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Software news

By Chris Williams. Published: 29th Aug 2005, 12:39:49 | Permalink | Printable

New toolbar, Tracer Pro, games and more

Version 2.01 of Xample's Tracer Pro, which contains "some very small fixes, based on user feedback", is now available. A demo version with the user manual in HTML format is also available for download.

Stewart Brookes has released a handy StrongED toolbar. "In response to overwhelming demand, StrongED now benefits from a buttonbar make-over (before and after screenshots available on request)," mused Stewart. His chuckle worthy announcement is too long to quote without spoiling the gags, so if you want a giggle, it's all here. Although uploaded a while ago, it's worth pointing out that Jeffrey Doggett has published a number of interesting goodies online including a Doom port and an image filesystem for Doom level files.

Neil White informs us that he has updated his ConveySDL game and uploaded a couple of recently ported SDL games. Also, New Breed Software now acknowledges RISC OS amongst its list of supported operating systems. John-Mark Bell has updated TTF2f, his TTF and FreeType 2 font converter. Also, gallery utility WebGen and web favourites tool Bookmaker have enjoyed tweaks and updates.

WimpBasic users will be pleased to know that John Peachey's collection of WB resources are back online. Orpheus Internet are willing to support users hanging onto their old NetStations. The small ISP says it can re-program an Acorn STB's smartcard to allow it to connect to the Internet via Orpheus. Mark Stephens has agreed to act as the UK contact for the Unix Porting Project. The UPP's Peter Naulls is due to leave the lazy plains of Cambridge for software engineering in sweltering California.

Finally, the South East show is starting to take shape with a list of exhibitors and a floor plan. Buried in the event's image map monster of a website is the amusing suggestion that we might see an Iyonix 2 from Castle - always an interesting tactic to draw punters to a show.

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Surely Castle would do what they did last time? Set up a web site and mail shot previous customers. We certainly knew about the IYONIX pc before the Guildford show in 2002.

fylfot on 29/8/05 2:00PM
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Doom runs very well on the Iyonix, nice piece of nostalgia and one FPS that I can actually cope with. The fact that it's free is a nice bonus; I guess it explains why R-Comp didn't push an update of their "official" port.

Tough on them though, given the good work they did in bringing big-name games to the platform.

TonyStill on 29/8/05 7:18PM
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Perhaps Stewart can be persuaded to do a button bar for Zap now? Support for Zap Buttons on the Iyonix is limited - you can save your settings on the RISC PC, but it doesn't work on the Iyonix, meaning that you have to manually start it up. :-(

BrianH on 30/8/05 1:34AM
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BrianH:

I'd recommend a visit to David Llewellyn-Jones's website where you can snaffle a copy of the utterly fabulous ButtonBar: [link]

The download comes with a very useful buttonbar for Zap. That should keep you happy for a while. At least until...

... watch this space! You've persuaded me ;-)

Stewy on 30/8/05 2:38PM
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Is there any chance of a stand alone version of a couple of those SDL games Nex?

So is the Doom enhanced beyond RCI's version?

Also, Drobes server is incredibly fast (>400K per second)!

AW on 30/8/05 8:13PM
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Aww Chris the South East Show is worth going to even without the hype

If you look at the diagram you'll see the reference to A3 and A9 (the A3 not being a computer - but a *road*). I'd imagine something similar is going on with the Iyonix and the I2. Although I wouldn't mind been proven wrong

AMS on 30/8/05 8:42PM
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In reply to AW:

Doom feels like, well, Doom to me. It's a long time since I played it but I didn't notice any differences, positive ot negative.

TonyStill on 30/8/05 10:49PM
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In reply to Stewy:

I'll give it a try - and I'll continue to WTS... ;-)

BrianH on 31/8/05 4:53AM
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AW & TonyStill: RCI's Doom+ is heavily optimised for the RO platform, so it wouldn't surprise me if it did run a bit faster. The '+' means a lot of nice enhancements, of which the most popular was the in-game (PIP) map. Downside is that it's 26-bit only.

It seems unlikely to me that we can expect an Iyonix II, but Castle is known for their surprise element...

hEgelia on 31/8/05 9:27AM
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