#Emplant Questions
13 messages in this thread
Does anyone have the Emplant Mac II emulator? If so, how would you rate
it? I understand that to read Mac disks you need the Sybil interface. Is
this true, or can you use Amiga HD drives (like the Amax II+)?
Also, where can I order one?
Terry Mc Intosh
On Autopilot!
Terry,
The Emplant is definitely an interesting product. True, you cannot
read Mac disks without Sybil, but Emplant will read Amax format disks and is
fully compatible with Amax created hard drive partitions. Emplant will require
you have a ROM image from a MacII, IIx, or IIcx in order to work and the Mac OS
will have to be installed for any of these machines (it will not boot if the
Mac OS was installed ONLY for a Mac Plus or SE.) The software with Emplant
includes a Mac program which you run on a real Mac to capture ad disk image of
the ROM. A major consideration is that Emplant requires a substantial amount
of memory (32-bit memory, 16-bit memory won't work) and if you haven't enough
you will have a small amount of memory available to the emulation of the Mac.
On an A3000 with 10 meg (2 meg chip, 8 meg fast) I was able to obtain a maximum
of 5 meg of ram for the Mac system only if the Emplant was run directly from
Amiga boot without running any other programs during startup. With System 7 I
had about 2.5 meg of available ram for Mac applications. I believe this is a
practical maximum with the A3000 configuration I have.
Emplant supports, presently, only DD floppies (High density support is
yet to come) in Amax or Emplant format. Mac disks can be read (not written)
using Sybil and the Amiga drive(s). Color is supported upto 16 colors, but
disk read/write is unreliable in 16 color mode. I also found that Emplant has
problems with Word 5.1 and Excel 4.0. ON my system these programs crashed the
emulator. However, most everything else I tried seemed to work OK. Emplant
does multi-task.
Installation can be difficult. The documentation is quite sparse and
provides practically nothing of use for installation either of the hardware or
software. However, tech support from Utilities Unlimited is excellent and they
willingly spent many hours on the phone with me to help me get through the
installation. I originally tried installing on an A2000, which turned out to
be at the heart of installation problem. It simply won't work on my A2000.
Hope this helps. UU's telepone is 602-680-9004.
Steve:
Any particular reason why it wouldn't work on your 2000?
regards,
greg
Greg,
I'm not real sure. I talked with both Jim Drew and Joe Fenton at
different times and had some different views. Jim told me that because I had
some 16 bit RAM in the 2000 the Emplant would not work, because it only worked
with 32 bit RAM. It might work with 16 bit RAM in the future if he solves the
Mac's 32 bit clean requirement (I'm not real sure what that problem is.) Joe
Fenton told me that it should work if the 16 bit RAM was pooled with the 32 bit
RAM, which it is on my machine, but it still didn't work. Jim had mentioned
that I didn't have enought 32 bit RAM because EMplant needed to "mirror" RAM
and my 16 Bit RAM would be in the "mirror" address area. He also said that the
fact that I had a BB in the machine might be another serious problem because it
would appear in another address area which EMplant would use to "mirror"
memory.
In any event, Jim was right, Emplant simply won't boot in my 2000. It
did however, work fine in my 3000. On a plus side Jim did say he hoped to fix
the "32 bit clean" problem which might then allow Emplant to work with 16 bit
memory. However, I'm not sure that would mean much if having the BB would
interfere. To mitigate that, however, Joe indicated that they may have a PC
emulation running by Summer. Since Emplant basically uses ROM images dumped to
disk, one can literally switch emulations by just changing software and ROM
image.
Emplant has a lot going for it, but it wasn't suited to my particular
need which was to run in my 2000. My 3000 is at my office and I must have the
ability to read/write Mac disks. Emplant will not do that. Jim told me that
with Sybil I could read Mac disks, but never write them. So Emplant really
isn't suited to the 3000 installation. I returned the board just last week
with a request for a credit back to my charge card. The package should have
arrived today. I hope there isn't any problem, but that's yet to be another
story.
Although Emplant wasn't suited for my use, it is definitely a real
product and it really does work. If you have sufficient 32 bit RAM (8 meg or
more) then Emplant can provide a really workable Mac emulation. It's fast as
the Mac II itself according to the Speedometer benchmarks except for the video,
which is somewhat slower. However, that's to be expected given that the video
has to be emulated through special drivers. I would give it a cautious
recommendation because it may not be suited for everyone given the memory
requirements and lack of good documentation for the non-technical user. If
future emulations of the PC are forthcoming, Emplant could be a real killer.
Just imagine a PC emulation through Emplant on a 68030/040 equipped Amiga which
would rival the speed of a true 386/486 machine!
Color support is upto 256 color on a A4000, and the new version of the software
is supposed to solve the Microsoft Problems.
Ben, Leigh's Computers
Terry,
I have an Emplant, and still cannot make it do much than boot up (meaning,
get the Mac startup-screen). I would rate it, presently, as poor, since
there is no good way to have floppy access.
You can *try* to use the Sybil interface, but it is a piece of garbage! I
suggest that you wait for Utilities Unlimited to ship a version that works
with an HD disk drive, and spend you money on that instead.
I'd give you contact information, but it is not listed in their manual!!
Jonathan, via AutoPilot // Entombed in ice
\\// and snow in Albany, NY
Get version 2.1 of the software, they've posted it on thier BBS the new
Sybil.library support HD drives (no you don't need the sybil to use the
library.
Ben, Leigh's Computers
Ben,
Thanks for the tip. Now, all I need is an HD drive for my 2000…do you
guys carry them? Is mail order a possibility?
Jonathan, via AutoPilot // Entombed in ice
\\// and snow in Albany, NY
We can get HD drives $91.00 buuut, they'll only sell us A3000 versions. This is
no problem if the A2000 drive your replacing was a chinnon you can steal the
faceplate and the botton from the old drive.
Ben, Leigh's Computers
Ben,
OK, if I can swap the faceplate from the old drive, I'll bite! Tell me how to
order from you, and if you have the drives in stock (or if I'll have to wait
until CBM cycles some drives through the channel 🙂
Jonathan
We're sold out of drives but if C= is merciful we'll probably have them in a
week, give me a call at the store 1-800-321-6434 any day except Tue/Thurs (my
days off , oh also not this Friday since I'll be huanting WOC show) 10-7
Mon-Fri, 10-6 Sat, 12-6 Sun.
Ben, Leigh's Computers
Ben,
I'll be at WOA as well, but not on Friday…I'll give you a call.
Jonathan
I have the Emplant, it's very good, only thing they need now is to support
sound and ami-mac and mac-ami transfers. Sybil is only required for 800K mac
disks as of version 2.1 of the software the Emplant can read and write Mac
1.44, IBM 1.44, IBM 720k disks on an Amiga 4000 or an Amy with the HD drive.
Ben, Leigh's Computers