New Tiger Mac Mini - Is Classic possible?

[Andy G]

My old iMac died - AWWWW!

My kids have loads of OS9 games/education stuff.

I wanted to buy a Mac Mini 1.42 with 512 Ram to replace it, since I have a screen etc from different, also dead (G3 beige) set-up.

All suppliers now say that new Minis are shipping with 10.4, and this does not support Classic like 10.3 did. They can't say whether any old stock machines carry 10.3.

Following other threads, it seems like if you are upgrading to Tiger, you can use your older discs to re-install Classic support into Tiger.

But my question is . . .

Can you add Classic to a machine which shipped with Tiger, so no 10.3 discs using a different machine (I have 10.2.8 from a Titanium Powerbook I use - will this work?)

Can you downgrade a Tiger machine to 10.3, then upgrade again to Tiger, and if so, will only discs from an older Mini work? (OK, I know this sounds bizarre, but no way am I buying all their OS9 software again in OSX, despite what Apple would like me to do.) I would, of course have to try to obtain 10.3 from somewhere.

Fall back position is to buy an older eMac which a dealer has, but this is not my preference.

Please help - the kids are eyeing up my Powerbook, and they ain't getting it!

I need to sort this out urgently . . .

Andy G

 

[the future]

I didn't try this, but I think you should be able to boot your TiBook in Firewire-Disk-Mode and just copy the OS 9 system folder and your OS 9 apps folder to the Mini HD.

I made a simple upgrade to Tiger (no clean install/archive and install) and Classic runs just fine.

 

[JeffTL]

Classic runs pretty well on Tiger -- don't worry about it.

 

[Andy G]

I know Classic works fine when upgrading - I am running Tiger on my Titanium Powerbook, having jumped from 10.2.8.

My query is whether it will run on a Mac Mini not yet purchased, which will ship with Tiger and therefore has never had a system with Classic support.

I have been informed by the dealer that Classic is not supported in Tiger, and various threads here seem to confirm this. The fixes always seem to involve re-installing Classic support from the original earlier installer discs. My potentially new machine won't have these . . .

Anyone tried this with a native Tiger yet, and if so, what was the result?

 

[ITASOR]

I'm pretty sure you can install "classic" from any OS 9.2.2 disk (or 9.1 w/ upgrades) and then select that as classic. I'm not sure, but that's what I did on both my iBook, iMac 333, and QuickSilver and it worked fine. Classic is yucky though, so if you don't need it don't use it.

 

[pulsewidth947]

Like JeffTL said, you can run Classic in Tiger. Its easier to install it when installing Tiger than it is to install it after.

Not sure whos telling you that Classic doesnt work with Tiger - there is this page on Apples Tiger support site that explains about running Classic apps so it must work. Here are instructions telling you how to install Classic under Tiger. Cant give you a definate answer as I dont even own any OS 9 apps!

Its amazing what some googling can do

 

[MisterMe]

My old iMac died - AWWWW!

My kids have loads of OS9 games/education stuff.

I wanted to buy a Mac Mini 1.42 with 512 Ram to replace it, since I have a screen etc from different, also dead (G3 beige) set-up.

All suppliers now say that new Minis are shipping with 10.4, and this does not support Classic like 10.3 did. They can't say whether any old stock machines carry 10.3.

Following other threads, it seems like if you are upgrading to Tiger, you can use your older discs to re-install Classic support into Tiger.

But my question is . . .

Can you add Classic to a machine which shipped with Tiger, so no 10.3 discs using a different machine (I have 10.2.8 from a Titanium Powerbook I use - will this work?)

Can you downgrade a Tiger machine to 10.3, then upgrade again to Tiger, and if so, will only discs from an older Mini work? (OK, I know this sounds bizarre, but no way am I buying all their OS9 software again in OSX, despite what Apple would like me to do.) I would, of course have to try to obtain 10.3 from somewhere.

Fall back position is to buy an older eMac which a dealer has, but this is not my preference.

Please help - the kids are eyeing up my Powerbook, and they ain't getting it!

I need to sort this out urgently . . .

Andy G

Let us get this clear. Classic works just fine with MacOS X 10.4. I have MacOS X 10.4 and I have Classic installed. On my new 2.7 GHz G5, I had to install Classic from the DVD that shipped with the computer. The bottomline is that whoever told you that Classic doesn't work with MacOS X 10.4 is full of $h!t. Pay him no mind.

