This page lists reader reports on Lismore's low-cost PC emulator software:

" The so called "Vaporware of the year" PC emulating software has been released finally.

I went to the site earlier that day [Friday] (around 12:30pm) and tried to order the software, but it wasn't available. I came back at about 1am and ordered and it went through. I downloaded the software (after paying online), and here are my initial impressions:

* When I unstuffed it with Stuffit Expander 5.1, it badly damaged the file. It's a .smi file, but wasn't even usable. At first I thought it was the Blue Label software, however I unbinhexed it with Compact Pro (remember that software?) and it worked fine.

* The download is small (2.8mb) and the software is CHEAP! $19.95 if you order online. No operating system included, but I guess it doesn't force Windows on you, right? ;)

* Customizeable up the wazoo! Everything, and I mean everything is customizeable. You can change the irq, dma, and port settings on the Soundcard, PCI Bus, SCSI Controller, IDE etc etc etc etc.

* When you set it up you can select what the boot order is, and Blue Label supports CD-ROM booting as well. You can set CD-ROM drives or image files as the C, D, E, F drives. It also supports SCSI. You have the option of changing the floppy eject command as well.

* The software includes an extension which, on startup much like BootX, asks if you want Blue Label or MacOS. You can also boot Blue Label from within MacOS. When you quit Blue Label it just sends you back into MacOS (no restart needed.)

* When a plugin gets damaged (such as the sound card) then it gives a warning and simply tells you to reinstall an original copy. To do this you don't have to go through the installer, you can just open the modules folder and take what you need.

* When the emulator boots up, it switches the monitor resolution to match what the PC is supposed to be (which is adjustable within Windows). Under the Display Adapters plugin you can set video ram, and what monitor it will appear on (if you have multiple monitors of course.)

* It does support viewing mac volumes from within the emulator (like VPC.)

* You can set optimization of FPU and CPU as well as cache size (for speed improvement.)

* You can set up 2 serial ports and a Parallel Port via the macs serial ports (obviously you can only have two since Macs have only Printer and Modem.)

* Supports Ethernet through a plugin.

* Supports 3Dfx and Voodoo2 Cards as well as other PCI cards through the PCI Bus plugin and the "Main Boards" plugin.

* It has a plugin for managing the extensions included with the program, as well as a mini-extensions manager. It has options for quitting all programs when Blue Label is launched as well as quitting Finder when Blue Label is launched.

Problems: It does crash. Not a ton, and mostly errors you can Command-Control-ESC out of with no harm, but be prepared for a few crashes. It is version 1.0, and it seems to run pretty stable while under the emulator, however the setup program and plugin preferences are a little on the unstable side.

The default amount of ram is 32mb, but I gave it 94mb, and performance went up a bit.

Over all I wouldn't say it was faster than VPC or RealPC, but I wouldn't say slower either. I will have to test it some more. It felt faster, but maybe that is because I'm so thrilled with the massive amounts of settings (you can never have to few settings :)

If I were given the choice between VPC, RealPC and Blue Label, I would pick Blue Label. Why? Because it's so configureable. Because of the way it's setup allows additional plugins to be added to enhance the program in the future. Not only that, but it will run Linux, and any other Intel compatible system software (Something that VPC supposedly can't do... but I can't confirm this.) Finally it's a butt-load cheaper than VPC. $19.99 compared to $49.99 is a big difference... DOS 6 can be bought at your localused software store for like 5-10 bucks and Win95 discs can be found anywhere.

Obviously this isn't for the Mac user who just wants to simply install and be done. VPC puts a pretty face on the emulation, as well as simplifying your options. Blue Label lets you do a whole lot more.

For reference I have a: Beige G3-266 with 128mb Ram, OS 8.5, USB Interex Card, 3Dfx Voodoo1 card.
--Charlie Ruggiero "

Other Reader Comments:

This B&W G3 Owner writes with his experience with the latest updated Blue Label:

"Hi,
I bought Blue Label yesterday and installed it on my new G3 350/DVD/128/6/Zip.

I gave 90 Mb of ram to it, configured it to recognize the DVD (1st device on the 2nd ide channel) I put one 150 Mb HD Image as the fisrt devive on the first ide channel and an other one 650 Mb as the second device on the first ide channel.

