#AMAX
33 messages in this thread
Has anyone used the new AMax macantosh simulator???
thanks!
CJ
CJ,
Sure. I have one. What would you like to know?
Steve
Just general info, does it work well? Is it worth buying? What exactly will
it emulate? Etc… (as if that was not enough!)
CJ (THANKS!)…
It emulates a regular Mac if you use 64K ROM's and a Mac Plus with the 128K
ROM's. (You've got to supply the ROMs yourself….their available through mail
order places…check Computer Shopper). It works very well…I've run
HyperCard and a few PD programs. It does not provide sound.
Is it worth it? It depends. If you've got a reason you must have a MAC, it's
worth it. (It's cool to impress your MAC friends too) <grin!>
Steve
Steve,
Do you know if Amax will run QuarkXpress? I don't know much about Mac but I
can't imagine why it would NOT work.
thanks,
chris
Files busy, code 5-0 …
have files (11 sec)
Chris,
I really don't have any idea whether or not that will run. Best bet is to
call and ask ReadySoft. Their number is:(416) 731-4175
Steve
Steve,
I just got the A-Max package and when I tried out the command CHECKCHIPS
supplied on the disk, it informed me that I have the old agnus chip. Now, I
very recently replaced that chip with a FAT AGNUS version. AVAIL informs me
that I have the extra chip ram. My questions are, have you tried the command
checkchips? Does it inform you that you have an old or new version
agnus,(assuming that you do have the fat version)? Would you know the part
number that should be on the FAT AGNUS chip? I checked my invoice from CMO
(Computer Mail Order) where I purchased the chip and the description on the
form is FAT AGNUS A500. Does AVAIL just list what ram is there, and makes no
difference if the agnus is fat or skinny, and if it is a skinny agnus and I
have the jumpers configured to allow the 1 meg contiguous memory wouldn't that
cause problems with the amiga. I haven't had any real problems (gurus) but I've
heard that windows refresh quicker etc, and I don't really notice that big a
difference but Pagestream doesn't crash as much and I've been able to use
larger edit windows in expresspaint.
Any info will be greatly appreciated,
chris
Chris,
I just tried "CheckChips", and it said I had a "New 1Mb Agnus chip
present.", just like it should have. AVAIL will tell you how much RAM is
available in the system, and tell you how much is FAST, and how much is CHIP.
How much CHIP memory does AVAIL report you have? How much FAST?
Sorry, I don't know the FAT AGNUS chip part #.
Steve
Steve (and Chris)
Fat Agnus (512K CHIP RAM) part #318029-01
Super Agnus (1 Meg CHIP RAM) part # 318029-02
Don
Don, Thanks for the input. C= today told me the new agnus is 318069-02 and the
IC# is 8372. The old IC# was 8370. Apparently CMO shipped me the old chip, but
thought it was the new one.
ARRGGGHHHH!!!!
chris
Mine gave me the 1 meg agnus as well.
— Ethan
Steve,
I have called C= customer support and they told me the IC# on the old AGNUS is
8370 and the new FAT AGNUS # is 8372. I just looked inside my 2000 and the
supposed new aggie is in reality the same as my old one!
AAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
I made a call to Computer Mail Order in Williamsport, PA and they are looking
into how to handle my return. Apparently they won't ship me a new chip until
they receive the old one back. BLAST! I cracked a corner of the old chip I
removed originally, if I hadn't done that I'd send them that one so I could
keep from being down and keep the one they originally sent me on my
motherboard! Apparently AVAIL lists all the ram in the system, but it doesn't
care if you have the 512k or 1Meg Agnus on board. I thought something was
strange when I didn't see the screens and windows open up quicker like everyone
else had claimed would happen.
BLAST!!!!!
chris
I'm sorry to hear about your problem, and hope it gets resolved quickly!
AVAIL *will* tell you have a 1MEG Agnus on board by telling you under the
MAXIMUM column that you have 1040152 bytes available.
srp
Steve,
I have that total listed 1040152, but I don't seem to be able to get the chip
ram to go below a half meg without it crashing. Besides I checked the info on
the chip and both the old chip and the new one have the #8370 on them and the
FATTER AGNUS should have #8372 on it.
chris I say again, AVAIL does not care if you have FAT or FATTER on board for
it to show the chip ram totals. That is IMHO.
chris
Chris, I hope you live in the same area as CMO cause it makes law suits
much easier.
— Ethan
Ethan,
CMO (Computer Mail Order) is in Williamsport, PA and I'm in Wilmington
Delaware/Maryland area. I'm sure they'll correct the mistake. The order person
I spoke to seems willing to make the necessary effort to take care of me, plus
she was interested in how to identify the chips 'cause she wants to check her
Amiga out and verify the FATTER version's presence too! Also, if I have to I'll
fly up to Williamsport, they've a nice airport nearby and I need the cross
country time and it helps me keep current.
chris
QuarkXpress runs, but as there is no harddrive support (yet) and the
latest version is so large you need a hard drive, you will have to find an
older version. In December it is expected that HD support will be available, at
least for the most popular hard drives.
— Ethan
BTW, is Hypercard publicdomain? If so, where can I download it from?
Raman
No, Hypercard is not public domain. It's copyrighted by Apple. If you want it
(to run on your AMAX) you have to buy it from an Apple dealer. It's about $50.
Will it run on Amiga2000 with 1MB of chip RAM?
Is it possible to use a Harddrive with AMAX, yet????
Raman
Yes, It will run with 1MB of chipram, and no, AMAX doesn't have hard drive
support. They're working on it though!
