- Nov 04, 2020 There are versions for Windows, Mac OS X, Mac OS 9 (PowerPC), Linux (x86), Pocket PC, and Macintosh 680x0. The source code is released under the GNU GPL. Basilisk II/JIT 680x0 Macintosh Emulator.
- OS X Yosemite Simulator by matei-bratu; OS X Yosemite Simulator by sardiniangale; OS X Yosemite Simulator TV Version by ibradley2334; OS X Yosemite Simulator remix by ellistomas; Mac OS X Sierra (10.12.0) by -Apple-Inc; Mac OS X 10.7 by PigVenomPV; OS X Yosemite X Kirby Simulator by honnybean; Mac OS Simulator by ownh; What a mac does.
Mac OS 9 for OS X/macOS
Higher definition graphics: with PCSX2 for Mac you have the ability to play your games in 1080p, or even 4K HD. Overall, the PCSX2 for Mac PS2 emulator is great at what it does. It can emulate PS2 games with good accuracy and you can toggle between Mac OS and the Emulator.
Run classic Mac OS apps in OS X/macOS | A similar system that runs System 7 | How to use it | Customization | What it contains | Acknowledgments | Support and contributions
An easy way to run 'classic' Mac OS applications under OS X/macOS
Under OS X or macOS, software written for the 'classic' Mac OS (i.e. versions 6 through 9) can only be run through software that emulates Macintosh hardware from the 1980s and 1990s. The most advanced of these emulator programs is SheepShaver. SheepShaver is no longer supported by its original author, Gwenolé Beauchesne, but updates are available from an active support forum at E-Maculation, and the program is actively maintained by a programmer who uses the name kanjitalk755.
This page provides a fully functional SheepShaver system that runs Mac OS 9.0.4 (US English version). Unlike other SheepShaver-based systems, it makes it relatively easy to exchange files between SheepShaver and OS X/macOS, and makes it easy to print from Mac OS applications to OS X/macOS printers, or to create PDF files on the OS X/macOS desktop. It requires OS X 10.10 Yosemite or later.
To install this system, download and expand Mac OS 9.zip. (The file is about 620MB in size; it contains a 1.5 GB hard disk image file.) You may copy the Mac OS 9 application to your Applications folder or run it from anywhere else.
If, when you start the application, you see a long error message that includes the string 'translocation', then you must move the application to some other folder (and, if you want, move it back) before you run it. This is the effect of a new macOS security feature. The easiest thing to do is copy the application to your Applications folder.
An older version, with a slightly different feature set suitable for single-user systems (or for installation in the home folder of different users, is available here.
For a similar system that runs Mac OS 9 under Windows, see another page.
A similar system that runs System 7.6.1 in BasiliskII
I have created a similar, experimental system that runs System 7.6.1 under the BasiliskII emulator. You may download it in System761.zip. The System761 application works in essentially the same way as the Mac OS 9 application described elsewhere on this page: you may copy files to System 7 desktop by dropping them on the System761 icon. See the How to use it section below for further information. Note the special instructions for temporarily mounting disk images for installing or copying software in System761.
The System 7.6.1 app was updated 23 January 2021 with QuickTime Player added to the system.
If you insist on going back to System 7.5.5, download the similar but not recently updated System755.zip.)
How to use it
I assume that you know something about Mac OS and don't need any advice from me. A few points are worth mentioning.
You can hold down the Option key while launching the application in order to access an options menu. See below for some details.
The Mac OS 9 system includes a startup script named ~MacOS9BackgroundScript. This script is used for transferring files from the host OS X/macOS system to the desktop of Mac OS 9.
As in all SheepShaver-based systems, you may use the Unix folder for transferring files to and from Mac OS 9. However, this system has other methods.
To run your own applications in Mac OS 9 (or System761), you absolutely must copy the application to the Mac OS 9 (or System761) emulated disk itself (or some other disk mounted in Mac OS 9 or System761). Do not try to run your application from the 'Unix' folder. Your application will not run, and will produce an error message instead! Do not drag an application directly from the 'Unix' folder to the destkop: that does not copy the application to the Mac OS 9 (or System761) system disk.
To transfer a file from OS X/macOS to Mac OS 9, drop the file on to Mac OS 9 app. After a few seconds, the file should be copied to the Mac OS 9 desktop. The original file remains on your OS X/macOS host system.
To transfer a file to OS X/macOS from Mac OS 9, use the standard SheepShaver method of dropping the file into the Mac OS 9 Unix folder; a copy of the file will appear in your OS X/macOS Documents folder.
To print from Mac OS 9 to your default OS X/macOS printer, simple use the File/Print menu in your Mac OS 9 application, and print with the default desktop printer, 'Print to OSX/macOS.' After a pause, the document should print to your default OS X/macOS printer.
