Jul 29, 2020 Macintosh.js is a self-contained Electron app that bundles a classic Mac OS emulator preinstalled with Mac OS 8.1 along with a handful of classic applications from that era, including Adobe Photoshop 3.0.5, Adobe Illustrator 5.5, demos for Duke Nukem and Civilization 2, Oregon Trail, and more. Get Macintosh.js from the developers GitHub page here. Basilisk II is a Macintosh 68k emulator that allows you to run the classic Macintosh OS and applications on modern computers. These downloads are fully configured versions of Basilisk II that include the required ROM as well as a hard drive image with Mac OS 8.1 and various applications. Basilisk II for macOS; Basilisk II for Windows.

Windows runs Mac OS... and likes it!

Cross-platform compatibility between Mac and Windows is not a new concept. Since 1984, Macintosh and PC users have grappled with the problems of reading each other's disks, loading each other's files, and running each other's applications.

Utilities do exist to read Macintosh files on the PC. We even provide such a free utility to read Mac disks on a PC, which is handy for reading a Mac formatted disk that contains a common file such as a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, Photoshop document, or a GIF or JPG or HTML file.

Some popular commercial utilities even go so far as to convert the file format for you, say from Mac Word 5.1 format to Word 2000 format. But the act of conversion may destroy the font information and change the document layout. This type of utility is a bad idea if you plan to 'round trip' the document back to a real Macintosh. It is a one-way operation at best.

Other tools, costing up to hundreds of dollars, do exist to allow Mac and PC computers to network together. But they do not solve the 'round trip' problem of moving a Mac file from a Mac application to a Windows application and then back to the Mac application.

None of these simple file copy utilities are really a good solution for the problems faced by real world Macintosh and Windows users:

1. The round trip problem - Create a file on a Macintosh. Copy it to a PC and edit it in Windows. Then copy it back to a Macintosh and editing it using the original application. Each time the file may lose font, formatting, and layout information and may require tedious editing to fix to get it back to the way it was originally.

2. The non-standard file format problem - Some file formats simply can't be converted from Mac to PC. The Mac applications that created the document do not exist for the PC, or the Windows version of the application lacks the ability to do the conversion.

3. The custom written software problem - Many schools have invested thousands of dollars and years of time in developing customized educational software. While it may be inexpensive to replace the old Macintosh computers with PCs, it is not a trivial matter to rewrite millions of lines of computer code or to purchase thousands of dollars of new software which may not be able to read the old files.

4. The look-and-feel problem - While many Macintosh applications do have Windows equivalents, most Macintosh users prefer the look and feel of the Mac OS and the way that the applications look and behave on a Mac. What Mac Word user really wants to use Word 2000 or Word XP?

We have a better solution. If you love your Macintosh software and would prefer to use Macintosh applications over Windows applications, but you either have to use a PC or can't resist the low cost of PCs, why not simply use the PC to run the Macintosh software? What a simple idea!

Our solution, since we developed it in 1997, is to turn a PC into a Macintosh clone, and to run Mac OS and Macintosh applications directly on the PC. You benefit from the lower cost and faster speed of the PC, and still keep the use of your legacy Macintosh applications.

Not only does this provide you the easy ability to copy files back and forth between Mac and PC, but it solves the round trip problem, it solves the non-standard file format problem, it solves the custom written software problem, and it solves the look-and-feel problem. Because with emulation, you don't stop using your original Macintosh software and you are not required to purchase additional Windows applications. All you need is a PC, one of our emulators, and the Mac software that you already have.

Using aMacintosh emulator, your PC can:

• Run the Mac OS on x86 processors - run Mac OS on Intel and AMD processors, and run Mac OS and Windows at the same time.

• Read Macintosh disks - read your Macintosh floppy disks, CD-ROMs, Iomega ZIP disks and other Mac disks directly.

• Run most Macintosh programs - our current emulators run about 90% of all System 6, System 7, and Mac OS 8 compatible Macintosh software.

• Have faster speed and larger memory - run Macintosh applications at close to the full clock speed of your PC with up to a gigabyte of memory.

