At my university, I would like run site-licensed software that successfully ran under Mac OS 7.5.5 through Mac OS 8.6. I would like to run this software on OS 8.1 under emulation on Mac OS 10.5 or 10.6. When I checked emulation.net, I found the following:

"Emulation.net has finally died. The database failed, and as the site hasn't been actively updated in over two years, I'd recommend you visit MacScene instead. We moved all the content from emulation.net to MacScene years ago, and it also has active user forums and a reference Wiki. RIP Emulation.net."

I have searched this site for that information and have found nothing. Can anyone help?

Cordially,

Paul Rybski, Physics, UW-Whitewater

I'd recommend Sheepshaver.

Home page: Here.

I don't really have much experience in setting it up though. You'll probably be able to find various guides on their site or just with simple searching.

There's an out-of-the-box version using MacOS 9.04 called "Classic-on-Intel v 4.0.1 'chubby-bunny,'" but you may have to torrent it.

Hope this helps!

I think the out-of-the-box setup was what I ended up using. It worked for a bit while I indulged in Wolfenstein 3D. The next day, though, files started disappearing from the .img serving as my emulated HD. After awhile the HD imploded in a sense and became unusable.

8.x and 7.x emulation has a long way to go still.

There is a SheepShaver setup manual over here:

emaculation.com/doku.php/sheepshaver_mac_os_x_setup

SheepShaver will get you running up to Mac OS 9.0.4 in an emulator. There is also a busy forum (mine) about emulating those older systems in OS X:

www.emaculation.com/forum/

Basiliskil is quite a good System 7.x emulator. The Incredible Machine, HyperCard, etc., work really well on it.

I'm glad you found your way here... as the old maintainer of emulation.net, I'm glad you were able to find the new community

Unfortunately, MacScene had a meltdown last year, so the emulation stuff is a lot harder to find than it used to be.

The best solution for running OS 8.1 is Basilisk II: you'll need a Quadra ROM (from a Mac Quadra) in order to do it. After that, go to the emaculation website for the tips and tricks; you'll need the emulator binary and the front end binary. Set up your configuration in the front end, and set it to boot from either an 8.1 CD or a locked disk image (locking it is important). Use the front end to generate a blank disk image to install on to (or use disk tools or diskutil), and fire up the emulator. The rest should be self explanatory, except for getting ethernet emulation working, for which you'll need to work through the emaculation forums.

Good luck!

_Em wrote:


This weeks goal: implement a downloads section. We recovered all the files from the old MacScene, still no forums database though. So I should be able to resurrect the downloads section from that before next Monday.

Macscene's emulation section was about a year out of date, so many of the links are probably either dead or outdated. (I'd been focusing on iPhone game programming in the past year and hadn't been maintaining the links .) We didn't have the storage space or bandwidth before to mirror all the emulators locally, but that would be the best solution. That way, we wouldn't have to worry about emulators disappearing and links going bad.

Usually it's best practice to link to the developer's website for downloads so the developer can control the releases. I don't think we should be linking directly to downloads anyway, because then we also have to worry about versions. What I have in mind is simply an interface that links to the general website of the emulator, let the user find the version that's best for them.

One decision I need to make is what info we track on each emulator. We used to track 'classic', 'osx', and I think 'intel'. I assume today we no longer need to track that. My goal is to make it super easy to list a new emulator; including the ability for someone to submit a link and have an admin add the new emulator. The biggest challenge (as we had before) is collecting the icons.

Basically, we track an icon, title of emulator, website, and possibly a brief description. I would also like to include a 'MacScene recommended' type thing so we can better direct people to the best of the best.

ReddestDream wrote:

I would recommend it as well. I still have HyperCard (kind of tells you how old I am. :-D ) which runs exceptionally well with SheepShaver and OS 8.1.