Ee be free, ee be.
Well known to readers of Archive Magazine, the group known as T.O.M.S. – who first appeared in the magazine in volume 13, issue 11 (August 2000) with a review of the Epson Stylus Photo 1200 – had a semi-regular series of articles published in the A5 periodical from volume 17, issue 3 (December 2003) until volume 19, issue 4 (January 2006) . That series was centered around using VirtualRPC, an emulator for Windows and Mac OS X computers that allows those people who need to use those platforms to continue to enjoy using RISC OS without having to have two computers on their desk, and was called “VirtualRPC in Use” – although for the first ten installments, it was actually called “VirtualRPC-SE in Use”, presumably a reflection of the version of the emulator T.O.M.S. were actually using themselves.
Those articles were eventually republished as Archive compilation booklets numbers 2 and 8 (“VirtualRiscPC in Use” volumes 1 and 2 respectively), the first being withdrawn in 2010 when the second was published, and that in turn being withdrawn when it was superseded by a newer edition from Virtual Acorn, which was apparently described on the website as “similar” but with “sundry improvements and additions.”
In January, T.O.M.S. announced that in response to requests and ideas from readers, they’ve “been re-jigging the VirtualRPC In Use files into various formats” – and the results are now online. There are actually two booklets available to download, the latest 84 page edition of VirtualRPC in Use, and a 50 page ‘Supplements’ file, which contains twelve additional articles published in Archive in 2011. Both downloads are zip files, which contain the booklets in PDF format, as a double page spread.
As well as being available to download, T.O.M.S. adds that the same files can be had from them in A5/portrait format, ideal for use on 9 to 11 inch tablet computers, and also completely reformatted as A6/portrait, suitable for use on the Amazon Kindle range, as well as other 6 to 7 inch e-readers. To obtain the booklets in either of these formats, T.O.M.S. asks that you contact them directly.