Our products have been seen on television's Digital Desk show, in Japan's Mac Power magazine, at Macworld Expo San Francisco, Macworld Expo Tokyo, CeBIT Hannover, COMDEX Las Vegas, and numerous other computer shows around the world.

Emulation is a great way for a PC to be more Mac friendly in a mixed Mac/PC environment. And it is a great way to replace an older Macintosh computer with a fast inexpensive PC while retaining backward compatibility with the older machine's software.

SOFTMAC - The intelligent solution to Macintosh - Windows compatibility

A solution for every PC and every budget. Whether your PC is running MS-DOS, Windows 95, or Windows XP, we offer a variety of Mac emulation tools, utilities, and software bundles to help you read and run Mac files on your PC. You may download our tools free of charge for home and personal use.

SoftMac XP Classic Edition, or simply SoftMac Classic, is the free Macintosh emulator for Windows, featuring 68000, 68030, and 68040 emulation in a single emulator and support for emulating Mac Classic, Mac II, and Mac Quadra computers. It supports all versions of Mac OS from the original 1.1g through System 6, System 7, Mac OS 7.5 and 7.6, and Mac OS 8.0 and 8.1. For use with Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4, Windows Me, and of course, Windows XP.

SoftMac XP Xpress Edition, or simply SoftMac Xpress, is our most optimized Macintosh emulator, delivering 30% to 100% more speed than past releases of SoftMac when used with Windows XP on an Intel Pentium 4 processor, and featuring two-way drag-and-drop file copy support between Mac and PC disk volumes.

Download SoftMac XP - get both Classic Edition and Xpress Edition right now!
SoftMac Online Documentation - instructions for installing SoftMac. Print and read carefully!
SoftMac Online Tutorial - shows you how to install Mac OS 8 and Macintosh applications. Print and read carefully!

All releases of SoftMac will boot Mac OS 8.1 in under 15 seconds on a typical Windows PC. By being able to emulate different types of Macintosh computers, SoftMac supports both '32-bit clean' and '32-bit dirty' Macintosh applications, and runs all 68K compatible versions of Mac OS (including System 7, System 6, and earlier) up to and including Mac OS 8.1.

The PowerPC processor is not emulated at this time by current releases of SoftMac, so Mac OS 8.5, 8.6, 9.0 and X are not supported since those versions of Mac OS require the PowerPC processor. PowerPC native applications are also not supported at this time.

A PC running MS-DOS cannot run SoftMac since SoftMac is designed for use on Windows only. For MS-DOS users we offer a free product called Fusion PC 3.0. It features fast 68040 emulation with an extremely small disk footprint. It is recommended for use on older 486 and Pentium systems running MS-DOS, or Windows 95/98 MS-DOS Prompt windows. Fusion PC 3.0 runs System 7.0 and 7.1, as well as Mac OS version 7.5, 7.6, 8.0, and 8.1.

Download Fusion PC 3.0 - setup files and documentation

All of our emulators run Mac software very quickly, typically delivering 50% to 70% of the clock speed in emulation. In other words, a 500 MHz PC running Windows 98 can emulate the equivalent of a 300 MHz Macintosh Quadra running Mac OS 8. Your results will vary depending on the exact type of PC you are using, the amount of RAM present, the version of Windows being used, video drivers, etc. For a good explanation on exactly what type of PC to use and how fast your results can be, see our Hardware Requirements and Benchmarks page.

IMPORTANT: All versions of SoftMac and Fusion PC require that you provide a valid Macintosh ROM BIOS (which all Macintosh computers use to start booting) and a valid Mac OS startup disk. Without these two items, and emulator will not boot or work, just as a real Macintosh computer cannot work without these items. You should download the free SoftMac XP or Fusion PC release to verify that you have the necessary ROM BIOS and Mac OS before purchasing a more advanced SoftMac release.

