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ReadySoft, Incorporated A-MAX II Version 2.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------- A-Max II and A-Max II Plus The Macintosh (R) emulator for your Amiga (R) User's Guide for Version 2.5 - 1 - Copyright The A-Max II program, utilities, User's Guide manual, A-Max II Plus card and A-Max II cartridge are copyright (C) 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 Simon Douglas and ReadySoft Incorporated, All Rights Reserved. ReadySoft Incorporated grants the purchaser the right to make a backup copy of the A-Max II disks for his/her archival purposes only. Use of Software Licensed to Others You acknowledge that the use of A-Max II requires the use of software which is the property of others, including Apple Computer, Incorporated. The use of A-Max II will require you to procure the right to use such software from Apple Computer, Incorporated ancvor other authorized parties. Your failure to lawfully procure the right to use such software may be a violation of law, including the copyright laws. ReadySoft Incorporated makes no representations concerning the availability or cost of obtaining such rights. Disclaimer Although ReadySoft Incorporated believes this program performs the functions described in this guide, the program is provided as is without performance warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and of fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of this program is with you. ReadySoft Incorporated isn't responsible for any damage to your computer resulting from the installation, use, or misuse, of the A-Max II system (card or cadridge). ReadySoft Incorporated does not guarantee that A-Max II will run all Macintosh programs, or run them at full speed. Limited Warranty ReadySoft Incorporated warrants the magnetic media, Plus card and cartridge from manufacturing defects for a period of 90 days from the date of purchase. Should either fail in the course of normal use within this 90 day period, ReadySoft Incorporated will replace the disk(s) and/or card or cartridge. It is the responsibility of the purchaser to bear the cost of shipping these items to ReadySoft Incorporated and to provide proof of purchase verifying the purchase is within the 90 day warranty period. Items Beyond warranty If the disks, card or cartridge fail beyond the warranty period, there will be a fee to recopy disks or replace the hardware. When sending goods back to ReadySoft for repair from outside Canada, please mark the outside of the package "Defective Canadian goods being returned for repair." Radio and Television Interference This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are - i - designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment oft and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures: * Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna * Increase the separation between the equipment and the receiver * Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different than that to which the receiver is connected * Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help. WARNING Only equipment with shield-grounded cables (computer input-output devices, terminals, printers, etc.), certified to comply with appropriate FCC limits can be attached to this device. Operation with non-certified equipment may result in communications interference. Changes or modifications to this device not expressly approved by ReadySoft Incorporated could void the user's authority to operate the device. Apple, and the Apple logo, AppleTalk, LocalTalk, TokenTalk, EtherTalk, AppleShare, ImageWriter, LaserWriter, Mac, Macintosh, and MacTerminal are registered trademarks and Finder, MultiFinder, Switcher, SuperDrive are trademarks of Apple Computer, Incorporated. Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Incorporated. Atari and ST are registered trademarks of Atari US, Corp. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Incorporated. Epson is a registered trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation. Magic Sac is a trademark of Data Pacific, Incorporated. SyQuest is a trademark of SyQuest Incorporated. Silverlining is a trademark of La Cie Ltd. Art Department Professional is a trademark of ASDG, Incorporated. Spectre is a trademark of Gadgets by Small. SoftPC is a registered trademark of Insignia Solutions, Incorporated. A-Max II is a trademark of ReadySoft, Incorporated. This manual was created using Microsoft Word and Ready,Set,Go! by Letraset running under A-Max II Plus and System 7 on Commodore Amiga computers. A-Max II Software and Design by Simon Douglas. Cartridge Design by Don Holtz and David Foster. Plus Card Design by Ralph and Gunther Doewich, CyberCube Research Ltd. User's Guide by Gary Gehman and Simon Douglas. A-Max II Version 2.5 - ii - Table of Contents 1.0 INTRODUCTION 5 1.1 About this Manual 5 1.2 A-Max II and A-Max II Plus 7 1.3 New Features of the A-Max 2.5 Software 7 1.4 What's Included 8 1.5 What's Not Included 9 2.0 INSTALLING A-Max II 10 2.1 Backing up your Disks 10 2.2 About the Mac ROMs 10 2.3 lnstalling the A-Max II Cartridge 11 2.3.1 lnstalling the ROMs in the Cartridge 11 2.3.2 Adding an Apple 800k Drive 12 2.3.3 Installing the Cartridge 12 2.4 Installing the A-Max II Plus Card 14 2.4.1 Installing the ROMs in the Plus Card 14 2.4.2 Installing the Plus Card 15 2.5 Installing the A-Max 2.5 Software 15 3.0 PREPARING SOFTWARE 17 3.1 Disk Drives and Formats 17 3.2 Macintosh and A-Max II Formats 17 3.3 Preparing your First System Disk 18 3.4 Macintosh Disk Transfer Software 19 3.4.1 Using Mini Transfer Disks 19 4.0 A-Max II STARTUP 22 4.1 Startup Program 22 4.2 The Macintosh Boot Screen 22 - 2 - 5.0 STARTUP PREFERENCES 24 5.0.1 Save & Start A-Max 24 5.1 Video Preferences 24 5.1.1 Video Modes 25 5.1.2 Visible Size 25 5.1.3 Display Size 26 5.1.4 Screen Positioning 26 5.1.5 Colors 27 5.2 Memory Preferences 27 5.2.1 MMU Mode Memory Use Options 28 5.2.2 Non-MMU Mode Memory Use Options 28 5.2.3 Memory Sizes 29 5.2.4 Use KickStart 29 5.3 Serial / Parallel Preferences 30 5.3.1 Port Input / Output Options 30 5.3.2 lmageWriter Emulation Options 31 5.4 Hard Disk / SCSI Preferences 32 5.5 General Preferences 32 5.5.1 Save Parameter RAM to Boot Disk 32 5.5.2 Boot from RAM Disk and Mount RAM Disk 32 5.5.3 High Density Floppies 32 6.0 A-Max II OPERATION 33 6.1 Keyboard Differences 33 6.2 Disk Eject 34 6.3 Finder Shutdown 35 6.4 Mouse buttons 36 6.5 Formatting Disks 36 6.6 Sound 36 6.7 The A-Max II RAM Disk 36 6.8 Real Time clock 37 7.0 USING HARD DRIVES 38 7.1 Partitioning an AmigaDOS Hard Drive 38 7.2 A-Max II Hard Drive Partition Preferences 40 7.3 Initializing the A-Max II Partitions 41 7.4 Making A-Max II Partitions Bootable 42 7.5 A-Max II Partitions under AmigaDOS 42 7.6 Using Mac SCSI Devices without A-Max II Partitions 42 7.7 Startup Sequence 44 - 3 - 8.0 SOFTWARE COMPATIBILITY 45 8.1 System Disks 45 8.2 Compatibility with Mac Applications 45 8.3 What to do if an Application Won't Run 46 9.0 SOFTWARE TRANSFER METHODS 47 9.1 Full Disk Transfer 47 9.2 Serial File Transfer 48 9.2.1 Serial Transfer (null modem) 48 9.2.2 Serial Transfer (modem) 49 10.0 FILE TRANSFER UTILITIES 50 10.1 File Transfer 2.5 Software 50 10.2 File Conversion Options 52 10.3 Advanced Options 52 10.3.1 Fork Selection 52 10.3.2 File Type and File Creator 53 10.4 Transferring the File 53 10.4.1 Copying AmigaDOS to A-Max II 53 10.4.2 Copying A-Max II to AmigaDOS 53 11.0 PRINTERS 54 11.1 Apple lmageWriter 54 11.2 Epson Compatible 9 & 24 pin Dot Matrix 54 11.3 Apple LaserWriter and other PostScript Printers 55 11.3.1 Creating the PostScript File 55 11.3.2 Printing the PostScript File 56 11.4 Other Printers 56 12.0 PLUS CARD SPECIFIC FEATURES 57 12.1 AppleTalk 57 12.2 MIDI Support 57 13.0 GLOSSARY 59 - 4 - Section 1 INTRODUCTION A-Max II is a hardware and software system that allows Macintosh software to run on any Amiga model. It will do so making use of your Amiga's resources such as RAM, hard and floppy drives, serial and parallel ports, mouse and keyboard. Because A-Max II runs original, unaltered Macintosh applications directly on your Amiga, you will find that most software runs as fast or faster on your Amiga as on a similarly equipped Macintosh. An Amiga system with A-Max II lets you run all the Amiga's software as well as giving you access to most of the productivity software that has made the Macintosh a success. Although A-Max II supports only 128K Mac Plus ROMS, there are several extensions made to the capabilities of these ROMs including supporting faster processors such as the Amiga 3000's Motorola 68030, Memory Management Unit and floating point coprocessor, large RAM sizes, large screen sizes and virtual screens larger than your physical display with smooth panning. To accomplish its task A-Max II shuts down the normal AmigaDOS operating system. Therefore, it is not possible to multitask Amiga programs with Macintosh applications. After using A-Max II, it will be necessary to reboot your computer to resume AmigaDOS operation. 1.1 About this Manual This manual will tell you how to use the A-Max II system and point out the differences between an Amiga with A-Max II and a Macintosh. This manual attempts to document the installation and operation of A-Max II and ReadySoft products only. It is assumed that you are already familiar with the Macintosh system and know how to use the Mac applications you want to run. You should read this User's Guide in its entirety before attempting to use A-Max II. The manual has been constructed according to the following general outline: * Introduction The section you are now reading; * Installing A-Max II Describes setting up the hardware elements of A-Max II; installing the Apple ROMs and the A-Max II Plus card or A-Max II cartridge and optional Apple Drive; - 5 - * Preparing Software Describes the different disk formats A-Max II can handle and how to get Macintosh system software into a form that is usable by your system; * A-Max II Startup Describes how to get A-Max II up and running and the various configuration options that are available; * A-Max II Operation Descusses the various differences between a true Macintosh and an Amiga functioning as one under A-Max II; * Using A-Max II with Hard Drives Describes how to set up Amiga hard drive partitions for use as A-Max II Macintosh storage devices. Also, how to access external SCSI devices through the Amiga controller; * Software Compatibility Presents information relating to different versions of the Macintosh system software and describes the sorts of third-party programs that will not work under A-Max II; * File Transfer Utilities Describes the tools provided for moving data across the several disk formats; * Printers Explains how to use your Epson compatible or other printer with A-Max II and how to print PostScript files to a LaserWriter or compatible laser printer; * Plus Card Specific Features Discusses the additional features of the A-Max II Plus system; * Glossary Contains an alphabetized list of terms used in this manual. - 6 - 1.2 A-Max II and A-Max II Plus A-Max II is available in two configurations: * The base A-Max II system which consists of the A-Max 2.5 Software and an external cartridge which will plug into any Amiga's floppy disk drive port. The cartridge has two sockets inside for ROM chips and provides externally a connector to which an Apple 800K floppy disk drive may be connected, and a pass-through connector for Amiga external floppy drives. The Apple drive is required to read and write Mac format disks. The A-Max II Plus system which consists of the A-Max 2.5 Software and an internal expansion card for the A2000 or higher. The card has two sockets for ROM chips and connects inside your Amiga to the floppy disk drive chain, enabling you to read and write Mac format disks with your standard Amiga drives - no Apple drive is required. The Plus card also provides two serial ports that are pin compatible with those found on a real Mac. The serial ports can be configured as RS422 serial, LocalTalk, or MIDI. The MIDI option is a feature unique to the Plus card that enables direct connection to MIDI standard digital musical instruments, without any need for an external interface box such as the Mac or Amiga normally require. 