A-Max V1.0 Manual Typed in by SOTHO TAL KER of PRIME EVIL. Edited by PARASITE. (Addendum / Readme file were also added) INTRODUCTION A-Max is a hardware and software combination that allows Macintosh software to run on any Amiga model with any amount of memory installed. The Amiga offers several advantages over the Macintoshin that it has a higher resolution, faster processor than the Mac and Mac plus, and allows for more ram. An Amiga system with A-Max lets you run all the Amiga's software as well as giving you access to most of the productivity software that has made the Mac a success. This manual will tell you how to use the A-Max system an point out the differences between an Amiga with A-Max and a Macintosh. It assumed that you are familiar with the Macintosh system and know how to use the Mac applications you want to run. You should read this manual in its entirely before starting to use A-Max. Your A-Max package should contain : - your A-Max cartridge - One disc labelled "A-Max Program disc" - One disc labelled "A-Max Utilities" - This manual - an A-Max registration card The A-Max Program disc contains a file "ReadMe" that has information that was unavailable at the time this manual was went to print. After reading the manual, you should read this file for any updates and corrections. In order to use A-Max, you must supply : - Apple 64k or 128k boot roms. These come as set of two 28 pin chips from an original Mac (64k roms), a Mac SE (128k roms) or a Mac plus (128k roms). Its preferable to use 128k Roms with A-Max rather than the older 64k Roms. The 128k Roms have several advantages over the 64k Roms in that they contain the newer HFS filing disc system, they run faster, and they run more of the newer software and system discs. Note also that if you have a non-68000 processor in your Amiga (such as a 68010/ 20/30 processor in a accelerator board), you will require 128k roms as the 64k roms are not compactible with these more advanced processors. - A Macintosh system disc in either A-Max, Magic Sax or Mac format (see Section 3 for information on what you will need in the way of Apple system software). If the disc is in Mac format and you don't have a Mac drive, you will need to transfer the disc using the Disc tranfer software as descibed in section 1.5 before you can make use of it. Often you will find that Mac applications disc have System and finder files already on them. - The Mac applications data you want to run, again in A-Max, Magic Sac or Mac format (if you have a Mac drive) You may also want : - An apple 800k external drive. This will enable you to use Mac format discs directly under A-Max without having to transfer them to A-Max format. It also allows you to format and write Mac format so you can transfer data back to the Macintosh. 1. Installing A-Max 1.1 Making backups For the A-Max program disc use any disccopy you want. The "A-Max Utilities" disc is not copy-protected. However its is in a special format that has two partions - one is read by a Mac in an apple drive, and the other by A-Max in an Amiga drive. This allows the same disc to hold programs for two machines at once. The A-MAx half has the Disc-Receive program and the File-Transfer program; the Mac half has the Disk-Transfer program. You should backup the A-Max half of the utilities disc once you get A-Max up running with a system disc The Mac half can be backup up by reading files off it onto a Macintosh (or with A-Max and an apple external drive). Or just copy it with X-Copy or something like that with Indexnibble. 1.2 Rom installation There are several revisions of both 64k and 128k Roms but all revisions will function equally well. The 64k Roms are apple part number 342-0220-X and 342-0221-X and the 128k roms are apple part number 342-0341-X and 342-0342-X where X is the revision letter. Often the set of two chips will have different revision letters but always keep two as a set - don't try to match the revision letters. Your two Mac roms chips must be inserted into the sockets on the A-Max cartridg. To do this you must first remove the top of the A-Max case. When the case is open, you will see a circuit board with several small chips and two large 28 pin sockets. Insert the two Rom chips into the sokets (either chip in either socket - the order doesn't matter) with the U notch of each chip pointing in the same direction as all the other smaller chips on the board. To insert each chip, start one row of pins resting lightly in their sockets then start the second row and finally push the whole chip firmly into the socket. If the chip is very hard to push in all the way, check that no pins are bent up underneath the chip. If there are straighten them out and try again. When both the Rom chips have been socketed, hold the board so that the "A-Max 1989 Readysoft" text is the right way up and check that the notches of the chips point up and that no pins are bent up. Put the top back on the case. 1.3 Connecting an Apple 800k external drive If you have a apple 800k external drive, you can make use of it with A-Max ro read,write and format Mac format discs direcly. Note that older single-sided (400k) apple drives won't work with A-Max ,they will simply be ignored. With the Amiga's power off, plug the connector of the apple drive into the 19-pinsocket on the side of the A-Max cartridge. Once installed, you can leave the Apple drive plugged in at all the times as it will not affect the Amiga when running normally (without A-Max) Additional Amiga drives can be plugged into the 23 pin connector at the end of the A-Max cartridge. We cannot garantee that all third party Mac compactible drives will function will A-Max. It has been our experience that apple manufactured drives work better than third party drives. 1.4 Installing the cartridge Warning : Always turn off the Amiga before connecting or disconnecting the A-Max cartridge, or plugging in an Apple or Amiga drive. With the Roms in place, you can now connect the cartridge to the Amiga. The cartridge can either be plugged into the back of the last of the external drives (but not if you have 3 external drives because the cartridge / the apple drive is selected via one of the SEL signals) or into the external drives port on the Amiga itself. 