Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!yale!eagle!jtreworgy
From: jtreworgy@eagle.wesleyan.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Shareware MAC
Message-ID: <4123@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
Date: 28 Nov 89 13:09:32 GMT
References: <100@bucsb.UUCP>
Lines: 55

In article <100@bucsb.UUCP>, harryk@bucsb.UUCP (Harry Karayiannis) writes:
> 
>   Guys, I'm really surprised from the way a lot of people faced the possibility
> of a Shareware MAC emulation for the ST! I think the idea is great, and I don't
> see any reason for discouraging it! We live in a FREE(?) country, don't we? Any
> one is free to write any program he wants and distribute it in any way he likes
> I don't understand the logic of "a shareware mac would hurt David Small and 
> thus the ST community". Small has done a GREAT job with the GCR, but it doesn't
> give him the right to have the monopoly of the MAC emulators on the ST

The thing with a Mac emulator is that no matter what, you have to spend $140 on
the ROMs. So what does it matter if you spend $20 for a shareware one or a bit
more for a commercial one? The shareware one probably wouldn't "sell" anyway.
It just seems silly for a lot of different people to invest a lot of time
making a Mac emulator when the product already has several incarnations on the
market. The time would be better spent making a Commodore 64 emulator, for
example. (And some way to pipeline the ROMs out of a real 64... enough people
own these anyway such that it wouldn't be illegal or unfeasible for each buyer
to get them legally that way).

>   There is something more! Some people (like me) don't want to purchase the GCR
> just because they don't need it desperately, and they don't have $400 to spend!
> If I wanted a MAC, I would have bought one in the first place!I'm oversatisfied
> from my MEGA2. I 'm not saying that I don't like MAC emulators (i love 'em) but
> I don't want to spend $400 to get one! A shareware MAC would give me the chance
> to use a MAC for as much money I think it is worth it!
> 
Again, unless you plan on getting the ROMs illegally a shareware Mac is not
going to cost much less than the commercial one...

>   (The reasons for which I'd like to use a MAC are:
>    1. to play some PD games (i have a monochrome monitor, you know) during the
>       breaks from my programming projects.
> 
>    2. to get familiar with the MAC enviroment
> 
>    3. if i find it useful,I may consider to port some of my programs to the MAC
> 
>    IMHO it is not worth $400 just for these 3 things)

Is it worth $360? (I expect a shareware Mac would cost about $20, and the
commercial software could probably be had for not much more than $60... I am
assuming your $400 comes from a Mac disk drive & 128k ROMs).

> 
> 					  HARRY KARAYIANNIS

As a side note... there is on the Amiga now a pirated version of the A-Max Mac
emulator which has the ROMs on disk. (I've seen it). I think a shareware
version, especially one which supports putting the ROMs on disk directly, would
have the immediate side effect of giving everyone in the Atari ST community
(which has been heralded for its piracy) a free, highly illegal, Macintosh.
--
James A. Treworgy    -- No quote here for insurance reasons --
jtreworgy@eagle.wesleyan.edu         jtreworgy%eagle@WESLEYAN.BITNET