ScuzzBlog: Diaries January 2020
Entry 26th January 2020: Post 01: ShapeShifting little emulators.
ShapeShifting little emulators.
I have a saying that goes ' Participate, don't emulate '. I was
saying that on the Amiga groups back in 2002 and my opinion has
never changed. So how do I write a blog about emulators without
being overly negative. I guess I can't but hey, here goes.
I recently had cause to go through a series of old forum posts to
find some links and images. Within the one blog was an interesting
guide on the use of the Mac emulator ShapeShifter and I recalled
having this clump of mac disks that related to the software. So I
went on the dig and came up with the software, the MAC ROM and the
software to snapshot the ROM plus the OS for the emulator.
ShapeShifter 3.11 - http://aminet.net/package/misc/emu/ShapeShifter
MuEVD - http://aminet.net/package/misc/emu/MuEVD
MuFastZero - http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/MuFastZero
VirtualLink - http://aminet.net/package/comm/tcp/vlink
The ShapeShifter linked here is no longer available but Aminet do
recommend an alternative. I wasn't tempted to try but some may
want to have a go.
I do have A-MAX IV running on the Amiga 3000 which for me is pretty
uninspiring as the Amiga OS is way better, so why use the thing.
So dabbling with emulators isn't a problem on the Amiga and in truth
it is probably easier to set up an emulator on the Miggy for say
the C64 or the Spectrum than to struggle on the PC. I did try the
Spectrum emulator, Speculator on this Win7 machine but the guys
wanted money, so I didn't bother. I can run Spectrum emulators on
the Amiga no problem. Discs like the 17-Bit collections have loads
of emulators.
In respect of an Amiga emulator I did some digging and I found a
folder with WinUAE from 2002 in it though I just never saw the point
as it was always way easier to just use one of my Amigas.
Jay Miner was very keen to get the IBM and or DOS running on the
Amiga from the getgo. Amiga shipped Transformer with the Amiga 1000
which is very slow. The KCS PowerPC is a touch faster but still
a struggle. And again can't see the point.
I have the Amiga 1060 sidecar for the A1000 which is a dedicated
peripheral for running DOS. The thing is obviously a computer in
its own right and I again can't see the point in using this. I
took me an age to configure and get it working and I have to say
the time and effort wasn't really worth it.
Last and not least Commodore produced a series of Emulator cards
that worked with say the Amiga 2000. It was possible to fit the
5.25" drive and pretend you were using a substandard disk management
system just so you can work on your 'spreadsheets' at home. What is
it with grey suits and spreadsheets? Boring.
For me the best emulator was for the C64 cus it let me use two of my
most favoured computer launchpads on the one machine. The C64 emulator
and the VIC20 emulator were super fast and did feel like I was using
the emulated machines. Pretty cool I have to say.
And so do I emulate ? Er no. Never. I just use the real deal for my
computing habits. Primarily cus its the only way I can guarantee
getting the true life experience of both hard and soft. Whoo er!!
Anyway I'm off to play on my Amiga 1200 which is a full size version
of a real computer. How crazy is that.
ShapeShifting little emulators.
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