1.5 Transferring the first System Disc If you have an apple external drive you can skip the section as you can use your Mac format system disc directly in the Apple disc. Likewise, if you have a system disc already in A-Max or Magic Sac/ Spectre format, you can use that disc directly in an Amiga drive and have no need to transfer the system software. Otherwise you must transfer your first system disc from Macintosh to A-Max before A-Max can be used. This is necessary because the Macintosh uses variable disc speed drives while the Amiga uses constant speed drives making Mac format discs unreadable on Amiga drives. To perform the transfer you must use the Macintosh Disk Transfer program supplied on the "A-Max Utilities" disc to make a Mini Transfer disc that contains the system ,finder and other files that make up your system disc. As mini Transfer have a capacity of 272k you may need to use a slightly older system version (e.g. version 3.2) in order to fit the necessary files onto the disc. If you have one of the newer systems that won't fit on the 272k of a Mini Transfer disc, use the FONT/DA Mover program on the Macintosh before transferring the system files to remove the fonts and desc accessories that you will not require from the system file, making the files small enought to fit into 272k. See section 4 for information on the Disk transfer program. 1.6 Startup Program The "A-Max Program disc" contains the "A-Max Startup" program on an Amiga Workbench disc. Boot the disc and when the Workbench has finished loading, open the disc icon and click the "A-Max Startup" icon in the A-Max drawer to start the program. Ľou will be taken to the A-Max preferences window. 1.7 Hard drive Installation The A-Max startup-disc can be installed by dragging all the files in the A-Max folder to your harddrive icon. From the CLI you can copy A-Max with commandos similar to the following (assuming that your harddrive id DH1:): Makedir Dh1:A-Max copy a-Max:a-Max to dh1:a-Max all Amiga 1000 owners : if you wish to use your kickstart ram with A-Max (see Startup preferences below), you must boot from the "A-Max Program disc". This disc has a non-standard boot block that is necessary to utilize the Kickstart-ram with A-Max. It is advisable to keep your disc write protected at all the times to avoid viruses which, should they infect A-Max startup disc, will not allow the additional Kick Ram to be accessed. If your boot block becomes corrupted, you can use the "RestoreBootBlock" command in the C directory of the A-Max Program disc to rewrite the correct boot block. Please note that when A-Max is running, you will not be able to access your hard drive from MAcintosh applications. This may be addressed in future version. 2. Startup Preferences The startup prefernces window allows you to set the various options that A-max provides. Saving these options allows to set the default configuration A-Max uses. 2.1 Video Options The buttons "Screen Height" and "Screen Width" control the dimensions of the sceen you will be using. "Mac" width and height are 512 and 342 pixels, respectively, which are in some cases more compactible with certain software (typically games). "Wide" screens are 640 pixels across, and "High" screens are 400 (or 512 on Pal machines) pixels high The "Video Mode" botton controls how the Mac screen is displayed. "Interlaced" allows the entire screen to be displayed, but will cause flickering on most monitors. "ECS" allows up to 480 lines to be displayed flicker-free on the screen if you have Commodores new Extended Ship Set installed in your Amiga and an approriate monitor. "ECS lace" displays a 960 line interlaced screen. "A2024",enables the 1008*800 video mode for Commodores A2024 (or Viking Moniterm) full page monitor. ECS Mode Selection: When the selected video mode is "ECS", the Wide and High gadgets control the ECS video mode. The Wide gadget selects a 640 pixel wide screen,as before, but if the screen width gadget is "Mac", the Mac 512x342 screen will be displayed. If the screen width is "Wide", then the screen height gadget controls the the number of lines the ECS mode will display. "Mac" is 400 lines and "High" is 480 lines (suitable for VGA monitors) "ECS Lace" displays 640x800 or 640x960 depending on the setting of the "High" button. ECS screens look best with the default Workbench colours (dark blue $05a, white $fff), so set the "Colors" gadget to "System" for ECS screens. The remaining Video mode options control how A-Max will display a non- interlaced screen."Slow Scroll" and "Fast Scroll" smootly scroll the screen according to the position of the mouse pointer. "Paged" will swap which portion of the screen is displayed as the mouse pointer moves from one half of the screen to the other. When using this mode, press the right mouse button to display the opposite half of the screen The "Colors" button specifies which two colors A-Max will use for the Mac display."Default" will give you the default A-Max colors."System" will cause the first two current Workbench colors to be used for A-Maxs foreground and background colors repectively. 2.2 Memory Options The "Memory Mode" button allows you you control what size Macintosh you wish to emulate."No Expansion" will only use the amount of continguous memory beginning at location zero (typically 512k or 1MB with the new MegaBlitter). "No $c00000" will use all memory below $c00000 (this option will disable the second 512k of memory in A500 and A2000B (with the old blitter). "User defined" allows you to select the amount of memory to be used during Mac emulation. To change the amount of memory selected, click on the box containing the current memory selection. Any Ram not selected here will be assigned to A-Max's bootable ramdisc. Fast RAM: If you have a fast RAM expansion board in your Amiga, and memory at $c00000 (most commonly in Amiga 2000's and expanded A500's) using the "No $c00000" memory mode will cause the A-Max system code to be placed in fast RAM, which will give you a faster Mac. This is particularly important for 68020 boards as this memory is often 32 bit RAM. The memory at $c00000 will be made available to the RAM disk. NB: A-Max will not function if your KickStart ROM has been copied down into 32 bit RAM with the SetCPU