PowerBook g4 (aluminium)

[bear_kz]

Hello.
I was given a PowerBook g4 (aluminium), OS 10.5.8 is installed, but I want to use it only for old games - Marathon, Maelstrom, etc.
I tried to install OS X Lion, but when loading from the installation disk it freezes - the cursor is on the screen, but there is no response.
Help with the solution!

 

[Bigwaff]

I tried to install OS X Lion, but when loading from the installation disk it freezes

Lion only supports Intel Macs. Mac OS 10.5 Leopard is the last native Power PC version of Mac OS.

 

[bear_kz]

Lion only supports Intel Macs. Mac OS 10.5 Leopard is the last native Power PC version of Mac OS.

I read that “you can run old games,” but I couldn’t find a working method.
Do you happen to know?

 

[mac57mac57]

I fear that you will have to find games that can be run up to and including 10.5.8 Leopard (or the marvelous 10.5.9 Sorbet Leopard). Your PowerBook G4 only supports up to and including 10.5.9. After that, you need Intel Macs.

By the way, have you tried the truly vintage game Digger? Digger is an internet/web phenomenon, starting life as a 1981 PC game, and ultimately becoming a still current multi-platform product. I have played Digger on early PCs, later PCs, later Macs and Linux. It is a wonderful "platform" type game.

Digger is an older game, but you don't need an older computer to play it. I still play Digger to this day ... on my M1-Max MacStudio). Check out www.digger.org for current and older versions of Digger.

For the record, I have none, zero, nada association with Digger. I am just a fanatical player since the late 80s... 40 years? Yup! Digger is THAT good!

 

[Project Alice]

You already have the latest OS available for that PowerBook. 10.5.9 is a fan optimization, it is still 10.5.8.
Marathon is the only name I recognize out of the games you listed. I am pretty sure marathon is a classic (Mac os 9 or under) app, which would mean you actually need 10.4.11 Tiger, and would be needing to downgrade. Leopard doesn't do classic apps. I don't think there are any games which do work on leopard that won't also work on Tiger.

 

[repairedCheese]

Oh! I see some of the confusion, Maelstrom is a much older game. As in, it was made for 68k. If you're trying to play 90's games, you are, at the very least, going to need to downgrade to 10.4 and install 9 for Classic mode. Your G4 should support that. It's not a perfect solution, and to be honest, your Mac isn't really the right machine to do that job. Games from the 90s can get weird about Classic mode, and often need to run directly in OS 9.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Games from the 90s can get weird about Classic mode, and often need to run directly in OS 9.

I've only found one pre OS X game that actually worked properly in Classic and that's Dark Forces. Everything else has been unplayable or unusable.

 

[repairedCheese]

I've only found one pre OS X game that actually worked properly in Classic and that's Dark Forces. Everything else has been unplayable or unusable.

I mean, it's great if you want to play Civilization 1, SimCity, or anything else that uses the OS 9's windowing system, there's actually a ton of games from that era that didn't go full screen and just used whatever the operating system offered. Windows didn't do nearly as well before 95 came out and DOS offered nothing. Of course if I'm actually going to play Civ1 again, it'll be the SNES version, but SimAnt or SimLife? Sure, SimCity 2000 has a 32-bit Window port everyone seems to have forgotten about which needs some hacking to work properly on Windows 10, but good luck playing 16-bit SimAnt or SimLife properly on modern Windows. Yes, Winevdm is a thing that runs 16-bit apps in 64-bit Windows, but it struggles with games every bit as much as Classic struggles with more demanding OS 9 and older Mac games.

And at that point, you're better off either running XP or OS 9, depending on the game.

I probably spend way too much time thinking about the easiest ways to play old games, even if I only really play maybe the same 10 old games when I get around to doing that.