1.3 New Features of the A-Max 2.5 Software If you are upgrading from A-Max II Version 2.0 to Version 2.5, you should read this manual to find information on the following new features: * The Startup Preferences displays and capabilities have been considerably revised. The Memory Preferences options have changed and there are completely new Hard Disk / SCSI Preferences displays and other General Preferences options; * Commodore's 1.76 Mb high density floppy drive is supported to read, write and format 1.44 Mb disks compatible with the Apple SuperDrive * Support for virtual scrolling displays up to 2048 x 2048 pixels has been added; * Apple System versions up to System 7.0 have been made compatible; * File transfers direct to Fast Filing System formatted AmigaDOS hard drive partitions are supported; - 7 - * The Apple Extended keyboard is now emulated rather than the old Mac Plus keyboard. This makes the function keys, Esc key and IBM equivalent keys (with applications like SoftPC (R) ) active; * The Apple SuperDrive is emulated to support MS-DOS disks with the Apple File Exchange file transfer program, and other applications such as SoftPC, the IBM emulation package; The Macintosh battery backed-up parameter RAM is simulated by saving this information on the boot disk; & You can autorun the A-Max II startup program with an auto keyword from the CLI. 1.4 What's Included Your A-Max II package should contain: * The A-Max II Plus expansion card or the A-Max II cartridge; * One disk labelled A-Max Program; * One disk labelled A-Max Utilities; * This manual; * An A-Max if registration card. It is very important that you complete and send the registration card back to us. As well as giving you a 90 day warranty, this card is the only way we can inform you of product upgrades and other information regarding A-Max II. Complete and send in your card now. The A-Max Program disk contains a file called ReadMe that includes information that was unavailable at the time this manual went to print. After reading the manual, you should read this file for any updates and corrections. - 8 - 1.5 What's Not Included In order to use A-Max II, you must supply: * Apple 128K ROMs. These come as a set of two 28-pin chips from an original Mac 512Ke or a Mac Plus. No other ROMs are compatible with A-Max II Version 2.5; * Macintosh System disk in either A-Max or Macintosh format (see Section 3.0 for information on what you will need in the way of Apple system software). If the disk is in Macintosh format and you aren't using the A-Max II Plus card, or don't have an Apple disk drive, you will need to transfer the information using one of the methods described in section 3.5 before you can make use of it; * The Mac applications and data you want to run, again, in A-Max or Macintosh format. You may also want: * An Apple 800k external disk drive, if you are using the A-Max II cartridge. This will enable you to use Macintosh format disks directly under A-Max II without having to first transfer them to A-Max format. It also allows you to format and write Macintosh readable disks so you can transfer data back to the Macintosh; - An A-Max II Plus MIDI connector cable, if you have the Plus card and would like to make use of its built-in MIDI features. The cable connects to one of the card's mini DIN-8 sockets and provides standard MIDI DIN-5 IN and OUT sockets. You won't need this cable to use a standard Mac external MIDI interface with A-Max II Plus. Mac MIDI interfaces may be connected to the Plus card with a standard DIN-8 cable, exactly as you would to a real Macintosh. - 9 - Section 2 INSTALLING A-MAX II WARNING Unplug your Amiga before installing the A-Max II cartridge or Plus card. Installing the card or cartridge with the power on could cause injury to the installer and damage to the equipment. ReadySoft will not be responsible for any damages caused by improper installation of the card or cartridge. Such improper installation may void the warranties on both the A-Max II hardware and your Amiga. 2.1 Backing up your Disks The first thing you should do is make a backup copy of the A-Max Program Disk. This disk is not copy-protected so it can be backed up with the Amiga Workbench Duplicate menu command, the CLI Diakcopy command, or any Amiga disk backup utility. The A-Max Utilities disk is not copy-protected. However it is in a special format that has two partitions - one is read by a Macintosh when the disk is inserted in an Apple drive or by A-Max II Plus, and the other by the A-Max II cartridge system when inserted in an Amiga drive. The contents of each partition are identical; the disk is formatted in this manner so it may hold programs for two machines at once. You should backup either half of the Utilities disk once you get A-Max II up and running with a System disk, or with your real Macintosh. Backup the disk by dragging the files to another disk or folder - don't try a full-disk copy. ReadySoft supplies A-Max II without copy-protection for your convenience so please don't lend, give or otherwise distribute this program to anyone. Remember that software piracy discourages development of new products and, in particular, upgrades to A-Max II. 2.2 About the Mac ROMs There have been several revisions of both Macintosh 128K ROMs but all revisions will work equally well with A-Max II. The Macintosh ROMs are Apple part numbers 342-0341-x and 342-0342-x where 'x' is a revision letter A,B,C. Often the set of two chips will have different revision letters, but always keep the two as a set - the letters need not match. - 10 - WARNING If you are removing the ROMs from a Macintosh, be extremely careful not to come into contact with the wires connecting the display tube to the video board. These may contain a deadly high-voltage charge even if the computer is unplugged. Apple ROM chips, like all electronic devices, are extremely sensitive to static electrical discharge. Improper handling of the chips could damage them. Be sure to ground yourself by touching a metal surface or using a static protection wrist strap (available from Radio. Shack) before handling the ROM chips. 2.3 Installing the A-Max II Cartridge This section covers installation of the A-Max II cartridge system, including the optional Apple external floppy drive. 2.3.1 Installing the ROMs in the Cartridge The two Mac ROM chips must be inserted into the empty sockets on the AMax II cartridge. To do this you must first carefully unscrew and remove the top cover of the A-Max II case. When the case is open, you will see a circuit board with several small chips and two large 28 pin IC sockets. Insert a ROM chip into each socket (either chip in either socket - the order doesn't matter) [IMAGE - A-MAX II CART / ROM PLACEMENT] Placement of Macintosh ROM Chips on the A-Max II board. - 11 - with the U-shaped notch of each chip pointing in the same direction as all the other smaller chips on the board. Ensure that the two rows of pins on each chip are not crooked or broken. To insert the chip, start with one row of pins resting lightly in their sockets, then align the second row. Finally, push the whole chip firmly into place. 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 (C) ReadySoft' text is the right way up and check that the notches of all the chips point up and that no pins are bent or broken. Then, replace the cover of the case. 2.3.2 Adding an Apple 800K Drive Although the A-Max II cartridge system is functional without one, the addition of an Apple drive produces the optimum configuration for emulating the Macintosh on an Amiga. If you have an Apple 800K external disk drive, you can use it with A-Max II to directly read, write and format Macintosh format disks. You can also move programs and files effortlessly from A-Max II to Mac format disks and back. With the Amiga's power off, plug the connector of the Apple drive into the 19 pin socket on the side of the A-Max II cartridge. Once installed, you can leave the Apple drive plugged in at all times. It will not affect the Amiga while running under AmigaDOS. We cannot guarantee that all third party Mac compatible drives will function with A-Max II. It has been our experience that Apple manufactured drives work better than third party drives. Note, however, that the older, single-sided (400K) Apple drives and the high density SuperDrive will not work with A-Max II. If connected, they will simply be ignored. 2.3.3 Installing Om A-Max II Cartridge With the ROMs in place, you are almost ready to connect the cartridge to your Amiga. Included with the A-Max II cartridge are two sets of plastic legs. You may need to use one or the other pair, depending on which model of Amiga you own. It you have an A500 the cartridge will sit at the same level as the computer and will not require legs. If you have an A1000, insert the longer set of legs into the holes in the bottom of the cartridge case. If you have an A2000 (or are plugging the cartridge into the back of an Amiga external disk drive), insert the shorter set of legs into the holes. - 12 - WARNING Always turn off the Amiga before connecting or disconnecting the A-Max II cartridge, or plugging in an Apple or Amiga drive. Failure to do so could damage your equipment. [ Image - Cart + Legs ] Plastic legs are supplied to support the A-Max II cartridge. The cartridge can either be plugged into the back of the last external Amiga drive or into the external disk drive port on the back of your Amiga itself. Although it is probably more convenient to have the cartridge plugged into the back of an external drive, some disk drives will not allow this as they do not pass power through to their rear connector. If the A-Max II software does not recognize the cartridge when it is plugged into the back of an Amiga drive, you will have to plug the cartridge directly into the Amiga's disk drive port and plug the external drive into the A-Max II cariridge's pass through connector. Once the cartridge is plugged in, it may be left connected. It will not interfere with the normal operation of the Amiga. The cartridge will not become active until you run the A-Max II Startup program. Remember that the Amiga can only handle a maximum of four disk drives and with the A-Max II cartridge installed you can have up to three Amiga drives and one Apple drive. Also, any Amiga drive connected through the A-Max II cartridge will become one drive number higher than it was when directly connected to the Amiga, for example DF1: will become DF2: when attached to the A-Max II cartridge's pass-through connector). - 13 - An A-Max II Extender cable is available from ReadySoft for $24.95 plus $4.00 shipping and handling. This cable allows you to place your A-Max II cartridge in a more convenient position, away from the back of your Amiga. 2.4 Installing A-Max II Plus This section covers installation of the A-Max II Plus system. [Image - PlusCard] Component Locations on the Plus Board 2.4.1 Installing the ROMS In the Plus Card The two Mac ROM chips must be inserted into the empty 28 pin IC sockets on the A-Max II card, labelled LOW ROM (IC3) and HIGH ROM (IC4.) Insert a ROM chip into each socket (either chip in either socket - the order doesn't matter) with the U-shaped notch of each chip matching the notches in the sockets. Ensure that the two rows of pins on each chip are not crooked or broken. To insert the chip, start with one row of pins resting lightly in their sockets, then align the second row. Finally, push the whole chip firmly into place. 