Conference 7.286::atarist

886.0. "Atari emulator for Amiga (Wow!)" by PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ (Jeffrey A. Lomicka) Mon Jun 04 1990 19:02

Article        58096
From: lupe@alanya.Central.Sun.COM (Lupe Christoph - Sun Germany Consulting - Munich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Atari ST emulation, the first review (long)
Summary: Review of the first commercial emulation of the Atari ST on the Amiga.
Date: 30 May 90 17:44:36 GMT
Lines: 162
 
This is a quickly done translation of the first review of Medusa, the
Atari ST emulator for the Amiga 2000. Please excuse the probably rough
English. I don't believe that I'm required to produce Marketese ;-)
 
I have left the prices in Deutschmarks since this news group is quite
international. Most people are probably aware of their exchange rates
with the Dollar, so here is the exchange rate for Deutschmarks to
Dollar: 1 $ is roughly 1.67 DM.
 
 
 
		New perspectives from an Atari in the Amiga
 
Atari ST Computers are technically inferior to the Amiga in Video and Audio.
Despite this, they have won a quantitative and qualitative advantage in
areas like text processing. After inserting Combitec's emulation card
Amiga users can employ the powerful software of the seemingly weaker
computer.
 
 
Following Readysoft's emulator A-MAX another emulator makes new worlds
acessible to the Amiga. Instead of trying to imitate the Apple
Macintosh, Combitec's Medusa tries to emulate the Atari ST as closely
as possible.
 
Somebody imagining the emulator as a complete Atari ST on a plug-in
card will be surprised. On the small Medusa card for the 100 pin
Amiga-slot he will nmainly find two logic components (PALs) that
enable the Atari ST software to use Amiga hardware. WIth this the
purchase of Atari hardware is superfluous und possibly ensuing
copyright problems are avoided.
 
Medusa requires an Amiga with at least 1 Megabyte RAM and a diskette
drive. Combitec recommends a 2 MByte RAM expansion to be able to work
with programs that require more memory. The emulator uses the entire
Amiga memory without problems. Also used are all interfaces, the
diskette drives (read and write-compatible with original Atari 720 KB
drives) and certain hard disks. Printers and plotters can be used,
too. The owner of a well equipped Amiga owns also a well equipped
Atari.
 
After inserting the card Medusa can be started immediately. The
software can be loaded directly from diskette or hard disk and is not
copy protected. The Amiga part of the software consists primarily of
the Medusa program - the emulator proper - and the installation
software that is needed especially for using a hard disk.
 
The Atari operating system TOS (Tramiel Operating System) - not
included in the package - can be stored on hard disk and be loaded
from there. Owners of a Combitec filecard or a Combitec AutoBoot card
can create a bootable parttion of their hard disk for the Atari ST.
 
A short and clear installation program facilitates TOS installations
on Amiga diskettes or hard disks, theassignment of Amiga diskette
drives to the Atari, the creation of an Atari partition on hard disk
and the adjustment of video refresh.
 
The problem of getting the operatin system of the emulated computer is
prevailing among emulators. For the Macintosh emulator A-MAX the
original Macintosh ROMs are required, but cannot be delivered with it
for copyright reasons.
 
For Medusa this problems can be solved relatively easily: For one the
dealers are seling Ataris TOS as a diskete version for 15 DM, and a
program called "GetTOS" is delivered with Medusa that, started on an
original Atari ST, reads the TOS out and writes it to diskette. This
diskette can be used for the emulator directly or as a medium for the
hard disk installation. Sources for the diskette TOS are referred to
by Combitec on request. Combitec points out that the legal questions
have to be checked out before copying the TOS. In doubt Atari has to
be asked for permission !
 
For the test the TOS version 1.0 was available on diskette.
 
According to Combitec the capability is planned to put the ROM-TOS
into sockets on the Medusa card. Since TOS can be loaded from hard
disk in a few seconds, this plan was shelved for now. In daily use
this solution provides greater flexibility since users can choose
between different TOS versions that can all be stored on hard disk.
 
After installation a typical Atari desktop screen appears on the Amiga
monitor. Since HiRes mode is pre-selected it is an interlace screen.
The characteristical flicker is somewhat abated as the refresh
frequency of the monitor (1084 et al.) can be increased from 25 Hz to
31 Hz or even 35 Hz for better devices. This facility does not require
a special Agnus chip. In LoRes or MedRes logically the double
of the HiRes frequency can be used, up to 70 Hz. This represents an
absolutely stable image.
 
