Virtual A5000 Upgrades
Last updated: Monday, 21. August, 2006

This site is dedicated to all users of VA5000 from VirtualAcorn.

VirtualAcorn can only offer limited support via e-mail for VA5000.

You can find all the upgrades from VA5000 1.0 up to 1.4 here. These are the same upgrades that were available from the VirtualAcorn website.

Terms and Conditions

This site was created with the agreement of VirtualAcorn under the following terms and conditions:
I strongly suggest that you take a full backup of your existing VA5000 installation before installing any of these upgrades.

Some of these upgrades include IPR that belongs to third parties. I will remove any upgrade immediately if requested by anyone who has IPR included as part of any upgrade.

Usage

To use these upgrades you need a version of VA5000 installed on your system. All downloads are zip-packed, so you need to unpack it first before executing. Download the upgrade(s) you need, unzip the download(s) to a directory of your choice and execute the file(s). Follow the install instructions to complete the upgrade succesfully.

The upgrades are cumulative and must be run in the correct order.

If you are not sure what version of VirtualA5000 you have then simply load VirtualA5000 and make sure it is running in a window (Press ALT and ENTER if it is running in full screen mode). Then go to the VirtualA5000 Help menu and click on About VirtualA5000. A window will open showing you the version number of your copy of VirtualA5000.

Available Upgrades

After this informational part here's the list of currently available upgrades.