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 II Plus Copyright (c)1992 ReadySoft Incorporated" text is the right way up and check that the notches of the ROM chips point up and that no pins are bent or broken. You are now ready to install the card in your machine. -14 - 2.4.2 Installing the A-Max II Plus Card Remove your Amiga's cover as described in the manual accompanying your machine. The Plus card will install in any free 100-pin Zorro slot in your machine, but for convenience in connecting the floppy drive connector it is recommended that you use the slot closest to the power supply and floppy drives in the A2000, and the top-most slot in the A3000. Decide on which slot you wish to use and plug the Plus card in as described in your Amiga's manual. In order to read Mac format disks in your Amiga drives, you need to connect the Plus card's 34-pin floppy connector into the drive chain. Disconnect the 34-pin ribbon cable that presently connects the Amiga motherboard to the internal floppy drives from the motherboard connector and attach it to the identical connector labelled TO AMIGA FLOPPY (CN5) on the Plus card. Next, take the supplied 34-pin extra ribbon cable and use it to connect the Plus card connector labelled TO AMIGA MOTHERBOARD (CN6) to the now empty Amiga motherboard connector. Check the orientation of all cables - the colored stripe on each cable marks pin 1 and this should match the labelled pin 1 on each connector. If you wish to make use of MIDI software with A-Max II, plug the optional MIDI cable into the mini DIN-8 serial socket labelled MODEM / MIDI and flick the Plus card's MIDI control switch to the position labelled MIDI. Otherwise, make sure the switch is in the position labelled STD. 2.5 Installing the A-Max 2.5 Software The AmigaDOS format A-Max II Startup program and associated utilities can be installed on your hard drive. Starting up from a hard disk is a much quicker process than from floppy disks. The A-Max Program disk is not copy protected and includes an automatic hard disk installation program called AMax II Install. Simply click on the A-Max II Install icon and the necessary AMax II files will be copied to the current system boot partition of your hard drive. You may choose to manually copy the files over to your hard disk; nearly every thing is contained within the A-Max II drawer on the program disk. However, you should be sure to read the rest of this manual carefully - particularty the sections about using A-Max II with partitions on your hard disk - to make sure you copy all of the necessary files. The DEVS: directory of the disk contains hard drive controller device drivers that A-Max II needs to operate with hard drives. - 15 - Note (to Amiga 1000 owners) If you wish to use your Kickstart RAM with A-Max II (see section 5.2.4), you must boot from an exact copy of your original A-Max Program disk. This disk has a non-standard boot block that enables A-Max II to take over the Kickstart RAM. If the boot block is rewritten or destroyed, you will not be able to access this Kickstart RAM, even though all other aspects of the A-Max if program work correctly. It is advisable, therefore, to keep your disk write-protected at all times to avoid viruses which often attack the boot sectors of floppy disks. If your boot block becomes corrupted, you can use the FixBootBlock command on the A-Max Program disk to rewrite the correct boot block. - 16 - Section 3 PREPARING SOFTWARE With the Macintosh ROMs installed and the A-Max II hardware installed in your Amiga, you will be ready to mount the necessary software that makes your machine Macintosh compatible. Before discussing the methods for accomplishing this, however, we must cover the differences between Amiga, A-Max II, and Macintosh disk formats. 3.1 Disk Drives and Formats The Amiga's floppy disk drives record data at a constant speed while the read/ write heads move in and out across the disk, writing or reading information. The floppy disk drives used in a Macintosh are able to vary the speed with which data is placed on the disk while reading and writing. This does not gain the Macintosh any advantage in capacity over other disk drives. It does make emulating the Macintosh on other machines considerably more difficult. All computers that use disk drives of one type or another also use their own logical methods for recording the information stored on them. These methods are called file formats and most computers use their own format. You should already be familiar with the 3.5' floppy disk drive(s) in your Amiga and the AmigaDOS file format that the Amiga uses. As mentioned, the Macintosh has its own unique disk drives and it also has its own format for encoding information on the drive. The AmigaDOS and Macintosh file formats are not directly compatible. ReadySoft has devised a way of using the Amiga's single-speed disk drives to read and write Macintosh formatted files. This method involves the use of a special A-Max II disk format. The following discussion will provide details about these different formats. 3.2 Macintosh and A-Max II Formats The Macintosh disk format, as mentioned, is Apple's unique way of encoding their program information onto the disks in Macintosh's variable-speed drives. If you want to directly read or write Macintosh format floppy disks, you must attach an Apple compatible 800K disk drive to the A-Max II cartridge's 19 pin drive port. When your Amiga is running A-Max II Macintosh emulation, however, all of your normally Amiga floppy drives will be able to create disks with the special - 17 - A-Max II format. This special format can receive Macintosh format files. A-Max II format disks will not be readable in either a Macintosh floppy drive or an Amiga drive under AmigaDOS operation, though, so be sure to keep your floppies separately stored or labelled to avoid confusion. The A-Max Utilities disk included with your A-Max II package is an exception to this rule. This disk has been specially constructed to contain an A-Max format partition and a Macintosh readable partition. This Utilities disk provides the tools to create your first A-Max II System disk. 3.3 Your First System Disk This section applies only to users of the A-Max II cartridge system without an Apple 800K floppy drive connected to their cartridge. A-Max II Plus and Apple drive owners can skip to section 4. It is key, here, to realize that before you can make A-Max II work for you, you must get the vital Macintosh System and Finder files into some format that is readable by A-Max II. We strongly recommend purchasing, or at least borrowing, an Apple compatible disk drive for this purpose. A-Max II will boot into Macintosh emulation simply by placing a disk containing System and Finder files (hereafter referred to as a System Disk) into the Macintosh drive. You can read and write Mac format disks directly in your Mac drive, and transferring software to A-Max II format disks is simply a matter of dragging files from the Mac disk icon to a blank disk in an Amiga drive. This method is the simplest, most complete Macintosh emulation possible with the A-Max II cartridge system. The next simplest approach is to find someone else who uses A-Max II and who will allow you to make an A-Max II format System disk on their computer. Some A-Max II dealers have offered this service to their customers. Note In addition to reading A-Max II format disks, the Amiga drives are also capable of reading disks formatted by Spectre and Magic Sac. These are Macintosh emulation products for the Atari ST platform. If you have access to a System Disk in either Magic Sac or Spectre format, you can use these to boot A-Max II as well. In the absence of these two possibilities, ReadySoft has supplied, on the A-Max Utilities disk, a tool that will allow you to create an A-Max II readable System disk on a real Macintosh. This is the Disk Transfer program. - 18 - 3.4 Macintosh Disk Transfer Software The Disk Transfer software is a Mac program that allows you to transfer disks from Mac to A-Max II format without the need of an Apple external drive for your Amiga, however, you will need access to a real Macintosh in order to produce the transfer disks. These disks have a double sided capacity of only 272K. If you must use the Disk Transfer program to prepare your first System disk, you will need access to the System 4.1 revision of Macintosh software. This is because both System and Finder files must be present on the disk to boot A-Max II into Macintosh emulation. Later versions of these two files (e.g. System 6) are too large - even when stripped of fonts and desk accessories - to fit onto a 272k disk. The older System 4.1 can be stripped down and transferred onto a 272K Mini Transfer Disk (see procedure below). Once you have this disk prepared and are able to boot A-Max II into Macintosh emulation, you will be able to format 800K A-Max II disks and can install more recent versions of the System and Finder files. 3.4.1 Using Mini Transfer Disks You will need a Macintosh with at least one 8OOK floppy drive, the A-Max Utilities disk, a copy of Macintosh System 4.1 or 4.2, and a blank 3.5' floppy disk. * On a Macintosh, execute the Disk Transfer program on the A-Max Utilities disk. Click the Make Mini Transfer Disk button and then insert a blank disk in the destination drive when requested. [Image: A-Max Transfer prmpt) -19- Page 20: The disk will be formatted and initialized to 272K and when formatting is complete will be ejected. Once a Mini Transfer Disk (MTD) has been formatted, you can reuse it for subsequent transfers without reformatting. Now, Quit from the Disk Transfer program and return to the Desktop. Re-insert the formatted MTD. It will appear as a normal disk icon, but will show only a 272K capacity. Copy the files you wish to transfer onto it. Note In the case of System files, it may be necessary, first, to remove most of the fonts and desk accessories using the Mac's Font/DA Mover utility. Run the Disk Transfer program again. Click on the PrePare Mini Transfer Disk button. Insert the MTD in the destination drive as requested and click Ok. The Prepare Mini Transfer Disk command moves the MTD's contents to a different area on the same disk that is readable with Amiga drives. -20- The Mini Transfer Disk can now be used simply by inserting it in an Amiga drive when A-Max II requests it. The disk will appear as an ordinary disk, but with a capacity of 272k. While A-Max II is incapable of writing to these disks, it is possible to format other disks and copy files from the MTD to them. With a MTD containing Mac System and Finder files, you can now switch on your Amiga and execute the A-Max ii Startup program. -21- Section 4 A-MAX II STARTUP This Section describes how to startup and boot A-Max II with a Mac system disk. 4.1 Stertup Program Power up your Amiga in your usual fashion. Insert the A-Max Program disk and click twice on its icon to open. Inside a drawer marked A-Max II, you will find the A-Max II Startup icon. Click twice to launch the program. A-Max II Startup and other associated files are all grouped together inside the A-Max II drawer to facilitate hard disk installation. If you have not already done so, but would like to, you can copy these files simply by dragging the whole A-Max II drawer into your hard disk icon (see Section 2.5 -Installing the A-Max 2.5 Software). If you are running the A-Max II Startup program from the CLI rather than Workbench, you may add the option auto to the command to start the card or cartridge without any user action, for example: run A-Max II Startup auto If you don't select the autorun option, A-Max II will present you with the preferences screen before running. Clicking on the Start A-Max II button will start the card or cartridge. The preferences options are discussed in Section 5. For now, the default configuration will most likely suffice. 4.2 The Macintosh Boot Screen A few seconds after after the ROMs have been installed, the screen will flash through several colours - black, green then blue. Finally, a Mac screen will appear with a picture of a disk with a flashing question mark, and a copyright message at the top. This is the Mac asking you to insert a System disk. The Mac can accept a System disk in any drive. * If you are using A-Max II Plus you can insert a Mac format System disk in any of your Amiga drives. * If you have an Apple drive connected to the A-Max II cartridge, you can sinply place a Mac format System disk in that drive. - 22 - * Otherwise, you should put an A-Max II, Magic Sac/Spectre. or Mini Transfer disk with a system on it in an Amiga drive. When you insert a disk in any drive, A-Max II will try to start from it. If the disk contains the necessary files, you will get a happy Mac icon and then the 'Welcome to Macintosh' window. If not, A-Max II will reject the disk and display a flashing "X,' indicating you should try another disk. It is possible that you might get a black screen and a sad Mac icon. This means a System Error occurred during the boot process. To reboot from a sad Mac display, click the right mouse button. Try a different System disk and, if the same symptom occurs, check your A-Max II preferences (particularly your memory configuration and size) and check your ROMs for damage. - 23 - Section 5 STARTUP PREFERENCES When A-Max II starts up it will begin by displaying a screen of configuration options. You can tailor A-Max II to your liking and then save these settings as automatic defaults. The various options are divided into five windows - Video, Memory, Hard Disk, SCSI, Serial/Parallel, and General. There is a large button for each for these windows on the main screen. 5.0.1 Save and Start A-Max The Save button will save your selected configuration to a file in the DEVS: directory so that the next time you run A-Max II the same options will automatically be selected. Clicking the Start A-Max button (or simply pressing the Return key) will start the A-Max II boot process. The Mac ROMs and A-Max II cartridge or Plus card will be checked. If all is well, you can click the OK button or press Return, and after a few seconds if A-Max II cannot start, you will get an error go stating the problem. If you get a cartridge or Plus card error, make sure the ROMs and card or cartridge are installed as outlined in sections 2.2 and 2.3. 