www.virtualacorn.co.uk/forum

I wonder if there shouldn't be a Suggestion forum, where users of Virtual A5000 can ask for features to be implemented?

I've recently ordered, and received, a copy of Virtual A5000. I'm very impressed with it, it runs fine on my Athlon XP1800+ with GeForce 4600, but the lack of a working IP stack is a real limitation, in my opinion anyway.

I think if a networking module, sharing the host NIC, were to be written then it would also perhaps encourage/revitalise the development of internet and filesharing applications on the Acorn platform?

That would be really nice. ATM without net access it is only half as good as it could be.

Any comment from the developers of Virtual Acorn?

Any comment from the moderator(s), re: possibility of a suggestions forum?

AFAICT there shouldn't be a problem with the stack itself. That will work. It's the drivers that we need. I don't know of any "Direct X for network cards" ie a generic network card API. This would mean you'd need a RISC OS driver written for each network card. Can't see that happening in the near future. Unless you were to map RISC OS sockets onto Windows one's. Tricky but less work than complete card drivers.

This is all totally hypothetical. I have virtually no knowledge of the inner workings of Windows.

The most useful thing will be the Acorn floppy disc drive reader whenever it becomes available! I can't get ArcDisc to work and just can't get my Acorn ADFS discs onto my PC at all so until it is available VirtualAcorn's usefulness is severely limited!

Does anyone know when the floppy disc reader will be available

As far as I'm aware its work in progress - according to the site anyway. I have the same problems since ArcDisc doesn't work under WinXP

When it is completed however, I'm sure I've read somewhere that it will be available as an update on the site.

??

I have Win 2k. Sadly it seems that ArcDisc or rather ArcImg doesn't work under Windows NT, 2000 or XP which kind of limits it's usefullness! Only Win 95, 98 and ME are supported. Like VirtualAcorn's disc reader a new version is supposed to be "under development" but that was nearly a year ago but theres still no sign of it.

Sadly until some kind of reliable Acorn disc reader is available I won't be purchasing VirtualAcorn.

See http://knowbody.org.uk/arcimage/ for more information

Hmmmmmmm..... didn't realise that 'work in progress' had been ongoing for so long ! It certainly does restrict the usefulness of VA5000.

I've not had too many problems finding software I want and that I can get to run, however. I suppose it all depends on what you want to get out of it. As an alternative and stable, development/productivity platform it's solid and reliable with freely available software out there if you can find it.

As for games, good ones are out there - if you want to pay a premium for them (which amazes me since the majority of them are well in excess of 5 years old !). Otherwise you're left to trawl through the numerous PD games available on the web.

Saying that though, this doesn't make up for not being able to go buy some software and running it straight from disc. Perhaps publishers would be willing to supply software as a disc image, as well or as an alternative to, the orginal Acorn format. Its a long shot, I know.........

??

I see this topic is a bit stale, but I recently dug my Virtual A5000 back out of my CD bag and found that it runs much better on my new laptop. There's a suggestion up above about networking, and how it would require a driver for each network card. Couldn't it be done in some "virtual interface" manner, like a VPN between Windows and RISC OS? Then you could let Windows ICS to route the traffic in and out to the internet.

David

We do have a network software podule, but it's only supplied with the VirtualRPC range of products.