To print from Mac OS 9 and select a Windows printer for the current print job, follow the instructions immediately above, but choose the desktop printer named 'Select OS X/macOS Printer.' After a pause, a popup list of OS X/macOS printers should appear; choose the one you want.
To create a PDF file in OS X/macOS when printing from Mac OS 9, follow the printing instructions above, but choose the desktop printer named 'PDF to OSX/macOS Desktop.' The resulting PDF file on the OS X/macOS desktop will have an arbitrary name based on the current date and time.
Screen and other options are as follows:
To toggle between windowed and full-screen mode, press Ctrl-Option-Enter. The custom build of SheepShaver used in this application uses this key-combination instead of the standard SheepShaver toggle key (Ctrl-Enter).
To use full-screen mode by default, hold down the Option key when launching Mac OS 9, and set the screen size option to full-screen. When SheepShaver starts up, use the Monitors control panel to set the screen resolution to the resolution that matches your OS X/macOS screen.
Multi-user systems:This application works in a multi-user system if installed in the Applications folder of the Mac's hard disk. If you want to enable the multiple-user features in OS 9, use the Extensions Manager control panel, and switch the extensions set to the one with 'multiple users' in its name and restart. You may then set up the OS 9 system for multiple users in the same way you did with a real Mac.
Starting with the version posted 10 August 2017, this application includes an additional feature that allows each user in an OS X/macOS multi-user system to create a second disk image that will be accessible in Mac OS 9 only to that user. Hold down the Option key when launching the application to access this and other options.
Customization
This system uses a special build of SheepShaver that does not use the Preferences pane. Instead, hold down the Option key when starting the app, and use the menus. Most of the menu items are self-explanatory.
To change the window size, hold down the Option key when starting the app, and choose the option to change the screen size. When SheepShaver opens, you will probably need to use the Monitors control panel to select the size that you want (especially if you select the full-screen option).
To add or replace a disk image with the Mac OS 9 system, shut down the Mac OS 9 app and drop a disk image file on its icon. After dropping a disk image file you will be prompted to perform the next steps.
Note: This method should work smoothly with disk image files that have the file extension .dmg, .dsk, .iso, or .toast. If your file has the extension .cdr or .hfv or .img, the app will ask whether you want to mount the disk in the system (as you probably do) or copy it to the Mac OS 9 desktop. If your disk image has some other extension, change it to .dsk and use the Finder's Get Info (Cmd-I) window to make sure that the old extension is not still being used.
For disk images used for games or software installation: If you want to mount a CD-ROM image that will let you install a game or other software, shut down the Mac OS 9 app, then drop the image on the Mac OS 9 app. Then follow the prompts to add the image as an additional disk, and choose the option to leave the image in its present location and link it to the application. Then, launch the Mac OS 9 app and install your game or software. Then shut down the Mac OS 9 app and either delete, move, or rename the disk image that you added and no longer want to use in Mac OS 9. The next time you start up the Mac OS 9 app, the disk image will no longer be on the desktop.
Again, the disk image must have the extension .dmg, .dsk, .iso, or .toast. If you drop an image with any other extension, then Mac OS 9 will try to copy the disk image file to its hard disk, which is not what you are trying to do. What you are trying to do is mount the image as a disk for use in the system.
To add or replace a disk image with the System761 system: Two methods are possible. Either hold down the Option key when starting the application and follow the prompts; or, if you only want to mount a disk image temporarily, create a folder on your home folder named 'System761 Disks' (without the quotation marks). Drag into that folder the disk images that you want to mount in System761, and launch the System761 app. When you no longer want to mount those disks, move them out of the folder or delete or move the whole folder.
Other customization options will be described if you ask for them.
What it contains
The Mac OS 9 application contains a standard US-English Mac OS 9 installation, without features that can't be used in this system, such as filesharing. It also includes a large number of standard Mac OS applications, plus some Control Panels, Extensions, and Scripting Additions. It adds two desktop images that are used by the supplied AppleScripts.
When the Mac OS 9 app starts up, it creates (if it has not already done so) a SendToMacOS9 folder in your OS X/macOS Documents folder; this folder is thus visible in the Unix folder in the Mac OS 9 system.
The file-transfer system uses the ~MacOS9BackgroundScript script described above. The Files from Host folder in the System Folder uses a CopyFiletoMacOS9 folder action script found in the Scripts:Folder Action Scripts folder.
Acknowledgments
This system is built on software provided by many people who are more expert than I am. The AppleScripts used in this application could not have been written without the help of many experts at Macscripter.net.
Support and contributions
Please do not ask me to help you customize the 'classic' Mac OS or advise you about any applications. Please ask for support in the E-Maculation support forum for SheepShaver. If you want to get in touch with me about the AppleScript used in this system, then please visit this page.
