MCCABE@MTUS5.BITNET (05/03/88)
Date: 2 May 1988, 15:25:41 EST
From: Jim McCabe MCCABE at MTUS5
To: INFO-ATARI16 at SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
Subject: Magic Sac performance and prices
[ This probably isn't necessary for Bitnet folks but what-the-hell, eh? ]
Does anyone here own the Magic Sac cartridge? I'm considering buying it
but I'd like to hear more about it if possible. I'd be very thankful if
people could answer any if not all of the following questions:
a) How fast does it run? I've seen one software-only Mac emulator (it
was apparently illegal) that was very slow. The mouse would jump all
over the place because it couldn't keep up with its speed. I'm
assuming that the Magic Sac is a more professional system than this
hack. Is the mouse movement just as smooth as on an ST?
b) How well does the Translator work? And how good is the disk
performance compared to a real Mac and compared to the normal ST?
c) Does Turbo Pascal run on it without problems?
d) Does the larger screen resolution affect programs poorly? (I know some
programs [including the Mac desktop] can take advantage of the larger
screen but how many other programs choke on it?)
e) How expensive are Magic Sac upgrades? I've heard good things about
how fast David Small gets bugs fixed and adds new improvements, so
how much will it cost me to get the newer versions once I have bought
the current one?
f) Is there a very reliable dealer of the Sac + Mac ROMs?
g) Does Mr. Small have plans of eventually getting the Sac to work with
the latest ROM release? (Isn't that the SE version?)
Respond however you wish. I'm sure there are lots of people who are
interested in these questions besides myself. (But direct mail to me
sure gets here faster than the digests do...)
I hate to say it but I might just have to "convert" my ST system into
a Mac clone. The Mac has Turbo Pascal out for it and lots more support,
and I personally feel that its interface is much prettier than the ST's,
so there are some good reasons to get the Sac. However, I've put lots
of time into an ST project of mine that would probably be fairly hard
to port. I'd probably continue its development on the Atari but
eventually slowly make a Mac version as well.
Thanks to everyone who responds!
+-----------------------+-----------------------------+
| Jim McCabe | BITNET: mccabe @ mtus5 |
| G31 ECH MTU | jemccabe @ mtus5 |
| Houghton, MI 49931 | UUCP: mccabe @ m-net |
+-----------------------+-----------------------------+Thomas_E_Zerucha@cup.portal.com (05/04/88)
I have a magic Sac, and it makes my ST run Mac software better than a real Mac in some cases (larger screen, 8 Mhz v.s 5.77(?), fast disk access). It reads any mac formatted disk with the translator, however formatting using the translator may not work on any given mac. Turbo Pascal might run, but I am not sure. I use lightspeed C with no problems. There are a lot of minor problems (no 128K rom-only software (yet), hardware accesses cause crashes), but overall, I can get away without a mac.