bradley@cis.ohio-state.edu (Pete Bradley) (01/24/89)
I have a brother who wants to purchase a Macintosh, however I repair them for a living and don't think Macs are all that great, (just my opinion). I have heard the Amiga can be set up to run most Mac programs/system. Can someone email me info on this please? I am interested in the following. 1) What model of the Amiga can handle the setup. (I think it's the st but don't know, pardon my lack of knowledge)? 2) What board is required as an extra purchase. (again, I have heard it's the Spector 128 but don't know for sure). 3) What else is required? Where can he/I get hold of the proper ROMs? Are there any problems getting them? 4) What is the relative cost of this venture? 5) Most important question of all. If anyone has a similar setup. I am most interested in your experiences. Is this a reasonable venture? Have you experienced any particular problems? Finally, I have heard several good things about the Amiga and would really like these facts to add to what I've heard. My brother lives in the Pittsburgh area, so any info on a good dealer in the area he could talk to would be appreciated. Thank you. Pete Bradley | Take the acid out of our rain, keep it in bradley@cis.ohio-state.edu | soft drinks where it belongs !!! hardware@cis.ohio-state.edu |
kim@uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) (01/25/89)
In article <32362@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>, bradley@cis.ohio-state.edu (Pete Bradley) writes: > > I have a brother who wants to purchase a Macintosh, however I repair them > for a living and don't think Macs are all that great, (just my opinion). I > have heard the Amiga can be set up to run most Mac programs/system. Can > someone email me info on this please? I am interested in the following. I think this may be of general interest, so I'm posting it instead. BTW, thank you for NOT cross-posting your questions to the .mac group. Attached is some information I came across on a local BBS just the other day about AMAX, a product that will *supposedly* be available ... RSN. I personally have no knowledge about where this product stands, but it has been talked about from time-to-time. First, let me try and answer a couple of things, though ... > 1) What model of the Amiga can handle the setup. (I think it's the st but > don't know, pardon my lack of knowledge)? None, currently ... this is what the AMAX product below will supposedly provide. The ST is not an Amiga. It's an entirely different machine made by Atari. There is (or was) a Mac emulator that Data Pacific made for it called Magic Sac, but I think it's no longer in production. It could only handle 64K Mac ROM's, and they are/were in short supply ... > 2) What board is required as an extra purchase. (again, I have heard it's the > Spector 128 but don't know for sure). > > 3) What else is required? Where can he/I get hold of the proper ROMs? Are there > any problems getting them? > > 4) What is the relative cost of this venture? Never heard of the Spector thing. See below for items 3 and 4. > 5) Most important question of all. If anyone has a similar setup. I am most > interested in your experiences. Is this a reasonable venture? Have you > experienced any particular problems? Dunno how well AMAX will work (assuming it materializes), but the Magic Sac for the Atari ST did work reasonably well in terms of compatibility and performance. You could probably get better feedback from the .st news group. Only being able to handle the 64K ROM's was a major limitation, however. OK, here's the AMAX info ... /kim vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv included text about AMAX vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv > > Following are bits and pieces of a conference from December 23, 1988 > in the AmigaZone Club on the American People/Link network with > ReadySoft, who plans to sell AMAX, a Macintosh emulator for the Amiga. > > AMAX is a software/hardware combination that allows Mac software to run > on all Amigas. A hardware adaptor plugs into the external disk drive port > with a place for Apple ROMs (64K for original Mac or 128K to emulate the > Mac Plus) to be inserted. The hardware adaptor also allows a Mac 800K > disk drive to be connected, as well as passing the Amiga disk port. > No Mac hard drive support on first release. Mac software is supposed to > be able to use the Amiga parallel and serial ports (eg, Imagewriter via > the serial port.) > > ReadySoft will not sell the ROMs, but sez that Computer Shopper has > listings offering them from other companies. > > An Amiga 2000 with 2 meg of RAM and the 128K Mac ROMs is reported to run > a little faster than a Mac Plus! An Amiga with 68010/68020 will have to use > the 128K ROMs. > > Multitasking will not be possible while running Mac software with AMAX, > although ReadySoft claims to be looking into it for the future. > > Tentative release is February, price around $150. > > ReadySoft claims to have had a 3 meg Mac emulation running, made easier > by the new Commodore chip set giving 1 meg of continuous memory (which > the Mac software expects). However, they claim to have found a method > to make use of ALL Amiga memory, albeit with a "degree of reduced > compatibility." They claim to have very good compatibility with most > programs, having tried such as Word 3.0, Excel, HyperCard, PageMaker, > Megaroids, Loderunner (Apple games are said to pale compared with > Amiga games;-), MacPaint, MacWrite, and all system versions and finders. > Claim to run Pagemaker 1.2 on 1 meg a500/a2000 as well as 512K a1000. > The Amiga mouse emulates the Mac mouse, no problems. > > You can read about 34% of a Mac disk in any Amiga floppy drive or plug in > an optional Mac drive. The optional Mac drive will not be usable by normal > Amiga software, but will permit bidirectional file transfer. They claim > full disk compatibility using a Mac drive. > > Several screen formats are supported, including 512 x 342 for full video > compatibility, plus support for the A2024 with 1008 x 800 and the new chip > set which gives 640 x 400 non-interlaced. Since the Macs are monochromatic > (with the 64K and 128K ROMs), only 2 colors are used by AMAX on the Amiga. > > AMAX is completely independent of Data Pacific and Dave Small (another > Mac emulator but, I think, for a different host). > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ [ Any thoughts or opinions which may or may not have been expressed ] [ herein are my own. They are not necessarily those of my employer. ] -- UUCP: kim@amdahl.amdahl.com or: {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,uunet,oliveb,ames}!amdahl!kim DDD: 408-746-8462 USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 249, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 BIX: kdevaughn GEnie: K.DEVAUGHN CIS: 76535,25
tsub@pnet02.cts.com (Tom Wang) (01/26/89)
hmm...I thought the name was MAX (not AMAX). Anyways, I read that it can only
work with 64K and 128K Mac ROMS(which you have to purchase your own), and they
might not work with the latest software because the Mac II and SE use 256K
ROMS and some newer software need these.
Also, you can't use MAC software directly on the Amiga. You would have to
copy the software onto a special disk(that will work with Mac and Amiga) on a
regular Macintosh. Then you can run the program, on that special disk.
I got the above information off of THE AMIGA SENTRY.
--
Tom C. Wang
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