Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!umix!umich!mibte!gamma!ulysses!thumper!faline!bellcore!tness7!petro!swrinde!dpmizar!com50!ems!pwcs!stag!root
From: root@stag.UUCP (Computer Abuser)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Magic Sac
Message-ID: <407@stag.UUCP>
Date: 4 May 88 23:42:17 GMT
Organization: Mindtools ST Access Group, Plymouth, MN
Lines: 110


[I'me reposting this for john...someone must have typoed...
    ---> comp.sts.atari.st@stag <---  -trb]

In <8805022214.AA25895@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, Jim McCabe writes:
 >
 >Does anyone here own the Magic Sac cartridge?  I'm considering buying it
 >but I'd like to hear more about it if possible.  I'd be very thankful if
 >people could answer any if not all of the following questions:

  I'll answer all I can..


 >a)  How fast does it run?  I've seen one software-only Mac emulator (it
 >    was apparently illegal) that was very slow.  The mouse would jump all
 >    over the place because it couldn't keep up with its speed.  I'm
 >    assuming that the Magic Sac is a more professional system than this
 >    hack.  Is the mouse movement just as smooth as on an ST?

  It runs at full Mac speed.  (Actualy, that's not totaly true,
it's faster than a Mac on many things. :-)


 >b)  How well does the Translator work?  And how good is the disk
 >    performance compared to a real Mac and compared to the normal ST?

  The Translator-One works fine.  With it, I can boot directly
from a Macintosh 3.5" floppy disk.

  The one drawback is that when reading/writing a Mac format disk
the access speed is noticably slower than a Mac.  This won't be
problem if you copy your Mac files/programs to a "Magic-Sac format"
disk (which will then read/write faster than a Mac)...

  Reading/writing with a hard disk using the Sac is very fast.  The
single problem I know of is that it's so fast you may have problems
when you go to using a normal Mac hard disk.  (You'll find yourself
wanting to toss the Mac hard disk in the garbage...)


 >c)  Does Turbo Pascal run on it without problems?

  Tell you what, send me a legal copy and I'll let you know.. :)


 >d)  Does the larger screen resolution affect programs poorly?  (I know some
 >    programs [including the Mac desktop] can take advantage of the larger
 >    screen but how many other programs choke on it?)

  Most programs on the Mac play by the rules.  (This means they
use the Quickdraw routines to access the screen.) 99% of the Mac
programs I've tried to run on the Magic-Sac work just fine with
the expanded screen.  Most exceptions will still run and be
useable, they only have the disadvantage that they won't make
use of the extra space.


 >e)  How expensive are Magic Sac upgrades?  I've heard good things about
 >    how fast David Small gets bugs fixed and adds new improvements, so
 >    how much will it cost me to get the newer versions once I have bought
 >    the current one?

  The price of a call to GEnie or Compuserve.  I imagine you
could force a few $$ into the hands of the people at dP to get
them to send out a disk, but you can download the newest version
(or get it from a friend) free... This is because you need the
Magic-Sac cartridge to legaly run the Magic-Sac program.

--- Warning, personal-comment ---

   All praise directed to Dave Small and his crew is well deserved.
 The speed with which Dave has fixed bugs, sometimes within hours of
 the bug report, is nothing less than fantastic. dP's policy allowing
 free distribution of updates to the program (to registered owners of
 Magic-Sac) is a wonderfuly refreshing attitude.  Since it's only
 legal to use the Magic-Sac program with a Magic-Sac cartridge, they
 post the updates on national systems.

--- end of personal comments ---     :)


 >f)  Is there a very reliable dealer of the Sac + Mac ROMs?

  Who's your most reliable dealer of ST realated stuff?  Go to that
person and force $$ into their hand.  If you don't have a local ST
dealer, I could probably put you in touch with one of the dealers in
my area who carry the Sac.

  You can often get the roms from the same dealer you buy the Sac
from.  If not, you can go to your nearest Apple dealer and get the
roms from there for $30-$50.


 >g)  Does Mr. Small have plans of eventually getting the Sac to work
 >    with the latest ROM release?  (Isn't that the SE version?)

  He wants to, but it's not going to be soon.  If he does decide to
do it, It will require almost as much work as it took to develop the
current version.  Needless to say, this means LOTS and LOTS of work...


 >Thanks to everyone who responds!

  Glad to help...

---
John Stanley (dynasoft!john@stag.UUCP)
Software Consultant / Dynasoft Systems
-- 
Testing