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

Classic ships with all new Macs, no?

 

[Makosuke]

Your confusion probably comes from Apple's slightly odd naming convention; when they say "Classic Support", they're actually talking about an OS9 System Folder, not the ability to run Classic at all.

So, when you "install Classic support", what you're really doing is putting a basic OS9 System Folder on the disc. As such, Tiger (and probably Tiger-only Macs) do not ship with "Classic Support", but that doesn't mean that Tiger can't use Classic--merely that there isn't an installer for OS9 that comes with it.

Contrast this with "Tiger supports Classic" (it does), meaning that given a working OS9 System Folder it can run Classic, which it does just fine on any installation.

So, your question isn't whether a machine that ships with Tiger will support Classic--the answer to that is an unequivocal "yes"--it's how you get it on there.

So far as I know, Apple's not actually shipping a Classic installer with computers anymore (although it MIGHT be an extra somewhere on the DVDs that come with the machine), so you'll need to get it from some other source: copy it from an existing installation (for example, a PowerBook with 9.2 installed or another OSX machine that already has a Classic folder present), or use the Classic installer off of an older set of Mac install discs.

Good luck.

 

[Andy G]

Thanks everyone,

With all that said I'm now happy, and have just ordered my new Mini with 512 ram to give it a bit more 'poke' !

Can't wait!

Andy

Powerbook 500c (alive but resting peacefully) G3 233 beige (dead), iMac 350 (dead) G3 Powerbook Pismo (alive) G4 15" Titanium (alive!!!)

Proud expectant father of a new Mac Mini, due in the immediate future.

 

[Andy G]

Great news!!!

The Mini is here and absolutely fantastic value (Garageband is worth the price alone!)

It shipped with !0.3.7, but also came with a Tiger upgrade disk and an OS9 disk, so I immediately upgraded and installed Classic and it all is fine, running the kids old OS9 games very smoothly.

I also managed to hook the Mini up to an extremely ancient (1995) Applevision 1710AV monitor - the one with the big ugly speakers at the bottom, and hey presto! big booming sound, much better than from the built-in Mini speaker. OK, so everything looks pink, but adds a whole new dimension to some of the games!!!

One slight glitch - when the Mini goes to sleep, the screen goes black and won't re-awake without force-quitting the Mini by holding the button on the rear and then re-starting, this seems to kick-start the monitor - I don't like this, so the other option seems to be to keep whatever program there is always running, but I don't really like this either.

Any thoughts (apart from buying a new monitor, please!)

Thanks and in bliss,

Andy

 

[TrenchMouth]

I know people have valid reasons for switching back to OS 9 every now and then, but the only reason I do is for Unreal Tournament GOTY.

Right now i am using Netscape 7 in OS 9. For the most part it is just painful to use. lol. It just feels far behind where we stand with X. I will still want to play UT in the future (I prefer it to UT2k3, but not so much 4), so it is nice to know that Classic will still run, but I feel its days are numbered. Especially with the x86 on teh horizon.

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

I know people have valid reasons for switching back to OS 9 every now and then, but the only reason I do is for Unreal Tournament GOTY.

Right now i am using Netscape 7 in OS 9. For the most part it is just painful to use. lol. It just feels far behind where we stand with X. I will still want to play UT in the future (I prefer it to UT2k3, but not so much 4), so it is nice to know that Classic will still run, but I feel its days are numbered. Especially with the x86 on teh horizon.

Yeah, I for one won't be too sad to see Classic gone for good once we have Rosetta/Macintels here.

I see you're in Jupiter Florida. My aunt lives in Jupiter Inlet Colony (I was there just this past April) and it's an amazing place for sure. You just *feel* like money when you're there.

 

[zach]

I know people have valid reasons for switching back to OS 9 every now and then, but the only reason I do is for Unreal Tournament GOTY.

Right now i am using Netscape 7 in OS 9. For the most part it is just painful to use. lol. It just feels far behind where we stand with X. I will still want to play UT in the future (I prefer it to UT2k3, but not so much 4), so it is nice to know that Classic will still run, but I feel its days are numbered. Especially with the x86 on teh horizon.

There's a patch for the original UT to run natively in OS X. It's not officially supported, and misses the ability to run in a window (i.e. you have to do fullscreen) but it runs great otherwise.s