Opinion on Atari800MacX?

[+sm3]

I'm normally a Windows 7 user with Altirra for my Atari 800 emulator, but I also own a Mac Mini.

 

I'm trying to find alternatives for the emulators I use on Windows and learned about Atari800MacX.

 

Does anyone have experience with this emulator? It doesn't seem to have been updated in a while.

 

Would like to know what others think about it before I waste a lot of time with it.

 

Thanks.

[fujidude]

Sorry, to answer your question directly: I have to say I don't know anything about that emulator, nor do I have a Mac. Isn't there a port of Atari800 for Mac though?

[+sm3]

Sorry, to answer your question directly: I have to say I don't know anything about that emulator, nor do I have a Mac. Isn't there a port of Atari800 for Mac though?

 

Thanks for the reply. It was my understanding that Atari800MacX was the port of Atari800 for Mac OS X. I suppose I'll have to look into it further.

 

I think maybe they ported it to use Cocoa (OS X native API) vice SDL.

 

Doesn't seem to be that many people here who use it, so I'll just haver to give it a go and see how it is

 

Maybe Atari800 will compile directly on the Mac, I haven't actually tried that yet.

[+DrVenkman]

Atari800MacX runs fine for everything I've ever thrown at it. That said, I don't run crazy-weird hardware-specific demos or some of the edge case scenarios that keep folks pushing the boundaries of "correct emulation" with Altirra ... Now that said, it's not been updated in almost 3-1/2 years. That could be a problem. The author has made the source code available and while I've made a half-assed attempt at compiling it last year under Yosemite, I couldn't get it to work. I exchanged an email or two with the author and he said he'd like to someday get back to it and fold in the latest updates to Atari800 into it, he was in the midst of an academic program. Between that and family obligations it just hasn't happened.

Frankly, these kinds of reasons are why I've never bought his otherwise-excellent SIO2OSX program - the demo works great with my device but I don't want throw $25 at a program only to find out that it's broken in a future version of OS X and the author isn't actively updating and bug fixing anymore. At least Atari800MacX is free.

 

Also worth noting: Altira 2.6 works great under CrossOver in Yosemite. I expect it would work under plain old WINE as well. I do much prefer the native configuration dialogs and menus of Atari800MacX however.

Edited April 26, 2015 by DrVenkman

[fujidude]

$25 is about the cost of a modest dinner at a restaurant. Just do it and enjoy the product! If it is no longer compatbile some day... well that's too bad but it was only $25. It costs that to go watch a movie, and have a little drink and popcorn these days. The enjoyment you get out of the devicce is likely to exceed the enjoyment of one theater outing or dinner.

Edited April 26, 2015 by fujidude

[+sm3]

I completely forgot about CrossOver for the Mac. Not sure I want to go that route though but at least it's an option.

 

I'm sure Atari800MacX is fine for my purposes too. I'm only a part-time Mac user really. I use a lot of Windows based emulators to limit the actual running time of my real hardware.

 

Thanks for the information.