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Emplant_Explained
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1993-12-15
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EMPLANT EXPLAINED
by
Gus Wrethman
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I write this on the condition that no-one complains that it
is; wrong, misleading, ambiguous or inaccurate. Let me make it
clear that I am "NOT" a Macintosh guru and I really cannot help with
any "troubleshooting" Emplant. I was not the person who spent MANY,
MANY hours nutting this all out, I am just putting pen to paper
(fingers to keyboard), to try to clear up some of the many problems
people are having installing the Emplant "Mac" emulator in their
systems.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
A-2000 (see note 1), A-3000 (T) (see note 2), A-4000 (see note 3).
A hard disk in any of the above.
Mac II ROM image, (created with your LEGALLY obtained MacII 256k
ROMS)
Mac System 7.1 software (Not really a minimum, more, recommended.)
High density Amiga internal disk drive
Emplant
Half a brain (more if available) (a quarter in my case)
Since this guide is based on an actual installation in an A-3000T,
let's start with that............
1. Install the Emplant board.
2. Backup your HD.
3. Boot with the Workbench 2.1 Install disk and re-partition your
HD, allocating whatever space needed for your normal Amiga
partitions, plus whatever you want for the Mac side. Make the
Mac partition, RESERVED and AUTOMOUNT. These options are in the
advanced section of HD Tools.
4. Reboot from the Install disk and (hopefully) only the Amiga
partitions will appear. Format these as normal and install the
2.1 software.
5. MOVE THE NTSC MONITOR DRIVER FROM STORAGE:MONITORS, TO
DEVS:MONITORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6. Reboot. Insert the Emplant disk (see note 4) and run the install
program. Accept everything as default. There is a minor bug in
the v3.19.1 install script. The last option is for EmplantInstall
to add a couple of lines to your startup(s). Choose NO to this
option and do it yourself. The lines are...
execute >NIL: s:setupemplant ;this MUST be the FIRST line of startup-seq
execute >NIL: s:assignemplant ;this MUST be the LAST line of user-startup
6. Having created your ROM image, copy this to the Emplant:RomImages
directory.
7. Reboot. Double click on the HardLaunch_Mac icon, in the Emplant
directory (see note 5) and setup as follows......
MEMORY - System, ROM, Video and Nubus, set these ALL to 32
bit. Device buffer, 8. Mac system memory, well, as
much as you can spare (or as much as it lets you,
whichever comes first.)
VIDEO DISPLAY - Load new driver and choose ECS Video PAL. Check
256k refresh table.
FLOPPY - Step rate 160.
MASS STORAGE - If applicable.
ROM IMAGE - Load your image.
PORT A & B - Defaults.
DEVICES - Select your Emplant partition from the Usable
Devices. This moves it to Selected Devices. Click
on the Emplant partition (now in the Selected
Devices column) once. Leave at defaults.
TASK CONTROL - Task in front 0, background -4, others, defaults.
MISC I/O CONT - Load new driver, Std ADB.
CONFIG - Save (use default location).
START EMULATOR and that's it (for the Amiga part anyway).
Hopefully Mac people will (should) know the rest, boot Mac Disk
Tools disk, format Mac partition, boot Mac install disk, etc etc.
******* Before I go any further, please note *******
###########################################################################
# THE PROVIDED DIAGNOSTIC PROGRAM DOES NOT WORK! IT IS FOR NTSC MACHINES! #
###########################################################################
Well, that was pretty simple to follow wasn't it? Remember,
contrary to popular opinion, I am not perfect, so feel free to point
out any errors or omissions. Now for the explanatory notes.
** NOTE 1 **
A-2000 owners MUST have an 030/40 accelerator, WITH A
MMU!!!!!!!! This rules out most GVP Combos as these are EC (Economy
Chip) versions of the 68030. Notice I said MOST, the earlier GVP
Combos had full '030s, so these are OK. If you aren't sure whether
you have a MMU or not, either look at the chip itself and see if it
says EC68030 (if it does, forget Emplant) or run something like
Sysinfo. Be aware that some versions of Sysinfo report the MMU to
be disabled, this does NOT mean that you don't have one, it merely
means it is not currently in use. The new version of Sysinfo
reports the MMU, "in use" or "not in use". All '040s have a MMU.
