They run DOSbox https://tenfourfox.blogspot.com/2019/12/and-n … completely.html

However, that loads CPU 100% whatever it's doing, so given Apple's predilection for lack of robust thermal design and blaming it on the CPU maker, it might be something you have to account for.

You can put Mac OS9 onto that, which means you can then run old Mac games that would have been written for 68k and PPC. That's the reason I have one, though to be fair since I got OS9 installed I haven't actuall used it much. If you're interested the place to go is macos9lives.com.

Sounds like a C2D machine would be better to do some retro stuff.
G4 isn't good for DOS. 🙁

Seconding ratfink's suggestion.

You can play Mac exclusive games (or Mac versions) in Windows 10 with emulation (think Basilisk II/SheepShaver, Qemu m68k/ppc and MAME), but it's a very involved process and a steep learning curve, if you've never done it before. Far easier if you have legacy kit that can run the required version of Mac OS.

Instead of DOS games in DOSBox, try the Mac versions, they often ran at a higher res then their DOS counterparts, and with the Mac interface.

darkenedroom wrote on 2024-09-14, 11:03:

Seconding ratfink's suggestion.

You can play Mac exclusive games (or Mac versions) in Windows 10 with emulation (think Basilisk II/SheepShaver, Qemu m68k/ppc and MAME), but it's a very involved process and a steep learning curve, if you've never done it before. Far easier if you have legacy kit that can run the required version of Mac OS.

Instead of DOS games in DOSBox, try the Mac versions, they often ran at a higher res then their DOS counterparts, and with the Mac interface.

I've looked a bit and there are a few games, including doom 😀
The whole "jumpstart X grade" series 😀
And more stuff. I thought I could do more with a 1.25GHz cpu. I have a powerbook and 4 lamp imacs but I never tried retro stuff because of space constraints on my bench.
I'm gonna buy an Intel based mini and install Windows. A small box for some tinkering isn't bad. But I'll have to learn before I buy.

Also, there are extensive lists of games online.
No, learning curve means "die and get resurrected". Right now I don't have the required mage and spell. 🤣

Thanks for the inputs!!

If you go the Intel i5 and i7 Mac mini route then they make great media centre PC's as well (that's what I used mine for). They supported hdmi and the 3.5mm audio port doubled as optical out. So with a 3.5mm to Toslink adapter and Toslink cable (or 3.5mm to Toslink cable) you could hook it up to your TV and surround sound system.

With a wifi keyboard and mouse, makes for a great web surf and watch movies from the sofa setup!

its great for running morphos!

Nexxen wrote on 2024-09-14, 11:26:

And more stuff. I thought I could do more with a 1.25GHz cpu. I have a powerbook and 4 lamp imacs but I never tried retro stuff because of space constraints on my bench.
I'm gonna buy an Intel based mini and install Windows. A small box for some tinkering isn't bad. But I'll have to learn before I buy.

You can do plenty of retro Mac gaming on a 1.25GHz CPU. The real problem with the Mac mini, compared to, say, an MDD G4, as a retro machine is the fact that it natively won't boot OS 9.

But some creative people have now managed to make it boot OS 9, so that issue is fixed...

In terms of OS X, the issue you run into is that the PPC OS X days were the tail end of the dark era. Not a ton of new Mac-only games, although the usual suspects like Aspyr and others continued porting Windows games. Many of the 2000-2005 games were recompiled for Intel Macs, so... if they were, you can get infinitely better results on an Intel Mac (greatest retroish Intel Mac ever, the 5,1 Mac Pro...).. Or... just play the original on a Windows machine. e.g. I was thinking of Rise of Nations, it's not clear if that was recompiled for Intel Macs, but why would I play the Mac version on one of my vintage Macs? I can play the original version on my XP Ivy Bridge machine (at least if I can find the CD of the expansion...), I can play the Steam version on a modern machine, why would I want to run the Mac version on a G4?

VivienM wrote on 2024-09-14, 16:08:

why would I want to run the Mac version on a G4?

