Macintosh's Grafting of Atari
     Dedicated to all GADGETS great and SMALL.

           It was a bizarre union, and that is precisely what it was.  A strange grafting of Macintosh roms into a cartridge (roms bought from Apple or Apple resellers by the way).  The cartridge would then allow special software to let Atari ST hardware  work with the roms.  Without the Macintosh's roms, the emulation did not work at all.  Spectre was simply a cartridge without a rom, and the program would simply be true to it's name.  Dead.

           One  could ask how Macintosh grafted Atari if this was the case?  Afteral, wasn't it an Atari computer attempting to accurately read from Macintosh roms?   In the grander scale of things, it was Apple who would do the grafting and benefit from Spectre's existance.  Allow me to explain.

            There was once a time when Macintosh computers were costly.   In an age of exiting Atari 400/800,C-64, Apple II, and early IBM computers, the Macintosh was a beautiful if not cute machine, and though many liked it, many could not afford to jump on the "MacWagon". Some were impressed with the graphical wonder, but while the black and white (pre-greyscale) graphics were sharp and impressive, the lack of color, the size of the screen, and the price turned many away.   The IBM was not much of a graphical machine until windows, so the next and cheapest alternatives were the Atari and Amiga computers.  The Amiga was especially a consideration as their graphical ability took off to heights that the industry has only recently surpassed.

            Some were in love with Macintosh format but couldn't afford the price tag at that time.  To their relief with the purchase of an Atari ST, a special cartridge, and 64K or 128K roms from an Apple dealer, they were given an introduction to the Macintosh world.  From there they bought Apple software and utilities, and pushed their Spectre package to the limit.  In some cases the Spectre would run and load things faster, and in other areas the applications (especially in the area of sound) would not work at all.  And with the introduction of System 7, the Spectre users would find the outer limit to the envelope that Dave Small challenged the users to find and push, and they discovered it would be pushed no further.   Many Spectre users continued using their package for a few more years.  In many cases, their computer was hardly even used for the Atari ST/TT applications (what a waste) but was used primarily as a "Macintosh."

           Eventually the day came when Macintosh technology far surpassed what the Spectre offered.  Also to their relief, the Macintosh computers came down in price as the quality of the computers continued.  Though the Atari ST was DOS based in disk format, and it would have been more logical to switch to PC (which quite a few have) many Spectre GCR users stayed with the world they knew so well, the world of the Mac. 

            So in the end, Macintosh grafted Atari.  To this day, there are quite a few PowerMac and iMac users that will chuckle, roll with laughter, or shed a tear at the mention of the memory of "Spectre".  Though many parted with their Spectre in a variety of ways, some PowerMac users like to fire up their old setups and "play Macintosh" and revel in such an innovative emulation solution.

            And it is for those people we help remember, and support the Spectre with this website.  By tinkering with Spectre, a user can understand more about the early days of Macintosh, and maybe gain some inspiration for an innovative thought of their own....






   
             [Feel free to contact the WebOp for any questions or Spectre contributions.]