I restarted the Mac and it boot on the RedHat 5.2 x86 install disk. The installation process performed well (in fact the first time it didnt want to boot on the cd but adding a second slave drive image solved the problem). So i installed the RedHAt ont the 650 Mb image, put the Lilo on the MBR of the first 150Mb drive and reboot BlueLabel.

Everything works fine except that it freezes during the boot when it tries to setup the clock... Apparently, it doesn't find the clock from BlueLabel.

So i got an old cd from a Linux Book containign Caldera Linux (with one of the first 2.0x kernel. I boot from the cd, the installation process was very very slow but it worked, it boot, i got the term, was able to login. I got the XF86Setup utility to setup the XFree server, but i wasn t able to get X running. In fact, I wasn t able to find the spoecifications of the video card emulated by BlueLabel...

Last thing, I tried to boot from the 150 Mb image from Virtual PC. It worked if i boot in the "Without error mode from windows" (dont know the name exactly in english). Then I replaced the cdrom driver (in c:/cntx) by the one given with blue label (i gave it the same name : cdrom.sys) and it worked fine... under dos (i didnt have the time to test under windows but i only wanted to have access to a linux cd ;-))

[He later replied with an update on Linux:

NOW it's working :
- when the boot process freeze because of Setting CLock, just type CTRL-C ans it will go on
- then you can login
- to launch XWindows, just type Xconfigurator, chosse the Cirrus 542x card type, a monitor like : 1024x768 at 70 Hz and you will be able to use XWindows in 1024x768 8bits mode (i don t understand why it doesn want to go to 16 bits mode, but I ll try this later)

and now, I think I'm one of the first one to have a running Linux 5 with a 2.2 kernel on a Blue and White Mac. It works perfectly, quite as fast a P 166 MMX ! And, you can switch easily from Mac OS to Linux/BlueLabel...
It s perfect !

next stage : getting it recognizing my Adaptec 2906 and its CD Burner, testing sound capabilities, getting 16 bits X Windows working, having the internal modem recognized (but Blue Label itself doesn't recognize it), having the parallel port redirected to my usb 750 printer ...

still lot of work for BlueLabel guys :
- having more than 2 Mb of video memory
- recognizing the inernal G3 modem
- ability to redirect the parallel port with a usb printer

but, no bug since yesterday, linux works perfectly and it's a good thing as there are no news from the new "commercial" linuxppc :-(((
Eric Benard "

He later sent his B&W G3/Blue Lable Settings/Config as an aid to others:

" Hi,
still a few info about my configuration of Blue Label if that can help others:

activated:
- SuperVGA, with 2Mb of memory
- Keyboard & Mouse standard settings
- Mainboard stanard settings
- Processor Pentium : optimization : full, cache size : full
- Sound LSS
- Standard Dual IDE Controler :
IDE 1 : Dev 0 : 150 Mb dos HD Dev 1 : 650 Mb RedHat HD
IDE 2 : Dev 0 : ATAPI DVD Dev 1 : None (the zip isn't yet recognized)
Memory given to Blue Label Loader : 80 Mb"

This reader comments on B&W G3 problems and a note in their main Q&A page that they are working on B&W G3 compatibility:

"Even with their first update patch I've not be able to get the Blue Label product to work on my B&W G3 (350 Mhz (1024 KB L2 at 3:2), 192 MB RAM, 6 GB disk, DVD).

Running nearly the identical OS and extensions/controls (other ATI and DVD) on a G3 accelerated 7500 (250 Mhz (512 KB L2 at 3:2), 172 MB RAM, 2 GB disk, CD), the Blue Label product runs fine.

I did some tests on the B&W and discovered that it suffers from some extension sensitivity. Depending on what is loaded it either crash to MacsBug or dies with a type 2 error. Even running pure Apple System 8.5.1 (Base or All) doesn't help.

I sent them a message about this and then happened to notice on their site a Q&A that clearly stated that their product still doesn't work on a B&W G3.
mark "

I can only say the B&W G3 owner above says it's running for him.