5.1 Video Preferences This window controls how A-Max will display a Mac desktop of a size you select. The A-Max 2.5 Software allows a Mac screen with a size limited only by the amount of available CHIP RAM. You also control the physical attributes of the display you will be using here - its size, position and video mode (such interlaced and/or Productivity.) The Video Preferences window is similar to AmigaDOS 2.0's ScreenMode preferences program. -24- 5.1.1 Video Modes The following options are available under the Video Mode heading. They control the video output mode used to display the physical screen. * Hi-res * Hi-res Interlaced * Productivity * Productivity Interlaced * A2024 Hi-res and Hi-res Interlaced refer to standard Amiga display modes, available on all Amiga models. The Hi-res mode provides a base resolution of 640 x 200 (640 x 400 interlaced) with any monitor. Hi-res Interlaced is recommended as it has something close to a 1:1 aspect ratio, and is compatible with all of the available flicker fixers. The Productivity modes are only selectable if your machine has Commodore's Enhanced Chip Set installed. At present, the A3000 is the only machine that comes standard with these chips. The Productivity mode provides a base resolution of 640 x 400 (640 x 800 interlaced) with a MultiSync or VGA type monitor. The A2024 mode requires the very high resolution (1008 x 800) Commodore A2024 monitor (or Viking Monterm). The A2024 mode ignores the settings of Visible Size and Display Size. 5.1.2 Visible Size The following options are available under the Visible Size heading. They control the size of the physical screen to be displayed: * Workbench * 512 x 342 * 640 x 400 (NTSC) or 640 x 512 (PAL) * 672 x 460 The Workbench setting uses the size of the Workbench screen, as recorded in your AmigaDOS preferences file. If you are using Workbench version 2.0 you can set these dimensions directly, with Overscan preferences tool. If your Workbench version is 1.3 or earlier, you can use a program such as MoreRows to adjust the size of your Workbench screen. -25- The 512 x 342 option selects the size of the standard Macintosh Plus or Classic screen. This is the minimum size that can be used; anything smaller will be forced to this size. The third option is the standard Amiga Hi-res screen size (units equipped for European PAL video standards can display 640 x 512 pixels. The U.S. standard, NTSC, provides for 400 lines). The 672 x 460 setting is a common overscan screen size achievable in either Hi-res or Productivity, NTSC or PAL. 5.1.3 Display Size This option controls whether or not to use a Mac display size that is larger than your actual physical screen size. The CHIP Used display shows you how much CHIP RAM is being used for your current configuration. If Visible Size is selected then your display size will be the same as selected under the Visible Size heading, so the entire Mac desktop will be visible at once. If Virtual is seicted then the Width and Height numbers control the size of a virtual screen that is at least as large as the Visible Size. Only a portion of this virtual screen is visible at any one time, the rest displayed when the pointer moves beyond the edge of the visible screen - the screen fine scrolls to display a new portion of the virtual screen. This feature - similar to that in AmigaDOS 2.0 - is available in all video modes except A2024. 5.1.4 Screen Positioning For the Hi-res and Hi-res Interlaced video modes A-Max II centers the screen by referring to the AmigaDOS preferences file. Thus, if your normal Workbench display is centered, so will the A-Max II display. If you need to center the screen on your monitor while using either of the Productivity video modes, you can adjust the X and Y coordinates of the ECS screen center. Normally, you won't have to adjust these values as the defaults will work correct on most VGA or MultiSync monitors. -26- P27 is Missing... 5.1.5 Colors 5.2 Memory preferences... -27- ------------------------------ begin p28 In non-MMU mode A-Max II 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, of which some proportion is always allocated. If you are using expansion memory and check the memory size given in the About Finder or About this Macintosh window, you will see an incorrect value given for the amount of RAM the Mac thinks it has. Don't worry, this is normal. The A-Max 2.5 Software is compatible with MultiFinder and System 7 (which now runs "MultiFinder all the time as the standard "Finder.') MultiFinder is particularly useful with expansion memory in non-MMU mode because it controls the use of memory by applications in a manner that is compatible with A-Max II. So, running an application under MultiFinder may help for compatiblity with A-Max II. 5.2.1 MMU Mode Memory Use Options In MMU mode the use options are: * Use Only 32-bit RAM This option only makes use of any 32-bit RAM in the system. This will be fastest possible configuration, but all CHIP RAM, 16-bit expansion RAM, and other RAM will be used only for the RAM disk. * Use All RAM This option makes all your Amiga's RAM available for use by the Mac system. * Don't Use CHIP RAM This option makes use of all RAM except CHIP RAM, the slowest RAM in an Amiga. In all cases, the fastest available RAM will made use of where it is most needed. For example, even in the Use All RAM mode, the system code, stack, and globals will be placed in 32-bit RAM, as will the first loaded Mac applications, to maximize the speed of any particular configuration. 5.2.2 Non-MMU Mode Memory Use Options When not operating in MMU mode the use options are: * Use All Expansion RAM This option makes all Amiga RAM available as Mac system memory. -28- * Don't Use Slow RAM This option uses all RAM except that found above location $C00000. Because of the high location of such RAM, it tends to be the least conpatible of any Amiga RAM. * Use Only CHIP RAM This option only uses CHIP RAM as system RAM, however the A-Max II system code is still placed in expansion memory if available, for speed. This is the most compatible of the non-MMU modes, but limits you to the amount of CHIP RAM in your Amiga - typically 512 Kb or 1 Mb. 5.2.3 Memory Sizes There are four memory size displays: * System Memory This displays your currently selected Mac system memory size - the amount of RAM Mac applications and system code will run in. Clicking on this button will increase its size to the next possible size. * Max System Memory This displays the maximum selectable System Memory size for the selected memory use option. This is not necessarily the amount of RAM in your system as not all RAM may be addressable by the Mac system. * RAM Disk Memory This displays the amount of RAM currently allocated to the A-Max II RAM Disk. As you select more system memory, the RAM Disk will decrease in size. * CHIP Used This displays the amount of CHIP RAM being used by the currently selected video display size. 5.2.4 Use Kicketart The A1000 model Amiga allows the use of an additional 256K of RAM with A-Max II. This is the RAM where the disk-based Kickstart operating system normally resides. Making use of Kickstart RAM turns a 512K Amiga 1000 into a 768K Macintosh. The Use Kickstart RAM option allows Amiga 1000 owners to use their extra 256k of RAM with A-Max II to increase the amount of memory available during Mac emulation. The only disadvantage in using this memory is that you will have to reload Kickstart when you want to return to AmigaDOS. -29- Note: If you wish to use your Kickstart RAM with A-Max II you must boot from a verbatim copy of your original A-Max Program disk. This disk has a nonstandard boot block that enables A-Max II to take over the Kickstart RAM. It the boot block is rewritten or destroyed, you will not be able to access this Kickstart RAM, even though all other aspects of the A-Max II program work correctly. It is advisable, therefore, to keep your disk write-protected at ail times to avoid viruses which often attack the boot sectors of floppy disks. If your boot block becomes corrupted, you can use the FixBootBlock command on the A-Max Program disk to rewrite the correct boot block. 5.3 Serial / Parallel Preferences The standard Macintosh has two serial ports and no parallel port; one port is known as the Modem Port or Port A, and the other as the Printer Port or Port B. There are two options for each port to control how they are emulated. 5.3.1 Port Input / Output Options The first set of options, labelled Port A or Port B, determines where Mac IO for a particular port will be directed; for Port A the options are: * Plus Modem Data is directed through the Plus card's Modem port. Make sure the switch on the Plus card is set to STD. Not seleciable on A-Max II cartridge systems; requires the Plus card. * Plus MIDI Data is directed through the Plus card's Modem port, with the on-board MIDI drivers enabled. Make sure the switch on the Plus card is set to MIDI. This option is not selectable on A-Max II cartridge systems; it requires the Plus card. * Amiga Serial Data is directed through the standard Amiga serial port. Baud rates are restricted to between 110 and 19200 with Amiga serial. * Amiga Parallel Data is directed through the standard Amiga parallel port. Data is output only, there is no input from this device. Note that A-Max II cannot access any third-party parallel output ports, only the Amiga parallel port can be used. - 30 - And, similarly, for Port B the options are: * Plus Printer Data is directed through the Plus card's Printer port. This option is not selectable on A-Max II cartridge systems; it requires the Plus card. * Amiga Serial Data is directed through the standard Amiga serial port. Baud rates are restricted to between 110 and 19200 with Amiga serial. * Amiga Parallel Data is directed through the standard Amiga parallel port. Data is output only, there is no input from this device. Note that A-Max If cannot access any third-party parallel output ports, only the Amiga parallel port can be used. The usual choice for A-Max II cartridge systems is to have the Mac's Modem (Port A) data coming out of the Amiga's serial port, and the Mac's Printer (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 the Port B (Printer) output to the Amiga serial port. 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. 5.3.2 Imagewriter Emulation Options The second set of options controls what sort of printer emulation is active with each port's output: * None The port's output is passed through unchanged. This option is usually used with serial (e.g. telecommunications) output or with an Apple Imagewriter or LaserWriter printer connected to the Amiga. * IW-9 pin * IW-24 pin * LQ-24 pin The remaining options enable emulation of the Apple Imagewriter printer if you have an Epson compatible 9 or 24 pin dot matrix printer connected to your Amiga. (See section 11.1 for information on ImageWriter emulation and which option you should use.) - 31 - 5.4 Hard Disk / SCSI Preferences This window displays: * the name of the A-Max II hard disk driver to be used and its identification text; * the names of partitions that have been recognized for Mac use, and boot/mount options for each such partition; * the name of an AmigaDOS partition that can be used for file transfers to Mac partitions or disks; * an enable option for access to Mac SCSI devices. Using hard drives and SCSI devices with A-Max II is described in Section 7. File transfer between AmigaDOS and Mac file system disks is discussed in Section 10. 5.5 General Preferences 5.5.1 Save Parameter RAM to Boot Disk With this option set on, the A-Max 2.5 Software will simulate the Macintosh's 256 bytes of battery backed up parameter RAM that is used to store the various Control Panel settings by saving the contents of this RAM to your Mac System disk, as long as it is write-enabled. It is unlikely that you will ever need to disable this option except to stop A-Max II from saving this information to a disk that has a non-standard Mac boot blocks. If you need to override the settings saved on a particular disk, hold down the shift, Alt, and Amiga keys while rebooting A-Max II. The parameter RAM will be reset to its default settings. 