stowe@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (holly) (09/07/88)
There is no such thing as 128K Magic Sac. The 128K package is called Spectre 128 and is NOT produced by Data Pacific but by Dave Small's new company Gadgets by Small, Inc. Spectre 128 is planned to be available at the Glendale show this month.
landay@cory.Berkeley.EDU (James A. Landay) (09/19/88)
Can someone post some info about this product (Dave Small.) What
exactly do you get? No ROMS included, right? Is there anything
to do if you own a magic sac besides throwing it out? Do you
need to buy translator from DP to read and write disks? Price and
availability?
Thanks
James A. Landay
ARPA: landay@cory.berkeley.edu
..!ucbvax!cory!landaydlm@druhi.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) (09/21/88)
in article <8809191251.AA15678@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, nfrech@ALMSA-1.ARPA ("Norman R. Frech") says: > I just got Dave Small's newsletter and I am fairly excited about this > product. I don't know how to get to Dave on Usenet so I though maybe > you could answer a few questions. He talks about a version 2.0 > coming up in the near future; will this be a free upgrade from 1.0 or > will there be a charge? Second, is it absolutely necessary to have > a monochome monitor? You can reach Dave on the Well, try hplabs!well!dsmall, that usually works for me. I don't know if the upgrade to version 2.0 will be free or not. In general upgrades to fix bugs in the code are free, upgrades that add new features are a small fee ($10 to $20). The feature and bug fix list for version 2.0 isn't finished yet so Dave hasn't decided what to do. The Spectre 128 works with either the monochrome or color monitors. A monochrome monitor is recommended since it is a *LOT* nicer looking and easier to use. Color monitors work but they aren't nearly as nice, the screen is smaller (640x200 instead of 640x400) and updates to the screen are slower since the Spectre must convert the "real" screen into the correct format for the ST color screen. If you really want to use Mac(tm) software I'd recommend getting a monochrome monitor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dan Moore AT&T Bell Labs Denver dlm@druhi.ATT.COM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
dnelson@umbio.MIAMI.EDU (Dru Nelson) (10/02/88)
Consider me out of it for the past five years, but.....
Can you run the new Spectre 128 on an old 520 ST or STFM?
Also, are there new roms to solve the compatibility differences
between the Mega and ST???
Rip Van Winkle
--
Dru Nelson UUCP: (gould || uunet)!umbio!dnelson
Miami, Florida MCI: dnelson
Internet: dnelson%umbio@umigw.miami.edudlm@druhi.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) (10/04/88)
in article <692@umbio.MIAMI.EDU>, dnelson@umbio.MIAMI.EDU (Dru Nelson) says: > Consider me out of it for the past five years, but..... > > Can you run the new Spectre 128 on an old 520 ST or STFM? The Spectre 128 runs on any ST (old, new, Mega, non-Mega). The only thing that changes is the amount of RAM available to the Mac. On a 520 ST you can only emulate a 128 or 256K Mac, which is a fairly limited system. If you really want to run Mac software you need at least a 1 Meg ST (upgraded 520, 1040, whatever), that gives you enough RAM to run almost all Mac programs including HyperCard. I don't know of any Mac programs, other than one compiler, that won't run in the 832K the Spectre gives you on a 1 Meg ST. Dan Moore AT&T Bell Labs Denver dlm@druhi.ATT.COM
leif%sosumi@Sun.COM (Leif Samuelsson) (10/05/88)
These questions were never answered, unless I missed it: Does Spectre work with the DP Translator? Is there any other way of reading Mac floppies with Spectre? -- Leif Samuelsson leif@sun.com Sun Microsystems, Inc
dlm@druhi.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) (10/06/88)
in article <71578@sun.uucp>, leif%sosumi@Sun.COM (Leif Samuelsson) says: > Does Spectre work with the DP Translator? The Spectre 128 does work with the Translator. > Is there any other way of reading Mac floppies with Spectre? Not yet. Remember, many things come out better the second time you do them. (NOTE: Gadgets by Small has not yet made any really official comments on this.) Dan Moore AT&T Bell Labs Denver dlm@druhi.ATT.COM
