Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.emulations
Subject: Re: NeXT emulation?
Message-ID: <20879@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 23 Apr 91 15:13:38 GMT
References: <9104190943.12.2494@INSIDER> <1991Apr20.063819.8726@marlin.jcu.edu.au>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 39

In article <1991Apr20.063819.8726@marlin.jcu.edu.au> cpmwc@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Matthew W Crowd) writes:
>In article <9104190943.12.2494@INSIDER> sysop@insider.zer.sub.org writes:

>In case all you Amiga Freaks hadn't forgot, the only real reason why a 
>computer has to emulate another is beacause of the lack of REAL software
>for its own base.

That's not the only real reason.  For example, a C64 emulator might make sense
on the Amiga if enough C64 owners switched over to the Amiga and wish to bring
along some of their software.  That doesn't imply similar software isn't
available for the Amiga, only that these guys have a big investment in software
and perhaps data for that software that can't be instantly ported to Amiga
equivalents, based on typical personal resources (eg, time and money).

The Mac "emulation" is perhaps the only one of the crowd that leads to any
significant installed base of software that's not present on the Amiga.  If the
BridgeCards constitute emulations, they fit this category too (which is why
Apple is stressing the software PC emulation for the Mac).

All of these other toys seems to be for nothing more than "bragging rights".
Unless you have a closet full of old software, there's not that much that
CP/M, Apple II, Atari ST, etc. compatibility is going to bring to the Amiga,
other than perhaps fame for yet another clever hack to the person who wrote
it, and some obsure sense that, because Amiga can emulate computer A but 
computer A can't emulate Amiga, that makes Amiga better.  

Of course, that's certainly insufficient to make Amiga better or computer A
worse at anything, all it shows is that the Amiga's hardware is more complex
than that of computer A, or that computer A is less hardware dependent than
the Amiga.  It says nothing whatsoever about "better", though it seems a good
many people are confused on this point and will pay for new emulators anyway.

>matt.


-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
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      "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.