command. Amiga 1000 KickStart Memory: The "Use Kickstart Ram" button allows A1000 owners to use their extra 256k of Ram with A-max to increase the amount of memory available during Mac emulation. The only disadantage is that you will have reload Kickstart when you want to return to Amigados. There are some internal memory expansions for the 1000 that will not function when KickStart RAM is write enabled. These are most commonly the 'hack' 512K-1.5MB expansions that are done by piggy backing RAM chips on the 1000 motherboard. If you find that the ADDMEM command crashes when you attempt to add your expansion memory to the system (ie. you have non-auto-configuring memory expansion),you will have to disable the KickStart enabling boot block on the A-Max startup disk.This is done easily by installing a normal boot block on the startup disk with the Workbench INSTALL command. See Section 5 for information on using expansion memory with A-Max. 2.3 Serial/Parallel and Imagewriter Emulation Options The Macintosh has two serial ports and no parallel port; one port is known as "modem"port and the other as the "printer"port. There are two buttons for each to control how they are emulated. The "port" button controls whetherr the output for the Mac serial port comes out of the Amiga's parallel or serial ports. The usual choice is to have the Mac's modem port (Port A) data coming out of the Amiga's serial port and the Mac's printer port(Port B) data coming out of the Amiga's parallel port. If you have a serial printer connected to your Amiga, you'll want to set Port B (printer) output to the Amiga's serial port. Serial transmission rates are sestricted to between 110 and 19200 baud. Also, some Mac applications can optionally send printer output through the Mac modem port(Port A), so sometimes you may want to control the Port A output. The second button controls what sort of printer emulation happens with with each port's output. "None" means that port's output is passed though unchanged. This option is usually used with serial (e.g. modem) output or with an Apple Imagewriter or Laserwriter connected to the Amiga. The remaining options enable emulations of the Apple Image- writer printers if you have an epson compactible 9 or 24 pin dot matrix connected to your Amiga. See section 8 for information on Imagewriter emulation and which option should be used. 2.4 Save and Go A-Max The "save" button will save your selected configuration to a file in the current directory so that next time you run A-Max the same options will automatically be selected. Clicking the "Go A-Max" button (or simply pressing Return) will start A-Max Boot process. Information will be read from the current directory then the Mac Roms and the A-Max cartridge will be ckecked. If all is well, you will be prompted to press Return, and after a few second you will see the Mac boot screen. If A-Max cannot startup, you will get an error message stating the problem. If you get the cartridge error, make sure the Roms and cartridge are installed as outlined in section 1. 2.5 The Mac Boot Screen Thirty seconds or so after clicking the "Go A-Max" button ,the Mac screen will appear with a picture of a disc with a flashing question mark - this is the Mac asking you to insert a startup-disc. The Mac can accept a startup-disc in any drive, not just in the internal drive like Amigados. if you have an apple externaldrive connected to the A-Max cartridge, you can simply place a Mac format system disc in that drive. Otherwise, you should put a A-Max, Magic Sac/Spectre, or Mini- Transfer disc with a system on it in an Amigadrive. When you insert a disc in any drive, A-Max will try to startup from it. If the disc contains the necessary file, you will get a happy Mac picture and then the "Welcome to Macintosh" window.If not, A-Max will probably reject the disc and display a flashing "X", indicating you should try another disc. If you attempt to boot an HFS disc(see page 18) with the 64k Rom you will get a black screen and a sad Mac picture - Click the right button to restart. The 64k Rom can only boot from MFS disc. Also note that with 128k Rom, when the Mac boot screen is displayed, the right mouse button may be held down to allow certain A-Max preferences to be changed. This may be more convenient than rebooting the system to make adjustments to your current configuration. Any changes made to the A-Max preferences by this method cannot be saved to disc and will not be remembered when you reset to Amigados (they will be remembered when you restart A-Max). If you have the 64k Rom, hold the right mouse button when inserting the system disc. After the "Happy Mac" has been diplayed for several seconds, the A-Max preferences will appear and can be changed as above. 3. A-Max Operations This section outlines A-Max features and differences from standard Macintosh. 3.1 Keyboard Differences A-Max emulates the Macintosh plus Keyboard which has a numeric keyboard and arrow keys. There are three keys on the plus keyboard that are not on the Amiga's; the keys equivalents follows: Command (clover leaf) : either Amiga key Option : either ALT key Clear : Del key Otherwise, each Mac key is represented on the Amiga keyboard. The Mac "Key Caps" desk accesory will allow you to verify the keyboard mapping. For Programmers, the Macintosh interrupt switch can be simulated by typing Shift-Escape on the Amiga keyboard. Note that the 64k Rom does not directly support the arrow keys, howerver may applications will recognize them even when running under the 64k Roms. 3.2 Disc Eject Macintosh disc drives differ from most others, including Amiga in that they do not allow the user to eject disc upon demand as there is no eject button; rather the Mac will eject a disc by itself on request by the user through the software. Although Amiga drives allow you to eject disc at any time, you should NEVER do so with A-Max unless A-Max is allowing you to. Failing to abide by this rule could cause your discs to become corrupted. The reason for this is that the Mac system, knowing you can't eject the disc, doesn't necessarily update directories or files immediately but rather waits until it must (e.g. needs the memory or the disc is being requested to be ejected). A-Max indicates