Mac OS 8 Emulator Available as a Downloadable App

[Boyd01]

Very cool. I think I still have some backups that go that far back, will have to give it a try with MacDraw II.

Electron also looks pretty cool, have been doing a lot of work with Javascript recently so I should check that out.

 

[ksgant]

I'm old enough to remember System 6 and later it's "Multifinder", which allowed the running of two programs at a time. Then the complete mess with multiple crashes with System 7. When System 8....sorry, "OS 8" came along, it fixed a lot of things, but it was still coopertative multitasking with no memory protections, which meant if something crashed, it could crash the entire system. So it was always "save save save" when working on anything. Do something, save. Do something a little more. Save. Etc etc.

We didn't get true multitasking until OS X, which was like a breath of fresh air, but even than took time to get everything over to it. And I realized I'm really old.

 

[2499723]

Always great to see people keeping classic Mac OS alive and kicking. The existing System x/Mac OS emulators are hanging on by a thread and I wouldn't be surprised to see SheepShaver finally buckle once Apple moves to ARM. The QEMU implementation was a little half-baked as well. Having alternatives will be important to maintain this slice of our digital history. I have so many 68k/PPC machines that I tend to avoid emulation, but the hardware won't last forever (even with recaps and battery replacements), so emulation remains an important method of preserving our fond memories of yesteryear.

 

[Boyd01]

When System 8....sorry, "OS 8" came along, it fixed a lot of things, but it was still coopertative multitasking with no memory protections

There was a product back then called MachTen that was basically BSD unix running as a task on System 8. I thought that was really cool and wrote a bunch of software. Even used it to roll out a web and mail server for my company in the early 1990's. Of course, it was pretty slow and the lack of hardware memory management made it crash-prone. But pretty impressive back in the days before MacOS X was introduced! The MachTen website is still there.

Tenon Intersystems : Products : MachTen

 

[LimeiBook86]

This is very cool! It's nice to have this available without having to deep-dive into setting up an emulator. Although I keep tripping over myself by using Command-W to close a Classic Mac OS window... and I end up closing the entire app. Oops

 

[MacD]

This is pretty cool.

Would love to see a IIGS emulator of similar design.

I would be playing a lot of Zany Golf and Arkanoid...

I have an Apple IIGS complete with the 5.25/3.5 drives and Imagewriter II. But it's still more fun to play it on something like this on my current mac...

GSplus - The Apple IIgs emulator

I just ran it and it started running Space Quest. So works fine on latest and greatest OS.

 

[bad03xtreme]

I just want the Oscar the Grouch trash can!!

 

[DogHouseDub]

That is amazing... where do people find the time for amazing pet projects like this?!

thank SARS-COV2

 

[Aston441]

I'm old enough to remember System 6 and later it's "Multifinder", which allowed the running of two programs at a time. Then the complete mess with multiple crashes with System 7. When System 8....sorry, "OS 8" came along, it fixed a lot of things, but it was still coopertative multitasking with no memory protections, which meant if something crashed, it could crash the entire system. So it was always "save save save" when working on anything. Do something, save. Do something a little more. Save. Etc etc.

We didn't get true multitasking until OS X, which was like a breath of fresh air, but even than took time to get everything over to it. And I realized I'm really old.

we're all reliving the horrible lack of multitasking on iOS

or did you miss that?

 

[Candurin]

The Oregon Trail was the game back then, played it for hours at the public library...

However, it can’t compete with the version we played on the Apple II in our school library in the mid 80’s.

 

[iShater]

Time to find that USB Floppy Drive.

 

[Mousse]

Yas!

I've got a bunch of old Ambrosia games I want to play again. And my all time favorite vintage game: Spaceward Ho!🤠

 

[now i see it]

Many members here never experienced Mac OS 8 as it came out 29 years ago.
But I remember it well.
Coming from the previous Mac System 7, it was kinda a jaw dropper. Really fancy compared to System 7 but still familiar. It really seem futuristic and advanced back then compared to what had come before and what was available on Windows (3.1).

