OS 8x Emulator or Other Solution Needed

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Level 1

4 points

OS 8x Emulator or Other Solution Needed

I would like to be able to run a few old applications that will not run on OSX and I don’t wish to set up my old PowerMac to do it. I know of no other solution but to find an emulator. If that is the case, I need a hardware emulator that will run MAC OS 8x on a host operating system of OS X or WinXP.

Does anyone know of an emulator or some other software solution that will work for me?

Details of my current hardware are as follows:
• I have a Mac Pro OS X
• I have a couple WinXP-SP2 machines, including one on Bootcamp
• I have a couple of old Macs (not in use) with an old OS 8 installer and applications.

Keep in mind that the idea here is to not set up another machine or pull my PowerMac out of the closet but to simply find a way to run a couple of old applications that ran on OS8x on my existing OSX machine or XP machine.

Mac Pro (early 2008), Mac OS X (10.5.2), also have, WinXP SP2, PowerMac, G3

Posted on Sep 27, 2008 5:43 AM

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Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

741,881 points

Sep 27, 2008 7:07 PM in response to Arminya

Download and set up SheepShaver.

(35932)

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Answer 2

Arminya Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 28, 2008 9:12 AM in response to Niel

Thanks, however I've already been there. I need something that will work on either OS X or WinXP as I mentioned above. Not Linux.

Copied from the Sheep Shaver site, this is their supported OSs
* BeOS/PPC R4/R5
* Linux/ppc
* Linux/ia32 (AKA x86)
* Linux/amd64 (Opteron, Athlon64)
* Darwin/ppc

Keep in mind that the idea here is to not set up another machine (Linux) or pull my PowerMac out of the closet but to simply find a way to run a couple of old applications that ran on OS8x on my existing OSX machine or XP machine.

If Sheep Shaver can run on XP or OSX, it doesn't list it in the above list.

Obtained my information here:
http://sheepshaver.cebix.net/

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Answer 3

Niel

Level 10

741,881 points

Sep 28, 2008 12:49 PM in response to Arminya

Click here and use the instructions to set it up. It will run on Mac OS X, but not Windows.

(35940)

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Answer 4

Sep 28, 2008 4:12 PM in response to Arminya

From the first site Niel linked to -

The following platforms are currently supported: Linux (i386, ppc, x86_64), MacOS X (i386, ppc), Darwin, NetBSD 2.0, FreeBSD 5.3 and Windows for x86.

{emphasis mine}

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Answer 5

Arminya Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 2, 2008 7:07 AM in response to Arminya

I found it interesting that there was more than one site for SheepShaver with different specs.

I went to the link you both suggested and downloaded it. It works on OSX so that makes me happy. Thanks!!

Does anyone out there have any experience with SheepShaver? I have the ROM image as required for the software but I'm not sure if it's the right one. Sheepshaver doesn't appear to "like" my OS8 install disk and thus, refuses to install OS8. My plan was to install OS8 and use the old updates from the Apple site to bring it back up to 8.6 like my old PowerMac was. I suspect that the difference between 8 and 8.5 are different enough to make a difference with the kind of ROM image that is needed. But I don't recall having this problem with my PowerMac when I first got it. Then again that was over 10 years ago. I don't remember everything about that machine.

As a short cut, since I have already pulled the HD on my PowerMac, I thought I would copy the drive to a folder on the desktop and point Sheepshaver to it some how, but I have no idea if that will work with this application and what I've tried thus far has not worked.

The web hasn't given me any clues on a solution to this problem and in fact has been difficult even to find a GOOD step by step guide to installing and using SheepShaver. Though I did finally find a decent one here:

step by step guide
http://lowendmac.com/mac2win/08m2w/sheepshaver-for-mac-os-x.html

Suggestions Anyone?

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Answer 6

Niel

Level 10

741,881 points

Oct 2, 2008 8:49 AM in response to Arminya

Does anyone out there have any experience with SheepShaver? I have the ROM image as required for the software but I'm not sure if it's the right one. Sheepshaver doesn't appear to "like" my OS8 install disk and thus, refuses to install OS8. My plan was to install OS8 and use the old updates from the Apple site to bring it back up to 8.6 like my old PowerMac was. I suspect that the difference between 8 and 8.5 are different enough to make a difference with the kind of ROM image that is needed. But I don't recall having this problem with my PowerMac when I first got it. Then again that was over 10 years ago. I don't remember everything about that machine.

No Mac OS ROM file exists for Mac OS 8, and it cannot be freely updated to anything newer than Mac OS 8.1. You need to start from a Mac OS 8.5 or 8.6 CD.

(36057)

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