that an Amiga drive is ready to be ejected by displaying its drive number in the right hand side of the menu bar. Drives are numbered from '1' to '4', with drive '1' being the internal Amiga Df0: other connected drives being numbered similarly 2-4. The Apple 800k external drive functions as it does normally on the Mac - discs are ejected by the drive(i.e. there is no screen prompt to eject disc from an apple drive) If you eject a disc from an Amiga drive without A-Max displaying the appropriate drive number, A-Max will detect this and FLASH the drive number on the menu bar. Should this happen, you should immediately replace the ejected disc back in the drive, which will clear the flashing prompt. There are several ways to request a disc ejected on the Mac : - When the Finder (Apples desktop program) is running, you can eject a disc by pressing it's icon and using the File menu command "Eject" or Amiga-E from the keyboard. - When an application is requesting a filename the dialog box will usually have an "eject" button to eject the current disc. - Often the command-shift-1 and command-shift-2 keyboard sequences will eject the discs in drives 1 and 2. Unfortunately, this option is un- available for drives 3 and 4 as the Mac normally can only have a maximum of two drives. - The supplied "Shutdown" program will eject all disc before rebooting. if the Finder Shutdown menu option is available on your system disc, it will eject all disc also. See the next section before using the Shutdown menu command. NEBER RESET YOUR AMIGA OR TURN IT OFF WITHOUT EJECTING ALL DISC THOUGH THE MAC SYSTEM 3.3 Finder Shutdown All version of the Finder have a menu command called "Shutdown" under the "special" heading. On Finder versions 5.3 or less, this option will crash your Amiga. Finder version 5.4 and higher have two options, "Restart" and "Shutdown".ewer versions of the finder, the "Shutdown" option will work with A-Max(Click Restart to reboot). Don't use the Restart MENU option; it will crash your machine as before. If the "Shutdown" option on your system disc will not work you can use the "Shutdown" program supplied on the "A-Max Utilities" disc to restart A-Max. The program is small enough to copy onto all your discs for convenience. 3.4 Mouse Buttons The Mac has a single button mouse, so the Amiga's right mouse button is unused when running A-Max. An exception to this is the selection of A-Max preferences when A-Max is waiting for a startup disc. 3.5 Disc Drives A-Max will allow the use of any 3.5" drives connected to your Amiga, including an apple 800k external drive connected to the back of the A-Max cartridge. (5 1/4" Amigadrives (80 tracks) may also used) A-Max will allow you to use the following formats in standard Amiga drives : - A-Max format;read,write,format - Magic Sac/Spectre format ;read only (both are Atari St Mac emulators) - mini Transfer disc created on a Mac with the Disc Transfer Software ;read only An apple 8000k drive will allow you to read,write and format standard Macintosh disc. Note that you can't read A-Max format discs in Mac drives or under Amigados, they are only for use in Amiga drives when using A-Max. Formatting discs: You format disc under A-Max in exactly the same way as you do on the Macintosh; placing a blank disc in the drive while at the desktop will bring up a dialog box asking if you would like to format the disc. Click the "Two-Sided" button (or "Initialize") to format a 800k disc. In unusual circumstances you may find it necessary to format a 400k disc click on "One-Sided" button or, if there is just an "Initialize" button, hold down the an Amiga key while clicking that button. If you are using an Apple 800k drive, the disc you format will be readable on standard Macintoshes; otherwise the disc will be in A-Maxs special format that is readable only on Amiga drives with A-Max. 3.6 Sound A-Max does not support the Mac's custom sound capabilities; the only sound supported is the standard Mac beep. It is extremely unusual for productivity software to use any kind of sound, however most custom- sound producing programs will run without problems under A-Max, but silently. You can set the sound volume using the Mac's "Control Panel" desk accessory. 3.7 The A-Max Ram disc A-Max has a build in Ram disc that automatically uses any Amiga memory you re not using as A-Max system memory (as selected with the Memory- size parameter in the startup-preferences). The Ram disc is recoverable so it will survive A-Max system reboots and can be booted from if it contains the necessary system files (System and finder at least). The ram disc can be inserted and ejected much like a 3.5" disc. To insert the Ram disc press F1. The first time this is done, you will get the standard Mac dialog asking you to format the ram disc - just click on initialize and type a name for the disc. Once this is done ,the Ram disc will appear as an icon on the desktop and you can copy files to or from it as you would use an ordinary drive. If you have allocated all Amiga memory to the Mac system, no icon will appear because there is no memory available for the ram disc. it is possible for the Mac to eject the ram disc in the same way that it ejects 3.5" discs; just pres F1 to re-insert it (no information will be lost). The Ram disc will be resident until you reset to Amigados. To boot from the Ram disc, copy your system disc files into it, then restart A-Max with Shutdown menu command or Shutdown program (see section 3.3 above).At the Mac boot screen (with the flashing question mark), simply press F1 to insert the Ram disc and if it is a valid system disc, booting will take place. 3.8 Time Clock A-Max will automatically use the date and time from the Amiga Clock if you have a A2000/A2500 or A500 with the 512k memory expander. All other clocks will be ignored. If you don't have one of these clocks, use the Alarm Clock desk Accessory if the application you will running require the correct date and time.You will have to reenter this information every time the Mac system is rebooted. 