directly from the Acorn stable, though – there will also be post-Acorn systems, including the ultra-cheap Raspberry Pi and at the other end of the scale, the ‘slightly pricier’ Titanium – both of which are themselves children of Cambridge.
 
Tickets are only £8 for adults, £7 for over 60s, and £6 for children. This includes access to all the museum’s exhibits featuring mainframe, mini, home computers and games consoles from the past 50 years, plus the Guinness World Record holding MegaProcessor. This is a fund raising event for the museum to help continue their important work preserving and archiving computing history.
 
The Centre for Computing History, Rene Court, Coldhams Rd, Cambridge, CB1 3EW
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/
 

This year's London Show is due to take place on Saturday the 28th of October, at the usual location of the St. Giles Hotel in Feltham. The show runs from 11 AM to 5 PM, with tickets being £5 at the door (and under-16's free). Exhibitors this year are set to include:

• 3rd Event Technologies, with the AMCS Music Creation system
• ABug, the Acorn and BBC Micro User Group
• AMCOG Games, who are planning to show off a new game alongside their game SDK, retro sound synthesiser, and their sizable back catalogue of previous releases
• Jon Abbot's Archimedes Software Preservation Project will be demonstrating various classic Acorn-era games running on both new and old systems, thanks to the impressive ADFFS
• Archive Magazine, who will be celebrating their 30th birthday, with DVDs available of all their back issues
• Paul Emerton's BBC Media Preservation, performing important work to preserve Acorn's history in UK TV broadcast production
• BeebOPL Synthesiser, the hardware addon that gives your Beeb the audio power of early SoundBlaster cards
• CJE and The Fourth Dimension with plenty of RISC OS hardware and software for sale
• Elesar Ltd, who will most likely have a Titanium or two on display, along with their CloudFS and FontDirectoryPro software products, and the reveal of a mysterious new product
• The latest beta of Impression X
• MW Software, back by popular demand
• Organizer
• Orpheus Internet
• Chris Hall's PiGPS
• R-Comp, who will also have plenty of RISC OS hardware and software for sale
• RISC OS Bits, offering spares and oddities for the discerning RISC OS user
• Retro Software, who will have a selection of their many retro game releases on show, as well as previews of in-development titles
• Neil Fazakerley's Riscy Robots powered by the Raspberry Pi
• RISC OS Open Ltd, who are likely to have at least one newly updated product available
• ROUGOL who are contractually obliged to turn up because this is their show
• RPCEmu
• Sine Nomine Software, who are promising to have a major new release of RiscOSM available, alongside their other products
• Soft Rock Software
• Steve Fryatt and his software
• Tricky Gaming for old and new fans of old and new games on the BBC Micro
• VideoNuLA, a modern video enhancer for the BBC Micro which offers many improvements over the original ULA chip
• And of course the charity stand, who will be raising money for Combat Stress.

The theatre schedule is yet to be finalised, and with the number of new and interesting exhibitors it's anyone's guess who's going to be filling the slots. What are your predictions?
 
For up-to-the-minute show news, remember to check out the show website.
 

This year's London Show is due to take place on Saturday the 29th of October, at the usual location of the St. Giles Hotel in Feltham. The show runs from 11 AM to 5 PM, with tickets being £5 at the door (and under-16's free). Exhibitors this year are set to include:

• 3rd Event Technologies, with the AMCS Music Creation system
• ABug, the Acorn and BBC Micro User Group
• AMCOG Games, who have a new Lemmings-inspired game to show off along with their existing titles
• Archive Magazine
• Basalt and Float from Steve Drain
• BBC Media Preservation, showcasing the machines that used to generate many of the graphics and titles for UK TV in the 90s
• BeebOPL Synthesiser, the hardware addon that gives your Beeb the audio power of early SoundBlaster cards
• CJE and The Fourth Dimension with plenty of RISC OS hardware and software for sale
• Drag 'n Drop magazine
• The latest beta of Impression X
• Organizer
• Orpheus Internet
• R-Comp, who will also have plenty of RISC OS hardware and software for sale
• RISC OS Bits, offering spares and oddities for the discerning RISC OS user
• RiscDJ
• Riscy Robots powered by the Raspberry Pi
• RISC OS Open Ltd, who may or may not have something new to see
• ROUGOL who are contractually obliged to turn up because this is their show
• RPCEmu
• Sine Nomine Software
• Soft Rock Software
• Steve Fryatt and his software
• Tricky Gaming for old and new fans of old and new games on the BBC Micro
• And of course the charity stand, who will be raising money for Combat Stress.

The theatre schedule is yet to be finalised, but presentations are expected to include CJE, R-Comp, ROOL, Sine Nomine Software, and newcomer Ident Computer who are showing off their BBC Micro inspired Raspberry Pi keyboard/case (although if BBC Micro keyboard nostalgia is your thing, there's only really one winner).
 
For up-to-the-minute show news, remember to check out the show website.
 

In a surprise announcement, ROOL have revealed the existence of "Titanium", a new RISC OS machine based around a dual-core Cortex-A15 SoC. No - it's not CJE's dual-core Cortex A15 IGEPv5 machine - it's an entirely new board design produced by Elesar Limited, and utilising TI's 1.5GHz AM5728 (a cousin of the also-1.5GHz TI OMAP5 used in the IGEPv5). And unlike the IGEPv5 or the Wandboard (as used in R-Comp's ARMX6), which are technically meant to be for embedded or developer/prototyping markets, the Titanium board seems to be aimed squarely at the desktop PC and server markets - it utilises the standard ATX form factor and power connector, has dual DVI video output, dual gigabit Ethernet, four SATA ports, eight USB 2 ports, and even two PCI-E slots.
 
It's unclear exactly how much of the hardware is currently working under RISC OS, apart from SATA, which is called out as using a new version of ADFS developed by Piccolo Systems (previously known for the RISC OS 5 SDFS driver and related disc management utilities). However with the machine launch expected to be only a few weeks away, and with pre-production units being on display at the London Show tomorrow, expect to see much more information about the new machine appear over the next few days.
 
The Titanium board is available to pre-order now through Elesar's website (with choice of RISC OS or Linux as the OS) - however that will only get your the bare board. Users are encouraged to wait for news from CJE and R-Comp, who are both on board with the project (if you pardon my pun) and will be announcing their own plans for fully cased consumer units within the near future (quite possibly at the London Show tomorrow).
 
Also, have we mentioned that it's the London Show tomorrow?