Optimal pre-OS X Mac for gaming

I generally like a 604 based mac running OS 8. Seems to have a wide breadth of capability. Probably would want a G3 or G4 for some of the newer stuff though. I have both, a Cube and a 9600.

Laptops, I'm not sure, I'm not familiar with the Powerbooks of that era. I had a Pismo that I loved to death, built like a tank, fast, stylish. I still think it was the best laptop apple ever made.

Persevere with the quest to get Basilisk II / SheepShaver working. Ask for help if you have to.

One of the titanium PBG4's would be ideal, I had the 500MHz but they went all the way up to 1GHz. Had a Lombard G3 too, great machine, but for the OS9 games you felt you needed a bit more power, even just a jump to a G4.

kaltsasa said:

I had a Pismo that I loved to death, built like a tank, fast, stylish. I still think it was the best laptop apple ever made.

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It is!
Magazine site puts it at the best laptop Apple ever made.

You can get and early Aluminum G4 PowerBook to run all your classic games. I think they boot into Classic just fine (but check it out first).

The fastest Mac that can boot OS 9.2 is the G4 MDD 1.25 Ghz, if you can find one with an Nvidia GeForce 4Ti then you'll have the ultimate pre-OS X machine.
Laptop wise one of the Powerbook G4 Titaniums is snappy enough for some good old school gaming, both the above machines are also useable for light work/email/web browsing today and make excellent backup computers.

What about one of those 12" powerbook's?

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/apple-powerbook-g4-12/4505-3121_7-31278844.html

The 12" are lovely machines but the problem with any kind of 3D gaming on them is the pathetic GeForce 5200 GPU.

If space is really at a premium, you should put in the effort to get Sheepshaver/Basilisk running. I'm all for purchasing vintage hardware, but if you're not in it for the nostalgia, it makes more sense to just emulate it, IMO.

Here's a very helpful link for sheepshaver:

http://www.redundantrobot.com/sheepshaver-tutorial/

kylera said:

It's not to the point that I can barely get into my room

It's just that should I put in a tower Mac, I need to re-arrange stuff, not to mention add another monitor on top of that. So there's also a tidiness element somewhere.

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I think you can get a switch so you can use just one monitor for both of your computers. But if you really want a laptop, either go for the Pismo, or a G4 Titanium. Both are good computers for their age, I personally prefer the design of the pismo.

I would also go for a Pismo if you can find one in great shape. The design is possibly the best I've ever seen from Apple aside from the unibody MacBook Pro.

I myself had a Wallstreet G3 and amazingly, the battery still would keep that laptop running for over an hour. Still, it had it's drawbacks (no built in AirPort, and I didn't have the DVD decoder), so on eBay it went.

The Pismo is essentially a premium version of the early 14" IceBook being far easier to work on and it was just a much better machine for classic Mac gaming

Rodus said:

The fastest Mac that can boot OS 9.2 is the G4 MDD 1.25 Ghz, if you can find one with an Nvidia GeForce 4Ti then you'll have the ultimate pre-OS X machine.
Laptop wise one of the Powerbook G4 Titaniums is snappy enough for some good old school gaming, both the above machines are also useable for light work/email/web browsing today and make excellent backup computers.

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The GF 4Ti did not have hardware acceleration (in the Mac drivers) so it was not that great as a gaming card in the Mac as I recall I would instead recommend an ATI 9800 card which you can get in a 128MB config. As the second card get a Voodoo 5500 card (very very rare) and the leaked final drivers if you want to play any unreal game like unreal tournament 99 or DeusEx the Voodoo card looks amazing.

I had a setup like this until the motherboard died, the only downside to the dual G4 was the noise they are not quiet my G4 was called Dyson for a reason

Edwin

Realmz and Marathon will run on every PPC mac just fine. I played Marathon and Realmz on my Centris 650 (25 mhz and 16MB RAM).

SHeepshaver runs great on OSX tho, you just need to find a decent ROM file.

G4 powerbooks went up to 1.5GHZ. I know as I have one in the attic. A beautiful 15'' unit. I think I was able to run Classic on it but don't quote me on that, as I was never much interested in Classic mode.

You should be able to get a 15'' or 17'' 1.5ghz PowerBook quite cheaply nowadays, possibly with max RAM (I think 2GB?). I see no good reason to get any less as you have the advantage of lovely screen, large RAM, pretty fast processor, beautiful laptop with backlit keyboard, and RAM / power cord / batteries are still somewhat available.

PracticalMac said:

You can get and early Aluminum G4 PowerBook to run all your classic games. I think they boot into Classic just fine (but check it out first).

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Aluminum Powerbooks only will run Classic mode under OS X, they won't boot full classic, which makes them sub par machines for games. I know of quite a few old school games that don't work with Classic.

The last laptop that could do a full OS 9 boot was the Titanium Powerbook. That is as new as I would go. They run up to 1 ghz.

Apple also had a special run of late model G4 towers that could boot OS 9. I have a dual processor 1.25 G4 that boots OS 9.

I would also think an iBook G3 would suit your needs quite well.

Another thumbs up for a Pismo Powerbook or any of the Titanium Powerbook G4s. My 1ghz TiBook still runs pretty well!