nowlin@ihuxy.ATT.COM (Jerry Nowlin) (10/10/88)
In-Reply-To: your article <3633@druhi.ATT.COM> > almost all Mac programs including HyperCard. I don't know of any Mac > programs, other than one compiler, that won't run in the 832K the > Spectre gives you on a 1 Meg ST. I'm in desperate need of a program that will preview PostScript. I'm real tired of walking down the hall to the printer every time I want to test a piece of code. Is there a way to run the Mac programs that display PostScript with the Spectre? There are some excellent programs out there for the Mac. Adobe actually uses the Mac in their training courses. For that matter, is there a PostScript previewer for the native ST? That would even be better. Thanks. Jerry Nowlin (...!att!ihuxy!nowlin)
dlm@druhi.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) (10/12/88)
in article <2669@ihuxy.ATT.COM>, nowlin@ihuxy.ATT.COM (Jerry Nowlin) says: > I'm in desperate need of a program that will preview PostScript. I'm real > tired of walking down the hall to the printer every time I want to test a > piece of code. Is there a way to run the Mac programs that display > PostScript with the Spectre? I've never used any of the Mac PostScript preview programs so I can't say I'm 100% sure if they will run on the Spectre 128. The odds are that they will run with no problems. The *only* problem I know of with the Spectre and PostScript is that you can't use an Apple LaserWriter, all the drivers expect an AppleTalk port that the ST doesn't have. Several possible solutions are being checked into but I won't even guess if they will work or not. If your interested in using a single program you might try asking Dave if he knows if it runs or not. He has a lot of Mac software and he also gets reports from all the users. You can reach him at hplabs!well!dsmall. He usually gets on there about once or twice a week. As an alternative you can send me an email asking about a specfic programs, as long as the volume of requests is reasonably small I'm willing to answer questions. I may not be any faster than emailing Dave directly though. Dan Moore AT&T Bell Labs Denver dlm@druhi.ATT.COM
stowe@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (holly) (12/17/88)
Aric, Spectre will run Hypercard on a 1040 with older versions of System/Finder. (I think I'm using 5.4/3.2) If you use the most recent you will run out of memory. I believe the Gadgets by Small, Inc RT on GEnie has a list of software that will and won't run in its BB area. There aren't all that many things that won't run, except badly behaved games. The Gadgets RT is on page 690 on GEnie. To get into the BB area, you can give the command: M 690:1 or signon with USERID,PASSWORD,690:1 When you get in there, try SET CAT 7 and then NEW to see what topics have new messages.
Amortisseur@cup.portal.com (David T Szlucha) (02/16/89)
Hi, Just today I ordered a Spectre 128 and 64K ROMS. I have a few questions. What System and Finder do I use? Will this look OK on a color monitor? How do I create a boot disk? Is a one meg ST enough? How do I format a hard disk with MFS? (ID=0, LUN=1) What else sould I ask that will help? Thanks in advance for any info!! Amort
hedley@imagen.UUCP (Hedley Rainnie) (02/17/89)
I thought this may be of general interest: Amortisseur@cup.portal.com (David T Szlucha): > > Hi, > > Just today I ordered a Spectre 128 and 64K ROMS. I have a few questions. !!!! 