Apple Macintosh (via PC card)

Executor is a commercial program, produced for the PC by a company called Ardi. What it does is to take programs written for the Apple Mac, and alter them, so that they run on a PC. They've done this by recompiling the code into a PC version, and writing their own version of the Mac Operating System resources for the PC, so that this software can run. This results in a very fast emulation, compared to the standard method of interpretive emulation. However it still has the standard emulator drawback that only specific software that Ardi have tested on it can be guarenteed to work (though most other stuff will).

The good news is that Ardi have tested a lot of mainstream Mac software, and even more importantly for Acorn users, Executor will work on an Acorn via a PC Card. There is a free downloadable demo (follow the link below) and you will then be able to use Mac software on your Acorn, though the demo is 2Mb in size, and runs for 10 minutes before quitting.

Executor has been ported to many other systems, including OS/2, Linux and NEXTSTEP, so I sent an email to ardi enquiring about porting it to the Acorn, but received the following reply: "Unfortunately we don't have the resources for a port currently. This may change in the future." - Bill Goldman, which was pretty much what I was expecting anyway, but it was worth a try. If you'd like to see it converted, you might like to send them an email!

Ardi specify that you should have at least 8Mb on your PC, Michael has started it on his PC card with 24Mb and has had no problems.

There's a screenshot of Executor working on an Acorn screenshot on acorn at another Acorn site (being passed off as a Mac emulator). Also a screenshot of executor working in Linux - it may work on ARM Linux! Micheal Koenig took 2 screenshots for me, the one on the left is of the executor demos title screen. The one on the right is of the speed benchmark program supplied with executor, to give you an idea of its speed capabilities. Relative to vMac and other 68000 systems (eg. ST, Amiga) it is extremely fast, and reports to run multiple times faster than a real mac! Apparently lemmings is playable running it on a PC card! Click on the thumbnails below to view.

Executor runs very fast and the sound works most of the time. Executor can read Mac disks - although they say it's rather slow. Disk images are to be prefered. Executor can read the same disk images as vMac. I got all my disks from the site whose URL you get when you download vMac. But there is one thing to remember: Executor doesn't recognize files with the extension '.DSK'; just rename eg. 'Apps1.DSK' to 'Apps1.HFV' and copy it in the directory where Executor resides, then you get a disk named 'Apps1' in Executor.

Michael got a warning for all the programs he tried on the emulator, all are on 'Apps1.dsk' and 'Games1.dsk' from the vMac software site - this message is shown in the image on the right. Whatever this means, some of the programs work well, others not, and some bring Executor into a state that it has to be restarted (although you don't have to leave the emulator itself), or Executor exits to DOS with a 'General Protection Fault', or simply hangs. I guess the real answer is not to rely on it, but a lot of things should work.

From the software Michael tested, Glider, Hobbit, Orion, Stuntcopter and hypercard play all run ok. Lode Runner, Space bubbles, MacPaint and TeachText run not so well and Shadowgate, ResEdit, MacWrite and MacDraw don't run at all.

Emulators:
http://www.ardi.com/download.html to download the demo for all above platforms

Software:
An Unofficial Executor page