Steve
The emulation is excellent. There are some advantages: you work in
640×400 mode, so your display is 50% larger than a mac display. Any memory you
don't allocate to AMax will be setup as a recoverable ram-disk, and as the Mac
can boot off of any drive, you can copy the system onto the ram-disk and reboot
of the ram-disk. High-speed!
Disadvantages are that it uses an interlace screen (it supports all the
upcoming 1.4 modes), there is no sound and there is no way to save your
mouse-speed settings. Some games and MIDI programs won't work. The epson
emulation is currently quite poor.
Well, the choice is yours. Just make SURE to get the 128K ROMs and the
Mac-compatible disk-drive offered by most mail-order firms. You don't have to
worry about getting expansion memory, a 68020/030 or 4 disk drives: they all
integrate perfectly. Also, there is no hard drive support yet, but it is
expected by December.
— Ethan
Ethan,
I just got A-Max and have started to use it. I'm a bit concerned about the
command checkchips, it tells me that I still have the old Agnus chip installed,
however I installed a FAT AGNUS and AVAIL tells me that the chip ram is near
1MEG. Have you tried this command out? Does it inform you that you have the FAT
AGNUS (if you have it installed that is) or the older aggie? How do I get the
A-Max system to create the ram-disk? I'm using a four meg ram expansion.
thanks,
chris
P.S. Would you know what the C= part number should be on the FAT AGNUS chip?
If anyone else might know the part# I'd appreciate you stepping in and listing
it here for me. Thanks
FAT Agnus was included with every single A500 and most A2000 ever made. the
chip you are talking about is referred to as either 1M Agnus or Obese Agnus.
Martin,
No kidding, I realize that, semantics is important though. OK, I was shipped
another FAT AGNUS instead of the newer OBESE AGNUS (1Meg) ! Now AVAIL doesn't
care if you have a FAT or OBESE AGNUS, it just checks for chip and fast ram and
lists their respective totals. I can vouch for that now since I called C= and
got the IC# for the FAT version and the IC# for the OBESE version. They are IC#
8370 for FAT and IC#8372 for OBESE. The version I was shipped happens to be the
FAT one impersonating as an OBESE version.
chris
Just installing the 1M Agnus is not enough, there's a trace to cut in order to
remap the $C00000 memory to $080000 where it must be for Agnus and her two
friends to see it.
Martin,
I did do the trace cut AND the jumper change too when I installed the FATTER
AGNUS impersonator. AVAIL apparently only knows that the ram is there and NOT
if the correct AGNUS is onboard to 'avail' itself (pun intended B()) of the
extra ram. The corrct IC# for FATTER AGNUS is #8372 and the older one is #8370.
I received and installed another 8370 and the CHECKCHIP command I found on the
AMAX distribution disk confirmed my earlier suspicions that I was not using
the new chip. I feel that AVAIL or VERSION (both ARP and/or C=) should check
the versions of the cpu and custom chips too!
chris
If avail tells you that you have 1 meg chip ram, you have the new agnus.
Its just that particular program that is wrong. I have the new Agnus and it
works fine.
The ram disk consists of any memory you didn't select to be allocated to
the Macintosh. You set it on the preferences screen. The F1 key inserts/ejects
the disk. When you first insert it you will be asked to format it or eject it,
as normal, but you can reset the computer after that without losing the
contents.
— Ethan
Ethan,
Wrong! If AVAIL tells you you have 1Meg of chip ram, you have one meg of chip
ram period, it does not mean you have the 1Meg AGNUS on board. I know 'cause I
just confirmed the IC#s with C= and the FAT (512K) AGNUS' IC# is 8370, while
the OBESE (1meg) AGNUS is IC# 8372. I checked what was on the board and what I
had removed and they both are 8370s. BOO HOO! No wonder I couldn't open a
larger edit window in ExpressPaint than I could when I had the old chip, 'cause
I still have the OLD chip! I bought and paid for a chip that was already in my
Amiga! What a dummy I am! But then again, who knew!
chris
I'm not sure what you are saying? Are you saying that cutting the trace
gives you 1 meg of chip ram and that having the old agnus made it unusable? I'm
not sure what I said that is wrong. 1meg of chip ram implies 1 meg aggie,
right?
— Ethan
Ethan,
I thought that 1meg chip ram implied 1meg aggie but I've my doubts about that
now. AMAX's command CHECKCHIPS told me I had a 512K AGNUS, AVAIL tells me I've
got 1040152 bytes total of chip ram. C= told me on the phone that the FATTER
ONE'S IC# is 8372 and the old one's is IC#8370. That is what I removed and
also installed assuming it was the 1meg chip. IMHO AVAIL only lists ram
available not whether you have fat or fatter agnus onboard, also it seems that
the 512K chip could care less if the jumper is set for 1meg, it doesn't see it
so it doesn't hurt it for being there. If it wasn't for the AMAX checkchip
command I'd still be in the dark about this and still wondering what all the
hullabaloo about FATTER AGNUS was for 'cause I didn't see much improvement on
my system.
chris
Chris, avail on a regular Agnus system will only list 512K of chip ram.
I'm sure of it. What probably happened was that the trace cut is what avail
looks for. Avail thinks its there, but as you don't have the new agnus when the
computer tries to allocate the 2nd 512K as chip ram you get problems. That's
what it sounds like.
— Ethan
Ethan,
Doing the jumper changes and trace cuts, makes the Amy think it has 1 meg
of chip mem. If you attempt to open a screen in the upper 1/2 meg of that
memory however, you can expect the machine to crash. The old Agnus just wraps
any access to the new memory back down into the lower 1/2 meg. (instant
fireworks mode!)
-Dean