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From: Maxwell.Spangler@f421.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Maxwell Spangler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Mac Board For Next?
Message-ID: <2333.2733F4C5@blkcat.fidonet.org>
Date: 4 Nov 90 01:43:13 GMT
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First, it should be mentioned that the Macintosh emulator designed by
Dave Small of Gadgets by Small comes in two parts: The Spectre GCR
cartridge which plugs into the Atari, and Macintosh 128K Roms. (Of
course I believe there is a bit of handling software on the side.)
Dave has an agreement with Apple not to sell the two parts of the 
product together--you can buy the cartridge from Dave's company, but the 
ROMS must be found elsewere. These ROMS can be put on disk--but that is 
a major sin in apple's view since that code is their pride and joy. 
Also, I believe that the Specter GCR currently only supports 128K Roms, 
and the newer Macintosh computers seem to be moving away from this, into 
256/512k+ Roms. (Don't know if this will have any bearing on thing.)
 
I think my point in stating all that way to identify that a Mac emulator 
such as a port of the Specter GCR for the next, is possible, sure, but 
has a lot of hitches to it. The Atari, believe it or not, is a lot
like the Macintosh hardware-wise. It is much more simliar to the Mac 
than the next, so porting the emulator over to the NeXT might prove to 
be re-inventing the wheel, this time knowing what the last wheel looked 
like.  Next, you've got to make it a hardware+software emulator, since 
Apple will demand that such a product use ROMs, not disk-based Apple 
code.
 
And the final hitch may be the fact that the Spectre GCR is in fact an 
emulator. For instance, when I last checked, the Spectre GCR could not 
handle printing that well because of the heavy reliance on PostScript. 
So, if a Spectre for the NeXT was to appear, it might just be a way of 
pulling up a Window and using that great WP you love so much, or a 
custom application written for your business, etc. 
 
Ps. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to see it come about. I've met Dave 
Small--he's a very nice guy, and with enough encouragement and $$ 
support he'd probably give it a try. (Unless he's ruled it out already!)
 
Maxwell Spangler
Macintosh Group
BWCC, Inc.          "In the world of Magic, ANYTHING's possible!"
(301) 369-0466                        --Doug Henning


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