Re: GS Emulator

[nraymond@k12.ucs.umass.edu (Nathan Raymond (Phillips Academy 94))]

In a previous article, litbisc@wam.umd.edu (Edward Brown Shipe) says:

>     Read the subject.  I just want to know...  On a Mac or PC, do any of
>you think it's even remotely possible?  I mean hey, they emulated a Mac with
>the PPC!  I think that the only real issue, besides how hard it would be, is
>the speed.  On a PPC though, compiled natively, how could it not be fast 
>enough?  If a person who _really_ knows the hardware gives it a shot, I'd
>bet that they can do it.  With a Gravis Ultrasound on the PC, the sound 
>wouldn't be much of a problem, and VGA can handle the graphics.  

There is little doubt it could be done (and made to run fast), but the
biggest obstacles are that the IIgs contains a subset of 8-bit Apple II
capabilites (a lot of stuff to support), and a lack of programmers with the
time and/or capabilities to do it.  I would think that such a project could
only be completed in a reasonable amount of time by more than one
programmer.  It doesn't seem that Apple, with many software engineering
positions within the company empty, has the resources or the will (their
focus is to sell into corporate america it seems) to take on such a project. 
Outside programmers face the ROM problem (IIgs ROM is pretty close to a Mac
ROM), but if they got licensing (Apple licenses Mac LC ROMs to a company
making Mac emulators for NeXT and Apple licenses PPC ROMs to DayStar), that
obstacle could be hurdled.  If people pooled their resources and got
organized, something could happen.

Nathan Raymond
nraymond@genesis.nred.ma.us  
-- 
"We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything."
- Thomas Alva Edison