Transformer Documentation April 19,1990 Curtis M. Wood The Good, The Bad And The Real Ugly! When the Amiga was first announced I was given a video of it's unveiling at the Lincoln Center. I was wowed by the incredible 'Boing' demo and then was treated to a real sight, IBM software was running on the Amiga video! The gentlemen running the show loaded up Lotus Corp's 123 and ran it flawlessly. A few months later I got the first Amiga in the store. Guess what, it did not run any IBM software. I was horrified to learn that they had scrapped the hardware portion of the emulator and the software portion had been seriously delayed. When the software version of the "IBM Emulator" was finally released (via CBM) it was a far cry from what we had witnessed in the video. For about $350 dollars you were given a 5.25" disk drive and the software disk and accompanying documentation. This was a bargain at the time since IBM compatibles were still selling for around $2000. I quickly skimmed through the documentation only to find that the Transformer, as it was to be called, did not support CGA mode. In fact the only mode which was supported was MONOCHROME, no graphics were available at all. I was sad. "Oh well", I thought, "Let's give it a whirl." I was pleased to find that it ran every monochrome program I could throw at it including: LOTUS 123 Word Perfect Word Star PC Write LDS Genealogy etc etc etc etc. I can now say that the Transformer runs everything that an IBM monochrome PC using no graphics can run. PROBLEMS: 1. It runs slooooooooooooooooooooow. Quite a bit slower than the sluggish 4.7 mhz. on the old style IBM PCs. 2. It did not run on any chip but a 68000. (This is corrected now as you will see below. 3. It did not run from a hard disk. 4. It did not support anything but a 5.25" disk drive. 5. Updates were to be coming out "Real Soon Now". Date Line 1990 - Free IBMs From CBM. When Harry Copperman became president of Amiga a few things were changed. We have all seen some of these changes. The changes most are not aware of is the addition to the Public domain of software which CBM no longer feels it can market. Some of this software is being circulated among user groups and bulletin boards. Among this software is the Transformer! What Is Transformer? This is a software package which runs most IBM software on the AMIGA computer. Included on Transformer disk are the following files. at1 ATPREFS transformer PSTransformer SetATPrefs SetATPrefs.info transformer.info These are all the files necessary to run the program. In addition you will need an IBM dos disk. If you are planning to run the Transformer via 3.5" disks the DOS version you will need is 3.00 or newer. The IBM dos disk must be "BOOTABLE" with all dos files you wish to use on it (ie FORMAT,DISKCOPY,SYS etc). There are two versions of the Transformer available. Both versions have been patched (modified) to operate on 3.5" disk drives as well as the 5.25" disk drive. The Transformer files are named: at1 - The 68000 version of the program. at2 - The patched version of the program to allow the program to run to the 68010, 68020 and 68030. If your machine is using one of these other processors, you will need to copy at1 to at2 using the following CLI command; 1> COPY at2 at1 (CAUSE Note: only the at1 version is on this disk, see Curtis at ComputerWise for the at2 version. We will probably make the at2 version available on a future CAUSE disk...) Setting The AT Preferences: It is necessary to configure the Transformer to operate on your machine before running it. If you don't, there is a good chance that the program will not operate. Run this program from the ICON. You will be presented with a screen of choices. The Options Menu: Disk menu: Press RETURN on this item and configure the system for your disk drives. I would suggest that you set the 'A:' drive as your DF0: and the 'B:' drive as DF1: number the remaining drives as you wish. This will cut down on confusion. Leave the 'Copy-protect verify' in the (OFF) position. The instructions for modifying these options are found at the bottom of the screen. The Video Menu: The Cursor display is your call, I like it set to (YES). This leaves a flashing cursor on the screen. If you turn it off, no cursor is used. Cursor Type is your call again, I like (Underline). Reverse video for monochrome; Underline (NO). High Intensity (YES). BLINK (NO). Starting video mode (MONO). Do not set the color option. It is not functional. This is just to show the customers that the color version would be available 'REAL SOON NOW'. The Memory MENU: Minimum memory provided to DOS and programs - set to 64K. Maximum memory provided to DOS and programs: This is an option I don't like to play with. If you have a 512K machine set this to 384K. 1Meg and above set to 640K. Attachments Menu: Keyboard repeat (chars/sec) - This option is for the key repeat when held down. I set mine to (9). Keyboard delay (seconds) before repeat - Your call. Serial receive delay - set to (OFF). MONO menu: This menu allows you to customize the foreground and background colors used while in the Transformer. This is very similar to Prefs. If you have made it this far, press the ESC key and the ATprefs will be saved. Up and Running: You are now ready to begin the Transformer. Click on the 'Transformer' icons and wait a second or two. You will then be greeted by a screen which asks you to press a key to begin the Transformer. At this time insert the IBM DOS disk in your defined 'A:' drive and press a key. In a few moments you should see the familiar but oh so cryptic; A> Welcome to IBM folks. Enhancements: I will not go into a lot of detail here but there are several public domain programs out there to speed up the screen display of the Transformer. Speedy3 and RAW are two which I have used and like. They should not reside on the AMIGA disk but on your IBM DOS disk. For instructions on how to use them read the associated .doc files. If you really wish to go fast, buy a 68030. I do not know how fast I am running according to the Peter Norton scale, but it's much faster than running on a stock 68000 ( and it only costs $6000 what a bargain, right?). Last Notes: Do not try to run the Transformer via hard disk. It will always crash (James and I tried several hours). Do not expect the Transformer to address your hard disk or any hard disk, it will not. Do not expect any updates for the Transformer, Hell will freeze over while you are waiting (Most of us know what 'REAL SOON NOW' means.).