Version
Upgrades
Description
1.0 → 1.1
Upgrade for the VirtualA5000.exe to version 1.1.
Version 1.1 fixes a couple of minor problems. Version 1.1 is also faster than version 1.0, and offers quicker screen updates. This version also allows a user to manually enter the processor speed of a PC in case VirtualA5000 calculates this speed incorrectly. A list of the important changes follows.
  • Emulated ARM Processor runs faster than on V 1.0.
  • Quicker screen update resulting in a higher number of frames per second.
  • Smoother mouse movement.
  • Facility to manually select the CPU speed of the host PC.
A few changes to the manual, in particular the Trouble Shooting section has been expanded. Also the changes to the configuration windows are documented in the new manual (for example setting host PC processor speed). If you are downloading the upgrade to version 1.10 then you should also download the manual upgrade as well..
Increases performance significantly in 1024x768 pixel screen modes.
Adds emulators running under RISC OS. Emulators are CPCEmu for Armstrad CPC, BBC emulator 65Host and 65Tube, Acorn version of Frodo (C64 emulator) and the Spectrum emulator MZX.
Adds some utilities for speed testing. The utilities are SICK, ARMSi and CPUSpeed.
1.1 → 1.2
Upgrade for the VirtualA5000.exe to version 1.2.
This version is even quicker than Version 1.10 and has some other improvements.
  • Runs faster than V 1.1.
  • VirtualA5000 window cannot get "bigger" than the PCs screen.
  • VirtualA5000 window cannot be shrunk down to nothing.
  • Plug in "software podule" support.
  • Hardware floating point "software podule" support.
If you are downloading the upgrade to version 1.2 then you should also download the new manual upgrade as well.
If you have downloaded the upgrade to 1.2 respectively 1.21 you will also need to download this upgrade. This will alter your !Boot sequence to closely match that found in VirtualA5000 V 1.2. This offers a few improvements and a couple of bug fixes.
  • The " and @ characters are no longer swapped round on the keyboard.
  • New higher screen resolutions of 1152x864 and 1280 x 1021 (greyscale and mono only).
  • SyncClock module to ensure the RISC OS and Windows clocks stay correctly matched.
  • Later version (4.03) of the RISC OS Floating Point Emulator.
  • New version of HostFS (requied for Version 1.21 or later).
  • Adds a new *printers command to list all current Windows printers.
  • All non alphanumeric characters in a Windows printer name now replaced with underscore.
1.2 → 1.21
Upgrade for the VirtualA5000.exe to version 1.21 and the HostFS plugin.
This upgrade fixes a couple of problems with V 1.2 and adds a couple of new features.
  • Fixes the "Disc not found" message when trying to configure a RISC OS printer.
  • Fixes the problem of VirtualAcorn "forgetting" a manually set host PC processor speed.
  • Adds a new *printers command to list all current Windows printers.
  • All non alphanumeric characters in a Windows printer name now replaced with underscore.
1.2? → 1.22
missing VA Patch
I'm looking for the missing patch to version 1.22. Please contact me!
1.2X → 1.3
Upgrade for the VirtualA5000.exe from version 1.20 or 1.21 to version 1.3.
VirtualA5000 V 1.3 includes the new "Laptop Friendly" display routines. This offers much increased performance on computers equiped with integrated graphics cards.
  • New "Laptop Friendly" display routines offering much increased performance on integrated graphics cards.
  • Faster than previous versions of VirtualA5000 on almost all graphics cards (including GeForce).
  • Smoother mouse pointer movement and increased frame rate.
  • Scrolling RISC OS desktop display, so large screen modes can be displayed on small screens.
  • Support for future plug-ins.
  • Greatly improved sound playback on fast (greater than 1.4Ghz) processors.
Upgrade for the VirtualA5000.exe from version 1.22 to version 1.3.
There have also been changes to the manual. If you are downloading the upgrade to version 1.3 then you should also download the new manual upgrade as well.
If you have downloaded the above upgrade you will also need to download this upgrade. This will alter your !Boot sequence to closely match that found in VirtualA5000 V 1.3. This offers a few improvements and a couple of bug fixes.
  • Long file name displays in RISC OS filer windows.
  • Full info filer displays now use correct desktop font.
  • Increased resolution "Rectangular" modes including 1400x520 and 1600x600
  • Autoswitch between high resolution and low resolution icons on mode changes
  • 1280x1021 screen modes replaced with faster 1280x1016 modes
  • New version of HostFS (requied for Version 1.30 or later).
  • Saving Alarm files no longer causes an error while booting
1.3 → 1.4
If you are downloading the upgrades to version 1.40 then please note that you must download and install ALL the updates. These are V130toV140.zip and FloppyUpdate.zip. Having downloaded all these files using the links you need to install the upgrades in the following order:
  • V130toV140.zip - this will update the main VA5000 application, the !Boot sequence and the plugins folder.
  • FloppyUpdate.zip - for detailed description look below.
Upgrade for the VirtualA5000.exe to version 1.4.
This upgrades the main VirtualA5000 program, the !boot sequence and the plugins folder. VirtualA5000 V 1.4 includes support for directly reading RISC OS format floppy discs on Windows 2000/XP.
  • New Direct floppy disc support for Windows 2000/XP.
  • Improved sound support.
  • Support for further plugin modules.
  • DirectFloppy and SuperIO plugin modules
  • Includes a new version of HostFS.
  • Support for display of Acorn format DOS file names (e.g. a file called Index.htm can be displayed as index/htm)
  • Updated version of the VirtualAcorn manual
Enables direct floppy support in VA5000 for Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
If you have downloaded the above upgrade you will also need to download this upgrade.
This package consists of 3 executables. Please install the following way:
  1. FloppyDriver/FloppyInstaller.exe: Installs the Virtual Acorn Direct Floppy Driver for Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
    This is required to allow VirtualA5000 to read Acorn format floppy discs on a PC. Follow the instructions during the installation. When Windows complains that the driver has not passed "Windows Logo Testing" click on the "Continue Anyway" button and the driver will be installed.
  2. FloppyEnable.exe: This will enable the direct reading of RISC OS floppies.
    In order for Direct Floppy reading to function it must be enabled. This update will modify your model file to turn on the Direct Floppy.
  3. FloppyFix.exe: Change settings for VA5000 to support the floppydriver.
    This upgrades solve the problems reported by some users when writing or formatting floppy discs on VirtualA5000 V1.4 (CD Edition). Note that after installing this upgrade you should shutdown and restart your computer.
    • Enable floppy disc writing and stops the "Protected disc" error message on unprotected discs.
    • Enables formatting of both DOS and RISC OS format floppy discs.
    • Fixes the "Unknown command" error when trying to format a disc.
    • Fixes the problem of the floppy drive no longer working after a failed format.
This upgrade installs a German keyboard driver that supports German keyboard layouts. You should only install this software if your PC is fitted with a German keyboard layout.


ArcDisc Acorn format disc reader

ArcDisc allows Windows machines to read and write Acorn format floppy discs as image files. VirtualAcorn can read these image files as though they were the original disc. Note that ArcDisc is not suitable for Windows NT, 2000 and XP.
Go to the ArcDisc website

Missing Upgrades

If there are any upgrades missing, please contact me!
If you have any of the missing VA5000 upgrades, please send it to me!

Get all upgrades on CD!

If you don't want to download all that stuff you can buy Wocki's Acorn Emulation CD. Visit my shop to get more informations.

© 2001- 2024 Wocki