MagiCMac - Gateway to the New World

History

At the end of 1994, Application Systems Heidelberg announced MagiCMac, a software that would enable running Atari software on Apple Macintosh computers.

After just three months, the first version of MagiCMac proved that it was not only a feasible idea but that a large number of common Atari programs could actually run on the Macintosh with excellent performance.

Since most Atari programs were designed to work on machines with 68000 processors, the 68040 processor (found in the Performa 630, for example) gave all programs a significant performance boost. Atari classics like Signum!2 or STAD suddenly ran up to ten times faster compared to a 1040 ST.

MagiCMac

The Apple Macintosh version offering:

• Runs on 68030/68040 processors and PowerMacs
• Operates as a Mac application while allowing simultaneous Mac OS usage
• Supports Mac file system and network drives
• Enables clipboard data exchange between Mac and MagiC environments
• Requires minimum 8MB RAM (16MB for PowerMacs)

Common Features Across Platforms

All MagiC versions share these capabilities:

• Consistent user interface through MagiC-Desk
• Support for both GEM and TOS applications
• Shared libraries functionality
• Built-in file management tools
• System configuration options through CPX modules

Development History