I want both ROMs for mini vmac. (PB100 for when the pb100 emulation is done/usable)
Don't hold your breath. There is very little reason for Paul to finish PB 100 emulator. That actually began as a research project when I asked him to verify the differences between the Portable ROMs and PB100s, mainly to validate Apple's claim that they were the same (which is not the case) and whether the Portable ROM had SCSI disk mode built in but not implemented. Per superpantoufle's question below, the PB 100 ROM offers very little in terms of running Mini vMac.
But my question remains (and it is a real question, no sarcasm or anything intended!): besides the coolness of displaying, let's say, "Macintosh Portable" in the "About this Mac" window , what's the point of emulating a specific machine? Is there any real difference, in speed or in emulation behavior?
In general you are correct. The Mac Plus through the Classic basically all work the same way, with each improved ROM incorporating the earlier. The only thing the Classic ads is access to the built-in system disk (pretty cool to boot into), but otherwise offers nothing of substance. The Portable and PB100 ROMs do allow for 8MB RAM. However, the Mac II port (which will be the next thing finished) will also do that and run all the same software and allow for a 640x480 color display – a much more useful development. There are enough differences in the 64K ROMs that they will not run some later software and vice-versa with the 128K ROMs. As far as emulators go, the specific hardware enabled by the various ROMs is moot. There are no SCSI ports, no expansion cards, no floppy disks, or any other hardware a specific ROM would take advantage of. The only advantage of a specific ROM is in the software emulation. Newer software is not likely to work with older ROMs and some older software will not run under newer ROMs. That means, depending on the software you want to run, having a ROM that is contemporary with it, or at least incorporates the code necessary to support features of the software.
