The Icon Bar Technology news and views Adventures in Optimisation - Walls http://www.iconbar.com/comments/rss/news1568.html Continuing in my quest to optimise my RISC OS port of NBlood, I've recently been taking a look at the rendering code. Specifically, the top functions in my profiler's output: the vertical line drawing routines, which are used to draw walls and sprite-based entities. The future of Archive magazine http://www.iconbar.com/comments/rss/news1567.html The sad death of Jim Nagel has deprived us all of a great advocate for RISC OS and an alround nice guy. It also left a question mark over the future of Archive magazine. RISC OS Direct Videos -3. Gaming and emulation http://www.iconbar.com/comments/rss/news1561.html So far, 3 videos have been published on youtube to encourage people to use RISC OS. Amcog games packs to keep you entertained in lockdown http://www.iconbar.com/comments/rss/news1566.html If you are feeling bored in the lockdown and looking for something to do, then Elesar may be able to help. They have put together 2 different bundles of Amcog games, with some nice discounts for you to buy online. RISC OS Direct Videos -2. Setting up and User interface http://www.iconbar.com/comments/rss/news1564.html Video 2 picks up from the introductory video which showed up how to setup a Raspberry Pi with RISC OS and gave us a very brief overview about how to use it. What is your current RISC OS setup? (Gavin Wraith) http://www.iconbar.com/comments/rss/news1559.html In the foreground is an ArmBook (i.e. Pinebook) running RISC OS 5.27, from RComp. Behind it is an LG Flatron IPS235 monitor displaying output from RISC OS 5.24 running on a Raspberry Pi 3B+, which sits in the green case, with a red LED shining out. RISC OS Direct Videos -1. Getting started with RISC OS http://www.iconbar.com/comments/rss/news1563.html This is the first in a series of free videos on YouTube, aimed at encouraging new users to try RISC OS. It is hosted by Tom Williamson (who we interviewed in 2016). Tom runs the wifi sheep youtube channel. What is your current RISC OS setup? (Rob Sprowson) http://www.iconbar.com/comments/rss/news1560.html This time, we smuggled our team into Elesar towers to see what they might have hidden up there... What is your current RISC OS setup? (Steve Fryatt) http://www.iconbar.com/comments/rss/news1558.html The left-hand monitor is attached to the Titanium seen under the desk to the left; the one on the right is connected to several other systems: a PC running Linux (out of shot to the right), the RiscPC on the right under the desk and a couple of Beagle and Pandaboards which are in and out of use for testing, attending shows and the like. April News round-up http://www.iconbar.com/comments/rss/news1538.html Some things we noticed this month. What did you see?