Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!munnari.oz.au!basser!metro!natmlab!ditsyda!macuni!mqccsunc!ifarqhar
From: ifarqhar@mqccsunc.mqcc.mq.OZ (Ian Farquhar 7420)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Amiga Emulators (was Re: 1.4 FFS on Floppies?? )
Summary: This is not impossible, just very difficult
Message-ID: <21@macuni.mqcc.mq.oz>
Date: 25 Nov 89 09:59:25 GMT
References: <4666@lab.udel.EDU>
Sender: news@macuni.mqcc.mq.oz
Reply-To: ifarqhar@mqccsunc.mq.oz (Ian Farquhar 7420)
Organization: Macquarie University, Sydney
Lines: 41

In article <4666@lab.udel.EDU> CCUCARD%indsvax1.bitnet@uicvm.uic.edu (Time Lord) writes:
>
>Isn't it funny how people say," Amiga is just a toy."  Then I ask,
>if Amiga is just a toy, then why can't IBM multitask using 1meg with several
>processes running?  Why can't they emulate the Amiga???  Amiga can
>emulate :IBM,MAC,UNIX,and C64.  I think the real toy makers are:

and so on....

The Amiga emulates the Mac, PC and the CBM64.  It runs UNIX.  It also
runs Minix (real soon now), and I believe there is an OS/9
implimentation, and a BBC and Apple II emulator somewhere out there.
As it can run PC-DOS software, it will also run Xenix and (given a hell
of a lot of money and hardware), OS/2.

Actually, the idea of a PC emulating an Amiga is quite an interesting
idea, but not as interesting as the idea of a Mac or a ST emulating one.
When I worked in retailing (no flames please, I have repented) we used
to have a suppiler who was a real hacker, and just loved the ST.  Before
they put him away (:-), he mentioned that someone had developed an Amiga
emulator for the ST.  This is not impossible, assuming:

1.  That all hardware dependent libraries (eg. the graphics.library,
    and so on) are rewritten or heavily patched (not impossible with
    the so-so-convenient and oh-so-dangerous SetFunction), and that
    all devices are rewritten.  This is a difficult task, but certainly
    not impossible, particularly as you are reverse engineering an
    existing product rather than designing one from scratch (in my
    experience, design is about 40% of the work).

2.  You were willing to put up with incredibly slow graphics performance
    (particularly when writing to partially obscured windows).  An
    emulator would also need hardware (especially a disk drive), unless
    the current drive could be coaxed into reading Amiga format disks.

3.   The final assumption is that CBM would probably sue you out of
    existance.

However, it is not TECHNICALLY impossible to produce an Amiga emulator,
the difficulty is one of motive, and of legal considerations.

D