Rm Nimbus Emulator

[DTR]

Hopefully I'm posting this in the right place, if not please move it.

I'm hoping some one on here can help me...

I'm searching for an RM Nimbus PC-186 emulator (the computers that populated schools in the 80's, that played 'Worm').

I'm sure there must be one around somewhere given then popularity (or familiarity) of the machine.

Cheers in advance Sirs

[FatTrucker]

I think RM-Nimbus were just a brand.

They didn't have a non standard OS as far as I can remember so you're looking for either a DOS emulator like DOSBox that will emulate all the old software that ran on them, or a Windows 3.1 emulator (which is what was running on the Nimbus machines at our school).

Ours had Worm and Artillery installed. I'm pretty sure they were both in-built games with early versions of Windows.

[alcoatjez]

I think RM-Nimbus were just a brand.

I'm not so sure about this. Check the contents of TOSECs RM Nimbus - Games dat below:

clrmamepro (
	name "RM Nimbus PC-186 - Games"
	description "RM Nimbus PC-186 - Games (TOSEC-v2005-03-01)"
	category "RM Nimbus PC-186 - Games"
	version 2005-03-01
	author Grendel
)

game (
	name "Acheton (1981-87)(JG.Thackray, DJ.Seal and J. Partington-Topologikal)"
	description "Acheton (1981-87)(JG.Thackray, DJ.Seal and J. Partington-Topologikal)"
	rom ( name "ACHETON.COM" size 10240 crc c7dde01a md5 43fcfc4b8844ee976b23be733045c377 )
	rom ( name "ACHETON.DAT" size 126976 crc 578d4b14 md5 c5b1314c9d69cb21d39f5e6cfcc3b859 )
	rom ( name "ACHETON.DYN" size 4096 crc c151fced md5 d660c7395f6138919d970926e4463a32 )
)

game (
	name "Avon (1989)(J.Partington-Topologika)"
	description "Avon (1989)(J.Partington-Topologika)"
	rom ( name "AVON.ADV" size 2176 crc 77569c1e md5 c637eb713f73d215e780d9a011404c63 )
	rom ( name "AVON.COM" size 11904 crc f1a1e7f1 md5 4f4f792a94917ec2881d47c7fa9f8ea2 )
	rom ( name "AVON.DAT" size 66048 crc bcec7b8f md5 6d2950a011c07fc0ce086625ad4ab86e )
	rom ( name "AVON.DYN" size 1710 crc 672c4c03 md5 f2968fb437067e009d311b15110acadf )
)

game (
	name "Countdown to Doom (1987)(P.Killworth-Topologika)"
	description "Countdown to Doom (1987)(P.Killworth-Topologika)"
	rom ( name "COUNTDWN.DAT" size 57344 crc fc0bcb8c md5 3fc5209fd04faacf3a9b61505294941d )
	rom ( name "COUNTDWN.DYN" size 2048 crc 6daaeedc md5 cd8b26d60b82cdbdf8bb7719a3b29880 )
	rom ( name "DOOM.COM" size 10240 crc ae822798 md5 32dfd54cd72d3a1f7afa4886e2dc292e )
)

game (
	name "Hamil (1985-87)(J.Partington-Topologika)"
	description "Hamil (1985-87)(J.Partington-Topologika)"
	rom ( name "HAMIL.COM" size 10240 crc e6367c8e md5 0571b0e782254d78f11d92401e53f248 )
	rom ( name "HAMIL.DAT" size 47104 crc a554e1ba md5 6f4652ebb7549f00590b52ae574cbc34 )
	rom ( name "HAMIL.DYN" size 2048 crc ef7eea48 md5 b1596a5d7b3bd8a756c32db1502d5321 )
)

game (
	name "Hezarin (1981-90)(A.Snipp and S.Tinney-Topologika)"
	description "Hezarin (1981-90)(A.Snipp and S.Tinney-Topologika)"
	rom ( name "HEZARIN.COM" size 9735 crc ffc430c0 md5 a7d4dfa325fa16ee8bb24620a02f6c8c )
	rom ( name "HEZARIN.DAT" size 167168 crc 9cc55d3c md5 d9b8f7966d3f6acd93a8506c31e52723 )
	rom ( name "HEZARIN.DYN" size 3418 crc 52335302 md5 889868150ba13fe153ecb49107679118 )
)

game (
	name "Last Days of Doom (1990)(P.Killworth-Topologika)"
	description "Last Days of Doom (1990)(P.Killworth-Topologika)"
	rom ( name "LASTDAYS.COM" size 10165 crc 22c8bfbc md5 0418fb9e0e0ff6eed3519a997d000b1f )
	rom ( name "LASTDAYS.DAT" size 117248 crc 78dc9d3a md5 ac25297d424e78f85460476cf96b4606 )
	rom ( name "LASTDAYS.DYN" size 2216 crc b655f5f3 md5 814e9eefcb06701895ea3d953415aa21 )
)