Civilization 2 is my white whale. No, there is no good solution in getting it to work its best. The last 16-bit expansion, Fantastic Worlds is missing features compared to the only proper 32-bit release, Civilization 2: Multiplayer Gold Edition. That release needs patching to work in modern Windows, and has broken AI, the patching makes it unstable. And then there's Tests of Time, a whole separate thing. Why didn't I talk about the Mac versions? Because Mac only got Civ 2 and Civ 2 Gold. Did I mention these games use Redbook audio? And that Fantastic Worlds has more tracks than any other release, expansion or otherwise? And that none of the patching that Civilization 2: Multiplayer Gold Edition for Windows got has gone into the Mac version? About the only upside to the Mac version is that it works on 68k Macs, and that Basilisk II recently got support for mounting disks with audio. Shame it's not the Gold version, that needs PPC, and those emulators are terribly unstable, demanding mess.

Don't become me.

 

[thewireless]

As other users have pointed out, to run Classic Mac OS games on your PowerBook, you will need to downgrade to Mac OS X 10.2, 10.3, or 10.4 and install a Classic environment on the hard disk drive.

All installation media can be obtained from the Macintosh Garden and Macintosh Repository.

Please note that the Classic environment wasn't specifically designed for games, so many may not run optimally. You could try to mitigate this by installing Mac OS X 10.2 or 10.3, as some users have reported better game performance with Classic under those systems compared to 10.4.

 

[pipetogrep]

You already have the latest OS available for that PowerBook. 10.5.9 is a fan optimization, it is still 10.5.8.
Marathon is the only name I recognize out of the games you listed. I am pretty sure marathon is a classic (Mac os 9 or under) app, which would mean you actually need 10.4.11 Tiger, and would be needing to downgrade. Leopard doesn't do classic apps. I don't think there are any games which do work on leopard that won't also work on Tiger.

Marathon has OS X builds. I play it on Leopard.

 

[barracuda156]

Lion only supports Intel Macs. Mac OS 10.5 Leopard is the last native Power PC version of Mac OS.

While I probably gonna refrain from recommending it in this case, the last native PowerPC MacOS is 10.6. The last official release was 10.5, which is not the same.

 

[Bigwaff]

While I probably gonna refrain from recommending it in this case, the last native PowerPC MacOS is 10.6. The last official release was 10.5, which is not the same.

Unfortunately, you are incorrect. Mac OS X Snow Leopard is not Power PC native and requires Intel CPU. However, it is the last version of Mac OS X to include Rosetta for running Power PC applications. Perhaps that is the source of confusion?

Mac OS X Snow Leopard - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[repairedCheese]

Unfortunately, you are incorrect. Mac OS X Snow Leopard is not Power PC native and requires Intel CPU. However, it is the last version of Mac OS X to include Rosetta for running Power PC applications. Perhaps that is the source of confusion?

Mac OS X Snow Leopard - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Snow Leopard on Unsupported PowerPC Macs

[ ©© Ltshears, Wikimedia Commons] A CLOUDED LEOPARD: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on PowerPC WikiPost last updated: 11 April 2022 OVERVIEW We’re exploring how to run early builds of Snow Leopard on (later) G4 and G5 PowerPC Macs. This WikiPost outlines testing methods to get a Developer...

forums.macrumors.com

I wouldn't recommend using it, but it is very much a thing that exist. There is no confusion.

 

[barracuda156]

Unfortunately, you are incorrect. Mac OS X Snow Leopard is not Power PC native and requires Intel CPU. However, it is the last version of Mac OS X to include Rosetta for running Power PC applications. Perhaps that is the source of confusion?

Mac OS X Snow Leopard - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It works, what am I doing wrong? (c)

 

[Bigwaff]

Ah.. pre-release version of Snow Leopard which was never officially released. Jeez, I stand corrected

 

[mac57mac57]

It works, what am I doing wrong? (c)

This is a GREAT display output! What program produced it? I would love to get it!

 

[saxfun]

Fastfetch, it is written in the upper left corner of the terminal window. Fastfetch is an alternative to neofetch.

 

[Amethyst1]

Ah.. pre-release version of Snow Leopard which was never officially released.

I may be told off for saying this, but there is (quite?) a difference between the final Intel-only 10.6.8 and those early pre-releases.

 

[eyoungren]

It works, what am I doing wrong? (c)

You are confusing a later project to modify 10.6 to run on PowerPC simply because an early version had some PowerPC code in it, with 10.6 actually being the last version supported on PowerPC.

