Anybody got Aladin (Mac emulator) to work?

[oracle_jedi]

I'm trying to see if I can get Aladin to work on my STe (TOS 1.62)

 

I think I configured it to use 2MB of RAM. I used Jay-MSA to extract the MACROM.IMG image file to a disk.

 

When I double click on ALADIN.TOS I get a happy mac icon, the disk spins, and then it spins and spins and spins and nothing happens.

 

I have no idea if I am doing this all wrong as I don't speak German.

 

What am I missing here?

 

 

[Android8675]

Do you have Mac OS disks to boot from? I've only had experience with Spectre 128/GCR, and real (old) Macs, but at the smiley Mac icon the system is trying to boot the OS. Unlike the Atari ST, Mac's System ROM is just like a BIOS chip, it doesn't have the OS software embedded in it like TOS does, so you need to provide the emulator with mac disks to boot from, Either a HDD image, a Floppy Disk with Mac OS files.

 

If you're using floppy disks you have to keep in mind that Mac 800kb floppy disks used CLV style drives, and the ST/PC uses standard CAV style. If you have actual disks from a Mac, you'll need either some hardware so the ST can properly read the disks (Spectre GCR), or you need to convert the MAC images to the Spectre 128 "Magic" format which is a fudged format that lets the ST read the data. I think to make these disk you actually had to find one already converted or get an actual Mac, serial network it to the ST and run a disk transfer program. The Mac reads the data and the ST writes it out in Magic format.

 

I Google searched for ST Aladin Mac Emualtor and came back to this topic on AA. Someone about 5-6 messages down states that Aladin can't read actual MAC disks and didn't last long since the Spectre GCR was around and it uses a hardware fix to make the ST drive capable of reading Mac disks without any formatting.

 

TL;DR - Find a Mac OS Disk in "Spectre 128 Magic Format", or get a Spectre GCR when you're done banging your head against the wall.

[Zogging Hell]

You could perhaps use a Mac formatted hard disk with the System software already installed (presuming Aladin can read Mac hard disks?). These old Macs are an absolute ball ache, even getting the original hardware working without system disks is pretty hard due to the Macs cruddy disk format. I had to do this a few years back to get a Mac plus up and running. In the end I ended up buying a crappy later Mac (Performa iirc) which had a disk drive but was just about capable of downloading the images from the internet. I then used that Mac to write a system disk which I could use in the Mac Plus. Without that missing link getting Aladin to work (especially with the non compatible disk drives) will be a nightmare. I do vaguely remember when I initially tried installing Spectre (before I go the 'bridge' Mac) using the spectre utilitys to transfer the Mac system disk across a file at a time, but it was a right ball ache and I wouldn't recommend it. If you wanted to install any software you would have the same problem.

 

The disk formats make the early Macs an absolute ball ache to use, and unless you have a hard disk they are appalling to use as well with endless disk swaps, makes me glad the ST is relatively easy with the OS in ROM and a PC compatible disk format.

[pacman000]

Here's a video of it: