Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!think!ephraim
From: ephraim@think.COM (Ephraim Vishniac)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: MacII system crashes
Keywords: Mac II, system crashes
Message-ID: <36459@think.UUCP>
Date: 16 Feb 89 18:04:48 GMT
References: <418@salgado.stan.UUCP> <2282@unmvax.unm.edu>
Sender: news@think.UUCP
Reply-To: ephraim@think.com (Ephraim Vishniac)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Lines: 34

In article <2282@unmvax.unm.edu> mark@sleepy.cs.unm.edu () writes:
>The most common error I have gotten is ID=01, but I have also gotten
>errors ID=05, 11, and 23.  The programs include Video Works Player,
>Dungeons of Doom, Megaroids, Adventures of Snake, Hendrix, Pretty
>Good Terminal (PGT), and MacTest 7.0.

Some of these programs were broken not by the Mac II, but by System
Tools 5.0.  With that release, Apple commenced using a previously
unused but reserved location in low memory.  It turned out that some
programs, especially programs compiled with Megamax C, used that
location.  I'm certain this is the problem with Megaroids and
Adventures of Snake.  There was a simple patch for this particular
problem, but it won't help Megaroids, which also did screen-flipping
animation.  It's also of marginal help to Snake, because Snake uses
software timing instead of pacing itself by the system clock.  That
is, it's essentially unplayable on a Mac II even after the patch.

Hendrix generates sound and is very old; it's probably broken with
respect to the different sound hardware on the Mac II.

MacTest 7.0 is probably hardware-specific to classic Macs.

>The question I have is: Is the Mac II really that incompatible with
>other Macs?  And is there any hope for my running these programs?

The Mac II's hardware is substantially different.  Touching the
hardware directly has always been a risky thing, but many people did
it anyway.

Ephraim Vishniac					  ephraim@think.com
Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214

	"Arlo Guthrie, it seems, has found what he was looking for:
		God, and the Macintosh." (Boston Globe)