128K Roms!!!! Not 64K > What System and Finder do I use? Any one > system 3.2 finder 5.1. I recommend sys 4.2 finder 6.0 > Will this look OK on a color monitor? Dont know. I have heard not. > How do I create a boot disk? Use the docs provided with Spectre, it talks of a place that will provide a disk. OR get a friend/borrow a mac, use MacBinary XMODEM on the mac to transfer any file in XMODEM to your ST. Of course you have PAID for the Apple System and Finder from an Apple dealer at this point. Then copy the file to an ST floppy run The Transverter with a preformatted MFS/(single sided) Spectre disk. It will ask for the ST disk with the MacBinary SYSTEM file on it, provide the disk, then after converting it will ask for the Spectre disk. Do this for both System and Finder. Go back into spectre boot off floppy, (Make sure the Hard Disk Boot check is deselected) Hit return...You should get a Mac happy face. At this stage the road forks: a) With an ST hard drive you can partition partition(s) to be a Spectre/Mac partition(s) b) With a Mac SCSI hard disk and a BMS controller it is theoretically possible to boot a Mac volume (No Gem partitions at all) c) You can use the system (In my opinion crippled) as a floppy system Since I am biased to a) I will only speak of a). Partition the drive so that you have x many spectre partitions. Boot off the floppy. Press Fn (3 <= n <= 8) For the partition you wish to Mount. F3 is the most typical case. Copy your boot floppies system and finder to the HD. Even make a folder "System Folder" on the HD. You get a pretty system ICON on it under finder 6.0. Now you can boot off the HD. Perform the earlier steps again on transverting to get the Terminal program you are using onto the Spectre HD. Now you should be able to suck software off the Mac at 9600 baud MacBinary. Given time any software package can be transfered this way. Make sure to pick up Raymond Lau's Stuffit program and Lempeur's Binhex program. You will need them. TAR is useful too but it screws up the DATA/RSRC forks of a program binary. > Is a one meg ST enough? Probably. > How do I format a hard disk with MFS? (ID=0, LUN=1) Use HFS. MFS is for the birds. > What else sould I ask that will help? See above. And call again if you need more help. > Thanks in advance for any info!! > > Amort Good Luck! Cheers Hedley. -- {decwrl!sun}!imagen!hedley
hedley@imagen.UUCP (Hedley Rainnie) (02/17/89)
An important addendum to my last posting:
You may/will find System 4.2/Finder 6.0 Will not fit on a ~400K floppy.
What can be done to alleviate this is blasting a copy of the system on
the Mac with the resource editor, and killing all the OS Patches for
an SE and a II. Also you can kill The color CDEV stuff and and color rsrc.
A MacTutor article spoke on this exact subject and I was successful a long
time ago in getting this to work. I will track down the article if any
one is interested. You can also blast some fonts and DA's.
Welcome to Catch 22.
Cheers Hedley.
--
{decwrl!sun}!imagen!hedleyrthurlow@van-bc.UUCP (Rob Thurlow) (02/17/89)
In article <14696@cup.portal.com> Amortisseur@cup.portal.com (David T Szlucha) writes: >Hi, > >Just today I ordered a Spectre 128 and 64K ROMS. I have a few questions. Gak! Only 64K ROMs? What a waste! Get 128K ROMs, you won't be sorry. I have a Magic Sac and 64K ROMs, and just got my hard disk working with it. It's a bit of a pain, since you need "Hard Disk 20" to teach the 64K ROMs about HFS. Note that my answers may not be right for Spectre! >What System and Finder do I use? Best is Finder 5.4, System 3.2. Later versions won't fix the bugs in the 64K ROMs. 128K ROMs will run the newest Finder/System 6.0.1. >Will this look OK on a color monitor? Can't say, but I think it's a little hard to deal with. >How do I create a boot disk? Do it on the Mac with the Finder/System combo above (and whatever nice fonts, desk accessories and drivers you can find) and then send it over via a serial cable and the Mac & ST transfer programs. If you want to get a hard disk partition with 64K ROMs, try to find "Hard Disk 20", version 1.1. >Is a one meg ST enough? More is nice, but I'm really happy. >How do I format a hard disk with MFS? (ID=0, LUN=1) I have MAGICHD.PRG, you'll have something like it which will initialize a partition laid out by a utility program (HDX or ICDFMT or SUPFMT) to be either an MFS or an HFS partition. Good luck! -- "There was something fishy about the butler. I think he was a Pisces, probably working for scale." - Nick Danger Robert Thurlow {uunet,ubc-cs}!van-bc!rthurlow Vancouver, BC, Canada or rthurlow@van-bc.UUCP In the heart of Kitsilano or rthurlow@wimsey.bc.ca
jdutka@wpi.wpi.edu (John Dutka) (02/18/89)