5.5.2 Boot from RAM Disk and Mount RAM Disk These two options are discussed under Section 6.7, The A-Max II RAM Disk. 5.5.3 High Density Floppies If you have one of Commodore's new 1.76 Mb floppy drives enabling this option will allow you to read, write and format 1.44 Mb disks directly compatible with high density disks created with an Apple SuperDrive, which is found on all current Macintosh models. Leave this option off it you don't have a high density drive, or are not using 1.44 Mb disks; this will reduce A-Max II's CHIP memory requirements. If you insert a high density disk in a 1.76 Mb drive with this option off it will be just be immediately ejected. -32- Section 6 A-MAX II OPERATION This section details the differences between A-Max II and a standard Macintosh. 6.1 Keyboard Differences The A-Max 2.5 Software now emulates the Apple Extended Keyboard; previous versions emulated the Macintosh Plus keyboard. The Extended keyboard has fifteen function keys, cursor control pad, numeric pad, an Escape key, and six IBM equivalent keys such as Page Up, Home etc. NOTE Not all keys on the extended keyboard are supported by all applications, for example the Escape key is often an equivalent to clicking a Cancel button, but not always. This is the case for true Macintoshes also. There are several keys on the Extended keyboard that are not on the Amiga's; the key equivalents follow: Command (X) - right or left Amiga key Option - right or left Aft key For the IBM keys described below, note that in most cases the key equivalent is shift plus the Amiga key with the same IBM function: Home - shift - 7 on the numeric pad End - shift - 1 on the numeric pad Page Up - shift - 9 on the numeric pad Page Down - shift - 3 on the numeric pad Clear ( Num Lock) - shift - ( on the numeric pad F11 - shift - Del F12 - shift - Help F13 (Print Screen - shift - * on the numeric pad F14 (Scroll Lock) - shift - ) on the numeric pad F15 (Pause) - shift - / on the numeric pad Otherwise, each Macintosh key is represented on the Amiga keyboard. The Mac Key Caps desk accessory will allow you to verify the keyboard mapping. -33 - For programmers, the Macintosh interrupt switch can be simulated by typing shift-Escape on the Amiga keyboard. 6.2 Disk Eject Macintosh disk drives differ from most others, including the Amiga, in that they do not allow the user to eject disks upon demand. Instead, it requires you to ask, through software, that a disk be ejected. The reason for this is that the Mac system doesn't necessarily update directories or files immediately but, rather, waits until it must (i.e. it needs the memory or a disk swap is requested). [Image: Mac Screen / FDD box flashers] A-Max II 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 DFO:. If an Apple external drive is connected it is always numbered 2, so that Mac software that can only access drives 1 and 2 will be able to access the Mac floppy. Other connected drives are numbered sequentially up to drive 4. The Apple external 800K drive functions as it does normally on the Mac disks are automatically ejected by the drive (there is no screen prompt to eject disks from an Apple drive). NEVER just eject a disk manually under A-Max II. Remember to first click on an Elect button (or select an Eject menu option) and then pop the disk only when A-Max II had indicated that it is safe (look for the appropriate number in the upper right-hand corner of your screen). Failing to abide by this rule could result in corrupted or destroyed disks. -34- If you do eject a disk from an Amiga drive without the program's permission, A-Max II will detect this and flash the drive number on the menu bar. It this happens, you should immediately replace the ejected disk in the drive, which will clear the flashing prompt. Any disk access will be denied until the illegally ejected disk is replaced and the flashing prompt cleared. There are several ways to request a disk be ejected on the Mac: * When the Finder (Apple's desktop program) is running, you can eject a disk by selecting its icon and using the File menu command Eject, or Amiga-E from the keyboard. * When an application is requesting a filaname, the dialog box will usually have an Eject button to eject the currently displayed disk. * Often the command-shift-1 and command-shift-2 keyboard sequences will eject the disks in drives 1 and 2. Unfortunately, this option is unavailable for drives 3 and 4 as this Macintosh keyboard macro doesn't support more than two drives. * The supplied Shutdown program will eject all disks before rebooting. If the Finder Shutdown menu option is available on your System disk, it will eject all disks also. See the next section before using the Shutdown menu command. WARNING NEVER reset (Control-Amiga-Amiga) your Amiga or power down without ejecting all disks through the Mac system! 6.3 Finder Shutdown All versions of the Finder have a menu command called Shutdown under the Special menu heading. On Finder versions 5.3 or earlier, this option will clash your Amiga. Finder versions 5.4 and later have two options, Restart and Shutdown. A-Max II supports the use of both options with these System versions. The Shutdown command quits all open applications. ejects all disks and turns the screen black with a message saying it is safe to turn off your machine. At this point, you can click the Restart button if you want to reboot. If you have finished using Mac software and wish to return to AmigaDOS mode, now is a good time to reset with the Control-Amiga-Amiga key sequence. The Restart command is similar but immediately restarts the Mac system back to the Mac boot screen. - 35 - 6.4 Mouse Buttons The Mac has a single button mouse, so the Amiga's right mouse button is unused when running Mac software. 6.5 Formatting Disks Disks are formatted under A-Max II exactly the same way as on the Macintosh; placing a blank disk in the drive while at the desktop will bring up a dialog box prompting you to initialize the disk. Click on the Two-Sided button to format an 800K disk. In unusual circumstances you may find it necessary to format a 400K disk; click on the One-Sided button or, if there is just an Initialize button, hold down an Amiga key while clicking that button. If you are using A-Max II Plus, the disk will be formatted to Mac format and will be readable on a real Macintosh. To format a disk in the A-Max II format, hold down a shift key until formatting has started. If you are using the A-Max it cartridge system, the disk will be in A-Max's special format that is readable only on Amiga drives with A-Max. Of course, if you are using an Apple 800K drive, the disk you format will be readable on standard Macintoshes. 6.6 Sound A-Max II supports most digitized sounds. You don't have to do anything to enable this feature, except set the sound volume level in the Mac Sound Control Panel. The sound option can be shut off by setting the volume to zero. If applications go directly to the hardware to produce sounds, some may produce undesirable results while others will work fine. 6.7 The A-max II RAM Disk A-Max II has a built-in RAM disk that automatically uses any Amiga memory not specified as Mac system memory (as selected with the System Memory Size parameter in the Memory Preferences window). The RAM disk is recovarable so it will survive A-Max II system reboots and can be booted from if it contains the necessary system files (System and Finder at least). The RAM Disk's contents will survive until you exit back to AmigaDOS. The RAM disk will be mounted if there is memory allocated to it and the General Preferences option Mount RAM Disk is set on. With the A-Max 2.5 Software, the RAM disk is not ejectable and there is no need to press the F1 key to mount it, as in previous A-Max versions. -36- The first time you boot A-Max with an enabled RAM disk, you will get the [ Image left - RAM icon ] standard Mac format dialog box with the RAM Disk's icon (a memory chip, shown to the left) asking you to format the RAM the disk. Just click on Initialize and type in a name for the disk (e.g. "RAM'). Once this is done, the RAM disk will appear as an icon on the desktop and you can copy files to and from it as you would an ordinary disk. To boot from the RAM disk, simply copy your System files into it, then restart A-Max II. If the General Preferences option Boot from RAM Disk is set on, A-Max will restart from the RAM Disk based System. 6.8 Real Time Clock A-Max II will automatically use the date and time from your Amiga system clock. You should use the AmigaDOS Date command to verify that your System clock is accurate before starting A-Max II. -37- Section 7 USING HARD DRIVES If your Amiga has a hard disk controller installed, or is an Amiga 3000 with a built in SCSI controller, A-Max II can make use of partitions on your hard drives to store the Mac system and applications. If the controller has a SCSI port, A-Max II can use it to access partitions on Mac formatted SCSI drives, and use other Mac SCSI peripherals such as scanners, CD ROM drives, and printers. Storing data on a Mac formatted SCSI drive has the advantage of being able to access the drive from both A-Max 11 and real Macintosh systems. Storing data in a partition on an AmigaDOS hard drive lets you split an existing hard drive for use both by A-Max II and AmigaDOS. If you are using removable media such as SyQuent drives, you may wish to format cartridges with a Mac SCSI driver that supports disk changes, for example Sliverlining and many others. If you access these drives as an AmigaDOS device, as described in section 7.1, the cartridges will not be accessable with a real Mac with the same drive. To transfer data between Mac and A-Max II systems via cartridge, set up the drive as a Mac SCSI device, as descibed in section 7.6. Hard disk controller cards on the Amiga are supported by A-Max II through the use of software drivers that are written specifically for given cards. A different driver is required for each controller. Several of these are supplied on the AMax II Program disk in the Davs: directory. ReadySoft has made an effort to make the necessary technical details available, but support for any card is dependent on cooperation from the controller card manufacturer. If a driver for your card isn't included on the A-Max II Program disk this doesn't mean that your controller card is not or won't be supported in the future. Contact your hard drive manufacturer and they may be able to send you a driver if they have developed one subsequent to this release of A-Max II. 7.1 Partitioning an AmigaDOS Hard Disk Before A-Max II will recognize your AmigaDOS hard drive, it will have to be repartitioned. In most cases re-partitioning the drive will erase any information already on it so you will need to backup and restore any AmigaDOS partitions this will be covered in your controllers manual. A-Max II will allow up to eight A-Max II partitions spread across up to eight hard drives so long as they are all connected to the same controller card (any number of AmigaDOS partitions - 38 - may also exist on these hard drives). Any number of hard drive controllers may be installed in your Amiga and used by AmigaDOS but only one can be used by A-Max II. To remain compatible with the large number of hard drive partitioning schemes for Amiga hard drives, A-Max II relies on the setup software that comes with every hard drive to create its partitions. An A-Max II partition is simply an AmigaDOS partition with a partition name that begins with the four characters "AMAX" or the two characters "AX." Some examples follows: AMAX0: AX0: AMAXWork: AMAX99: Follow the controller card's manufacturer's instructions to create a partition of the size you want to dedicate to A-Max II use. When you are partitioning your drive(s), most hard disk setup utilities will ask you to name the partitions as you create them. To denote a partition as an A-Max II partition, the name you give it must begin with "AMAX" (no spaces, no hyphen) or "AX." Typically you might want to name your A-Max partitions AMAX1, AMAX2, etc., but you could also name them AMAXWork, AMAXBackup. If your partitioning software doesn't allow you to name your partitions (it may automatically name them DH2:, DH3: etc.), you may have to edit the mountlist that the partitioning software creates (in the DEVS: directory). You will have to find the default names that the partitioning software created and replace them with names beginning with AMAX (as discussed above). Hard disk controllers that utilize the Rigid Disk Format (or Hardblocks) which includes most modern controllers, won't create a mountlist entry so the only way to name your partitions is with the manufacturer's setup software itself. Note