game (
	name "Philosopher's Quest (1987)(P.Killworth-Topologika)"
	description "Philosopher's Quest (1987)(P.Killworth-Topologika)"
	rom ( name "PQUEST.COM" size 10240 crc 31f552e2 md5 c5931a93dd4c2d7f639d30fba1cfcf03 )
	rom ( name "QUEST.DAT" size 66560 crc 338c5332 md5 ca90a88de901c79e4db3fa0290a254f8 )
	rom ( name "QUEST.DYN" size 2048 crc bc899599 md5 d4f6d46f3dd8a094fd3df8807448fe4f )
)

game (
	name "Return To Doom (1988)(P.Killworth-Topologika)"
	description "Return To Doom (1988)(P.Killworth-Topologika)"
	rom ( name "RETURN.COM" size 10240 crc 2089b499 md5 17726f69e0dab8794785d38a3ec0ea6e )
	rom ( name "RETURN.DAT" size 95232 crc 40c50d5b md5 14b2df920ce091f2d44625a508202043 )
	rom ( name "RETURN.DYN" size 2048 crc 3087d465 md5 4ca9832f2c398ea76c6559bb238c5741 )
)

game (
	name "Spy Snatcher (1988-93)(J.Partington-J.Thackray-Topologika)"
	description "Spy Snatcher (1988-93)(J.Partington-J.Thackray-Topologika)"
	rom ( name "SNATCHER.DAT" size 85248 crc aa44dfdd md5 d3e993200a45800e777208002bbf267a )
	rom ( name "SNATCHER.DYN" size 1193 crc b3f34c3f md5 a18a17fdaf35ff8ab7c84187da1073cc )
	rom ( name "SPY.COM" size 11835 crc a0ab0d8a md5 3ffdb032048721e87b8a1da5b41774be )

Doesn't seem like standard Windows/DOS stuff to me. Why do all games have a .dat, .dyn and .com file?
I can't find an emulator for it, it's not even in MESS.

[retroguiden]

As far as I know though, the RM-Nimbus was referred to as "semi-compatible" to IBM PC's, whatever that means. However, from what I heard you needed an emulator to run RM-Nimbus programs on an IBM PC. (But that doesn't tell us a whole lot since IBM PC's can run many different operating systems, so....

[DTR]

RM Nimbus' had the ability to run IMB software through an emulator, but were seperate machines that wouldn't even recognise a DOS formated disc. They were designed as an easy way of networking and ran their own software designed specifically for the machines.

[FatTrucker]

Checking about I can only find game roms relating to the few posted above and can't find any mention of an emulator anywhere. Doesn't look like anyone's gone to the trouble...yet.

[alcoatjez]

Perhaps a good way would be to nicely ask on the MESS forums whether there are plans to support this.

[MERLiX]

I used to use the old nimbus's when I went to school, so I'll clear up some mis-information.

They are mostly IBM PC Compatible (the machines at school ran MS-DOS 3.3 and could even run windows 3.0), its the video and some other BIOS pieces that are not. It uses a custom video thats like EGA (but only has a fixed 16 colour palette). There is a pc loader piece (called setpc3) that basically installs a TSR to fix the bios and video routines to make it more compatible and it adds CGA graphics support (whilst it works, there were a few games that I remember it not being able to run)

Because of this custom video it has a custom video BIOS, which includes a few routines to do lines, circles, fonts (all from bios calls), which if you remember the old login screens, or used rm-pascal, rm-basic, logo etc., they used the graphics routines for that.

Later when RM produced 486 machines, they didn't include the custom video (they used standard VGA and SVGA graphics cards), so they made a program to provide the old BIOS routines to be able to run the RM software. Its called RUNPC186 and the original version checks something in the 486's BIOS to make sure its an RM machine, there is a hacked version which removes the check so it will run on any machine. Sadly though it eats a fair bit of memory, but I've yet to see that being a problem.

Sadly it doesn't appear to work on dosbox, but using vmware it works fine. The com files that you are talking about will actually work fine under dos (they are old adventure games, those extra files are data for the game), because they appear to not use any special RM routines. If you try to load BBCBasic it wont work under dos, but it will under runpc186.

Hope that helps.

PS. they do recognise dos formated disks, but only 720k variety, they didn't have a high density disk drive, so they couldn't read 1.44mb disks.

[alcoatjez]

Thanks a lot for this useful information
Very interesting.