I like to explore unfamiliar retro stuff 😀 I.e. me not knowing things.
I get what you mean. 😉 IDK, maybe it was the then hype catching up to me 20 years later, or boredom.

Probably an i7 model would do great, as suggested above.

Nexxen wrote on 2024-09-14, 16:37:

VivienM wrote on 2024-09-14, 16:08:

why would I want to run the Mac version on a G4?

I like to explore unfamiliar retro stuff 😀 I.e. me not knowing things.
I get what you mean. 😉 IDK, maybe it was the then hype catching up to me 20 years later, or boredom.

And if you want to explore unfamiliar retro stuff on a Mac, you want the classic OS IMO. That's what it comes down to. Some Mac port of a 2002 Windows game for PPC OS X is not 'unfamiliar retro stuff', it's 'familiar stuff on ill-suited retro hardware'.

I actually happen to think that vintage Mac stuff is a lot more interesting than vintage PC stuff, in part because there are much starker dividing lines between eras whereas XP straddled a very very long period of time in Windows land.

VivienM wrote on 2024-09-14, 18:10:

it's 'familiar stuff on ill-suited retro hardware'.

Brilliant.
My earliest experience was with an Apple II, insert floppy and play some learning game. But that's not using a machine.

VivienM wrote on 2024-09-14, 18:10:

I actually happen to think that vintage Mac stuff is a lot more interesting than vintage PC stuff, in part because there are much starker dividing lines between eras whereas XP straddled a very very long period of time in Windows land.

True.

BloodyCactus wrote on 2024-09-14, 14:08:

its great for running morphos!

I finally started looking into it and there are YT videos available.
----

10.4 supports OS9.
I'll check older games.

Nexxen wrote on 2024-09-21, 19:22:

I finally started looking into it and there are YT videos available. ---- […]
Show full quote

BloodyCactus wrote on 2024-09-14, 14:08:

its great for running morphos!

I finally started looking into it and there are YT videos available.
----

10.4 supports OS9.
I'll check older games.

morphos is not macos.

https://www.morphos-team.net/

it can run amiga games!

Nexxen wrote on 2024-09-21, 19:22:

10.4 supports OS9.
I'll check older games.

10.4 supports Classic, which is a virtualizedish OS 9. Slightly different from booting OS 9, in a way that might be material for games...

VivienM wrote on 2024-09-21, 20:45:

Nexxen wrote on 2024-09-21, 19:22:

10.4 supports OS9.
I'll check older games.

10.4 supports Classic, which is a virtualizedish OS 9. Slightly different from booting OS 9, in a way that might be material for games...

Worth checking, it's in the retro territory as well.

And I can overclock it even, just a matter of moving some resistors.
https://thehouseofmoth.com/ppc-overclocking-station/

Lovely 😀

To my surprise, there are 6 Loki Games ports for Linux PowerPC. The last version of Debian with PowerPC 32-bit support is Debian 8 from 2015 though.

Hi, there are a lot of console emulators for Mac OS 9 and OS X.
Check out the Mac ports by Bannister, for example. Older ones run from OS X 10.2 on-wards.
The trick is to find the most recent ones working with same enhancer library.

For example:
Emulators compatible with Emulator Enhancer v2.3:
ba-040.dmg
fmsx-274.dmg
frodo-440.dmg
generator-040.dmg
gplus-130.dmg
kigb-205.dmg
nestopia-141.dmg
o2em-111.dmg
smslus-133.dmg
thom-161.dmg.
ee-23.dmg

Source: http://old.mac-emu.net/~bannister/filemirror/
Homepage: https://www.bannister.org/software/