One has to experiment to find the ideal value: an accessory included
with Medusa (a program that can be reached at any time on the Atari
ST) allows the variation of the setting from the emulator. If the
screen is showing a wild image instead of the normal screen the
monitor cannot keep up. Very useful in this procedure is the feature
that allows to switch back to the standard Amiga setting (this is
always working) at any time.
 
"Signum! 2", the extremely successful scientific text processing
package, is an important program to find out about compatibility and
flawless function of the emulator. Texts could be processed and
printed without perceptible difference in speed. With the progres of
the test this impression got firmer. Programs like Calamus, Arabesque,
Tempus and Tempus Word, STAD, GFA-BASIC, Adimens, Psion Chess and
Turbo C ran without problems like on the original ST. Even the
software accelerator Turbo-ST ran and helped Medusa to a fantastic
text output speed.
 
As the shareware performance program Qindex ran, too, it was possible
to test the speed of Medusa: 95 to 98 percent of the original speed
were attained. Under Turbo-ST Medusa peeked to 1160 percent of an
original ST without Turbo_ST.
 
But the limits of the emulator became visible, too: third emulations
like Aladin, the Macintosh emulator for the ST computer, did not run.
Many games did not run likewise. This is pointed out in the manual,
because if a program assumes certain hardware prerequisites that are
not present in the Amiga - like the original ST diskette drives with
index hole controlled hardware - and uses this hardware circumventing
the operating system, this environment cannot always be emulated.
 
Combitec expect direct user participation on enhancing Medusa because
of a one year, no-cost update service. The manufacturer says they are
dependent on cooperation with manufacturers of hardware and software
to support more hard disks or software protected by dongles, like that
in the midi market, to make Medusa workable.
 
As said, Medusa works without problems with memory expansions,
diskette drives and hard disks. Flicker fixer cards do not disturb the
emulator likewise. But it is not possible to use the emulation if
68020 or 68030 cards are installed. This is not because of Medusa, but
because of TOS: The present TOS versions run with the 68000 processor
only.
 
Combitec is waiting for new TOS versions, like that for the long
announced Atari TT. There are already deliberations to run the Atari
as a screen on the Amiga. To speed up the emulator, a card called
"Piccolo" is announced that with provide a 14 MHz 68000 and 256 KByte
to 1 MByte memory. The memory is designed with SRAM so that switch-off
resistent storage of Kickstart or TOS in fast RAM is possible.
 
(J. Sprave/rg)
 
The Combitec development "Medusa" is sold by MacroSystem,
Gahlenfeldstrasse 6, 5804 Herdecke, Germany. Phone +49/23 30/80 11 32.
The price is DM 498.
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The German version of this article was published in Amiga Welt 6/90,
pp 50/51. This translation does not reflect the opinions of the
translator, who is only a reader of that magazine and in no way
related to either the publisher or Combitec or MacroSystem.
 
I did this translation because many people have been talking about
Atari emulation on comp.sys.amiga. I do not want to purchase this
system myself and please don't flame me if you don't like the contents
of this article of the rough cut translation.
 
--
| lchristoph@Sun.COM     (Internet)              | 		Disclaimer: |
| ...!unido!sunmuc!lupe  (German EUNet, "bang")  | 	  My employer has a |
| lupe@sunmuc.UUCP       (German EUNet, domain)  |    non-exclusive license |
| ...!suninfo!lchristoph (Sun Germany customers) | 	     to my opinion. |

    Here's a challenge for your next user group meeting, Jeff:
    
    Get the ST running on the Amiga;
    get the Spectre running on the ST on the Amiga;
    get SoftPC running on the Mac/Spectre on the ST on the Amiga;
    run Wordstar, to show why this is a useful exercise.
    
    - Hoyt

Although I AM looking for a good topic for the June meeting, I don't
think this will do, because according to the article, Spectre won't run
on the Atari emulator that runs on the Amiga.

Does SoftPC run on Spectre?  That might make an interesting demo.  I
what what it's Norton rating would be?

    
    Just heard of a new software emulator in the latest issue of
    ST-Computer. It emulates an Atari ST with nearlevery program.
    on the Amiga.
    The name is "Chamealeon". I do not know if this is in direct
    connection to Medusa or if they just described a software part
    of Medusa.
    
    Bernd