4. System discs A-Max supports all the known apple system disc, however system discs version 3.2 or greater are recommended. At the time this manual was printed, System version up to version 6.0.2 had been tested. Some Mac applications will suggest or require a particular system version; you should, of course, use any recommended system version. As explained in section 3.3 above, if you have a Finder version 5.4 or greater (usually found on system disc version 4.0 or greater), you will be able to use the Shutdown menu command. If you are using the 64k Rom, you choice of system disc is further limited because the new apple system disc require the 128k(or higher) Roms. System 4.1 and above are not compactible qith the 64k Roms. System 3.2 is our recommended system version for the 64k rom. In general, you should never mix Finder and system file versions; always keep them together as they come. However, Finder 5.4 and System 3.2 work well together, and will let you use the Finder Shutdown command. As explained in section 6, the 64k Rom does not contain apple's newer HFS filing system. Apple does, however, supply a system file called "Hard Disk 20",whih will make the HFS system available to you if you are using the 64K Rom. Hard Disk 20 file will work reliably only with System 3.2, which is one of the reasons it is recommended for use with the 64k rom. If you are using the 64k Rom and require HFS support, you should put the "Hard Disk 20" file on your system disc. Apple's Multifinder may be used with A-MAx if you have the 128k roms installed.It is found on system version 4.2 and above. If you are using the apple Imagewriter, Laserwriter ,Imagewriter emulation A-Max, or a Postscript laser printer, you will also need the appropriate apple printer drivers - "Imagewriter" for 9 pin graphics, "LQ imagewriter" for 24 pin graphics, "Laserwriter" and "Laser Prep" for Postscript printers (see section 10 on using printers). 5.Expansion Memory A-Max can make use of all Amiga's am (minus 128k for A-Max overhead), however there are fundamental differences between how the Macintosh and Amiga handle expansion memory - the Mac always has its memory in one block starting at location 0 ans its limited to 4MB of Ram whereas the Amiga can handle up to 9MB of Ram which can be present in several discontinuous blocks. All Amigas have 512k beginning at location 0 , which work well with A-Max, however certain applications will not function when expansion memory is used. The solution for such application is to stop A-Max from using your expansion memory as Mac memory by reducing the "Memort Size" parameter on the startup preferences screen to 512k (provided the application will run in 512k) by selecting "No Expansion". This is the most compactible A-Max configuration because the first 512k of memory in an Amiga is identical to that in a Macintosh. If you have Commodore's new Extended CHip Set installed in your Amiga, or have carried out the hardware modifications given in section 11, and have at least 1MB of Ram, you will be able to usea 1MB memory size as the most compactible A-Max memory configuration. If you find that a particular application will not run, you should try reducing your memory size before giving up on that application (Try "No Expansion"in A-Max preferences). A-Max users with the 128k Roms installed will be able to use Multifinder, apple's "multitasking" system found on system disc 4.2 and above (6.0.2 is recommended). Multifinder is particularly useful with expansion memory (e.g. 1MB or more) because it controls the use of memory by applications in a manner that is compactible with A-Max. So running an application under Multifinder with expansion memory enabled may help for compactibility with A-Max. Note that some applications are not compactible with Multifinder (particularly older versions of applications)."Switcher", the predecessor to Multifinder for the 64k roms, will not work with expansion memory. A-max allows Mac software to make use of all the Amiga's expansion memory by permanently allocating the empty areas of the address space. This method means that the Mac OS is running with a certain amount of system memory, or which some proportion is always allocated. If you are using expansion memory and check the memory sizegiven in "About Finder" window, you will seean incorrect valuegiven for the amount of Ram the Mac thinks it has. This is OK and what is supposed to happen. If your Amiga has memory at $c00000 (most commonly the 512k expansion Ram in A500 and A2000B) and you have additional Ram,you should consider reducing your memory size so that the $c00000 memory is not used by A-Max as this is the most incompactible of the expansion memory (it will still be used for the A-Max Ram disc). Select the "No $c00000" option in A-Max preferences. This can improve your compatibility with some applications. If you have non-auto-configuring expansion memory in your Amiga, the Addmem command must be run before the A-Max preferences will recognize this memory. Any Amiga memory not used by the Mac system will be assigned to A-Max's build-in Ram disc - see section 3.7. 6. APPLE'S FILING SYSTEM - HFS and MFS Apple uses two filing systems (disc operating system) on its machines. The 64k Rom has the "MFS" filing system built-in and the 128k Rom has "HFS" filing system built in. The original 64k Rom Mac could only use single sided discs with MFS filing system. When the Mac plus was introduced with double sided 800k drives, Apple released the 128K roms which included the HFS filing system which was more efficient than MFS with larger capacity discs, such as double sided 3.5" discs and hard discs. For compactibility with the 64k rom machines, apple continued to use MFS for any discs that the user formatted single sided. This is possible because HFS is downwardly compactible with MFS so you can read an MFS disc with an HFS Mac, but you can't read HFS discs with an MFS (64K Rom) Mac. How does this affect A-Max? If you have the 128k Roms installed, you already have the HFS system built-in and you are able eto use both HFS and MFS discs. If you are using 64k roms, you are usually only able to use MFS discs. This will be a problem if you transfer a double sided disc from a Mac, because it will be in the HFS format (note that Magic Sac 800k discs will often be MFS). The solution is to install apple's "Hard Disk 20" file on your system disc (see section 4). With the Hard Disk 20 file installed, you will