Extract the stand alone  'Arculator_V2.2_Windows.zip' to any directory on a PC. This is an original unaltered archive downloaded from 'https://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/Arculator_V2.2_Windows.zip'

Extract and copy the '!SparkFS' directory to the 'hostfs' directory within the Arculator directory (it should end up between the 'ddnoise' and the 'icon' directories). This is a version that works well with this setup.

Extract and copy any of the APDL extracted ,ddc files from 'apdl-,ddc.zip' to the 'hostfs' directory. These files all arrived at 8BS in .zip format that if unzipped in Windows lost their file extensions. The zip files were given new extensions of ,ddc and then can be extracted in an Archimedes.

Run Arculator by double clicking Arculator.exe. The Configuration manager opens <arc02>. Click the icon at the bottom left 'New'. Enter a name for the profile <arc03>. Next, select a machine, 'A5000' <arc04>. On the next screen change memory from 2MB to 8MB. Click 'OK' and setup is finished <arc05><arc06>.

Double click the profile you just set up and Arculator starts. <arc07>

Click the HostFS icon bottom left of the Arculator window <arc08>. A window should open up showing the contents of the 'hostfs' directory. Within that directory there should be '!SparkFS', hostfs/txt' and whatever other files you put in there.

The APDL files have different formats of archives. The version of !SparkFS included here can handle these, the icons on the directories shown in Arculator look slightly different for different archive formats.

Some of the archives contain more archives. Some contain unique icons. 

Double click an archive and wait while !SparkFS starts up and extracts it. A window will open up. At this point there are a number of things you can try to see how the archive is intended to work. Firstly, just double click it to see what happens. If that fails, drag an item from that window to the HostFS window (or any other drive window) and the archive will be extracted.

Depending on how the archive was made, different actions are required to extract and run the programs.
 
Example: Imagine g.189,ddc has been put into 'hostfs' <arc09>. Double click 'g189'.  A window opens up with 4 archives visible. Drag the 'Invaders' archive into the 'HostFS' window. <arc10> There is no pattern on the folder icon that was extracted. This is because in this case, the 'run action' is not defined correctly, in other cases it may well be defined correctly so try extracting the archive before doing the following: Middle button click on the 'Invaders' icon. The filer window will open. Move down to 'File Invaders' and over until the slide out menu appears. Move down to 'Set type' and a further slide out box appears named 'Set type' containing '&3FB'. Type 'archive' <arc11> and press 'ENTER'. The icon for Invaders should now have a yellow and black 'N' shaped logo on it. <arc12>

Other types to try are: 'absolute', 'utility', 'obey'. These can be entered as a 3 digit hex number preceded with an ampersand ('&FF8' is utility for example).  

Double click the 'Invaders' archive you just created and another window will open containing a yellow and blue bug type icon with the name '!Invaders' <arc13>. Drag the icon into the 'HostFS' window <arc14> and then double click it. In this example an icon then appears at the bottom right on the task bar <arc15>, click on this icon and the game starts. <arc16>

To escape the Arculator window hold 'CTRL+END'


Memory error problems: Press F12 and type  *wimpslot -next 1024k ENTER ENTER. Or any other size
At some time there was a !Scrap file error that was fixed by putting 'uniboot31,ddc' into the fshosts directory then in arculator taking !Scrap from it and installing that. It needs double clicking when required. To see if it is running press F12 then type 'show *scrap*'.

There is a copy of !scrap on d526 that updated the existing !scrap and fixed an error.