Other emulators:
LisaEM (LisaEm-1.2.5.dmg)
SheepShaver
Basilisk II (BasiliskII_UB_20091004.zip)
MZ-1500 and 700 on Mac OS X (MZ-Memories_ub_010.zip)
Neko Project II (np2_080s.sit, np2_carbon_081a.sit, np2_classic_080.sit)
Neko Project IIx (np21x080.dmg, np2x080.dmg)
NoSTalgia (NoSTalgia_1.42.zip, NoSTalgia_1.52.zip)
PDP-8E Simulator (pdp8e_simulator_2.0.2.dmg)
SNES (Silhouette.sit.hqx, snes9x-1.53-macosx-113.dmg.gz, SNES9X_custom_OS9.img, SNES9X_custom_1.42_v49.dmg, vswc-b8r3.sit.hqx)
Stella Mac (StellaOSX3.0.dmg)
TinyELF for OS X (TinyELF.dmg, TinyELF_1.3.dmg)
VICE-64 (vice-macosx-cocoa-i386+ppc-10.4-gcc40-2.3.dmg)
UAE (uae-0.8.20-macosx-beta3.tg.ungz)
BeebEm for Mac

only files:
mac64-04.hqx (C64 emu)
Power64-OSX.dmg (C64 emu)
zxsp073pre5.zip (ZX Spectrum emu)
boxer_0-87.dmg
CrabEmu-0.2.0.dmg (Master System emu)
dosbox-0.72_g3-only.dmg.zip (DOSBox)

Emulators for Mac OS 9:
bannister.sit (bundle of Bannister's emulator ports for OS 9)
sixtyforce_080.sit, sixtyforce_095b1.zip (C64 emulator)
Power64 4.1.2 Carbon.sit, Power64 4.1.2.sit (C64 emu)
xmil026s.zip, xmil_carbon_050214.zip (Sharp X1 emulator)
x68em.lzh, x68emc.lzh, x68emd.lzh (Sharp X68k)
ColEm.sit_.bin, ColEm_enhanced.sit (Coleco emulator)
dgen-117.sit.hqx (Genesis emulator)
MacBeebEm.sit (BeebEm for Mac)
mastergear.sit (Mastersystem, Game Gear emu)
Neopocott_0.42_Carbon.sit_.bin (NeoGeo Pocket emu)
gbmac_0.9.5_68k.hqx (GB Emulator)
NESMac036a4j-68k.sit.hqx (NES emulator)
genemppc.sit (Genesis Emu)
MacYAME.sit_.bin (YAME multi emulator for Mac; NES, SNES, TG16)
ines.sit.bin (InterNES Mac)
sixtyforce080.dmg (C64 emu)
Snes9x_1.43_OS9.img_.sit (SNES emulator)
stella-12-mac.sit (Stella A2600 emulator)
reSID-08-4.sit (SID player)
PowerST_02.sit (Atari ST emu)
TRS-80.sit (TRS-80 emu)
xnes-040.sit.hqx (NES emu)
Q-emuLator3.sit (Sinclair QL emu?)
emulator-mac.sit, emulator_src_3.5.sit, emulator-skins-18.sit (PalmOS emulator)

This is just a short list of freeware and shareware emulators to give an idea. They need OS 8/9, OS X 10.2 or 10.4.
There are more emulators for Power PC Mac platform. Virtual PC 7 for OS X, for example, which can run Win XP.
Or SoftWindows 2 for Mac OS 7/8/9, SoftWindows 98 for Mac OS 8/9..

Virtual PC 3 and SoftWindows 98 do support Voodoo 2, even.
Ok, Voodoo I, as well in principle, but Voodoo II has native games support in Mac OS 8/9.

So really, if you want to use Mac OS 9.22 or 3D games on Macintosh, a real Power PC Mac is really nice to have.
Things like GLide, RAVE or QuickDraw 3D need a real Mac OS 9 installation and a supported GPU.

Many games like Real Myst may run on both Mac OS 9 and OS X 10.1+, I vaguely remember.

Jo22 wrote on 2024-09-25, 02:19:

Hi, there are a lot of console emulators for Mac OS 9 and OS X.
Check out the Mac ports by Bannister, for example. Older ones run from OS X 10.2 on-wards.
The trick is to find the most recent ones working with same enhancer library.

That's a lot 😀