be able to read HFS discs, on your 64k Rom system, however, any disc you want to boot from must be in MFS format because at the time that you boot, the HFS system has not been installed. You should format an MFS 800K system disc by formatting a disc when have NOT installed the Hard drive 20 file yet. Copy the Hard Drive 20 file and System 3.2 files onto it and use it to startup the Mac. You should see the message "Hard Disk 20 Startup" in the "Welcome to Macintosh" window - this indicates that the HFS system has been installed and you can use 800k HFS discs. Any discs you format double sided will be in the HFS format - beware of this if you if you are creating a startup discs as a 64k Rom startup disc must be in the MFS format. Any disc you format single sided, or any disc formatted on the 64k Rom when you don't have Hard Disk 20 installed will be MFS. 7. MAC DISK TRANSFER SOFTWARE An apple external drive is the recommended method of transfering software to Amiga discs because it requires no transfer programs ,extra discs, or acess to a Mac, and can be used to transfer data in both directions whereas the Disk Transfer Program is limited to Mac to Amiga transfer only. The Disk Transfer software allows you to transfer discs from Mac to A-Max without the need of an apple external drive for your Amiga, however, you will need access to a Macintosh in order to produce the transfer discs. The Disk Transfer software formats special discs on the Mac that are readable in Amiga drives by A-Max. These discs only have a doubled sided capacity of 272K so there is also a method of breaking up any size disc (400k or 800k) into several chunks on different transfer discs, if necessary. 7.1 Mini Transfer Discs Mini Transfer discs provide a quick method of transferring data less than 272k in size. It is the method you must use to transfer your first system disc if you don't have an apple drive to use with A-Max. Step A : On a Macintosh, execute the Disk Transfer Program on the the "A-Max Utilities" disc. Click the "Make Mini Transfer Disc" button and then insert a blank disc in the destination drive when requested. The disc will be formatted and initialized to 272K if you have a double sided drive, or to 136K if you have a single sided drive, and when formatting is complete will be ejected. Once a MTD (Mini Transfer Disc) has been formatted, you can reuse it for subsequent transfers without reformatting. Now, quit from the Disk Transfer program and return to the desktop. Step B : Insert your formatted MTD and copy the files you wish to transfer onto it. Step C : Execute the Disk Transfer program again, and click on the "Prepare Mini Transfer Disk" button. Insert the MTD in the destination drive as requested and click OK. The disc will be prepared so that A-Max can read the files on it in an Amiga drive. [The "Prepare MTD" command moves the MTD's contents to a different area on the same disc that is readable with Amiga drives. Macintosh discs are recorded at five different speeds of which, because Amiga drives are single speed devices, only two are readable by the Amiga. This is why the MTD's capacity is only 272K.] The Mini Transfer Disc can now be used on the Amiga simply by inserting it in am Amiga drive while you are running A-Max. The disc will appear as an ordinary disc, but with a capacity of 272k. It is not possible to write to the Mini Transfer disc, however, you can copy any files off the the Mini Transfer disc onto other A-Max format disc by dragging files as usual. 7.2 Full Disc transfer This option allows you to transfer a complete 400k or an 800k disc from the Mac to A-Max format, by storing the data on several transfer discs. Once transferred the data is read by the Amiga off the original source disc and the additional transfer discs created with the Disk Transfer program to create an A-Max format disc. Click on the "Transfer Full Disk" to begin. The Disk Transfer program will ask you to insert the source to begin und up to two additional blank transfer discs, one at a time (if the destination discs are un- formatted, the program will format them before using them.) After the transfer has been completed, you can take the transfer disc(s) just created and the original source disc back to the Amiga. While running A-Max, execute the "Disk Receiver" program found on the "A-Max Utilities" disc. After clicking the "Receive Full Disk" button ,the program will ask you to insert a destination disc (which will be formatted if necessary) and the discsyou created on the Mac as well as the original source disc one at a time into an Amiga drive. The Source discs will be reconstructed onto the destination disc in A-Max format so that they ca be used in Amiga drives with A-Max. 8. AMIGADOS FILE TRANSFER SOFTWARE The File Transfer programs allow files on MFS or HFS A-Max format discs (or Mac format if you have an apple external drive) to be transferred to Amigados and vice versa. The files are transferred via a file transfer format (FTF) disc, which should not be confused with the Mini Transfer Discs used for converting discs from Mac to A-Max format. Note : Macintosh files have two parts - a resource fork and a data fork. The file transfer program moves only the data fork of the Mac file which make this program most suitable for transferring text or other plain information files (applications can't be transferred). There is no conersation between application data formats (e.g. Mirrorsoft Word to Excellence!) so you should save the files to be transferred as plain ASCII or text files. Some applications (e.g. spreadsheets) may offer interchange file formats to allow files to be converted between applications formats. There is one conversion option that is required when transferring ordinary text files. The Mac uses a carriage return as its end of line marker, while Amiga uses a line feed character. To convert the Mac's CR characters to the Amiga's LF characters, and vice versa, select the "CR to LF" (or "LF to CR") to perform then conversion on files read FROM the FTF disc. File Transfer Program (Amiga side): It is recommended that single drive users use a RAM disk as their AmigaDOS source and/or destination. Also make sure the drive light on any drive is off before swapping any disks. File