that you cannot use the AmigaDOS Assign command to create a logical device for A-Max II use, for example Assign AMAX1: DH2: won't allow use A-Max II to use DH2:, it will just be ignored. The actual device name of the partition must contain one of the A-Max II partition specifiers. Once all partitions you wish to dedicate to A-Max 11 use have been appropriately named, you must ensure that they are mounted before you run A-Max II. Most hard drive controllers will automatically mount all partitions, in which case, you won't have to do anything. Some older controllers (such as the Commodore 2090) will only mount the boot partition and leave it to you to -39- To be Continued.... Page 40: mount any other partitions. If this is the case, you should add the appropriate mount commands to your startup- sequence, for example: Mount AMAX1: Mount AMAX2: 7.2 A-Max II Hard Drive Partition Preferences The Hard Drive/SCSI Preferences window contains information that will verify your partitions have been recognized by A-Max II. The Partitions entries list all partitions located in your system that fit the naming constraints described above in section 7.1, plus any named file transfer partition. Additional restric- tions are: * there is a maximum of eight A-Max II partions, including a file transfer partition, if selected. * all the partitions must be on hard drives connected to the same hard disk controller. Most Amigas only have one controller card installed, so this is rarely much of a restriction. If there are no partitions listed, go back and check the details in section 7.1 . The Driver Name field contains the filename of the A-Max I I hard disk driver to be used, and the Ident field contains text describing the controller card(s) the driver supports. As long as A-Max II has located at least one usable partition, these two fields will be filled in by A-Max II. Beside each partition name are two options that are usually set on. Boot means the partition will be checked to see if it can be booted from if it contains a Mac system. Mount just provides you with a way to disable any partition so that it won't appear on the Mac desktop. Both these options are permanently set off for the File Transfer Partition. The option Check for SCSi Devices enables any additional Mac SCSI periph- erals you have connected to the controller card that has been selected above. For example, if you wish to access an Apple formatted SCSI hard drive, the Apple CD ROM drive, or the LaserWriter I ISC printer, this option needs to be set on. Even if you have no such such devices, enabling this option does no harm. - 40 - 7.3 Initializing the A-Max II Partitions Before you can use your A-Max II partitions to store any information, they must be initialized by the Mac system. This is done under the Mac Finder. Run A- Max II and boot the Mac with a floppy system disk (see section 4.0 - A-Max Startup). When the Mac desktop appears it will display dialog windows for each uninitial- ized A-Max I I partition one at a time, each with the message '"This is not a Macintosh disk: Do you want to initialize , it? " and an icon repre- senting A-Max I I partitions (a rectangular hard drive with a small Amiga "A" in the right corner, shown to the left.) After clicking the Initiaiize button there will be a confirmation dialog and then you will be asked to name the disk - this is the name that will reference the partition on the Mac desktop - use any name you like. After supplying a name for the drive, the dialog will then say '"Creating directory." This could take several minutes, depending on the size of the partition and the speed of your hard drive and machine. When complete, an icon representing the drive will appear on the desktop. If you have created more than one A-Max partition, another requester will appear and the process will repeat itself until all partitions have been initialized. If you are not asked to initialize the partition, or the icon for a partition never appears after initialization, then either: . the appropriate A-Max hard disk driver is not present in the DEVS: direc- , tory; the partition names you have used don't fit the criteria given in section 7 1 ; or . the partitions weren't mounted before running A-Max II. If any problem occur check the information in the Hard Disk / SCSi Prefer- ences window before starting A-Max II. Once your partition(s) have been initialized you may copy Mac applications, data and system files as you would normally, by dragging file and folder icons to the partition's icon on the desktop. . 41 . 7.4 Making A-Max Ii Partitions Bootabie You will normally want to make one of your partitions bootabIe so A-Max II will automatically start the Mac system without the need for a floppy disk. Once set up, any one of the partitions can be made bootable by copying a System folder (containing both System and Finder files) into the partition, and making sure the Boot option for the partition in the Hard Disk Preferences window is set on. If more than one partition contains a System folder, A-Max I I will boot from the first valid system it finds. You should use the Boot options in the Hard Disk Preferences window to enable only the partition you wish to boot from. See section 7.7 for description of how A-Max I I scans for a startup disk. Apple recommends that a single partition or disk never have more than one System folder installed on it. 7.5 A-Max II Partitions Under AmigaDOS Since A-Max II partitions are really just AmigaDOS partitions that contain non- AmigaDOS information, they are still present and accessable while running the normal AmigaDOS environment. Usually, a "Not a DOS disk" error will be returned if you attempt to access A-Max II partitions with AmigaDOS commands. WARNING It is possible to issue an AmigaDOS Forrmat command that will reinitialize your A-Max II partition and make it usable by the Amiga filing system. Doing this will completely erase your A-Max I I partition and any Mac programs or data you had stored there. 7.6 Using Mac SCSi Devices without A-Max ii Partitions As described in section 7.2, the Check for SCSI Devices option in the Hard Disk / SCSI Preferences window enables access to Mac SCSI peripherals. However, if you don't wish to use any A-Max II partitions on AmigaDOS drives, A-Max II won't know which driver is necessary for your controller card. For this reason it is possible to type a filename in the Driver Name box which will be loaded in when you press the return key. The filename should be of the form: devs : name . amhd - 42 - NOTE If there are any AMAX: partitions present in the system, or a File T ransfer Partition has been named, the driver name will be obtained from these partitions and any name you type in this box will be ignored. To determine the name of the A-Max II hard disk driver you'll need the name of the AmigaDOS device driver used by the hard drive card. The documentation that comes with your controller should tell you the device driver name. If not, and the controller utilizes MountList entries to describe its partitions, you can find the device driver name from the entry for any AmigaDOS partition on a hard drive connected to the controller card. As you scan down the entries in the DEVS : MountList file, you will see Device = followed by the name of the software driver. For example the Commodore 2090 card uses a device driver called HDDISK . DEVICE, so a partition would have an mountlist entry: Device = HDDISK.DEVICE If your hard drive controller uses Rigid Disk Format (which means all partition- ing information is saved on the first blocks of the hard drive itself, rather than MountList entries) then you won't have a MountList to consult. Check the documentation that came with your controller, or consult the manufacturer. The name of the A-Max II hard disk driver is derived from the name of the AmigaDOS device driver name. In most cases the suffix is just changed from .DEVICE to .AMHD (in our example, the A2090 card would require a driver called HDDISK.AMHD). Some common controllers' device names are as follows: Controller AmigaDOS device driver A-Max II driver A2090 hddisk.device hddisk . amhd A2091/A590 scsi .device scsi.amhd FastT rak harddisk.device harddisk.amhd GVP gvpscsi .device gvpscsi .amhd ICD icddisk.device icddisk.amhd Supra supradirect . device supradirect . amhd TrumpCard ivs_scsi .device ivs_scsi.amhd There are some special cases that the A-Max 2.5 Software handles: A590 xt .device scsi.amhd A2090 iddisk . device (etc) hddisk.amhd . 43 . In addition, be sure to check the ReadMe file on your A-Max II distribution diskette for a listing of controllers and their device drivers that may have been added since this manual was prepared. 7 .7 Startup Sequence When A-Max I I boots up it first checks for and installs all disk devices. These include: . up to four floppy drives, one of which can be an Apple 800K drive connected to an A-Max II cartridge on the eternal disk port; . the A-Max II RAM Disk, if RAM has been set aside in the Memory Preferences window and the General Preferences option Mount RAM Disk is set on; . all the A-Max II hard disk partitions, in the order listed in the Hard Disk / SCSI Preferences window; . Mac formatted SCSI storage devices, if the Check for SCSl Devices option is set on. Devices are mounted in order of descending SCSI device address number . The drivers for Mac SCSI devices are loaded from the device itself, and the driver will then read the device's partition map and install the partitions into the filing system. Once all devices and partitions have been installed, the Mac system scans through the devices looking for a startup disk (a disk containing a valid System Folder.) The scanning order is the same as given above. It is possible to stop some devices from being considered in the search for a startup disk, by the following means: . eject a floppy disk from its drive. You can eject all floppies by holding down the left mouse button down while rebooting A-Max 11; . set the General Preferences option Boot from RAM Disk off to disable a startup RAM disk; . set an A-Max II partition's Boot option in the Hard Disk / SCSl Prefer- ences window off to disable booting from that partition; . all Mac SCSI devices can be disabled by turning off the Check for SCSl Devices option in the Hard Disk / SCSl Preferences window. Note that, at the time of this writing, A-Max I I cannot support the Mac system's Startup Disk control panel. . 44 . Section 8 SOFTW ARE COMP A TIBILITY 8.1 System Dlsks A-Max II supports all the known Apple System disks, however System disk versions 6.0 or later are recommended. At the time this manual was printed, System versions up to version 7.0 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 5.3 above, if you have a Finder version 5.4 or later (usually found on System disks version 4.0 or later), you will be able to use the Shutdown menu command. 8.2 Compatibiiity with Macintosh Appiications As A-Max I I is an emulator and not a Macintosh, there will be some pieces of Mac software that will not run under A-Max 11. Almost all Mac software that goes through the Macintosh operating system (such as most productivity software) will run with A-Max 11. Because of the wide range of hardware in the Macintosh family it is rare for modern Mac software to bypass the system software . Compatibility problem arise when software talks directly to the hardware, bypassing the operating system. This is most evident in copy-protected software, games and program designed to use Mac hardware add-ons. Unfor- tunately there is little that can be done to allow these types of program to run with A-Max 11. The A-Max I I Plus card is more compatible with some software because it provides Mac software with two identical chips to those found in a Macintosh - the 8530 Serial Communications Controller (SCC) and the 6522 Versatile Inter- face Adapter (VIA.) Program running under A-Max II Plus can directly access either of these chips and achieve the correct results. Examples of such program include terminal programs, MIDI applications, and program that make use of the VIA's accurate timers for graphics effects etc. . 45 . As described in section 5.2, if you are running A-Max II on an Amiga system without an installed MMU, there may be some memory options that will improve your system's compatibility. If your Amiga has memory at $C00000 (most commonly the 51 2 kb expansion RAM in Amiga 500's and 2000's), you might consider disabling it, as this is the least compatible of all expansion memory locations. Select the Don't Use Slow RAM option in the Memory Preferences window. Some very old application software may even require you to disable all your expansion memory with the Use Only CHIP RAM option, which means the application must run in typically 51 2 Kb or 1 Mb of system memory. 