REISMAN%PLU@AMES-IO.ARPA (08/01/86)
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.