Transfer Program (A-Max side): When copying files to and from A-Max format disks you should insert the A-Max disk in the drive when the file requester is being displayed. The File Transfer program disables the file system detection of disk insertion except when the file requester is being displayed, so only insert the A-Max disk at this time. To Transfer Amigados files to A-Max format disc, run the Amigados "File Transfer" program on the "A-Max program disc" and format a transfer in the internal drive by clicking the "Format" button (If you have previously formatted the FTF disc, you can click on "Initialize" to delete all files on this disc). After the transfer disc has been created, click on the "to TD" button and select from the file requester the file you wish to transfer. If you have two Amiga drives you should keep your Amigados in the external drive to minimize disc swapping between the FTF disc and the Amigados disc.Single drive owners can use RAM: disc to alleviate the need for disc swaps. After clicking OK you will be asked to insert th FTF disc into the internal drive and the file will be copied to the transfer disc. You can place several files on the transfer disc by clicking "to TD" button and selecting each file. Once every file you wish to transfer has been placed on the transfer disc, exit the File Transfer program, start A-Max system and boot the Mac. Execute the A-Max "File Transfer" program on the "A-Max Utilities disc" and click the "From TD" button. You will be prompted to select a destination drive for the transfer files (a blank disc may be formatted at this time) and then to insert the FTF disc in the internal drive. All the files on the FTF disc will then be copied to the destination . If any files already exist on the destination disc, you will be asked if you wish to overwrite them. To transfer files from A-Max file format to Amigados, follow the same procedure starting with the A-Max file transfer program to place Mac files onto the transfer disc and then reading them off with the Amiga dos "File Transfer" program. The Amigados destination disc must be formatted by Amigados before you transfer files to.(Use Initialize from Workbench or format from Cli or a tool like Climate or Diskmaster) 9. DOWNLOADING SOFTWARE A-Max is compactible with many Macintosh terminal programs, including "MacTerminal" or the public domain "FreeTerm". Once you have your A-Max system up and running you can use a Mac terminal program to download software from the many network libraries of freely distributable Mac software. Useful software can be found in both Mac and Magic Sac / Spectre areas of the networks. Terminal programs may also be used to transfer files between a Mac and an Amiga. Use a Mac terminal running on both the Mac and A-Max, and download from one machine to the other with "Send file" and "Receive file" menu commands. 10. PRINTERS A-Max supports the following printers: 10.1 Apple Imagewriter You will need the apple "Imagewriter" printer driver on your system disc, which must be selected from the "Chooser" desk accessory and as connected to printer Port B. You will also need the correct to connect the Imagewriter to the Amiga's serial port. Select Port B to be the serial port and set the Port B Imagewriter emulation to "None" on the startup preferences screen. You should now be able to print as you would normally on a Mac with an Imagewriter. 10.2 Epson compactible 9 & 24 pin Dot matrix 9 pin : You will need the apple "Imagewriter" printer driver on your system disc, which must be selected from the "Chooser " desk accessory. Select the appropriate port B (serial or parallel). Select "IW-9 pin" for the Imagewriter emulation on port B. 24 pin : You will need either the apple "Imagewriter" or "LQImagewriter" printer driver on your system disc. The LQ driver is needed if you wish to print 24 pin graphics; if you only have "Image- writer" driver you'll only be able to print 9- pin graphics. Select the printer port B as above ,and select "LQ-24 pin " if you have the "LQ Imagewriter", or "IW-24 pin" if you have the "Imagewriter" driver. The Imagewriter emulation feature translates the Imagewriter control codes into Epson compactible code as they go out the port. Because the Imagewriter printers have unusual print densities, some printing will not have a 1:1 aspect ratio when printed on a Epson printer. When printing "Best" quality graphics on an Epson compactible printer, the horizontal print density will be higher than that of an Imagewriter ,so that the image will be compressed horizontally about 40%. When printing 24 pin graphics, the vertical density is less than that of an Imagewriter LQ,causing pages to be longer than they would normally be ,by about 20%. 10.3 Apple Laserwriter and other Postscipt Laser Printers A-Max does not support the Apple Talk local area network and thus cannot direct printing to the Laserwriter, however, it is possible to print to the laserwriter and other Postscript Laserprinters by creating a Postcscript text file and then dumping this file out the printer port with the supported "File Dump" program. Creating the Postscript File : Your system disc should have the "Laserwriter" and "Laser Prep: files on it and the Laserwriter should be selected with the Chooser desk accessory. When selecting the Laserwriter, you can ignore any "Can't open Apple Talk" messages. Proceed to print as you would normally, but immediately after clicking the "Print" button on the print dialog, press and hold command-k (AMIGA-k) until the message "creating Post- script file" is displayed. The file will be called "PostscriptX" where X is the next unused digit for each Postscript file on disc. Some Mac applications, such as Aldus' Pagemaker, have a menu option to create a Postscript file. Printing the Postscript File : Before sending the Postscript file to your printer, you must have set the A-Max preferences so that the modem port or ,more typically the printer port, is set to output to your printer (either parallel or serial) and that Imagewriter Emulation is set to "None". Now run a program called "File Dump" supplied in A-Max format on the "A-Max Utilities" disc. This program will allow you to select the out- put port (modem or printer),baud rate, parity,number of bits, and hand- shake method (forget them if you use the parallel port). When these parameters have been set, click on "Dump File", select the name of the file to be dumped and the file will be sent. Hold commando-"." (AMIGA .) if you wish to stop the dump before it's complete. Once the file has been sent you will be returned to the first parameter selection screen. Repeat the process with another file or click on "Quit" to exit. If you are using a Laserprinter, connect it to the Amiga's serial port ,set the Laserwriter to 1200 or 9600 baud rather than AppleTalk mode, and set the Baud Rate on "File Dump"to agree with your baud selection on Laserwriter. The Laserwriter operates in hardware handshaking mode all the time. A non-Apple postscript printer should be set to "inter- active" rather than "batch" mode and connected to the Amiga's serial or parallel ports with Filedump's output port set appropriately. 