All users of Mac emulators fall into one of 3 categories. You should determine exactly which of the 3 categories applies to you, and this will determine whether you need to purchase a ROM card and/or ROMs, or whether you can use SoftMac entirely without any additional hardware. The 3 categories are:

• You do not currently own a Macintosh computer of any kind. You will have to purchase our ROM card and a set of Macintosh ROMs and use that hardware inside your PC. You will likely also need to purchase Mac OS and other Macintosh software.
  

• You do own a Macintosh computer, but one that is not functioning. You will need to purchase our ROM card and you will have the option to then install your computer's ROMs into the ROM card. In effect, transferring the functionality of your Macintosh computer into your PC. Only specific Macintosh ROMs are supported by the ROM card, so please consult our Macintosh ROM Chart to verify that you have the correct ROMs.
  

• You do own a Macintosh computer that is functioning. You may be able to simply create a ROM image of your Macintosh's BIOS by running a small utility on your Macintosh. Again, please consult the Macintosh ROM Chart to verify that your ROMs are supported as ROM images. SoftMac currently supports over 30 different Macintosh ROM BIOS versions that are used in dozens of different models of Macintosh computers and we are adding support for new BIOS versions every month.

On April 20 2002 we released the SoftMac XP version 8.20 Suite CD-ROM. This latest release improves Windows XP support and Windows XP optimizations which deliver up to 100% faster speed than previous SoftMac 2000 releases. Two Windows XP compatible releases of SoftMac are included - SoftMac Classic which minimizes memory usage and is better suited for older Windows 95 based PCs, and SoftMac Xpress which delivers faster speed and is optimized for Pentium 4 and Athlon processors. Both version include a more intuitive user interface over SoftMac 2000.

The SoftMac XP Suite comes with some additional software, including the Fusion PC 3.0 Apple Macintosh emulator for MS-DOS, the Gemulator Atari ST emulator for Windows, and easier to use file copy utilities which simply copying files between Mac and PC disk volumes. We also offer additional third party Macintosh software such as Mac OS 8 and Claris Works, shareware software for the Mac, as well as Macintosh ROMs for use with SoftMac XP and other Macintosh emulators.

Attention! At this time (the year 2008) the SoftMac XP Suite is no longer sold online or through dealers. However, we are liquidating our unsold inventory of SoftMac CDs, unopened Mac OS 8 packages (Mac setup CD-ROM and/or Mac floppy disks), the shareware CD, and other items. .

Some quick facts about the latest SoftMac XP release:

• supports Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 95

• compatible with all 486, Pentium, Celeron, AMD K6, Duron, and Athlon processors

• 30% to 100% faster performance than previous SoftMac 2000 releases

• emulates 68000, 68010, 68020, 68030, and 68040 processors

• emulates 68881/68882/68040 floating point co-processors

• emulates Mac Classic, Macintosh II, Macintosh LC, and Macintosh Quadra computers

• runs System 6, System 7, and Mac OS 8, including Mac OS 8.1 and Mac OS 7.6

• support for emulating 1 gigabyte (1024 megabytes) of Macintosh memory using an efficient swap file

• multiple CD-ROM and DVD-ROM support - mount up to 9 CD-ROM devices at once

• direct reading of Apple Macintosh floppy disks, CD-ROMs, hard drives, LS-120 and Iomega ZIP disks

• disk image support allows mounting of SCSI hard disk and CD-ROM disk image files

• easy drag-and-drop file copy support between Mac and PC disks

• high resolution graphics supporting up to 1900x1080 color modes

• support for editing and switching between 16 custom configurations

• 'Hibernate' command - quickly saves Macintosh session to hard disk

• built-in links to useful web sites and online help

As with most emulators and as explained above, SoftMac requires the ROM BIOS from a Macintosh computer in order to properly work. This is both a legal and technical requirement. If you own a functioning 68K based Macintosh computer, you can run a ROM dumping utility (which we supply) on your Macintosh and save its ROM BIOS to a disk file. That ROM file can then be copied to your PC and used with SoftMac and in many cases also used with our Fusion PC 3.0 emulator. The directions for doing this, as well as the ROM dump utility itself are on our SoftMac Online Documentation page. Please check the ROM chart below to make sure you have the necessary model of Macintosh to create the ROM image with. If your ROMs are listed as supported, congratulations, you can skip the rest of this page!

