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Hi,

since I have the 2 ROM's of RiscOS 3.5 lying in my desk for several years now and so with them somewhat of a license to use it, I wonder if VA could run with a higher version of RiscOS then 3.11 too?

And if not, what are the reasons?

So long, HS.

VA5000, is just that, a VitualA5000. An Acorn A5000 could
not run RISC OS 3.5, which is intended for a RISC PC,
and so neither can VirtualA5000.

Simply put the emulated hardware inside VA5000 (Memc1a,
VIDC etc) is not compatible with later versions of RISC OS
which expect things like a VIDC20.

Aaron

Okay that I understand. Thnx for the fast reply.

So another question, will there be a VirtualRiscPC sometimes?

I think that might pose a few legal problems. You see, Castle still have the rights to the real RiscPC. Not being legally trained I can't say for sure what the law says on such matters. However, you can take Sony as an example. They put Bleem out of business, though it should be noted, not for actually emulating the PS1. They just bogged Bleem down with lawsuits for all manner of petty things. Eventually the legal bills became too great. I'm not saying Castle would do such a thing, but emulating a machine that is still in production (only just?) could be treading on a few tender toes.

Okay, maybe VirtualRiscPC is wrong. It doesn't have to be exactly a RiscPC. Let's just say an emaulator which can run RiscOS 3.5 or above. I know RedSquirrel can do this. But it is slow and you don't get any RiscOS Licenses with it.

So is there any way that there will be a VA version with a newer RiscOS version include sometimes???

That's just the problem. It does pretty much exactly have to be a RiscPC. RISC OS 3.5 wasn't mean to run on much else apart from the A7000. This is also a machine still in production AFAIK.

Also one of the main reasons Virtual Acorn could go ahead is because ROL don't own the rights to versions of RISC OS prior to that of 3.5. Since ROL does own the rights to 3.5, you'd have to see them to source a version. Again, AFAIK this is still shipping with some machines and hence is worth some profit to ROL (however small).

The only way I can see there being a later version of RISC OS running on Virtual Acorn is for ROL to expressly give their permission for it to be distributed with VA. Maybe you could go direct to Pace and ask for a license for the latest version of RISC OS like Castle have done but it's unlikely that sales of VA could justify the cost of the license. Either way, it's going to cost a lot for the license.

However, using your existing ROMs (like I have RISC OS 4.2) with VA that you bought with your machine is another matter. But it's a bit difficult to say "look, here's an emulator that can run RISC OS 3.5 but we can't let you have RISC OS 3.5 because we don't have a license". You can't expect people to buy a "proper" machine just to run the emulator. It's hard to justify the development costs. Sadly, I don't think we are going to see a later version of RISC OS running on VA in the near future. I hope I'm wrong, but I can't see it happening.