Sidecar and Print.com
22-Jun-87 21:42:06
Sb: #73104-Sidecar and Print.com
Fm: John Foust 72237,135
To: Marc Baime 72105,1576
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To me, it has long been known that there exist problems with using the
Amiga parallel port on most Sidecar IBM programs. I think I even mentioned
this in my first preview of the Sidecar, written more than a year ago. Some
IBM software talks directly to the parallel port. This software will not
work on the Sidecar. Programs need to use the official DOS printer calls
instead, which the Sidecar can handle. If you get a parallel port card for
the IBM side – and these are cheap, about $50 – they should work fine.
As for Starglider, it is a notoriously nasty game. It goes directly to the
hardware, in the name of speed. It is not so much the fault of the
Sidecar. It's like the Amiga: when a program doesn't work, do you blame the
machine, or the programmer? (I suppose it depends if you are Jerry
Pournelle.)