Welcome to RISCOS.com

Thanks for visiting RISCOS.com, whatever your interest in RISC OS we hope we can help. As the site is still under development this front page will list the changes that are being made newest first. Once all sections of the site are completed this front page will change.

06/03/20 - Offices have now fully re-opened

This is just a quick message to say that our offices have now fully re-opened following the refurbishment work. We apologise for the limited service that we have been able to offer since late January, we suffered from a 'perfect storm' of damage to the roof, staff illness and then internal damage to the main office. Whilst the work was being undertaken we were still processing orders and handling support requests but with a longer turn around than normal. VirtualAcorn unlock codes, download sales and other automated processes we not effected.

We have now cleared all outstanding orders and all outstanding technical support requests. Service from now on should be normal and we apologise to any customers that have received a slower than normal response during this period.

21/03/17 - New major update to our RISCwares checkout system

We are pleased to announce that the new version of our checkout system has gone live today. RISCwares version 1.36 represents a major upgrade of our system and is, as far as we are aware, the only system of it's type that's been developed on RISC OS.

Since the first version of RISCwares replaced the earlier e-junkie based system (as used by RISCOS Ltd) we've been listening to customer feedback and have been improving the system. The latest version replaces version 1.20 and uses 256 byte encryption methods to store order information on our server rather than downloading the information from PayPal when it's required. The system for downloading digital products has been redesigned and we have extended the availability time scale to a full 28 days, rather than the 14 days indicated in the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Full order information is now preserved should the status of an order be changed. In total there are over 100 changes/improvements since the previous released version of RISCwares.

Finally, as a result of the improved functionality, we have made a couple of small changes to our Privacy Policy. These changes only apply to any orders placed after the 14th of March 2017.

18/11/16 - APDL hardware now available from RISCOS.com

Although we have been quiet over the last few months we have still been very busy. Last year we acquired a large consignment of new, refurbished and pre-owned hardware from APDL in London and before offering any for sale we wanted to make sure that everything was tested. The first items to be tested (and listed) were network interfaces which we started selling earlier in the year. Shortly afterwards we started listing serial mice that were converted for use with RISC OS computers.

It's taken a long time to test and grade the APDL hardware as everything got mixed together with good and bad components in the same box. There was no opportunity to test items whilst they were in APDL's premises as everything had to cleared in a hurry before the building was sold. For example we had a box with over 500 SIMMs all of which had to be stress testing before they could be sold. That took a long time.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been updating RISCOS.com and have listed the next batch of ex APDL hardware including memory, VRAM, storage devices and more. We've also been busy re-working the APDL hardware user manuals and the first of these are now available from the user support section of RISCOS.com.

We have also started working through APDLs software and have started with the hardware drivers. The first driver we've re-launched is for parallel port SparQ and EZ230 drives. The driver is available both on it's own or bundled with new old stock SparQ drives.

15/01/16 - New VirtualAcorn products on RISCOS.com.

3QD Developments Ltd is pleased to announce that a couple more new products have been added to the RISCOS.com RISCwares shopping system. Firstly a new version of VirtualA5000 is now available for immediate download. This is an updated and overhauled version of the product that was supplied by VirtualAcorn. We regularly get enquiries about VirtualA5000 as it hasn't been available for some time. As the classic RISC OS ROMS can be purchased from RISCOS.com it made sense to supply a complete product with a 'classic' version of RISC OS that is pre-configured and ready to go. VirtualA5000 includes RISC OS 3.10 and retails at £15.00.

As well as the new version of VirtualA5000 a new version of VirtualRPC that's exclusive to RISCOS.com is also now available. VirtualRPC-DL has similar features to the ever popular VirtualRPC-SE but doesn't include the software packs, documentation archive or all the extra bundled commercial applications. Like the other versions of VirtualRPC VirtualRPC-DL can still read CDs and floppy discs, it can connect to a network and connect to the internet. It supports up to 64Mb of RAM and includes the HostFS and ADFS filing systems.

VirtualRPC-DL costs only £25.00, making it the cheapest VirtualRPC ever. VirtualA5000 and VirtualRPC-DL are only available directly from RISCOS.com as downloads, so they won't be available from any RISC OS dealers.

Both VirtualA5000 and VirtualRPC-DL are available from today. They are suitable for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10. Unlike the VirtualRPC products that are supplied on CD neither VirtualA5000 or VirtualRPC-DL need to be registered with VirtualAcorn. They can be used from the moment that they are installed. Both new products can be found in the Emulation section of RISCOS.com.

28/10/2015 - RISCwares and RISC OS 6.20 availability

Over the past couple of months we have been busy developing a new website shopping system. This new system is called RISCwares. Version 1.12 is currently ready and waiting to handle orders from riscos.com. We took the unusual step of developing our own system as we couldn't find any third party solutions that worked how we wanted and offered the features we needed without any unnecessary bloat or high fixed costs.

We will be extending the RISCwares feature set over the next few months as it's adapted and deployed across our other websites. This means that we will be making a great many more products available. This list includes items formally available from APDL in London and new and re-launched products from VirtualAcorn. The APDL range will include both hardware and software. The aim is to make all the software products available as instant downloads. Once completed RISCwares will offer hundreds of exclusive products.