If you do not have a working Macintosh computer or do not have the necessary model of Macintosh computer, you must use ROM card and plug in real Macintosh ROMs into the card which then plugs into your PC. The ROM card which we manufacture has 8 ROM sockets which allows you to plug in two or more sets of Macintosh ROMs at once. This gives you the ability to run SoftMac and emulate multiple Macintosh computers at the same time, each running from a different ROM on the ROM card.

If you purchase our ROM card, you have the option to have us pre-install a set of Mac OS 8 compatible Macintosh ROMs on the card. If you wish to save some money and purchase just the ROM card without pre-installed ROMs, or you are an existing customer with a ROM card already installed, you can add your own Macintosh ROMs to the ROM card. You have several ROMs to choose from depending on what kind of Macintosh you wish to emulate and the kind of Macintosh software you wish to run:

• For running older 68000 software (typically old Macintosh Plus or Macintosh SE software) you will want to use 128K Macintosh Plus ROMs. These can run System 6, System 7, and System 7.5.5, and do support reading high density 1.44M floppy disks and other Macintosh disks. These ROMs easily plug out of any Macintosh Plus computer because they are always socketed.

• The first generation of color Macintosh ROMs are the original Macintosh II series (II, IIx, IIcx, and SE/30). These ROMs support color and are great for running System 7 and System 7.5. They are relatively inexpensive and can be plugged out of most Macintosh II computers because they are usually socketed (except in the IIcx). These ROMs however do not run Mac OS 8 because they are not 32-bit clean and support at most 8 megabytes of memory, limiting their usefulness.

• The second generation of Macintosh II ROMs are the 512K, 1M, and 2M ROMs found in the Macintosh IIci, IIsi, LC series, Centris series, and Quadra series computers. These ROMs are 32-bit clean, meaning they support up to 1024 megabytes of Macintosh memory, they run System 7, 7.5, as well as Mac OS 7.6, 8.0, and 8.1, and are generally much faster and less buggy than the original Macintosh II ROMs. These are the ideal ROMs to run with SoftMac and are the type of ROMs that we install with our ROM cards.

The ROM card can accept almost all types of Macintosh ROMs manufactured between about 1984 and 1992, covering everything from the Mac 128 to the higher end Mac IIci and LC models. Although the card cannot physically accept 1M or larger ROMs due to the shape of those ROM chips, the 512K IIci and LC ROMs work just as well and do support Mac OS 8.

To extract the ROMs and install them on the card, first remove the cover from the Macintosh. Look for the ROMs on the motherboard. They will be a 1, 2, or 4 chip set in a 28-, 32-, or 40-pin package. Most Mac motherboards label the ROM chips right on the board with markings such as 'ROM HIGH', 'ROM LOW', 'ROM HH', 'ROM LL', etc.

On each ROM will be part number of the form 341-0XXX or 342-0XXX. The XXX is a 3 digit part number than uniquely identifies each ROM chip. For example, the picture here shows a set of Mac 512 ROMs plugged into the ROM card. If you can read it, note the part numbers on the two chips - the first one is 342-220-A, the second chip is 342-221-A.

Once you unplug the ROMs from the Macintosh, installing the chips is easy. Install the chips in numerically in the order listed in the chart below so that SoftMac will detect them correctly. When installing 28-pin chips, leave empty pins to the left of the chip as pictured above. ROM chips will 32 pins will plug in covering the entire socket. 40 pin ROMs (such as from the LC III) are not supported directly without using additional sockets to sit on top of our card and are not recommended. A ROM image of those ROMs can be used though.

The following is a list of ROMs and part numbers that we've cataloged so far. We will be updating this list as we test ROMs from more Mac models.

For each Macintosh ROM we list the models of computers that the ROM was used in and the unique 'checksum' of the ROM. The checksum is displayed by the ROM dump utility and identifies the specific version of the ROM. Apple released dozens of different Macintosh ROMs over the years. For each ROM we also list the type of processor that it supports, the size of the ROM image, the physical information about the ROM chips, the part number, the versions of Mac OS supported by the ROM, and which emulators support this ROM.

