Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!dali.cs.montana.edu!ming!icsu8053
From: icsu8053@ming.cs.montana.edu (Craig Pratt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: We've been EMULATED.
Summary: Well, sort of...
Keywords: Amiga emulation illegal
Message-ID: <2669@dali>
Date: 14 Oct 90 09:23:23 GMT
References: <90285.225011CXS128@psuvm.psu.edu>
Sender: news@dali.cs.montana.edu
Organization: Montana State University, Dept. of Computer Science, Bozeman
Lines: 56

In article <90285.225011CXS128@psuvm.psu.edu> CXS128@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>
>   I don't know how many of you follow comp.sys.amiga but one of the topics
>over there is an ST emulator that works!  It seems that this program contains
>a copy of TOS and GEM in it.  I don't think this is compleately legal.  For
>anyone intrested in knowing the site with this program it is abcfd20.larc.nasa.
>gov directory incoming/amiga program name atari1.
>
>                                           John T.

I was invited/challenged to come over to a friends  the other day to try out
some of my software on Atari1 on his Amiga 500.  Here are the results:

  Degas (original):  -Can't flip between screens
                     -Have to reboot to exit
  UniTerm 2.0e:      -You can't flip back to term screen
                     -Doesn't talk to the modem
                     -Eventually bombs
  Opus 2.23:         -Works just fine! (REAL slow scrolling
                     -Actually printed out a graph!
  Cool Tetris:       -BOOM!!
  Battle Zone:       -BIG boom! (Had to turn off the Amiga)
  Drachen:           -Loads title screen, then wierd garbage
                     -Had to reset
  Joust:             -Atomic blast (Had to power cycle)
  Star Raiders:      -Ditto
  Unix Windows:      -Woudn't talk to the modem
  
I was truly amazed that it ran Opus at all considering that it uses GDOS.
It didn't load desk accessories at all.  Everything was very slow, especially
the disk accesses.  It took about two minutes to load the GDOS fonts.  The
color resolutions were VERY flakey.  Mono was better but the whole screen was 
stretched vertically and was about 1.5" too low.  It was very difficult to
read any fine, horizontal lines due to interlacing.

I can't possibly believe that this thing is legal.  It would be quite a trick
to reverse-engineer all of TOS GEM and the ADI and have it work.  It simply
looked like a hacked version of TOS 1.2 (1040 TOS).  Many of the dialog boxes
for the desktop were just loaded with different text.

It would seem that the serial port and sound are not supported in any fashon.
The printer seems to work, though.  Also, Atari1 takes over the whole
machine.  You have to reboot to get out.

All in all, I don't think I'd call Atari1 an emulator - not even close to the
level of the Mac emulators.  It's just an interesting/illegal hack job.
More novelty than utility.  Oh well, at least Amiga users can run Opus now,
at half speed.  (No, I didn't give him a copy)

BTW, George Harrison, are we going to see a new version of Opus soon?

--
   / Craig Pratt                          / icsu8053@caesar.cs.montana.edu    /
  / Montana State University, Bozeman MT / Craig.Pratt@msu3.oscs.montana.edu /
 / " Nothing beats the taste sensation when maple syrup collides with ham " /
/________ Special Agent Cooper, _TWIN PEAKS_ ______________________________/