Installing Mac OS Classic on Power Mac G5

[LOLZpersonok]

I've got a Power Mac G5 running Mac OS X 10.4.11 and I'd like to get Mac OS Classic support installed so I can run some of my older Mac OS 9 games on it. I scoured the Internet for help but I can't find anything that helped me.

Can someone help me out?

 

[eyoungren]

I've got a Power Mac G5 running Mac OS X 10.4.11 and I'd like to get Mac OS Classic support installed so I can run some of my older Mac OS 9 games on it. I scoured the Internet for help but I can't find anything that helped me.

Can someone help me out?

You'll need to copy over an already existing OS9 install from somewhere else. Once you do that, the Classic Pane will show up in System Preferences.

Apple deprecated Classic in OS X 10.4, although they did not remove support. Thus you cannot install it inside OS X and installing from an OS9 disk risks getting stuck in OS9 and being unable to boot OS X if you install OS9 on the same partition (assuming OS9 drivers has been installed when the drive was originally partitioned).

Since non-destructive partitioning of drives did not come along until Leopard, then you'd have to wipe OS X in order to repartition the drive and make sure OS9 drivers were installed.

 

[LOLZpersonok]

You'll need to copy over an already existing OS9 install from somewhere else. Once you do that, the Classic Pane will show up in System Preferences.

Apple deprecated Classic in OS X 10.4, although they did not remove support. Thus you cannot install it inside OS X and installing from an OS9 disk risks getting stuck in OS9 and being unable to boot OS X if you install OS9 on the same partition (assuming OS9 drivers has been installed when the drive was originally partitioned).

Since non-destructive partitioning of drives did not come along until Leopard, then you'd have to wipe OS X in order to repartition the drive and make sure OS9 drivers were installed.

Thanks for the reply.

Fortunately, I've got an iMac G3 with Mac OS 9 installed, so that should be no issue. I presume I simply copy over the system folder from my iMac to my Power Mac?

I've been keeping my Power Mac G5 on Tiger because if I recall properly, Leopard removed Classic entirely, but I'm not totally sure about that.

Lastly, just a random thought: It'd be kind of neat to see Mac OS 9 running natively on a Power Mac G5, even though it's neither possible nor practical.

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks for the reply.

Fortunately, I've got an iMac G3 with Mac OS 9 installed, so that should be no issue. I presume I simply copy over the system folder from my iMac to my Power Mac?

I've been keeping my Power Mac G5 on Tiger because if I recall properly, Leopard removed Classic entirely, but I'm not totally sure about that.

Lastly, just a random thought: It'd be kind of neat to see Mac OS 9 running natively on a Power Mac G5, even though it's neither possible nor practical.

You copy over the System Folder and the Apps folder.

Yes, Apple removed support for OS9 completely with Leopard. The only way you can run OS9 on a Leopard system is by using Sheepshaver.

As far as OS9 natively on a G5, who knows. They've managed to do it for certain Aluminum PowerBooks.

 

[647156]

Yes, Leopard removed Classic support, Tiger for PowerPC is the last that supports it (Tiger for Intel does not support it).

 

[Roman78]

Games in Classic-Mode won't run good. I tried it on a iMac G5 and got lots of Problems. The Classic-Mode is not made for games, only for Programs. So there is bad Colour and Multimedia support.

Like in "Full Throttle" the Cut Scenes are stuttering. Well the whole game is in Slow Motion

In "The Labyrinth of Time" the colours are totally weird.

I prefer a real OS9 above the Classic-Mode.

 

[0248294]

As far as OS9 natively on a G5, who knows. They've managed to do it for certain Aluminum PowerBooks.

Being realistic, OS9 running natively on a G5 isn't happening. The OS simply doesn't support the new architecture. OS9 supported the G4 arch, so that's why it managed to get hacked onto unsupported G4 hardware.

 

[eddjedi]

As I've recently found out many old 68k and PPC games do not even run well on OS 9. You're better off using something like Scumm VM or DosBox unless you have a Mac from the era the game was designed for.

 

[MagicBoy]

There was a CD bundled with some later machines that would install the OS9 files for classic onto a machine that won't boot it natively. Take a look at the software repository sites around and you'll likely find it...

 

[eddjedi]

You can also get a working OS 9 system folder legally direct from Apple here:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1192?locale=en_US