8.3 What to Do if an Appiication Won't Run Some older Macintosh applications will refuse to run unless your A-Max II system is configured exactly like a standard Mac. If you encounter such a program, try the following: . upgrade your Mac software to the latest release version from the manufacturer . run the application under MultiFinder instead of Finder , or under System 7 . . set your Display Size in the Video Preferences window to 512 x 342, which is the standard Mac Plus and Mac Classic screen size . try setting the sound volume level to zero in the Sound control panel. This can stop some applications from attempting to produce sound in an A-Max II unfriendly manner . . as decribed above, if you are running in non-MMU memory mode try changing the Memory Use options in the Memory Preferences window. . if you are running in MMU memory mode, try setting your memory size to 4096 Kb or less. This will map the Mac ROM into the same location as is used on a Mac Plus. . if you are using A-Max 11, try running the software on the A-Max II Plus system. . 46 . Section 9 SOFTW ARE TRANSFER This section describes A-Max I I's support for cartridge system without Apple external 800k drives. If you have the Plus card system, or are using an Apple 800K drive, this section is not relevent to you. There are a number of ways to transfer files and data between A-Max I I and a true Macintosh. Unfortunately, most of them require that A-Max I I already be running and this cannot happen until you have an A-Max II format System disk. If you don't have an Apple drive, you must use the A-Max II Mini Transfer Disk method (see Section 3.5) to create a first working System disk. When you have a working System disk, you will be able to use any of the other transfer methods described below. 9.1 Fuii Disk Transfer Full Disk Transfer is an option found in the Macintosh-based Disk Transfer program. It uses the same Mini Transfer Disks described above, but it allows you to store the contents of an entire 800K Macintosh disk on several 272K Mini Transfer Disks. As previously stated, it requires a Macintosh to prepare the disks, but it is also necessary that A-Max II is running, because the program that reassembles the Mini Transfer Disks back into one A-Max I I format disk is, itself, on the A-Max I I format Utiiities disk. You might typically use the program as follows: Borrow a Macintosh and create your first Mini Transfer Disk with a stripped down System on it. Then, you use the Full Disk Transfer option to spread the contents of System 6.0.3 across a series of Mini Transfer Disks. Similarly, you could decompose all your favorite full-disk applications onto separate sets of MTDs. When you return to your Amiga, you can use the first Mini Transfer System Disk to get A- Max II up and running, then begin rebuilding your software library onto A-Max II disks. With the Disk Transfer program running on a Macintosh, click on the Transfer Fuli Disk button to begin. The Disk Transfer program will ask you to insert the source disk and up to two additional blank transfer disks, one at a time (if the destination disks are unformatted, the program will format them first). After the transfer has been completed, you take the transfer disk(s) just creat- ed and the original source disk back to the Amiga. While running A-Max I I , execute the Disk Receive program found on the A-Max Utilities disk. After . 47 . clicking the Receive Full Disk button, the program will ask you to insert a destination disk (which wili be formatted if necessary) and the disks you creat- ed on the Mac as well as the original source disk one at a time into an Amiga drive. The separate disks will be reconstructed onto the destination disk in A- Max format so that they can be used in Amiga 3.5" drives with A-Max I I . The original Macintosh source disk can be used in this case, because the Amiga's drives are actually capable of reading some (272K) of the data directly. 9.2 Serial File Transfers A-Max II is compatible with many Macintosh terminal program, including MacTerminal or the public domain FreeTerm. Once you have your A-Max I I system up and running you can use a Macintosh terminal program to transfer software in two different ways. 9.2.1 Serial Transfer (null modem) If you have access to a Macintosh, but don't care to use the Disk Transfer program, you can connect the Mac directly to your Amiga using a null-modem cable. With a terminal program running on the Mac and one running on the Amiga under A-Max 11, you can send files from one machine to the other . It is also possible to use an Amiga terminal program running under AmigaDOS to receive the data sent from the Macintosh. After receiving the file to Amiga- DOS format you can use the File Transfer 2.5 program described in section 1 0 to convert the file to Mac format. . 48 . 9.2.2 SerIal Transfer (modem) If it is impossible to physically connect your Amiga to a Macintosh, it still may be possible to use the Serial Transfer method through the medium of a local or commercial Bulletin Board service. All kinds of files can be uploaded to these remote locations and then retrieved using the same terminal software packag- es described above. In addition to your own collection of program, it is also possible to download selections from the many network libraries of freely distributable Macintosh software. Useful software can be found in both the Mac and Magic Sac/Spectre areas of the networks. . 49 . Section 10 FILE TRANSFER UTILITIES A-Max II provides the File Transfer 2.5 application to enable you transfer files from AmigaDOS to and from the Mac filing system, with a variety of supported disk devices. A-Max I I is also compatible with the Apple File Exchange application that is supplied as part of the Apple System Software. This application supports file transfers between the MS-DOS, OS/2, ProDOS and Macintosh filing system, utilising your Amiga drives to read standard 720 Kb MS-DOS disks. Use of Apple File Exchange is described in Apple's System Software documentation . 10.1 FileTransfer2.5Software The A-Max 2.5 Software includes a new utility for transferring files back and forth between AmigaDOS 880 Kb floppy disks or a hard drive partition, and any Mac Format A-Max disk device. This program, File Transfer 2.5, replaces the File Transfer program found on the earlier A-Max release diskettes. File Transfer 2.5 is included on the Utilities disk. File Transfer 2.5 also provides functions to convert different types of files during the transfer. With the MacBinary file transfer, for example, you may download Mac applications under AmigaDOS from information services and then later transfer the application from MacBinary format into a runnable form on the Mac side. File Transfer 2.5 can use one of two AmigaDOS format disks - a floppy in drive DF0: or a Hard Disk partition whose name is specified in the Hard Disk/SCSI Preferences window. File Transfer 2.5 supports both Fast Filing System (FFS, WB 2.0) and Old Filing System (OFS, WB 1 .2) formatted partitions. File Transfer 2.5 works under A-Max II and produces the only instance when you can legally insert an AmigaDOS format floppy disk The only floppy drive that can receive this disk is the internal or first drive (DF0 : ). In order to use File Transfer 2.5, you will need at least one other available disk drive (to hold the Macintosh filing system disk). If you have an 800K Apple drive, you can use a real Macintosh format disk. If you don't have an Apple drive, but do have a second Amiga drive, you can Use an A-Max II format disk in this drive. If your system contains only one disk drive, you will have to install and initialize the A- Max II RAM disk and use that as your second drive. Of course, if you are . 50 . running your A-Max II system with Mac hard disk partitions, these may also be used with File Transfer 2.5. If you are transferring data to a Mac format disk, you will need to make sure the file(s) to be transferred are set up either on an AmigaDOS partition which is named under File Transfer Partition in the Hard Disk / SCSI Preferences window, or on an AmigaDOS 880 Kb floppy and the File T ransfer Partition name is empty. If you are transferring data to a AmigaDOS format, make sure you have a named partition with sufficient free space, or a formatted AmigaDOS floppy disk ready to receive the transferred file. Start A-Max II and boot the Mac system as usual. Double click the File Trans- fer 2.5 program icon to run it. File Transfer 2.5 will read and display the root directory of the selected File Transfer partition, if present, otherwise it will wait for the insertion of an AmigaDOS floppy disk. WARNING If you should insert the AmigaDOS disk before running File T ransfer 2.5, the Mac system will report that the disk is unreadable and ask if you want to initialize or eject it. Initializing it will destroy the AmigaDOS formatting and make file transfer impossible. Eject the disk and be sure to start the File Transfer 2.5 program before inserting the AmigaDOS floppy. When the program is running and a valid AmigaDOS directory has been read and displayed, you are ready to transfer files. Before selecting a file choose one of the conversion types arrayed down the right side of the window, descibed below. . 51 . 10.2 File ConversIon Optlons The conversion options are: . None Copies the file without any translation. Use this option if you plan to convert the raw data with another program, for example converting TIFF to HAM graphics with Art Department Professional for the Amiga. . Text Converts plain text files between the two system. Amiga line feeds and Mac carriage returns are translated and vice versa. . MacPaint<->IFF Converts single bit plane (monochrome) images between the two formats. . MacBinary MacBinary is the most common format for Macintosh applications and files stored on Bulletin Board Systems. Macintosh files downloaded from BBSs can be transferred using the MacBinary setting. . PostScript Use this option when transferring PostScript files. 1 0.3 Advanced Optlons There are additional gadgets for selecting Mac-specific attributes of the Mac source or destination file. When a file conversion option is selected defaults are set for these options that will be correct for most uses of File Transfer 2.5. 1 0.3.1 Fork Selectlon Macintosh files are composed of two logical segments called forks. Every file can have both a "resource" and a "data fork." Most applications and many data file formats will store all their information in the resource fork (and access it with the Mac Operating System's Resource Manager.) Some files may have text or other data stored in the data fork. The fork selection gadgets allow you to reference the contents of either fork of a Macintosh file. The MacBinary conversion mode always transfers both forks of a file. .52. 10.3.2 File Type and File Creator Every Macintosh file has a File Type and a File Creator field. This information provides the same basic function as AmigaDOS's . info files. Each of these item is a four character string. The file type specifies what kind of information the file contains: TEXT, APPL, PICT, PNTG, etc. The file creator is a unique identifier of the application that that created the file: WRIT, FPNT, etc. To enter a File Type or File Creator, click in the appropriate string gadget and type the identifier. Again, if you don't know what abbreviations to use, or do not care to specify any, the default values will most often be correct. 10.4 Transferrlng the FIle 1 0.4.1 CopyIng Am igaDOS->Mac Use the Parent and Root gadgets or double-click on directory names to move through the AmigaDOS directories. Select the file you wish to transfer by scrolling through the list of filenames and then single-clicking on the name (it will be highlighted). The current path is displayed above the directory list. Click on From AmigaDOS. A standard Mac file requester will appear. Select the drive and, optionally , any subdirectories to which you want the destination file copied. If you choose, you may also give the destination file a new name. The file will inherit the source file's name if you don't change it. Click on Save to begin the transfer. 