PFAQ

This page is a collection of (potentially) Frequently Asked Questions for Asylum/Oddball/Gamesuite/the site. If you have any queries that aren't answered here, please contact us.

1. Site
   1. Which versions of RISC OS will this software run on?
   2. How do I decompress the files?
2. Asylum
   1. Erm... is it supposed to keep crashing?
   2. Erm... is it supposed to keep flickering, then?

Section 1: Site

1.1. Which versions of RISC OS will this software run on?

• All software on this site *should* run on versions of RISC OS from 3.1 through to Select, although recent testing has only occured on 3.6, 3.7 and Select.
• Asylum, Oddball and Gamesuite should all be RISC OS 2 compatible, although other software/new versions of them on this site may not be.
• Asylum and Oddball have been checked with RISC OS Select, so we're assuming that they also work in RISC OS 4.
• Peter Naulls has found that Asylum works fine with the latest ViewFinder firmware (1.51), but as far as we know no checks have been made with other games/firmware versions.
• Both nobrainer and Surgeon should now be 32bit compatible, and so should run fine on RISC OS 5.
• A 32bit version of FastSpr is available from Bruno D'Arcangeli's website - see the GameSuite download page for more info.
• Unless you're very lucky, the other software available here is definitely not 32-bit compatible.
• Michael Drake has kindly done some testing with the Aemulor demo (Before the 32bit FastSpr was available though), and reports that the only working program was the GameSuite speed test. (Actually Surgeon and nobrainer worked too, but they're available in 32bit flavours now anyway)

This compatibility information is rather incomplete, but does cover the main setups and programs. If you find something definitely does/does not work, but is not explicitly listed here, please let us know so we can add it. Or better yet, bug John to make a better compatability chart. Go on. You know you want to.

1.2. How do I decompress the files?

• For .zip and .spk files:
  Use SparkPlug from David Pilling.
• For .arc files:
  Use ArcFS. The file is a self-extracting archive; set its filetype to &FF8 (Absolute), and double-click.
• For .pkd files:
  Use PackDir from John Kortink.

Section 2: Asylum

2.1. Erm... is it supposed to keep crashing?

No! :p Download either Asylum 2.02, or the new version of the FastSpr module, which should fix this long-standing bug :)

2.1. Erm... is it supposed to keep flickering, then?

Well, no. But it does. Firstly, if you are using a StrongARM machine, make sure you are using either Asylum 2.01, or have applied the neccesary patch, to stop the background flickering problems. But forgetting that, if you are playing in Mode 49, the display tends to flicker in a different way anyway. We don't know why. Sorry.