An updated version of the Hexen port to RISC OS is now available from R-Comp. Version 1.08 of the port has been released to resolve a number of issues reported by players, and also brings the code into line with that of the updated Heretic.
Players with very high resolution screens will enjoy the support for up to 8K screens, but there are also a number of fixes – such as improvements to the enhanced widescreen support that appeared in versions 1.07, which extends the view horizontally, filling in detail that would have been cut off at the edges on a 4:3 display.
On some versions of RISC OS there were issues with the background music not being played when combined with certain other options, and this has now been resolved, and there have been updates to the ‘mod’ management, which allows smoother loading of the DeathKings expansion pack.
Another issue could occur on RISC OS platforms that have alignment exceptions turned on. This relates to a change made to the ARM processor, and affects certain load operations (whereby data is read from memory into one of the processor’s registers) on modern platforms that run RISC OS. To quote from the R-Comp press release, “This is a case where the original code used (valid) half-word operations which work fine under ARM’s recommended new behaviours, but some editions of RISC OS ship set to abort when half-word operations occur, so these are now trapped in the code and adjusted accordingly. The trials and tribulations of ported applications!”
Version 1.08 of the port is free to anyone who has purchased the 2024 release of the game for RISC OS, and can be downloaded via the ‘My Software’ section of !Store, otherwise it is priced at £17.50.