CompuServe Thread

You have certainly had a tough time there Gary. But in all fairness, I must say that the Emplant is an excellent deal. I've never paid the prices you paid. I got the basic Emplant for $279. I don't need an 880k drive because I do one of two things first. I make sure the software is on high density disks, and if they are not, I make sure I buy them from a dealer who wouldn't mind transfering them for me, and as a last resort, I go to my friend who has a Mac and have him transfer the files. And, of course, if you don't need an 800k drive, you don't need AMIA. There are PLENTY of Mac roms out there if you are willing to do the search. And if the search can save you $100 or so, why not do it? I have 10 meg of ram in my A4000 and that is more than enough. I have enough memory to rum my Amiga and almost 9 meg left over for the Mac emulation. I don't see why you have a problem if you have 10 meg. Now, you know that if you are going to buy a computer or any parts for a computer, you have to do the research to make sure you get what you need at the right price. If I'm goning to buy a video board, I don't just pick up the phone and order the first one I see. I ask A LOT of questions, both to my friends and the computer dealers. Sure, it would be nice to have the dealers do all the work for us, but they are in business to sell computers, and if you say you want it, they are gonna sell it to you! You are responsible to make sure that you want it! And if you read the ad in AmigaWorld I think you will find that everything is in there, including AMIA. And finally, I see no reason to buy a used Mac even if I could get one for the price I paid for the emplant. I personally think it would suck having two computers taking up my desk space. And I will also be getting a 486DX in the same case for only $99 (and of course I have to pay for MS-Dos and Window, or anything else I want to run on it). Compare that to the price of buying an Amax and a 486 emulator seperate. Huge savings! My advice to you to put a little more time into you computer purchases before you order. Complaints about Emplant on Compuserve are almost nonexistant while praises for the product are the norm. The biggest complaint I've seen is the long wait for the 486 emulation.

Whoever told you that System 7.1 is only available on 800K disks gave you false information. My local Mac dealer had no problem providing me a factory-original set of System 7.1 disks in high-density format. As for the ROM's, your right. They're not easy to find, and Apple won't allow dealers to sell them without first getting an older or defective set in return. The fact that you have to run in 24-bit mode to use System 6.0.7 is no fault of EMPLANT's. System 6 is not 32-bit clean and would crash miserabley if used in 32-bit mode. Apple knew this. That's why even a real Mac must us 24-bit mode for older versions of the OS. As for the memory problem, "Welcome to Macintosh." Macs need a good amount of memory to work effectively. There's certainly nothing the EMPLANT can do to fix this. And don't forget, there's some overhead needed for things like device caches, video drivers, and ROM images not to mention what the Amiga needs to stay running in that same 10MB. Running in 24-bit mode tightens the memory belt even more. Bottom line: Get more memory. You can never have enough! 🙂 Finally, I can tell you that AMIA and a Mac low-density drive are NOT required to get the emulation running. I did happen to buy these two items as well. But since I hardly use them, they seem more a luxury than a necessity. Obviously you've had a tough time getting your Mac emulation running. However, that doesn't mean it's a bad product. Since I knew exactly what was needed before I ordered an EMPLANT, I was able to get mine up and running within an hour of receiving it. My only complaint so far is that I can't track-down a problem with the "Sound Manager" extension and nobody will tell me if it's a know problem or something unique to my system (is somebody at UU reading these messages?).

Couple of things…. The Emplant board does not have to cost $400… it is cheaper mail order. I bought my Mac IIx ROMs for $25… they were being thrown out and I know lots of people that have found the same solution. I have an Amiga HD floppy and most new MAC software comes that way.. or on CD. The System 7.1 I would have to pay for if I were upgrading a real MAC anyway so I don't consider that part of the emulation cost. The end result is that for less than $500 I have a MAC Quadra 900 equivilant. Where can you find one of those for less than $500????