Information that is unknown or unsupported is marked with a * symbol.

ROMs that are marked as 'jumpers' are not standard 28- or 32-pin ROMs and will require extra installation steps. Installing them yourself is not recommended.

Emulators legend: G = Gemulator 2000, S = SoftMac 2000/Classic/Xpress, P = planned for a future SoftMac release, F = Fusion PC

If you have a Mac not listed here or have ROMs with different part numbers, let us know so we can add them to the list. Give us the model of Macintosh, the year it was manufactured, the type of processor inside of it, the number of ROM chips, the number of pins on each ROM, and read off all the text on each ROM.

Please do not send us information about old Macintosh clones (UMAX, Power Computing, etc.) or Mac OS X only machines. These are not true classic Macintosh computers and are thus not intended to be supported by our emulators.

Copyright © 1996-2015 Emulators, 14150 NE 20th Street, Suite 302, Bellevue, WA 98007, U.S.A.
Questions and comments can be sent to emulators@emulators.com.
Email is usually responded to within 2 to 3 business days.

Apple, Mac OS, Macbook, and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Atari is a registered trademark of Atari U.S. Corporation. Athlon, Athlon XP, Opteron, and Phenom are registered trademarks of AMD. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Visual Studio, .NET, and/or other Microsoft products referenced herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft. Intel, Pentium, Core 2, Core i7, and Atom are registered trademarks of Intel. PowerPC is a trademark of IBM. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.

Want to run yesterday’s Macintosh software on your modern Mac or PC?

Since my DOSBox post, where I demonstrated classic MS-DOS software, I’ve wanted to find and use a classic Mac emulator to experience the classic Mac experience – to run classic Macintosh software, experience the user interface and see what has and hasn’t changed.

The Macintosh operating system’s history is often split into two sections: the classic Macintosh OS, and the modern macOS. macOS has evolved since Apple introduced it back in 2001 as Mac OS X, but it is very different from its precursor. (For instance, macOS is based on BSD UNIX; the classic Mac isn’t.)

Mac Os 8 Emulator Online

The website E-Maculation is dedicated to classic Macintosh emulators.

There are three “main” classic Macintosh emulators: Mini vMac, Basilisk II and SheepShaver.

Mini vMac emulates compact Mac models (such as the Macintosh Plus, although it also supports models from the 128K to Classic.) Therefore, you’ll only get a black-and-white display and limited power.

SheepShaver, on the other hand, emulates the PowerPC-based Macs. In 1992, Apple started switching from using the Motorola 68K processors to the PowerPC chips. The PowerPC chips were designed by the AIM Alliance (Apple, IBM and Motorola) and were used until 2006. SheepShaver is the best option if you want to run Mac OS 8 or Mac OS 9.

Basilisk II, the software I’m going to be demonstrating, fits snugly in the middle. It still emulates a 68K-based Mac, but emulates a modular model that was capable of displaying color, offered more power and could run later versions of the Macintosh hardware. Specifically, Basilisk II mostly emulates a Macintosh Quadra 900 (circa 1991) running System 7.5.3 (circa 1996.)

With all of this out of the way, let’s talk about getting our emulator up and running.

Installing/Configuring Basilisk II

Unlike DOSBox, where everything came ready-to-go, Basilisk II requires a lot of work to get it up and going.

I decided to install Basilisk II on my early 2014 MacBook Air, running macOS 10.14.5 “Mojave.” Not only are you running a Macintosh emulator on a true modern Mac, but I found installation was somewhat easier on a Mac.

I’m not going to provide step-by-step configuration instructions. For that, E-Maculation has you covered. They have the detailed instructions for configuring Basilisk II in macOS here. They also have instructions for use with Windows and Linux.

Basilisk II requires downloading a ROM file to work. Because the classic Macintosh operating system only works on a true Mac (whether it be a true Apple Macintosh or, later, a clone) it requires this ROM file to start and work.

