[an error occurred while processing this directive] Jeff Drew Interview The interview started at 22h00 GMT. sardaukar_siet: So, can we get started now? Jim Drew: Sure. ClockWise: Thanks for coming, Mr. Drew... much appreciated. Jim Drew: You're quite welcome. sardaukar_siet: First, let's do introductions... sardaukar_siet: Mr Drew, tell us about yourself, please. Jim Drew: What would you like know? ClockWise: Some background stuff... when you started in this field, etc... sardaukar_siet: Yeah ClockWise: What products you have done Jim Drew: I started programming in 1976. Jim Drew: First computer was a PET2001. 8K RAM, built-in cassette recorder. sardaukar_siet: Wow! ClockWise: Classic :) Jim Drew: I was born and raised in Klamath Falls, Oregon. sardaukar_siet: By the way, check out www.computingmuseum.com for info on the PET Jim Drew: My father was a museum currator, and needed a computer to keep track of the museum's inventory. Jim Drew: (1 million items)... needless to say, the PET wasn't sufficient. :-) sardaukar_siet: yeah Jim Drew: I had one of the first PETs available... the one with the tiny display and little keyboard. I STILL have the computer. sardaukar_siet: Still ? Wow again Jim Drew: I have every computer that I have worked with (except main frames). Jim Drew: Apple ][/][+, TRS80, C64, C16, C128, B128, +4, 8032, SuperPET, etc. etc. sardaukar_siet: PET was a Commodore product, right ? Jim Drew: Yes. Jim Drew: I was the Oregon state technical rep for Commodore. sardaukar_siet: You were ? Wow ! Jim Drew: I worked very close with Commodore for a long time. sardaukar_siet: How did you react when it died ? Jim Drew: I don't know... we still sell a LOT of Commodore stuff... so, in my eyes, it has not died. sardaukar_siet: Did you worked with Amigas? Jim Drew: I think I did around 60 commercial products for the C64. Jim Drew: Yes... the Amiga still is the best computer ever made. sardaukar_siet: Ok :) Jim Drew: Everyone has the Amiga to thank for FUSION-PC. sardaukar_siet: In Portugal, the 4000 series is still VERY used Jim Drew: Same in the U.S. The video toaster is still a great product. sardaukar_siet: Well, tell us of Emulation sardaukar_siet: what made u start ? Jim Drew: Well.. that was an absolute accident. :-) Jim Drew: For about 15 years, I designed commercial duplication software (tape and disk copiers). Jim Drew: I designed a product for the Amiga called, "SYBIL". It was a hardware device that allowed the Amiga to read/write virtually any disk format known. Jim Drew: It could duplicate every trick in the book. sardaukar_siet: Wow! Jim Drew: As a by product, it could also allow the reading/writing of 800K (low-density) Macintosh disks. sardaukar_siet: Did that use the left-side expansion port ? Jim Drew: No.. it plugged into the video port and parallel port. sardaukar_siet: Video port ? Jim Drew: Yeah, the Amiga's video port has all of the clocking lines. sardaukar_siet: Oh Jim Drew: Basically, by altering the frequency of the entire Amiga (which controlled the clocking for the floppy controller chip), you could vary the data rate for read/write operations. sardaukar_siet: Sounds very tricky... sardaukar_siet: Could it copy Macintosh copy-protected disks ? Jim Drew: Yes, it could copy ANYTHING. Jim Drew: At that time, there was a Mac+ emulator called, "AMAX". It was sold by ReadySoft (the same people that made Dragon's Lair and other Laser disc based games) Jim Drew: ReadySoft asked me to make a version of SYBIL that could be detected, and allowed to be used with their A500 version of AMAX (which was a little board that plugged into the floppy port). sardaukar_siet: Floppy port ?? Jim Drew: Yes, they read the ROMs through the floppy port... interesting idea... it also had an external floppy port for a real Macintosh floppy drive. sardaukar_siet: cool Jim Drew: At that time, Mac drives were about $200 each. SYBIL was $89. Jim Drew: So.. we came to an agreement that we would make a special version just for ReadySoft. Jim Drew: ... then, after completion, ReadySoft decided to not use our version and were going to be able to check for it and disallow its use! sardaukar_siet: ReadySoft really did bad with that sardaukar_siet: Didn't Apple got mad at all that copying thing? Jim Drew: Nope, Apple said nothing. Jim Drew: That little project cost us about $100,000. sardaukar_siet: Geez %( Jim Drew: We were so mad about what happened that we decided to make a Macintosh emulation of our own and compete with ReadySoft. Jim Drew: So... we made the world's first full color Macintosh emulation! sardaukar_siet: Oh, that was the start of Fusion, right ? Jim Drew: Nope... FUSION didn't come for another 6 years. sardaukar_siet: did it took that long for your product to finish ? Jim Drew: The product was called, "EMPLANT". It was basically a MacII motherboard on an Amiga plug-in card. sardaukar_siet: That sounds expensive. Jim Drew: It took about 8 months to design and debug the entire product (which sold for $399). sardaukar_siet: And did it sold ? Jim Drew: It had AppleTalk ports, SCSI port, etc. .. just like a real Macintosh... and we sold a ton of them. sardaukar_siet: How did ReadySoft react ... ? Jim Drew: They tried to compete by making a color version of their software, which was short lived, and we put them out of the emulation business. sardaukar_siet: You still have any of those boards ? sardaukar_siet: Because I own an Amiga 600 ;) ClockWise: Was Microcode Solutions in existance at this time? Jim Drew: Nope... Microcode Solutions was not formed until August 24th, 1996. Jim Drew: The boards require an Amiga with a Zorro slot. sardaukar_siet: Zorro ? Jim Drew: The is the name of the Amiga's plug-in socket... like ISA or PCI. sardaukar_siet: Does the 600 feature one ? Jim Drew: No. sardaukar_siet: DAMN sardaukar_siet: I just bought it a mont ago Jim Drew: We do have FUSION for the Amiga, but it does require a 68020 or newer CPU (which the A600 does not have either). sardaukar_siet: yeah sardaukar_siet: guess i'll stick with SpindDizzy Worlds.. ;) Jim Drew: Utilities Unlimited International, Incorporated was the name of the company that Joe and I worked for, and produced EMPLANT, MAC Lite (Software only version of EMPLANT), and eventually FUSION. sardaukar_siet: Joe ? Jim Drew: Joe Fenton Jim Drew: One of the programmers of FUSION-PC sardaukar_siet: Still works with you ? ClockWise: Does it still exist? Did you found it? Jim Drew: Yes. Jim Drew: Yes <- Joe still works with me. UUI went out of business in August of 1996. ClockWise: When you left... ;) Jim Drew: UUI went out of business because of ShapeShifter Jim Drew: I formed Microcode Solutions on August 24th, 1996. Next

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