1 0.4.2 CopyIng Mac->AmigaDOS Select a destination directory of the AmigaDOS disk or partition to receive the Mac file (a file name can be selected but it won't have any effect - only the currently displayed directory is used). Click on To AmigaDOS. A standard Mac file requester appears. Select the file that you wish to copy. Click on Open. The file is then transferred to the AmigaDOS disk with the same file name. If a file by that name already exists, you will be prompted to Cancel the operation or Overwrite the file. . 53 . Section 1 1 PRINTERS A-Max II supports several types of printers, each of which is described below. 1 1 .1 Apple ImageWrlter Y ou will need the Apple ImageWriter printer driver in your System folder, which must be selected from the Chooser desk accessory and assigned to the printer port (Port B.) You will also need the correct cable to connect the Imagewriter to the Amiga's serial port, or a serial port of the Plus card. In the Serial / Parallel Preferences window, select Port B to be the correct serial port (Amiga Serial or Plus Printer , depending on which you have connected the ImageWriter to) and set the Port B Imagewriter Emulation to None. You should now be able to print as you would normally on a Mac with an Imagewrit- er. 11.2 Epson CompatIble 9 & 24 pIn Dot MatrIx You will need the Apple ImageWriter or ImageWriter LQ printer driver in your System folder; use the LQ driver if you have a 24-pin printer. Select the correct driver and output port with the Chooser desk accessory, as described above in section 1 1 . 1 . The setting of the Imagewriter Emulation option depends on which printer you are using: . 9-Pin Printer Select IW-9 pin for the ImageWriter emulation on port B. . 24-Pin Printer Select LQ-24 pin if you are using the LQ ImageWriter driver, or IW-24 pin if you are using the ImageW riter driver. The ImageWriter emulation feature translates the ImageWriter control codes into Epson compatible codes as they go out the port. Because the ImageWrit- er printers have unusual print densities, some printing will not have a 1 :1 aspect ratio when printed on an Epson printer. When printing Best quality graphics on an Epson compatible printer, the horizontal print density will be higher than that of an ImageWriter, so that the image will be compressed horizontally by about 40%. When printing 24 pin graphics, the vertical density is a little less than that of an ImageWriter LQ, causing pages to be about 20% longer than they would normally be. - 54 - Usually, the Faster print mode will provide the closest aspect ratio to 1 : 1 posii- ble on your printer . If the built-in ImageWriter emulation of A-Max II is too limited for your use, you should consider a third-party Mac printer driver for your printer. Generally these drivers will scale the image correctly for your printer's densities. See Section 1 1 .4. 1 1 .3 Apple LaserWrlter and other PostScrlpt Laser PrInters If you are using the Plus card and an AppleTalk (LocalTalk) printer, you can print directly as you would normally on a real Mac. The Plus card's LocalTalk feature is decribed in Section 1 2.1 . The rest of this section is for A-Max II cartridge system owners who wish to print to a serial or parallel compatible laser printer. This method has restric- tions and is not as compatible as direct printing through AppleTalk and a Plus card. The A-Max I I cartridge does not support the AppleTalk local area network and thus cannot support direct printing to the LaserWriter , however, it is possible to print to the LaserWriter and other PostScript Laser printers by creating a PostScript text file and then dumping this file out the serial or parallel port with the supplied File Dump program, or any compatible terminal program. 1 1 .3.1 Creatlng the PostScript FIle Your System folder should contain the LaserWriter and LaserPrep files and the LaserWriter should be selected with the Chooser desk accessory. When selecting the LaserWriter, you can safely ignore any "Can't Open AppleT alk' messages. Proceed to print as you would normally, but immediately after click- ing the Print button on the print dialog, press and hold the Command-K (Amiga-K) keys until the message "Creating PostScript file" is displayed. The file will be called "PostScriptX where X is unique digit for each PostScript file on the disk. The System 7 LaserWriter driver has a Destination option to print to a disk file which simplifies the above process. Simply set this option to PostScript@ File before clicking the Save button and select a destination file name in the standard file requestor. Some Mac applications, such as Aldus' PageMaker, utilize their own printer drivers, most of which have options to create a PostScript file. - 55 - 11.3.2 PrintingthePostScriptFile Before sending the PostScript file to your printer, you must have setup the Serlal / Parallel Preferences window so that either the modem port or, more typically, the printer port, is set to output to your printer (either parallel or serial) and that ImageWriter emulation for that port is set to None. Now run the program called File Dump supplied on the A-Max Utilities disk. This program will allow you to select the output port (modem or printer), baud rate, parity, number of bits, and handshake method (if you are using a parallel printer you won't need to set any of the serial parameters). When these parameters have been set, click on Dump File, select the name of the file you want to print in the standard file requestor and it will be sent. Hold the Command - Period (Amiga - .) keys down 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 LaserWriter printer, connect it to the Amiga's serial port, set the LaserWriter to 1 200 or 9600 baud rather than AppleTalk mode, and set the baud rate on File Dump to agree with your baud selection on the LaserWriter. The LaserWriter operates in hardware handshaking mode at all times. A non- Apple PostScript printer should be set to PostScript Interactive mode rather than Batch mode and connected to the Amiga's serial or parallel ports with File Dump's output port set appropriately. 1 1 .4 Other Prlnters There are several third party suppliers of printer drivers that allow the Mac to use other types of printers. We have successfully tested the GDT Softworks (phone (604) 291 -91 21 ) printer drivers which are available for dot matrix, daisy wheel and HP LaserJet printers. . 56 - Section 12 PLUS CARD SPECIFIC FEATURES This section covers other features the Plus card has over the cartridge system that have not already been covered. 1 2.1 LocalTalk (AppleTalk) AppleTalk now describes all of Apple's networking system, and LocalTalk describes the low level physical hardware and access protocol of Apple's low cost network hardware, which was previously known as AppleTalk. AppleTalk Phase 2 can also utilize Ethernet (via EtherTalk) and T oken Ring (via Token- Talk) hardware. For the present release, A-Max II supports only LocalTalk networks. Support of the Commodore Ethernet card may be forthcoming. The A-Max I I Plus system provides you with two serial ports that provide the same features as those of a Mac, including compatibility with the LocalT alk interface boxes made by Apple and other manufacturers, and other interfaces such as Farallon Computing's PhoneNet. Using LocalTalk with A-Max II Plus is identical to real Macs, there are no start- up preferences controlling this option. Connect the interface hardware to the Plus card's Printer Port, and use the Chooser desk accessory to turn Apple- Talk on. You should be able to access AppleTalk printers and file servers as you would on a Mac. 12.2 MIDI (Muslcal Instrument Dlgital Interface) Support With the Plus card you can run many of the popular Macintosh M IDI sequenc- ers and tools. The Plus card provides the same serial hardware as a Mac so that these program can directly access the serial hardware and still remain A- Max II compatible. When running M IDI software you can make use of the Plus card's on-board MIDI interface box by connecting the optional ReadySoft MIDI Y-cable, flicking the Plus card's switch to the MIDI position and setting the Serial / Parallel Preferences window option Port A to Plus MIDI. Alternatively, you may choose to connect the same MIDI box that you would normally use on a Macin- tosh to one of the Plus card's serial ports, for example if you need more than one M IDI Out port. In this case set the switch to the STD position and the Port A option to Plus Modem, or set the Port B option to Plus Printer. - 57 - Once you have set up your system, MIDI applications should run as they would normally. NOTE The Plus card's MIDI interface provides software with a 1 MHz crystal oscillator based reference frequency for precise adherence to M IDI specifi- cations. - 58 - Section 13 GLOSSARY Agnus An Amiga custom chip that determines the amount of Chip memory your Amiga can use. A new Agnus chip that is part of Commodore's ECS upgrade allows A500 and A2000 computers to address 1 Mb of Chip memory, which is a more A-Max I I compatible memory configuration than the usual 51 2k Chip RAM size. AppleTalk Apple's local area networking System Software. Chooser A Macintosh desk accessory that allows the user to select which printer driver on the System disk will be used for printer output, as well as other options such as the printer output port and AppleTalk activity. Controi Panel A Macintosh desk accessory that lets the user control several different options, such as sound volume, mouse and keyboard. Equivalent to the Amiga's Preferences program. Data Fork One logical segment of a file in the Macintosh filing system that contains simple streamed data (e.g. the raw text characters in a word processing document). See also Resource Fork. Desk Accessory (DA) A special type of Mac program that is part of the System file and is accessible while running most applications from the Apple menu. ECS (Extended Chip Set) A new version of the Amiga custom chips that allows the Amiga to address 1 Mb of Chip RAM and produce non-interlaced displays with a multi-sync monitor. File Creator A four character unique identifier contained within a file in the Macintosh filing system that identifies the program on which the file was prepared. - 59 - File Type A four character designator contained within a file in the Macintosh filing system that identifies what kind of file it is and helps the Finder decide how to use it. Finder The program that creates the Apple desktop. Equivalent to the Amiga's Workbench. The Finder program has many versions and should always be run in conjunction with the correct version of the System file. Fork In the Macintosh filing system, on of two logical segments that constitute a file. See Resource Fork and Data Fork. Interlace An Amiga video mode that displays twice the normal number of screen lines at half the refresh rate. This leads to a flickering display on ordinary monitors, but some monitors are designed to minimize flicker, such as the high persistence Commodore A2080 monitor or the A2024 monitor. Magic Sac A 64K ROM Macintosh emulator for the Atari ST . MTD (Mini Transfer Disk) A disk specially formatted on a Macintosh with a capacity of 272K that can be read directly in an Amiga drive. An MTD can be used to transfer software from a Mac format disk to an A-Max format disk if you have access to a Macintosh but do not have an Apple 800K drive connected to A-Max II. Resource Fork One logical segment of a file in the Macintosh filing system that contains many elements and types of information, access to which is controlled by the Resource Manager. See also Data Fork. Spectre 128 A 1 28K ROM Macintosh emulator for the Atari ST . System A file which contains information the Macintosh requires for use at all times. This includes startup information, fonts, desk accessories, and other system code. There are many different System file versions, some of which require certain ROMs. - 60 - System Disk A disk that has the required system information on it for the Mac to startup (boot) from it. This always includes the System file and usually the Finder file (it is possible to have a System disk that consists of a System file and an application that is started automatically). Often there will be other files that are not absolutely necessary for startup. All the various system files are often held together in a System folder on the System disk. - 61 - A-MAX II Readysoft, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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This is the Amax II (v2.5) A-Max II 2.5 text was OCR converted on an Amiga by: _ ?Ken Harvey? _ HTML conversion by Reginal Cross. Scanned A-Max images courtesy of Ken Harvey & Modified by Reginal Cross. Last Updated 20 Feb 2001 If you find ANYTHING wrong or misspelled, please contact [Me].