In addition, Basilisk II requires downloading the operating system files (obviously) and setting up a place to store the files and setup an emulated drive volume.

Once you get everything set up and the Basilisk II GUI configured properly, you can then start the Macintosh and install the operating system.

After running the System 7.5.3 installer and allowing the software to copy the files onto the system volume, the emulator will restart. Then, System 7.5.3 is ready to go.

You can adjust settings to your liking, such as enabling color and installing software.

Acquiring Software

Speaking of installing software, you will need to either download software or copy them from your own library.

For someone like me, who doesn’t own any classic Macintosh software, there are some websites out there archiving classic Macintosh software. The one I frequent is Macintosh Garden – which has a lot of classic Mac games, utilities and productivity software.

Most files are preserved in StuffIt compressed files. Most of the time, uncompressing the file will reveal an outdated disk image that requires conversion using the macOS Disk Utilities utility. After conversion, you can access the disk image contents and drag the files into the folder that can be accessed in the emulator.

Now, let’s take a look at some software I tried out. I tried to find and try the Macintosh version of the software I used in my DOSBox demonstration.

Software Demonstrations

All of these can be found on Macintosh Garden, where I found them. Click the header to go to the Macintosh Garden page for that program.

Arnold’s MIDI Player

In DOSBox, one of the first programs I tested was a MIDI player that used DOSBox’s OPL2 emulator. DOSMID was what I expected… and DOSBox’s OPL2 emulator wasn’t that good.

For the Mac, Arnold’s MIDI Player (AMP) is a good option. AMP uses QuickTime to actually produce the music. AMP provides a GUI for playback controls (unlike DOSMID) and other views, such as a synthesizer view, track listing, karaoke, etc.

One nice thing about AMP is I could import my entire MIDI library and open any file I wanted – no renaming needed. While DOS required each file to be renamed (to have a filename of 8 or fewer characters), Macintosh didn’t have the same requirements.

I recorded AMP’s output for a couple files. Below is AMP’s rendition of the William Tell Overture, along with the recorded version from DOSMID running in DOSBox.

AMP has a feature for recording audio to a .mov file through QuickTime. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to find a way to open the file using modern software.

Therefore, recording the output was tricky. First, I tried using Soundflower. (Soundflower is a macOS utility that records the system’s sound output.) While Soundflower worked for recording a couple songs, it stopped working about three or four songs in. (Soundflower is very touchy and unstable, at least on recent macOS versions.)

I ended up recording the sound output using the MintTin and Audacity.

Ford Simulator II – 1990

In DOSBox, I tested Ford Simulator 1988. Ford Simulator was a program released every year by the Ford Motor Company to provide details about their vehicles, offering a “virtual showroom.” Ford Simulator 1988 even included a driving game.

Ford Simulator II isn’t much different from the 1988 DOS version, although the user interface is obviously different for the Macintosh – and the vehicles have changes. There are more vehicles in Ford Simulator II for the Macintosh.

Ford Simulator II only consumes the top left corner of the screen and is only in black-and-white. The program was likely written for compact Macintosh models – such as the Macintosh SE – which were more popular at the time the program was written. (Considering the program released in late 1989, the only color Macs at that time were the Macintosh II, IIx and IIcx.)

Ford used the simulator to provide information about each model. In the “Electronic Showroom,” many Ford/Mercury/Lincoln models are available with a graphic and description. The “Buyer’s Guide” section allows you to view in-depth details about all Ford/Mercury/Lincoln models offered in 1990, with their specifications, options, window sticker and even a spreadsheet for making financial calculations.

Like the 1988 DOS version, Ford Simulator II has an “Infocenter” section, which has details about many of the features Ford offered on their vehicles in 1990. The Macintosh version includes nice graphics and animations about many of the features.

Ford Simulator 1990, just like all of the other Ford Simulators, includes a driving game. Unlike the 1988 DOS version, the Macintosh version is much trickier to play.

Lastly, Ford Simulator II has a feedback section. Users could fill out the form on their computer, print it out and send it Ford.