10.4 Other Printers There are several third party suppliers of printer drivers to allow the Mac to use other types of printers. The best known are the Softstyle printer drivers which are available for dot matrix, daisy wheels, HP LaserJets and others. 10.5 Serial Printer Cables: Any serial cable used for printer connection (eg. for an Apple ImageWriter) should have the hardware handshaking line CTS connected on the Amiga side. Examples: Amiga DB-25 ImageWriter I DB-25 male Pin 2 (TxD) ----- Pin 3 (RD) Pin 3 (RxD) ----- Pin 2 (SD) Pin 7 (GND) ----- Pin 7 (GND) Pin 5 (CTS) ----- Pin 20 (DTR) Amiga DB-25 ImageWriter II Mini DIN-8 male Pin 2 (TxD) ----- Pin 5 (RxD-) Pin 3 (RxD) ----- Pin 3 (TxD-) Pin 7 (GND) ----- Pin 4 (GND) Pin 5 (CTS) ----- Pin 1 (DTR) Amiga DB-25 LaserWriter DB-25 male Pin 2 (TxD) ----- Pin 3 (RD) Pin 3 (RxD) ----- Pin 2 (SD) Pin 7 (GND) ----- Pin 7 (GND) Pin 5 (CTS) ----- Pin 20 (DTR) The LaserWriter cable applies to most other serial printers. 11. HARDWARE MODIFICATIONS FOR THE A500/A2000 As an option for extremely advanced users (or hardware freaks like Prime Evil ), the information given here allow 1MB A500 owners with Rev. 4 and above motherboards and A2000B owners to make jumper changes to their motheboard that will improve their memory configuration so that it is more compatible with A-Max. By taking this changes, the second 512k of expansion memory can be made continuous with the first 512k block memory, creating a single 1MB block that is nearly identical to the Mac SE and SE memory map. The jumper change is the same as needed when the Extended Chip Set is installed (so if you already ECS them or only the New Agnus skip this section). The only disadvantage to making this change without installing ECS is that Amigados will incorrectly assume that you have 1MB of chip Ram in your machine, and attempt to use the memory as such. To stop this from happening you must insert a command into the startup-sequence of your Amiga's boot disc(s) that corrects the type of the 512k expansion Ram. (or just use some switches ,so that you are able to change the address of your expansion ram.) The command to do so is called "killchip", and it can be found in the C: directory of the "A-Max program disc". This command should be executed as first command in the startup-sequence of all of your boot discs. A program called "CheckShipSet" is supplied in the A-Max directory that once run, will tell you if you have the old or the new Agnus version.If you have the new Agnus with 1MB Chip mem ,you forget all about this chapter. A2000 B : J101 : move jumper from 1-2 to 2-3 J500 : open (this is normally soldered closed) A500 : (revision 4 or higher) Note : You must have the A501 memory expansion or compactible for this change to work. Locate the CPU and the Rom beside it. Between these two chips are three jumper pads called JP2. Looking closely will reveal that the bottom and center pads are connected and the top is not. You must reverse the order by making one cut with an Exacto knife to open the bottom from the center and the solder the top to the center with a small dab of solder. Next locate the memory expansion connector marked CNX which runs vertically near the front right of the motherboard. Towards the end of the connector that is furthest away from the front of the computer there are a number of traces on the board that run parallel to the connector. The one you must find is the third trace from the connector (be careful when counting because there may be traces that are obscured by white silk-screening). This trace runs to a pad approximately one inch down from the end of the CNX connector (There are a group of pad at this point, the one you want is the closeston to the connector). Use an Exacto knife to cut this trace at any point within this area that its run parallel to the connector. 12. COMPATIBILITY As A-Max is an emulator and not a Macintos, there will be some pieces of Mac software that will not run under A-Max. Almost all Mac software that goes though the Macintosh OS (such as most productivity software) will run with A-Max. Compatibility problems arise when software talks directly to the hardware, bypassing the OS. This is most evident in MIDI software, copy- protected software, games and programs designed to use Mac hardware add- ones. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done to allow these types of programs to run with A-Max. When A-Max is running, it takes full control of the Amiga, getting rid of the Amiga OS. Without Amigados running, A-max cannot access Amiga Hard drives which means the Mac software running under A-Max cannot use Hard drives. HyperCard: This version of A-Max is compatible with HyperCard on the A1000 and A500. 13. HARDWARE PROBLEMS: (you want have this problems with our version, because you need no Roms for it!!!) Problems with the A-Max cartridge reading ROMs, and using the Macintosh disk drive can be the result of defective CIA chips in your Amiga. It is possible that Amiga 3.5' drives continue to function even when these chips are bad, which can be caused by connecting or discon- necting any device to the external disk drive port of the Amiga with the power on. If you are having problems with your A-Max system it is often useful to test the cartridge on another Amiga if you have access to one.