In article <14696@cup.portal.com> Amortisseur@cup.portal.com (David T Szlucha) writes: > >Just today I ordered a Spectre 128 and 64K ROMS. I have a few questions. I was wondering - could anyone out there send performance stats/info on the Spectre System? I'll be purchasing a version for another computer, and would like the input of people who have used the system. +--------------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+ | John A. Dutka (jdutka) | . . . .____. . | jdutka@wpi.bitnet | | Worcester Polytechnic | | | | | | | | jdutka@wpi.wpi.edu | | WPI Box 2308 | | | | |____| | | | | 100 Institute Road | | | | | | +--------------------------+ | Worcester, MA 01609-2280 | |__|__| | | | WPI - Home of the | | (508) 792-1949 | (C) 1989, Chris Moir | ever-growing tuition. | +--------------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
Xorg@cup.portal.com (Peter Ted Szymonik) (02/18/89)
Hi, first off, if you can at all afford them, get 128K ROMS. You will be missing a lot of you dn't! I'm not sure what System Finder to use with 64K ROMS but for 128K System/Finder 4.2/6.0 seems to work best. You can use Spectre with a color monitor but the results are that the speed is impared and the display leaves something to be desired (what do you expect? They just aren't many color Mac Plus' out there! <grin>), One meg is enough but you find it tight with some applications. You will end up with a 832K Mac Plus. You don't need to format the entire HD, just a partition can be formated - and Spectre incorporates HFS format!!! No more HD-20! Pete
Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com (02/18/89)
Hedley Rainnie mentioned having seen a MacTutor article which told about
killing unnecessary stuff in a Mac System file... and said he'd track
the article down if there was any interest...
Yes..! ( <--- MUCH interest..!)
:)
BobRXorg@cup.portal.com (Peter Ted Szymonik) (02/19/89)
John> Spectre runs at 98% of Mac SE speed with a much faster disk access than either the Plus or the SE. Spectre GCR is rumored to run even faster! By the way, Spectre is an add-on Cart for the ST line, not a 'system', so you could only use it on an ST (I was a bit confused by your wording.) Peter Szymonik
dlm@druwy.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) (02/21/89)
in article <14696@cup.portal.com>, Amortisseur@cup.portal.com (David T Szlucha) says: > Just today I ordered a Spectre 128 and 64K ROMS. I have a few questions. > What System and Finder do I use? With the 64K ROMs you can use any System/Finder up to System 3.2, Finder 5.3 or 5.4. Apple removed the resource containing the 64K ROM patches from the System file after version 3.2. You can load later System/Finder versions but there will be lots of weird bugs due to the missing 64K ROM patch resource. > Will this look OK on a color monitor? The Spectre is useable on a color monitor. It is a *LOT* nicer on a monochrome system. > How do I create a boot disk? You can use "Transverter", a utility program that comes with the Spectre 128, to transfer a downloaded copy of System/Finder to a Spectre format disk. Transverter can also write the boot blocks for you. > Is a one meg ST enough? The Spectre will run in as little as 512K. Of course the more memory you have the better. > How do I format a hard disk with MFS? (ID=0, LUN=1) The Spectre startup program allows you to format HFS or MFS hard disk partitions. Dan Moore AT&T Bell Labs Denver dlm@druwy.ATT.COM dlm@druhi.ATT.COM
rona@hpdml93.HP.COM (Ron Abramson) (02/23/89)
Buy a monochrome monitor! Not only will it make the MAC stuff look good, but my color monitor is used strictly for games since I got my monochrome a month ago. Word processing, DTP and spreadsheets all look a lot better (in my humble opinion) on the monochrome. I can't believe I didn't buy the thing years ago! ron abramson P.S. These opinions are mine.
neonman@ecst.csuchico.edu (Justin DuBois) (03/21/91)
I am Looking for an older style Spectre Cartridge. Is anyone
selling there Spectre 128 Cartridge please leave me mail at
neonman@ecst.csuchico.edu
The Mac Roms may not need be included, Please leave me a message,
and a price.