[net.micro.atari16] MacCartridge

CON.REILLY@SU-GSB-HOW.ARPA (Brian Reilly) (04/05/86)

In case you did not go to the West Coast Computer Faire, here is some more
information about the MacCartridge.  It was displayed at the faire
by the developers and it looked pretty good.  I can't remeber the name
of the company, but I have it on a flyer and will send that along tomorrow.
The two guys who made the thing and wrote the software said they felt there
was a 50-50 chance that Apple would approve of their product and let them
produce it, but I think that is a little too optimistic.  They also
said the price would probably be $50 over the cost of the ROMs ($180).
They said it had worked with MacPaint, MacWrite, and Microsoft BASIC, but
that it does not work with FatBits in MacPaint.  I don't remember too
much else of what they said, but there was a lot of interest in their
booth.

I'll post the address of the company tomorrow.

- Brian Reilly
-------

turner@imagen.UUCP (D'arc Angel) (04/08/86)

> In case you did not go to the West Coast Computer Faire, here is some more
> information about the MacCartridge.  It was displayed at the faire
> by the developers and it looked pretty good.  I can't remeber the name
> of the company, but I have it on a flyer and will send that along tomorrow.
> 
> - Brian Reilly
> -------

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\ lineater, \~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the name of the company is:

Data Pacific, Inc
PO Box 10805 
Marina del Rey CA 90295
(213) 821-2623

if you drop them a line they will enter you into a contest to win
the first catridge to be produced. Please indicated whether you own:
Macintosh
520ST
1040ST or
Want Apple ROM set included 
-- 
----
	The master is not yet married, nor do I think he ever will be. 
			 -Rocky Horror Picture Show

Name:	James Turner
Mail:	Imagen Corp. 2650 San Tomas Expressway, P.O. Box 58101
        Santa Clara, CA 95052-8101
AT&T:	(408) 986-9400
UUCP:	...{decvax,ucbvax}!decwrl!imagen!turner
CompuServe: 76327,1575

REISMAN%PLU@AMES-IO.ARPA (08/08/86)

In response to Nelson Ng's request for info about a board that permits Mac 
software to run on an Atari ST:

Yes, the product, called Mac-Cartridge, does exist, but it is not yet available.

It is a simple, elegant design: Mac ROMs are mounted on the board, which is 
plugged into the ST cartridge port. It was a great attraction at the last
West Coast Computer Faire and many people, including Andy Herzfeld, got to see
a few Mac programs (MacWrite, MacPaint, etc.) run on the ST. 

Many have speculated that Apple is, understandably, hesitant to let a company
sell a board which contain Mac ROMs. The bare board, less ROMs (which are 
available from a variety of sources) will supposedly be sold for $99.00. At 
least that is the rumor.

The manufacturer, Data Pacific, Inc., has been promising to ship "next month" 
for the past few months, but as of my last phone call to them (in early July)
they still had no firm shipping date. They may still be working on the legal
considerations.

The Mac-Cartridge will *NOT* turn an ST into a Mac clone. In the prototype 
version (which is impressive) the following incompatabilities were evident:
Any Mac-programmed sounds were incompatable, and since Mac disks (400/800 K)
are significantly different from ST disks (360/720 K) due to hardware 
differences, all Mac programs must be serially transferred from Macs to STs 
to run under Mac-Cartridge. Of course this brings up another set of 
considerations: Is such a tranfer software piracy? How will this work with
copy protected disks?

Since I'm not connected with Data Pacific I don't have the latest info. If you
want to contact them:

		Data Pacific, Inc.
		609 E. Speer Blvd.
		Denver, CO 80203
		(303) 733-8158

I'm also told that San Leandro Computer Club is a good source of information on
this product.

						Ron Reisman
						Link Flight Simulation
						NASA-Ames Research Center

Note: the above opinions are entirely my own and not necessarily those of Link
nor of NASA.