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    The Emulation Rambler: Emplant/Shapeshifter Faceoff!
    By:  Jason Compton

Oh, the hotbed of controversy emulators can be. It all got started soon after the release of Christian Bauer's ShapeShifter, a multitasking color software-only Macintosh emulator. At a registration price of under US$50, it seemed like the mighty Emplant may have met its match. Then, the allegations flew. Jim Drew, developer of the Emplant hardware/software combo, accused Bauer of stealing code from Emplant, Apple, and A-Max IV (a hardware/software Macintosh emulator that has been out of development for over a year now.) One reference to an included Apple copyright was explained away by Bauer as an essential text string necessary for proper recognition by some Apple programs. Not even that was the end. Not too long after, Urban Mueller, administrator of Aminet, publicly announced that the Emplant Mac emulation would be removed immediately from the FTP network, citing questionable copyrighted material found in the Macintosh emulator executable. Mueller went on to say that he had contacted Drew for comment and received none, and that Bauer had sent him a signed statement that ShapeShifter was wholly his own work. This is the statement relayed by Paul Lesurf, UK distributor for the Utilities Unlimited Emplant.

This statement was passed to me from Jim Drew in response to Urban Mueller`s decision to remove the Mac Emplant software from Aminet. Please also note that Mr. Mueller has taken this decision without speaking to either Jim Drew or Utilities Unlimited. He only sent one e-mail, and Jim has very limited access and was also away for ten days recently. I apologise to anyone who usually obtains their updates from Aminet, but we will ensure the software is made available to anyone who has difficulty. Both Utilities Unlimited and Blittersoft have BBS support also. Jim`s statement reads : "There have been recent allegations that Utilities Unlimited International, Inc. has stolen ROM code from Apple Computers, Inc. (in particular, a section of code apparently very similar to a portion of Apple's 512K and 1 meg ROMs). We would like to set the record straight... The section of code is very similar, but it is not identical. The code in question is Apple's 32 bit memory manager. The version of this code we are using is newer (improved) over the previous code found in the 32 bit clean ROMs. This code is similar to what is used in INIT_32, MODE_32, and many commerical products (virtual memory managers). This code is part of Apple's developer material. We are registered Apple developers. We receive Apple developer material, have an AppleLink account, and everything else associated with being a certified Apple developer. As developers, we have a license to use material contained within the developer packages mailed out by Apple (on CD-ROMs). We also have submitted our application for a special license to use the MacOS logo (the smiley guy)."

As of now, that's the end. Spectrum emulation is much more peaceful, n'est-ce pas?