If you find this system useful, please feel free to make a contribution via PayPal from the link on this page.
Edward Mendelson (em thirty-six [at] columbia [dot] edu, but with two initials and two numerals before the [at] sign, not spelled out as shown here).
Mac Os 9 Emulator Ios
For several years now, I have had an old iMac G3 from about 2000 sitting around in one corner of my home office. It works perfectly fine, but I rarely start it up because I really don’t have much of a use for it most days. Occasionally, I play old games or run old software that I still have from 20 years ago, but those occasions are few and far between.
But today boredom and curiosity got the better of me.
I fired up the old iMac and, as usual, it reliably started right up. Compared to my modern MacBook Pro, however, it is obviously noisy, slow and the resolution is terrible. Those are always the first things that strike me whenever I decide to use the iMac, so the thought I had today was: why not try to emulate Mac OS 9 on my MacBook Pro running macOS 10.15 Catalina instead of always having to boot my iMac?
Emulation cannot, of course, replace the experience of actually using the iMac though since it doesn’t give you the full immersion experience of using an authentically vintage computer. Whenever I sit in frontend of that old CRT screen listening to it hum, I always feel a bit like I did back then when I was in school and using AppleWorks on one of these colorful machines to type up my homework — usually some essay first written by hand.
But I digress. I decided to try to emulate Mac OS 9 on my MacBook Pro so that I wouldn’t always have to start the iMac whenever I felt like playing Age of Empires, Civilization III, the original Tomb Raider or Railroad Tycoon II. Plus, I figured I could really jack up the specs on the emulator which would allow me to play a few more games that my iMac won’t run (it only has 64 MB of RAM). Not to mention I could then also run Photoshop 6 again. (the last version of Photoshop I purchased).
Researching Emulators
The first thing I did was to look around online for other people’s experiences with emulating Mac OS 9. The most commonly run emulators for older Macintosh systems are SheepShaver and Basilisk II, both of which I have used before to emulate System 7 just for fun. SheepShaver seemed to be what people were using to emulate Mac OS 9, however, so that is what I went with.
I followed the instructions on their website for setting it up which worked well and I was, with a bit more research on other websites, able to use my iMac in order to extract a valid ROM which is required to run an older Macintosh operating system. With the ROM I was able to get SheepShaver running, Next, I needed to install the operating system itself.
Installing the Operating System
The next piece that was missing though was a Mac OS 9 install disk. My iMac came with one, but it doesn’t work with SheepShaver because it came with Mac OS 9.1. SheepShaver only works up to Mac OS 9.0.4 because it does not emulate the MMU (Memory Management Unit) which was a requirement for Mac OS 9.1 and above.
Mac Os 9 Emulator Download
Instead, I ended up downloading an image of an install CD from Macintosh Garden which is an excellent website to download vintage Mac software. I was able to get it to work with the Mac OS 9.0.4 Universal Install image.
Installing Software
I now have a bootable, usable Mac OS 9 instance on my modern MacBook Pro. It runs with 512 MB of RAM and has 4 GB of hard drive space. I was able to install most of my old games and software on it, although I did run into an issue with getting macOS 10.15 to mount some of the old Apple HFS-formatted CDs so that I could install them. As a work around, I had to use the Disk Copy utility on my old iMac to create .IMG files out of them which I could then transfer to my MacBook via a USB drive (ironcially FAT32-formatted) and then mount into SheepShaver. That was a bit of a hassle, but it worked.
Best Mac Os 9 Emulator
Mac Os 9 Emulator Online
I also browsed Macintosh Garden for a while and found a few new games and other bits of software that looked interesting that I am looking forward to trying out.
An Easier Solution
I spent most of a day doing what I described above just to stumble upon an easier solution later on that would have saved me a lot of hassle. I will share this solution with you now, but not without saying that I still enjoyed the whole process described above.
The solution is a pre-made instance of SheepShaver running Mac OS 9.0.4 that includes a number of utilities and other pieces of software. The ROM is also included and the whole bundle is packaged into a simple, runnable application for macOS 10.10 and above. That means, all you have to do is download it, unzip it, move it to your Application folder and run it. Mac OS 9 boots right up and you don’t have to do a thing otherwise.
You can find and download this brilliant solution for free on http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/macos9osx.html.
Conclusion
They say no article is complete without a conclusion. Well, mine is this: Mac OS 9 is still fun to use and the fact that I now have a lightning-fast version of it running in an emulator on my modern MacBook is a real treat and convenience factor when I get the itch to play old games.
So now, unless I want the full 20-year-old immersion experience, I no longer have to fire up the old iMac in order to run my old software. Instead, I can conveniently sit with my laptop on the couch and play like it’s 1999.
This article originally appeared on Alex’s Notebook.