The first new download product available from RISCwares is the RISC OS 6.20 upgrade. After extensive testing we decided that we needed to make a significant number of changes and improvements to the RISC OS 6.20 build and installer. These unexpected changes combined with staff illness have delayed the RISC OS 6.20 release for which we apologise.

The RISC OS 4 upgrades and the RISC OS 6 upgrade are now available for immediate download. Look out for other product announcements over the next few days.

20/08/2015 - New products and new shop

We've been busy refreshing our product range and re-designing the riscos.com shopping system over the last few weeks. From today new versions of the RISCOS 'Classic ROMs collection' and the 'Virtually FREE RISC OS 4.02 for emulators' are available. These new versions are supplied as zip files rather than ISO images and have a simplified layout. As these two products are primarily designed for use with emulators we have updated our instructions for Red Squirrel and RPC-Em and have included components in 'self extracting' RISC OS absolute format. This makes setting up an emulated RISC OS environment easier and ensures that key RISC OS components don't lose their filetypes.

To coincide with the first product updates the first section of the new riscos.com shopping system has gone live. Over the next few weeks the shop will be populated with updates to current products, brand new products and the return of some old favourites. More details will be revealed once these products are available.

Whilst we have mainly been working on the RISCOS.com products and shopping system we have found time to add a 'Clan Acorn' section to the Acorn Computers archive. All six of the Clan member floppy discs are included along with the original Clan press release. We are always looking for more material to add to both the Acorn Computers and RISCOS Ltd sections of the archive so if you have something that's not currently included please do get in touch.

11/08/2015 - Reviews, features and more

We are pleased to announce that a new 'Reviews & Features' section of the RISC OS archives is now available. This new section can be reached from the main archives index or from here. This new section includes articles reproduced with the permission of a number of RISC OS magazines.

Over the past couple of months we have also made numerous other changes to the website. We have been tweaking page layouts on a number of pages to improve readability. We have also re-designed the RISC OS information pages to make them simpler. The new shop system is nearly complete and you will see shop graphics popping up on some pages. The new shop hasn't yet been activated but it should be running very soon. Once it's up we hope to be making some surprise announcements.

26/06/2015 - ARM Assembly Language Programming

Following on from our announcements over the last few days we are pleased to announce that Alligata Media's 'ARM Assembly Language Programming' has been added to the developer bookshelf. This brings our count of free to read RISC OS reference books to nearly 40.

In other news we have also replaced the 'listings' text files that accompany Martyn Fox's 'Beginner's Guide to WIMP Programming' as some of the files were tokenised and couldn't be viewed on non RISC OS systems. The replacement listings should be viewable in any text editor on any system.

25/06/2015 - Three further books added to the FREE riscos.com support library

We are pleased to announce that a further three book titles have been added to the RISCOS.com support library. The new titles are First steps in programming RISC OS computers, A Beginner's guide to WIMP programming and the Archimedes Game Writer manual.

The new titles can be found from the main support index.http://www.riscos.com/support/users/index.htm. 'First Steps in programming RISC OS computers' joins the 'First Steps with RISC OS 4' in the user support section.

The other two titles are available from both the user and developer sections of riscos.com support as they have information that's appropriate to both RISC OS users and those considering developing software for RISC OS

24/6/2015 - RISC OS 4.39 Documentation and three new books now available FREE of charge

As part of our on going project to resolve problems with RISC OS documentation we have just made available the first part of our planned RISC OS 4.39 user guide. The RISC OS 4.39 Configuration Guide can be found in the user support section of the website.

We are also pleased to announce that a number of extra titles have been added to the free user and developers support sections of riscos.com. Available from today in the developer support section is BBC BASIC V. Also new in the user support section are Budget DTP on RISC OS and Graphics on the ARM. We hope to be making further titles available shortly.

Finally, as part of the site re-design we will be referring to the different versions of RISC OS by number rather than using the 'Adjust' and 'Select' names. RISC OS users have told us that they find the use of the 'Adjust' and 'Select' names very confusing. We have to agree, especially as the 'Select' name can be applied to multiple versions of RISC OS from RISC OS 4.20 to RISC OS 6.20. If you do find a document, apart from those in the archives, which uses the 'Select' or 'Adjust' names can you please let us know so we can correct it.

19/6/2015 - new website and new content coming on stream

The huge amount of worked needed to preserve APDL after the sudden death of Dave Holden has caused a major delay in our plans for RISCOS.com. So, although it's late, we have finally uploaded the next phase of the re-designed website and we have added new content and space for further materials.

Over the next few weeks the new shop system will be going live and we will be announcing our plans for our new RISCOS.com hardware range. In the meantime some new sections of the site have pages with 'Under Construction' logos. With a bit of luck and a trailing wind these logos will be vanishing very shortly.

This front page will be updated with the latest press releases as the site is completed. We hope you are happy with your new riscos.com.

Aaron - 3QD Developments

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