MARKS-ROGER@YALE.ARPA (07/13/87)
It seems the ST Phoenix has risen from the ashes, reincarnated in the form of the Magic Sac. While Atari has become completely invisible (is it my imagination, or does this date back to the public stock offering?), David Small and folks at Data Pacific haved made continuous and dramatic progress on the Magic Sac, to the point where the Sac (which is a Mac-emulator) is more of a real computer than the ST is. Recent additions to the Magic Sac repertoir include double-sided disk drive support and a new zerostore handler which allows a whole new realm of applications to run. Really, there is now very little that won't run. The spate of chaotic (i.e., apparently random) crashes which bugged earlier releases has been solved; there are now very few actions that won't crash a Mac that have any effect on the Sac. You can print on your Epson- compatible if you buy the driver. David Small is easy to reach on Compuserve, where the Sac discussions are active. Beta releases are commonly posted there; one major revision was offered to users for a mere $10. Promised additions include hard disk support and a new Magic Drive which lets the Magic Sac read and write disks in Mac format. Contrary to some other companies, Mr. Small has always kept his promises. He is also honest enough to avoid promising delivery dates, but keeps his users aware of the state of progress. Recently, I had an intermittent hardware failure in the cartridge. It was quickly repaired at no charge, even though it was out of warranty. Although I have no legal connection to Data Pacific, I can't claim I have no financial connection to them, for they have saved me quite a few dollars by converting my doorstop into a useful machine. -------