I used to be able to play Commodore 64 games, notably Sid Miere's
Pirates! (which I never actually played on a C64!) using the VICE
emulator.
However, there no longer seems to be an up to date version of the
emulator for RISC OS - the Arc Wiki https://arcwiki.org.uk/index.php/VICE
says that support for RISC OS was removed in 2012. The outdated version
I managed to find on the link given (dated 2010) doesn't seem to be
32-bit compatible https://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/crossplatform/emulators/VICE/vice-riscos2_2.zip
and of course it runs like sludge under Aemulor, and seemingly with no
sound - though it does run.

I succeeded in locating a disc image for the game at http://csdb.dk/release/?id=113902
and with rather more difficulty worked out how to actually load and run
it (you have to hold down Shift while dragging the D64 file to one of
VICE's drive icons, then double-click on one of the lines in the
resulting listing - in the case of this particular disc image, as it
happens a lot of them are just dummy entries used to create ASCII art!)

But while I got some of the shorter programs to run, painfully slowly -
the emulator is printing text to the screen at about 1cps - I couldn't
get the game itself to run at all. I left it for about half an hour and
when I came back it was still stuck with the disc light active and the
message LOADING at 26% emulation speed. I don't know if it had crashed
or simply still hadn't finished initialising.

The weird thing is that this software actually used to be fast enough to
be playable on a considerably slower computer, so I had hopes....

--
Harriet Bazley == Loyaulte me lie ==

Whenever I feel like exercise, I lie down until the feeling goes away.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> wrote:

I used to be able to play Commodore 64 games, notably Sid Miere's
Pirates! (which I never actually played on a C64!) using the VICE
emulator.
However, there no longer seems to be an up to date version of the
emulator for RISC OS - the Arc Wiki https://arcwiki.org.uk/index.php/VICE says that support for RISC OS was removed in 2012. The outdated version
I managed to find on the link given (dated 2010) doesn't seem to be
32-bit compatible https://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/crossplatform/emulators/VICE/vice-riscos2_2.zip
and of course it runs like sludge under Aemulor, and seemingly with no
sound - though it does run.

I succeeded in locating a disc image for the game at http://csdb.dk/release/?id=113902
and with rather more difficulty worked out how to actually load and run
it (you have to hold down Shift while dragging the D64 file to one of
VICE's drive icons, then double-click on one of the lines in the
resulting listing - in the case of this particular disc image, as it
happens a lot of them are just dummy entries used to create ASCII art!)

But while I got some of the shorter programs to run, painfully slowly -
the emulator is printing text to the screen at about 1cps - I couldn't
get the game itself to run at all. I left it for about half an hour and
when I came back it was still stuck with the disc light active and the message LOADING at 26% emulation speed. I don't know if it had crashed
or simply still hadn't finished initialising.

The weird thing is that this software actually used to be fast enough to
be playable on a considerably slower computer, so I had hopes....

Have you tried the version of VICE that is available on RISC OS Ports?

https://riscosports.co.uk/emulation.html



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 24 Mar 2026 as I do recall,
Rob Heaton wrote:

Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> wrote:

I used to be able to play Commodore 64 games, notably Sid Miere's
Pirates! (which I never actually played on a C64!) using the VICE
emulator.
However, there no longer seems to be an up to date version of the
emulator for RISC OS - the Arc Wiki https://arcwiki.org.uk/index.php/VICE says that support for RISC OS was removed in 2012. The outdated version
I managed to find on the link given (dated 2010) doesn't seem to be
32-bit compatible https://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/crossplatform/emulators/VICE/vice-riscos2_2.zip
and of course it runs like sludge under Aemulor, and seemingly with no sound - though it does run.

I succeeded in locating a disc image for the game at http://csdb.dk/release/?id=113902
and with rather more difficulty worked out how to actually load and run
it (you have to hold down Shift while dragging the D64 file to one of VICE's drive icons, then double-click on one of the lines in the
resulting listing - in the case of this particular disc image, as it happens a lot of them are just dummy entries used to create ASCII art!)

But while I got some of the shorter programs to run, painfully slowly -
the emulator is printing text to the screen at about 1cps - I couldn't
get the game itself to run at all. I left it for about half an hour and when I came back it was still stuck with the disc light active and the message LOADING at 26% emulation speed. I don't know if it had crashed
or simply still hadn't finished initialising.

Have you tried the version of VICE that is available on RISC OS Ports?

https://riscosports.co.uk/emulation.html

Thanks - that works without Aemulor, which is definitely a start, and
says that it is running at 100% speed (although it still doesn't seem
to be getting anywhere with loading that particular disc image right
now... we'll give it a while longer)

--
Harriet Bazley == Loyaulte me lie ==

Mate, this parrot wouldn't VOOM if you put four million volts through it!

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 26 Mar 2026 as I do recall,
Harriet Bazley wrote:

On 24 Mar 2026 as I do recall,
Rob Heaton wrote:

[snip]

Have you tried the version of VICE that is available on RISC OS Ports?

https://riscosports.co.uk/emulation.html

Thanks - that works without Aemulor, which is definitely a start, and
says that it is running at 100% speed (although it still doesn't seem
to be getting anywhere with loading that particular disc image right
now... we'll give it a while longer)

OK, it works. :-)

The trick is that you have to run the introductory "Pirates! +10" loader programme rather than trying to run the main game file directly (which I
did originally get working, but it was so painfully slow that I never
got to the end of the intro scroll).

--
Harriet Bazley == Loyaulte me lie ==

You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 26 Mar 2026 as I do recall,
Harriet Bazley wrote:


[snip]

OK, it works. :-)

I had forgotten quite how addictive this game is - I have just spent the
whole evening as a Dutchman raiding English shipping across the
Caribbean in order to gain favour with all the other nations (and got
wrecked on a couple of reefs, sacked several towns, not all of them
actually English, identified the locations of a number of treasure maps,
and tracked down various dastardly noblemen in order to discover the
location of my long-lost sister!) before retiring with 25 pirate points
out of a potential 100 in order to spend the rest of my days is a
contented and prosperous tavern-keeper.

--
Harriet Bazley == Loyaulte me lie ==

The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang oft a-gley.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)