Aldus PageMaker 4.0

Now that we’ve bought a “new” car, let’s do some work.

One of the things I’ve done a lot of is page layout. I’ve always used Adobe’s InDesign page layout program as opposed to Quark XPress, although at one time I did get to play around with Quark XPress.

Before Adobe InDesign, there was Adobe (Aldus) PageMaker. PageMaker was a very early page layout program, released in 1985 for the Macintosh (the PC version was released in December 1986.) Quark XPress, on the other hand, was released in 1987.

Desktop publishing is one of the things that put the Macintosh on the map. With it’s advanced GUI, users could easily produce page designs, illustrations, slideshow presentations, etc. quicker than before. With this, many applications for desktop publishing were released for the Macintosh in the 1980s – from PageMaker to PowerPoint and Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

PageMaker 4.0 was released in 1990 for the Macintosh, with a PC version following in 1991.

As with other WYSIWYG page layout programs of the era, samples and lessons were included to allow users to learn the program.

Many features found in PageMaker 4.0 can also be found in modern page layout programs like InDesign and Quark XPress. Color swatches, paragraph styles, grids, guides, etc.

PageMaker 4.0 also included samples for different types of publications, such as newsletters and cards.

Unfortunately, unlike modern page layout programs – there is no option for publishing the document as a PDF. I tried to “print to PDF” but that option was unsuccessful.

Mac Os X 10.8 Emulator

Lemmings

Perhaps one of the most popular game titles of the late 1980s/early 1990s, Lemmings was released on almost every platform. From the IBM PC, Commodore 64, Apple II, NES, SNES, and many other gaming consoles, there was a Lemmings version for that platform.

The Macintosh also had its own version.

Gameplay is almost identical to the MS-DOS version. The levels, graphics and controls are very similar.

The biggest difference is the music and sounds. I prefer the Macintosh version’s music and sounds over the MS-DOS version.

Tetris

In addition to Lemmings, Tetris was another popular title from the late 1980s/early 1990s that made it on to almost every platform available.

Gameplay of Tetris is no different from what you would find on any other version – back then or now. (In other words, there is not much to discuss here.) It’s just bricks that you can rotate and position by using different keys on the keyboard.

The thing that I did like about the Mac version are the nice backgrounds.

Oregon Trail

Now to a game that almost every kid born between 1980 and 2005 has likely played… the Oregon Trail.

I was too young to experience the Apple II version of this game, but I did get to experience the graphical Windows XP version in elementary school. It was a very fun game, and I can remember my class spending a lot of time playing the game.

Now I got to experience the Macintosh version.

The Macintosh version of The Oregon Trail is very similar to the Windows XP version I played in elementary school. The graphics, interface, gameplay and almost everything else was identical to what I remember.

Obviously, the interface is nice. I liked how there was a map of the route with the landmarks you would pass on this version. I also liked how you could do things like “take a rest” at any point – instead of waiting for the game to catch up at a river or landmark.

One interesting thing about Oregon Trail is how it affects the desktop wallpaper. The desktop wallpaper will rapidly change colors at the splash screen, and will also display a slightly different color while playing the game. While likely a bug, it’s actually a pretty bug.

This concludes my demonstration of Basilisk II, a classic Macintosh emulator that allows you to enjoy the classic Macintosh operating system along with its software from the comfort of your modern computer. Although installation is more difficult when compared to DOSBox, Basilisk II is compatible with almost all games that were compatible with Macintosh System 7.5.3.

In-Browser Emulators

Mac Os 8 Emulator Js

If you just want to play around in the classic Macintosh environment and some period software but don’t want to install an emulator or go through the hassle of setting one up, there are options – although its more limited.

James Friend created PCE.js – a website featuring an emulator of a Macintosh Plus running System 7 in black-and-white mode. There are a couple different emulators, one with many different games and programs, one with just KidPix, etc.

As previously mentioned, these in-browser emulators have many limitations. Friend’s emulators are emulating a Mac Plus – which only offers black-and-white graphics. Also, since it is in-browser, there is no way to upload files to (or download from) the emulator.