We may scoff at Mac OS 8 now, but back then it really was a big deal

 

[centauratlas]

Strategic Conquest.
Wizardry.

I have Basilisk to run things like that occasionally. I don't have a copy of Wizardry anymore though.

Now we just need "Magic Windows" word processor for the Apple ][ from 1980 or 1981...

 

[Floop]

I just want the Oscar the Grouch trash can!!

I LOVE IT, BECAUSE it's TRAAAAAASH!

 

[phenste]

wow

I think i still have everything saved off my old PowerBook 165...

Wonder if I can get it up and running again.

I turned off off for the last time about 1999.

America was so much nicer then. Wonderful beyond what those who never experienced it can imagine.

Before the shift.

I think often about how if I had been born 10-20 years before I was, I would most likely have been a victim of the AIDS epidemic. Or might have been the victim of a violent crime—the way that my mother was, when she lived in New York City in the early ‘90s, and 1) had her car stolen, 2) had her clothing stolen, 3) was mugged and sexually assaulted. Did you know violent crime has sharply declined since then?

Oh, how the shift has bludgeoned society. An incredibly insightful comment on your part.

 

[copperbutte]

I can finally play SimAnt again.

Dark Castle for me

 

[Mr. Dee]

Well, I know what I will be doing when I get home from work this evening 🙂

I currently have a PowerBook Wallstreet with Mac OS 9 and 10.0.4 dual booting. I like playing around with it every now and then. Amazing to see how far we have just from the beginnings of OS X.

Steve Jobs was in some parts wrong about us not seeing the sediments at the bottom of the mountain. Emulation has in some ways helped us to experience or re-experience the foundations of the early software industry.

 

[2499723]

Many members here never experienced Mac OS 8 as it came out 29 years ago.

Don't you dare remind me that I'm old - the truth stings. I remember you could copy the 'Appearance Manager' file over to the System Folder on System 7.5 and 7.6 to give it the 'platinum' window theme. It was like a poor man's OS 8! Also, I believe 8.1 was the last OS to run natively on 68k Macs. In fact, I think I have 8.1 installed on my Performa 630 CD.

 

[FelixDerKater]

Someone please complete Copland and release that in an emulator. The future of computing is still in 1996.

 

[Baumi]

I watched one of old Jeopardy's the other week, and the answer was "this trail was followed by Wagoneers headed west in the mid 19th century" or something. My wife was like "thats so obvious, how could anyone get that wrong" and I had to remind her, this show was from 1990. They were still calling Hamburg part of West Germany. Millions of kids our age had not spent Months playing the little game called Oregon Trail, and was as engrained in our history.

According to Wikipedia, the legacy of the Oregon Trail game goes back all the way to the 1970s, and the first home computer versions were released in the early-to-mid 1980s as educational software. I would guess that, by 1990, the game had already made quite a name for itself among high schoolers. So, at the time of the broadcast, this may have been one of those questions which kids found easier to answer than their parents.

 

[satchmo]

And the old schoolers come out (myself included).

 

[neoelectronaut]

My old man heart overfloweth with nostalgia.

 

[progx]

It's pretty cool. Quite the trip down memory lane.

However, I didn't have Mac OS 8 on my Performa, I was basically stuck on 7.6 until my parents bought the 1999 iMac DV SE Graphite model, then we got Mac OS 9 preinstalled.

Yes, we upgraded to Mac OS X, but when 10.1 rolled out (Puma) and it went all the way to 10.4. Reliable IBM chipset, it even gave my parents 2004 eMac (USB 2.0 model) a run for its money with 1GB of RAM. It still runs today, it just needs a new PRAM battery and it thinks the date is 12/31/1969 any time you boot it up.

 

[rgbrock1]

What, we can't run eWorld in the app? LOL!