You can actually purchase a full '030 and simply throw away
your old EC version. It just plugs in, no mods needed.
If you have a Commodore 2630, even though this has a MMU, you
will have huge problems, as this card only has a maximum of 4 Mb of
32 bit RAM. Although Emplant will run with this setup, it will be a
constant struggle and as such, probably not worth the effort. If
however you must have Emplant, DKB make a beautiful product called a
2632, which is an add on board for the CBM 2630. This can hold 112
Mb of 32 bit RAM, which should be enough for anybody. This board is
not readily available in this country, but any reliable Amiga dealer
should be able to get one from the USA. They ARE NOT CHEAP!
Now, Derringer owners. As I said before 4 Mb is just not
enough, so you would have to purchase an 8 (or 16) Mb SIMM.
According to the Emplant people, Emplant will work with a Derringer
(albeit with a slightly modified software setup), but as yet I have
not tested this combination.
VXL 30, Mega Midget Racer, and others. ????????????????????
Having said that provided your GVP Combo has a MMU all is
well, there is a slight problem. The Fastprep software does not
have the ability to "Reserve" partitions, (at least the version I
used didn't). The "AFS" (Alternate File System) option probably
would do this, but even though this option is present, it is not
implemented. This caused me a lot of problems. I did find a
workaround though (and can offer two possible alternatives). I
merely prepped the drive on a A-2091, then transferred the drive to
the Combo. Since most people don't have a spare A-2091 in their
drawer, I offer an alternative as a "definite maybe". Run HDTools
from the CLI and give it the argument gvpscsi.device. This should
allow you to use CBM's HDTools even though you have a GVP
controller.
** NOTE 2 **
Some A-3000s (I'm not sure if Ts were ever this way), have
no actual Kickstart ROMS. Despite the fact that the
"SoftLaunch_Mac" icon is provided for these "superkickstart"
machines, I have not been able to successfully run Emplant on a
superkickstart A-3000. Remedy, buy some ROMS!
** NOTE 3 **
The A-4000 is the simplest of all the Emplant installations.
There is always a catch though, the A-4000 '030 will not work. Why?
No MMU. Answer, buy an '040. In the VIDEO DISPLAY part of the
Emplany configuration program, choose AGA video instaed of ECS.
** NOTE 4 **
If you get the Emplant software in archived form, unarchive
the file to RAM, then copy all the files to a disk called MacII,
WITH THE EXCEPTION of the Install script and CBM's Installer
program. Reason, they won't fit. Then just double click on the
install icon (in RAM) and the install program will prompt you for
the disk MacII (which you just made).
** NOTE 5 **
The HardLaunch_Mac program is not a program, it is a script.
Read this script and you will see how to uncomment whatever bits
apply to your machine.
I think that just about covers it. The speed of the Mac
emulation is dependant on the speed of your system. Don't be
decieved by the slow screen updates, all of the fuctions that count
are as fast, if not faster than the equivalent Mac. If you really
have money to burn, drop in one of the new 24bit cards, especially
ones with an inbuilt blitter (such as GVP's EGS). The addition of
one of these cards will take the Mac windows and screen updates,
from slow and tedious, to magnificent! Smooth as silk! Emplant
supports many of this new generation of 24bit cards. Piccolo,
Picasso, Retina and GVP's EGS are just a few.
For those of you worried about software compatability, stop,
it is 100% compatible will all Mac software. I have yet to hear of
a program it won't run. All you Mac heads will be pleased to know
that the 32 bit clean, (a hardware upgrade) is ready to ship. I am
not sure how much (if anything) this will cost.
THE FINAL WORD
I have installed Emplant from scratch, about 5 or 6 times
now. I have tested maybe, 10 "faulty" Emplant boards. I have put
"faulty" Emplant owners in touch with the Emplant Guru dozens of
times. I can honestly say, I have NEVER seen a faulty Emplant
board, not one. Keep this in mind.
-------))-*-((-------
Remember, Might & Magic III is total rubbish, despite opinions to
the contrary!!
Thanks Albert
Gus Wrethman 8/12/93
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