Shapeshifter Macintosh Emulation

Shapeshifter Macintosh Emulation Shapeshifter, by Christian Bauer, is a software emulation of the Macintosh computer for the Amiga. It is an incredible package, and as of January 1999 has been made freeware and is still supported. It first appeared in March of 1995 and has gone through a large number of changes over that time. This is the first software package that I've written a description for, as well being one of the newest items to be listed on my web page. Since I mentioned it in conjunction with various other hardware descriptions, I decided that it'd be a good idea to give more details on the program.

Among the capabilities are it's ability to read/write Macintosh 720k and 1.44meg floppy disks, dedicated Macintosh hard disk partitions, as well as the use of filedisks if desired, full multitasking alongside the AmigaOS, the ability to run in a window on the Amiga Workbench, full support of SCSI devices from the Macintosh, use of Amiga serial and parallel items such as modems and printers from the Macintosh, and support of MacOS System 7.X and 8.1 operating systems. Actual Macintosh serial/LocalTalk connections are also supported through the addition of an 'Emplant Deluxe' board, which adds two Macintosh-style serial/network ports to the Amiga. Full sounds is also supported within the emulation and the screenmode and size is fully configurable by the user, as well as access to Ethernet connections using MacTCP is possible when an appropriate network card and driver is present on the Amiga.

Shapeshifter requires an Amiga with at least a 68020 cpu, or a 'DraCo' computer by MacroSystem, 4meg of RAM, AmigaOS 2.1 or higher, an original Macintosh ROM file, and a high-density floppy drive in order to read MacOS disks. It is possible to find pre-made filedisks containing a minimum setup of the freely distributable version of Mac System7 with which you can boot Shapeshifter without needing a HD floppy.

To give you an idea on the power of Shapeshifter, I used to use it on my Amiga 4000, which had a 68040 cpu and 18meg of RAM. It had it's own dedicated hard disk partition, sharing the same physical drive as my Amiga partitions. I ran it in 640x480 with 256 colors on it's own screen with full sound. Among the programs and extensions I ran on it are MacTCP, Netscape, Eudora, and the extension to read/write IBM 720k/1.44meg floppy disks. I also enjoyed playing the game 'Maelstrom' in 256 colors with sound, as well as the occasional use of 'Soft-PC' just to see how far I could push things. At this screensize and depth, program performance is quite acceptable, though I ran it on a Cybergraphix screen on my Spectrum graphics card, and not on the Amiga chipset. This improves graphics performance since it doesn't have to do the planar-to-chunky conversion.

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