From: faheyr@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Bob Fahey)
Subject: Re: Macintosh emulation on Amiga
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 23:29:57 GMT

In <1992Oct3.044524.11919@cgrg.ohio-state.edu> derek@cgrg.ohio-state.edu (Dariusz Bolski) writes:

>In article <BvBILy.6os@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> faheyr@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Bob Fahey) writes:
>>into thinking that your host system is compatible. But, my question is:
>>Why? Why spend $500 to get 90% compatiblility with a system if you can just
>>spend $700 for a nice used system that you are trying to emulate? 

>Assuming I have Amiga 4000, paying additional $300 for Apple Quadra
>compatibility (assuming Emplant) is much less than buying Quadra.
>This is a reason good enough.

In theory, eveything SHOULD work this way. However, there are a few flaws in
your thinking. The one that jumps out at me immediately is that Emplant is
<vaporware>. I know what Jim Drew has been saying, but he was been flapping
his gums for several months saying "RSN". EMPLANT HAS NOT BEEN SEEN
FUNCTIONING. He showed up at the World of Commodore show, and had NOTHING
at all to show, except a protoboard which was in his suitcase, a non-
functioning "prototype" as he put it. I sure hope you didn't put any money
up front for one of these, because I don't know anyone who would be paying
for a product which NO ONE has seen functioning. Let's just say that Emplant
DOES function. Well, I wouldn't hold my breath for Quadra emulation, much
less Mac Plus emulation, based upon Jim Drew's track record. Look at Sybil.
This has got to be the flakiest, most buggy hardware hack-up job around, from
what users of it have told me.

>For much less than original Quadra, you would have Amiga A4000 and the
>Mac which runs like Quadra (just fewer colors). Thus you would have
>two computers. Is it good reason for you?

Oh, I would be the first in line to buy an Emplant if this were the case.
Look at what you said. Quadra emulation? Man, I don't know where you got
your info on Emplant, but no where in the "press release" did I see anything
about quadra emulation mentioned for $300. The way Mr. Drew has portrayed it
is an add-on card which does hardware emulation. Therefore, if you have an
A4000, you would still be hardware emulating a mac plus. Hey, you get what
you pay for. $300 = Mac plus emulation. Just as ~$300 will get you Amax II
(which I would trust a whole HELL of a lot more than emplant at this point).

>>Emulating another computer is more of a status symbol than a necessity.

>I have never seen that kind of attitude.

Well, then you either don't know a lot of emulating people, or the people I
know with that attitude are a bunch of schmucks. (probably the latter of the
two...) ;-)

>I have used PC emulator for years,
>for professional programming, I used to own PC computers too. After I discovered
>that emulator does all I need (and more) but final testing (which by reason I
>did on a real PC) I got rid of PCs and sticked to an emulator.
>I still have the need to run it occasionally (like today to run MS-Word to format
>someone text in MS-Word format). Funny enough, free demo version of software 
>PC-emulator ( on Amiga) works good for such tasks.

Man, you have my sympathy if you are developing software on an emulator. I
tried running Microsoft C 5.x on PC-Task, and all I can say about that is
HA HA HA HA!!! NOT! 10 minutes to do a compilation of a trivial procedure
is a bit extensive.

>>The only time I could see it being cost-effective is when we can get a
>>NeXT emulator running on a Mac, Amiga, or whatever, for a few hundred
>>dollars. 

>Software PC emulators on Amiga are really inexpensive. In the range from $30 to $80.
>Mac hardware emulators start from $250 (around). Is it less than buying a Quadra
>in addition to Amiga?

I know. I have both IBEM and pc-task for the amiga. I still don't see where you
are getting Quadra emulation from, though. Tell me the product that you think
will emulate a quadra. Emplant? Not. AmaxII? Well, you would have a very
quick emulation of a Mac SE or whatever, but that's a far cry from a Quadra.

>>I'm sure there are some, but do you emulate because you want to, or because
>>you HAVE to for lack of the real thing?

>As of my knowledge they have to because of a lack...

As is the point of an emulator: To get the job done. Emulating a Quadra is
not my idea of a "lack", or squeaking by on the bare essentials. You are 
talking about emulating a high-end machine.

>Regards,
>Dariusz Bolski

Best luck to ya,
bob
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