Elite and emulators
Because ArcElite was written for ARM2 and ARM3-based computers, it won’t run under the ARM6 environment of the Raspberry Pi. So we need to emulate an older version of RISC and ARM by using ArcEm.
There is a way to download the emulator and its corresponding ROMS individually, but there is an easier way. We can download a single compressed file that contains everything we need to get Elite emulated. However, if you try to open the ‘!ArcEm’ file it opens up StrongArm instead. Luckily, you can enjoy Elite by following these instructions: download the zipped file, ArcEm.zip ( goo.gl/7cPHN), then unpack the contents onto a USB stick. RISC OS doesn’t necessarily require you to install a program, it will load the program from the external device.
Insert the USB stick into the Raspberry Pi and wait until RISC OS picks up the new device. Left-click to open up the file manager, then, using NetSurf, navigate to goo.
gl/6Tl0E, and download the latest ArcEM file. This is a compressed file, but we need to open it via a RISC OS application called !sparkFS. Singleclick on the SD card icon in the bottom-left of the screen to open the contents of the filesystem, then double-click the ‘Utilities’ folder. Locate the program !sparkFS and double-click – it should now appear next to the set of icons in the bottom-left. Drag the newlydownloaded arcem-1.50-alpha2
riscos file onto the ‘!sparkFS’ icon that’s in the lower-left. This will bring up a window of contents, which should be dragged and dropped over the original contents of the ArcEm ZIP file. This will replace the ‘!ArcEm’ file and the ‘hostFS’ folder, as well as a text file, with ones that will work in this instance.
Now navigate to goo.gl/wEGK2, and download the b5052410.arc file. As before, drag it onto the ‘!sparkFS’ icon then drag the uncompressed contents into the ‘hostFS’ folder. To get Elite running, double left-click the new !ArcEm file, which will load up the old Archimedes platform, then doubleclick the ‘HostFS’ drive. This should launch Elite, but there were a few occasions when we needed to double-click the icon ‘!elite’. You’ll be asked if you have a hi-res screen, to which you can say ‘Y’. Elite should take about ten seconds to load.