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Making Classic /OS 9 work on Intel Macs

I

Irishman

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 2, 2006
3,464
862
I've not found much on if this is possible (for me in order to play older games like Undying, Future Cop LAPD, Unreal, etc) on a new Intel Mac.

Is there some third-party solution that would allow me to install and run OS 9 or run these games?
 
Haven't done it myself but Sheepshaver claims to do exactly this.

Sheepshaver's website said:
it enables you to run PowerPC Classic MacOS software on your computer, even if you are using a different operating system
Click to expand...
 
What you need is something like SheepShaver.

LOL. Beaten to it. You'll also need the OS 7.5.5 downloads from the Apple website and an Apple ROM, which you should be able to extract from the Apple Firmware Updater download for the iMac G3. I've got a working setup running, but I'm on PowerPC so I don't know what the performance on an Intel Mac will be like.
 
Using Sheep Shaver is almost sickening. You'd actually be better off buying an old PowerMac for a few dollars on eBay. Depending on what you want to run, you probably won't need anything too fancy.
 
dpaanlka said:
Using Sheep Shaver is almost sickening. You'd actually be better off buying an old PowerMac for a few dollars on eBay. Depending on what you want to run, you probably won't need anything too fancy.
Click to expand...


Well, the titles I mentioned would be the most resource-intensive I'd be using. Most important for me would be video card support. Can Sheepsaver do 3D acceleration? I didn't see anything on the site.
 
Irishman said:
Well, the titles I mentioned would be the most resource-intensive I'd be using. Most important for me would be video card support. Can Sheepsaver do 3D acceleration? I didn't see anything on the site.
Click to expand...

Sheep shaver does not do 3D. You won't be able to use any of that with Sheep Shaver.

A G3 iMac would serve you well.
 
I've had real difficulty running SheepShaver on a non-dual-boot PPC. It's not even "native" on Intel, so I imagine results would be worse. Fairly old games, some 3D (Mechwarrior 2, Total Annihilation) worked only a little before crashing. I second the idea that it can't handle games. I also second the idea of getting an old Mac. If you have a monitor, you can probably pick up a beige or even B&W G3 (not iMac) for under $30.

EDIT: Should add that, at least according to the SheepShaver FAQ, you need System 8.5 or higher for Mac; it's only Linux, for whatever reason, that can run 7.5.5. System 8 and above, last I checked, are NOT freely available from Apple; you'd need a disc to do it (think I used a System 8.6 restore from an iMac)


"In Mac OS X: PowerPC MacOS 8.5 up to MacOS 9.0.4 "
 
dpaanlka said:
Using Sheep Shaver is almost sickening. You'd actually be better off buying an old PowerMac for a few dollars on eBay. Depending on what you want to run, you probably won't need anything too fancy.
Click to expand...

I agree.

I wish I was a coder and could mash something up. I'm not though... :(
 
mathwhiz90601 said:
I was going to use SheepShaver myself. The raw native speed increase from my G3 350 mhz to a new iMac I would expect to more than compensate for the drop with SheepShaver emulation.
Click to expand...

It all depends what architecture you're running the emulation on. Using Intel it's not so great. Give it a shot and let us know how it performs. :)
 
Why don't you find the windows versions of those games and run it in bootcamp or parallels? I believe most are now abandonware so they'll probably be available on one of those abandonware sites.
 
I've been to SheepShaver hell and back. It's far easier and cheaper on your time to go the G3 iMac route.

That's what I did... ;)
 
harveypooka said:
It all depends what architecture you're running the emulation on. Using Intel it's not so great. Give it a shot and let us know how it performs. :)
Click to expand...

It's not so much emulation speed as stability - and on a G4, where it's running natively, it's quite unstable. Be nice if we could get an improved version of this. You'd think, with all the legacy OS 9 apps + Intel switch, there'd be more effort on getting Classic/System 9 to run on Intel.

bigandy said:
I've been to SheepShaver hell and back. It's far easier and cheaper on your time to go the G3 iMac route.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I was quite keen on getting SheepShaver running, but once I saw the results, it quickly faded into an obscure, nifty-but-useless fad.
 
aidanpendragon said:
Should add that, at least according to the SheepShaver FAQ, you need System 8.5 or higher for Mac; it's only Linux, for whatever reason, that can run 7.5.5. System 8 and above, last I checked, are NOT freely available from Apple; you'd need a disc to do it (think I used a System 8.6 restore from an iMac)

"In Mac OS X: PowerPC MacOS 8.5 up to MacOS 9.0.4 "
Click to expand...

dynamicv said:
Good point. Looking now I have set up 9.0.4 in Sheepshaver and 7.5.5 in Basilisk. Shows how often I use it doesn't it? :)
Click to expand...

That's actually completely false:

Picture 1.jpg

Taking a quick gander at this Sheep Shaver system I have here (running on a Mac Pro 2.66), I find it significantly slower than my Power Mac 8600 that I have next to the Mac Pro. There also appears to not only be no 3D acceleration, but no 2D acceleration either. Using Window Shade cause the system to crash, and it is overall just horrible to use.

Just buy an iMac G3.
 
dpaanlka said:
That's actually completely false:

Taking a quick gander at this Sheep Shaver system I have here (running on a Mac Pro 2.66), I find it significantly slower than my Power Mac 8600 that I have next to the Mac Pro. There also appears to not only be no 3D acceleration, but no 2D acceleration either. Using Window Shade cause the system to crash, and it is overall just horrible to use.
Click to expand...

Uh, maybe the reason it crashes when you try to do anything is b/c you're running an OS that's not supported? You can't use a setup that doesn't really work as proof that we're wrong in, um, saying that that setup doesn't really work! In any case, I didn't write that FAQ; SheepShaver's author did, and you'd expect him to know.

Pretty sure the Windowshade feature works in my setup using 8.6.

Regardless, BASIC CONCLUSION: SheepShaver is not a viable option for OS 7/8/9 gaming; you're better off getting a G3 of any flavor for cheap if you're serious about doing it.
 
aidanpendragon said:
Uh, maybe the reason it crashes when you try to do anything is b/c you're running an OS that's not supported?
Click to expand...

No, it crashes when you try to do any real activity on any of the OSes. I was just illustrating that System 7 could be run. So yes, you were wrong on that.

aidanpendragon said:
You can't use a setup that doesn't really work as proof that we're wrong in, um, saying that that setup doesn't really work!
Click to expand...

Sure it does. Window Shade in System 7 is most certainly not the only thing that makes Sheep Shaver crash. I've used 7.5.5, 7.6.1, 8.1, 8.6, and 9.1 in Sheep Shaver. They all are unstable when you try to do anything with them, and each have their own little bugs. Sheep Shaver likes to randomly crash for no reason wahtsoever, such as opening files and changing resolution or launching programs. There is no predicting when Sheep Shaver might unexpectedly quit.

System 7 in Sheep Shaver works just as good as any other Mac OS in Sheep Shaver... like crap.

aidanpendragon said:
In any case, I didn't write that FAQ; SheepShaver's author did, and you'd expect him to know.
Click to expand...

No... I don't.
 
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