Charlie Ruggiero, who sent the original comments above, replies again with some suggestions that may help others that reported (below) installation problems:

" I read the other user's comments and here is my response to them:

*I downloaded it and immediately checked "PCI Support" and "3Dfx" suport.

*I then gave it 96mb of ram.

*I changed the Processor settings from "Standard" cache to "large" (or whatever it's called)

*I set up my Hard drives... in fact I just used my clean backup of my VPC hard drive and it booted into Win95 fine. It did give a video card error, but other than that it was fine (I need to install the correct video drivers.)

*I changed the video ram to 2mb

Then I ran it, and it worked flawlessly. After it ran the first time I messed around with the settings and it crashed under the setup application, however it didn't take my whole system down.

I understand that people are having problems, but when it works fine for me, that's what I say. I didn't see any of the serious problems the other people had.

Again, I must re-state that this program is not for the person who wants to be able to just double-click and be running Win95/98... if you want that kind of program get SoftWindows98. Otherwise, you have to be willing to fiddle with settings. Maybe there are compatibilty issues with extensions... did everyone try disabling everything but essential extensions and control pannels? I'm assuming everyone tried the obvious: reset PRAM, rebuild desktop, etc.

Did you reinstall the program?
Did you delete preferences?
Did you turn off Virtual Memory or Turn it on if you turned it off?

My detailed system information:
G3/266 AV Tower
2mb Video RAM
128mb Ram, VIRTUAL MEMORY *_OFF_*
Hard Drive Cache is at 1240k (ish)
6.4 Quantum IDE stock apple drive
4.5 Viking II SCSI (internal)
Sony SCSI cdrom burner
Astra 1200s Scanner
Power3D Techworks 3Dfx card
USB Interex/XLR8 card
USB Cyborg 3D Joystick
Cable Modem via ethernet
System 8.5
IDE Stock CDROM
IDE Stock Zip
Motherboard is Revision 2
If you need some other information let me know.
Hope this helps Mike!
--Charlie Ruggiero "

Wayne Chang also replied again with a theory on why some owners may be having problems:

" I notice that all or almost all the people on the feedback page who claim problems are owners of machines with processor upgrades.

The machine I saw Blue Label on was a completely not-upgraded-from-the-factory G3 with a boatload of RAM and 10.5G of disk space, the original keyboard, the original mouse, the original processor, and no extra PCI cards [Note that Charlie above had both a USB and 3dfx card however, but it was an apple g3 system. perhaps that was their test platform-Mike].

Perhaps since this emulator digs down so deep hardware-wise it has trouble identifying whether or not to try to use a backside cache (and whether such a cache exists).

I stand by my claims (I was NOT paid by them) that Blue Label is not a bad product or a scam, but just not end-user-friendly. Perhaps people patient enough (to hack linux until it works, for example) would find this program to be just fine in its current state.

Oh yeah - and about documentation: there was documentation?! I can send in the Blue Label settings I used if anyone wants them.
--Wayne Chang "

Most readers commented they had problems with Blue Label:

This reader notes installation problems:

" Hi Mike!
I must disagree with Charlie on Blue Label. It's a good idea to have many settings, but the emulator just doesn't work very well. On my G3/233 MT 160/6GB/Orbit/Entrega PCI USB, OS 8.5.1, Blue Label wouldn't work unless I disabled Mouse support. The emulator would cause a hard crash every time I tried to launch it with Mouse support active!

I was able to install Win95 OSR2 eventually, without a mouse and after a lot of trial and error. The Ethernet module doesn't recognize my cable modem. The 24x CD ROM seems to be used at a very slow speed by Blue Label, since installation of Win95 took almost an hour (!!).

Lismore claims that PCI cards are supported by Blue Label. My Entrega PCI/USB card seemed like a good test of this, so I decided to install Win98 to test it (it requires Win98 on a PC). Installation took almost 3 hours, with frequent temporary locks up (the computer seems crashed for about 1-2 minutes, then comes back to life). And after all that trouble, Win98 crashed for good while trying to reboot for the last time (after the 'first time' reboot, where we are supposed to adjust some settings, like time, date, etc.). The Mac was not crashed, but quitting Blue Label and restarting it with Blue Label Loader resulted in a message saying that the HD image was corrupted. I gave up at that point.
[Name withheld by request] "

Another reader reports he was unable to get the product to run:

" I installed it, restarted, chose to boot with Mac OS. Ran Blue Label and 3/4 the way thru its "startup" phase it crashes..... I then restarted booted with Blue Label, computer freezes.... No matter what i have done, from no extensions to some extensions, It does not boot....