But there are a lot of upsides to the in-browser emulator. There is no need to download or install any emulation programs like Basilisk II, SheepShaver or Mini vMac. The in-browser emulator also runs comfortable on mobile devices. The screenshots were taken using my iPad. Navigating around the emulator and using it on the iPad was very easy, and it ran fine with no real hiccups that I encountered.

Mac Os 8 Emulator Github

Since the in-browser emulator is emulating a Mac Plus, the graphics are very similar to what you actually would’ve found on the ubiquitous “Compact Mac” models of the late 1980s. Color graphics, higher-resolution displays and other “luxuries” didn’t come until 1987 with the introduction of the Macintosh II – which itself was extremely pricey.

Mac Os 8 Emulator Download

Overall, emulators are a great way to experience the computers of yesterday without actually owning one. Vintage computers are often expensive and unreliable, especially vintage Macs. While it is fun to own older hardware, this is the next best thing…

Emulated on the early 2014 MacBook Air.

Windows Update (August 6, 2019)

Today I finally got the Windows version of Basilisk II to work on my ThinkPad W541 (daily driver machine)… somewhat.

After checking my volumes and installation again, I tried things one more time. I managed to get a black box to appear, but nothing inside. I was unable to close the black box, forcing me to force quit out of it.

Apparently, I’m not the only one with this problem. Emaculation said that the solution is to use an older, more stable version of Basilisk II.

After downloading Basilisk II and starting a new system volume from scratch, things went more smooth. This time, I got the infamous Macintosh start up chime followed by the blinking question mark. There’s something wrong with the system volume, as it isn’t seeing it.

Going back to the settings screen and comparing it with the one found on the Emaculation installation guide, I found the problem. I mounted the wrong disk file. After fixing this, the Mac “booted” up.

Once the emulation began, the system software installation process is identical to running Basilisk II on a modern Mac.

After “ejecting” the system install disk and restarting the system, it was official.

But I noticed some oddities. After changing the display settings to color, the desktop pattern chooser only displays black-and-white options. When changing the color setting back to gray in the “Monitors” system preferences window, everything but the Apple menu icon remains in color – although the system should be displaying in grayscale. Really odd.

It works, but not very well. Obviously some odd issues here and there.

Installing Basilisk II on my daily driver was something I wanted to do as it makes things just much simpler. For instance, audio recording. The output of DOSMID in DOSBox was easily captured as I was running the emulator on my ThinkPad W541, which runs Windows 10 – which allows you to record the sound output from your computer without any cables, dongles or third-party programs. (Which is nice, since most modern computers don’t feature a microphone or line-in jack.) Unfortunately, macOS doesn’t have anything like that without installing a third-party app like Soundflower. As I mentioned previously, Soundflower is fairly unstable and can even cause the entire system to crash. So to capture the audio from Basilisk II/Arnold’s MIDI Player, I had to plug my MacBook Air into my MintTin.

The second reason I wanted to install Basilisk II on my daily driver is the convenience. I could easily open it up and start playing without having to go and grab my MacBook Air, which my dad uses as his daily driver. When I return to school in a couple weeks, I will no longer have easy access to the MacBook Air.

But it seems like Basilisk II is more stable and easier to setup and run in macOS, at least in my experience.

While likely best left to a separate post, I was planning on bringing the late 2014 MacMini out of retirement/storage to be my main Basilisk II host. (Kind of like how the T42 is my main DOSBox host machine.) But, unfortunately, the late 2014 MacMini still refuses to boot.

Basilisk II on macOS Catalina (August 3, 2020)

When I first received my 2019 MacBook Pro back in March, one of the things I tried to install was Basilisk II. However, I wasn’t able to install it. I gave up after tinkering with a beta setup GUI designed for Catalina and using a third-party app to create the HFS volumes for the virtual machine to run from.

Thankfully, tonight I was able to get Basilisk II to run on Catalina. Turns out the whole issue may have been the fault of your’s truly rather than an incompatibility with Catalina. Last time I forgot to extract the System 7.5.3 setup files. Now all is well.