I was alive in August 2009. I would have been 48 at the time. There was zero way to run Snow Leopard on my Titanium PowerBook G4 when it released. I wasn't even a member of this forum then.

When I joined this forum in 2011, there was no Snow Leopard project posted. That didn't come until April 2020, nine years away.

So Leopard was the last version supported on PowerPC. That was October 2007 when it released. The Snow Leopard project came here almost 13 years later.

 

[barracuda156]

You are confusing a later project to modify 10.6 to run on PowerPC simply because an early version had some PowerPC code in it, with 10.6 actually being the last version supported on PowerPC.

I was alive in August 2009. I would have been 48 at the time. There was zero way to run Snow Leopard on my Titanium PowerBook G4 when it released. I wasn't even a member of this forum then.

When I joined this forum in 2011, there was no Snow Leopard project posted. That didn't come until April 2020, nine years away.

So Leopard was the last version supported on PowerPC. That was October 2007 when it released. The Snow Leopard project came here almost 13 years later.

No, the developer preview existed back then already, it simply did not go public. The developer of LeopardWebkit here also booted 10.6 in single user mode years prior to the thread here on MR.

Support for ppc existed in 10.6 originally. Parts of it were gone by the time of official release. But whether anyone took advantage of its existence or not is irrelevant to the matter.

 

[barracuda156]

This is a GREAT display output! What program produced it? I would love to get it!

Install fast fetch from MacPorts, it will not work from its upstream, it lacks needed fixes.
If you do not have MacPorts, you may need this fix for meson, otherwise some dependencies gonna fail (glib2, for example): https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/25254
If you already have a working installation, just do `sudo port -v install fastfetch`.

 

[eyoungren]

No, the developer preview existed back then already, it simply did not go public. The developer of LeopardWebkit here also booted 10.6 in single user mode years prior to the thread here on MR.

Support for ppc existed in 10.6 originally. Parts of it were gone by the time of official release. But whether anyone took advantage of its existence or not is irrelevant to the matter.

If we use your reasoning, then because of dosdude and OCLP, Sonoma is an officially supported OS for Early Intel Macs.

Even if the beta of Snow Leopard was PowerPC, as you said it was not officially released. Therefore, SL was not an officially supported OS for PowerPC.

And last but not least, when we say 'X' is version of OS you can run on PowerPC, most people interpret that to mean that they can update to the last official point release.

Is the SL project on 10.6.8 now? Because if it's not, then the beta of SL is really where it ends. And most people don't include betas as being an official OS that you can install.

 

[barracuda156]

Even if the beta of Snow Leopard was PowerPC, as you said it was not officially released. Therefore, SL was not an officially supported OS for PowerPC.

I never said ppc was officially supported in 10.6 (in a sense of the OS officially running on ppc hardware), what are you arguing about? )

> the last native PowerPC MacOS is 10.6. The last official release was 10.5, which is not the same.

My comment was in response to this:

> Mac OS 10.5 Leopard is the last native Power PC version of Mac OS.

 

[eyoungren]

I never said ppc was officially supported in 10.6 (in a sense of the OS officially running on ppc hardware), what are you arguing about? )

> the last native PowerPC MacOS is 10.6. The last official release was 10.5, which is not the same.

My comment was in response to this:

> Mac OS 10.5 Leopard is the last native Power PC version of Mac OS.

While I probably gonna refrain from recommending it in this case, the last native PowerPC MacOS is 10.6. The last official release was 10.5, which is not the same.

You said the second quote above. Post #11.

It's not native. Yes, the unreleased beta of SL can run on PowerPC. But there's no update after that that can run on PowerPC, unless you're using the project that's been posted here. And even then, you're limited to that specific version. No 10.6.8 for PowerPC Macs.

The beta can run natively - but since the official release was Intel only then the official release of Snow Leopard cannot run on PowerPC and is therefore not the last native release.

 

[mac57mac57]

Fastfetch, it is written in the upper left corner of the terminal window. Fastfetch is an alternative to neofetch.

Excellent, thanks! I will see if I can track that down and get a copy.