But then for $20 or so, what can one expect! [Well, it should at least run :-) -Mike]
My setup is a UMAX S900 RailGun G3 250/167, 336MB RAM......
Keep up the great work Mike!
Jeffery "

Rob Huigsloot reports with specifics on errors he saw:

" I ordered Lismore's Blue Label PowerEmulator and cannot get it to run at all. Errors type 2 and complete system freezes. I read a review at http://www.macwindows.com/lismore.html where it was stated that they could'nt get it to run, but they were talking about a beta release. I downloaded the manual and it looked ok. I thought, what the heck, 20 dollars won't kill me so I ordered and downloaded it anyway. Well, checking the 3Dfx setting results in an error type 2, adding more memory to the program results in a Pentium error. Launching with the standard settings results in a bios screen but then my keyboard won't respond any longer.
Rob Huigsloot "

More comments on crashing:

" Blue Label is actually quite good, price-to-performance-wise. It's really buggy in some places (I agree with Charlie Ruggiero) but it isn't a hoax.

Most importantly, the program crashes like crazy (MacsBug will catch an unimplemented instruction at address 00000000 and then crash the whole computer trying to es out of it) if you rename or move ANY files. I think it's some sort of bizarre copy protection or maybe just too-picky file checking.

BTW no offense to the developers but I saw this program running on a blue G3 and the graphics performance SUCKS. Which Einstein thought of using an ancient graphics card like Blue Label's? It's a Cirrus Logic card from like 1995 or 96 or so. WHY!!?! (Yes, I realize the answer is probably something related to licensing. But still.)

[The S3 928 emulated by VPC 1.0 is an even older chipset (S3 Trio 32/64 is emulated by VPC 2.x I'm told, but still a very old chip). I suspect the reason bland chipsets are emulated is a) for maximum compatibility - S3 and Cirrus are some of the more common older chipsets and b) They can't emulate a more advanced chip that many macs may not be able to support due to lack of video chip features or due to the fact that more advanced chipset emulation would be too high a performance hit.

Trying to emulate something more advanced would cause problems in directX and other 3D apps I suspect - as the app/game may think that hardware acceleration features are there that can't be emulated or would make the machine become molasses trying to emulate in software (you can't emulate fill rate, multitexture support or other high performance chipset features).-Mike]

Disk access is below Virtual PC's but better than Real PC's, and if you bump the program's RAM requirements it will run better by increasing the size of the virtual Pentium's instruction cache.

One more thing: despite how much I hate hate HATE the graphics card, I have to applaud the fact that it seems to be more compatible in general than either VPC or Real PC. DOS especially and BeOS to a lesser extent seem to work quite well, though I didn't actually try to fully install BeOS.

As soon as I get money, I'm going to buy my own copy instead of drooling after the one in the lab.
Wayne Chang "

Another reader has now changed his opinion a bit:

" You posted my earlier negative comments about Blue Label. Perhaps I spoke too harshly and too prematurely. I have finally been able to install Windows 95 with the emulator. I believe my installation problems say more about my lack of knowledge about Windows than anything else. This is not to say that everything has gone smoothly after installation. I haven't been able to figure out how to configure my Espon Stylus Color II printer to work and I can't configure Windows to recognize my modem. (Both my printer and modem work adequately under Virtual PC emulation.) I guess I would have to side with those who believe that Blue Label has some real potential once the problems have been worked out. Better documentation for Windows illiterates like me would go a long way toward improving the situation.
John Baughman "

I mentioned to John that the $20 price may not allow the to provide much as far as windows docs, but I'm sure there is room for improvement. Perhaps a list of recommended books on windows configuration, etc. (New Riders in general usually has excellent texts on Windows, and the MS Resource Guide also has a lot of technical details).