Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!ucsdhub!sdcsvax!ucsd!rutgers!att!lzaz!hcj
From: hcj@lzaz.ATT.COM (HC Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Spectre128, Happy cartridge
Keywords: MAC emulation Spectre Happy Magic Sac
Message-ID: <389@lzaz.ATT.COM>
Date: 25 Jan 89 20:17:39 GMT
Organization: AT&T ISL Lincroft NJ USA
Lines: 36



Some observations on Spectre 128, Magic Sac, and Happy Products.

I have been informed that the Happy cartridge does allow Mac roms
to be plugged in, and thus allow Spectre 128 to run. (And that
Dave Small is not happy (pun?) about this).

Using this product is about the same as hacking up the Magic Sac
to accept 128K roms. (Yes Virginia, it very easy).  Both allow
one to use copies of the Spectre software to be run.  And previously
(in Magic Sac days at least)
Dave Small has posted upgrades to the software on GENIE, etc.

The potential for piracy is obvious.

I think my earlier observations that the Happy product would not
allow direct access of MAC disks to take place is correct.  I suspect
that Dave Small will try to prevent it from happening.  More intriguing
is that a cartridge product such as Happy's must allow for some funny
reading to do writing.  Now Spectre like Magic sac, is always sneaking
reads from the roms just to prevent loading the program without them
using a disk (ala Magic Bongo).  Once he finds the right sequence to
make Happy unhappy, ....

Anyway, I bought my Spectre, Bought my legal roms, and hate cartridges.
So I prefer to load from the disk, until the next upgrade.

Dave Small said it best in his first mailing: If he's badly pirated
he's out of business, and that will hurt all of us.  I might add that
in this game, endless upgrades are essential.  Without them a Spectre
128 is just a plastic box.

Howard Johnson
ATT-BL
lzaz!hcj