Useful 32bit Archive Sites

A collection of links to some of the largest archives of useful files for Acorn's 32bit machines.

Magazines

1) Eureka

The magazine/newsletter of the ARM Club. 64 issues from 1991-2008 in PDF format.

2) RISCWorld and Foundation RISCWorld

Published by APDL and later incorporating the Foundation magazine of RISCOS Ltd. 55 issues from 2000-2009 in HTML format.

3) Acorn User

Scanned in by the team at 8-Bit Software. 267 issues from 1982-2003 in PDF format. The 32bit content is in the issues from 1987 onwards.

Some of the cover discs for Acorn user are available from The Qube RiscOS Server in ADF format.

Websites and FTP sites

During the late 90s it was common for large amounts of Acorn freeware and shareware to be collated on FTP sites often based on university FTP sites. As with most software from about this period it is mostly compatible with the Risc PC but not necessarily compatible with the StrongARM CPU.

After the 90s it is more common that authors would publish their work on their own websites.

Many of these sites have now disappeared, but luckily Drobe went to the effort of archiving these.

1) HENSA Micros

Mirrored by Drobe, from a mirror my the UK mirror service. The Higher Education National Software Archive. The archive contains masses of sorted freeware in a large number of categories, check out the full index for details.

2) Barnet College

Mirrored by Drobe. The Freenet archive on Barnet Colleges had a general focus of networking related software.

3) APDL libraries

As mentioned elsewhere on the site, the back catalog of the Archimedes Public Domain Library is available online. Masses of Games, Apps, Sillies, Demos and Utilities. Check out the catalogue files for details of each archive.

4) The Qube RiscOS Server

A relatively recent site, it also contains mirrors of many of the other sites listed here. Also contains many games and apps that have come from the Bittorrent network.

5) Argonet

Mirrored by Drobe. The RISC OS friendly ISP kept a FTP site of useful files. In particular in the Acorn/PD sub directory.

6) Demon

Mirrored by Drobe. The ISP Demon is still going, but their Acorn FTP site has long since disappeared. This archive has a mass of Archimedes PD on.

7) University of Stuttgart (FTP)

Unusually for a site listed here, this one still has the Acorn files on!

8) The Arcade BBS Filebase

Also available via FTP. The enormous file base of the Arcade Bulletin Board Service. Click here for a file list.

9) Acorn Arcade free commercial games

Acorn Arcade tracked down and got permission to redistribute a selection of formerly commercial games. Includes Elite, Big Bang, Cycloids, DarkWood, Dinosaw, Hamsters, Ixion, Phaethon, Revolver and Terramex.