Installing OS 9 on Tiger

Hi, SamLW -

Welcome to Apple's Discussions.

You should be able to re-install OS 9 (Classic) from your original disk set without the need to re-install OSX also. Depending upon what exact model iBook it is and what version of OSX originally came with it, one or more of these Apple KBase articles should help you do that -
Article #61802 - How to restore your Apple software
Article #106294 - Mac OS X: How to reinstall Mac OS 9
Article #60847 - How to Perform a Multiple Disc Restoration
Article #107383 - Mac OS X 10.2, 10.3: How to perform Mac OS 9 clean installation with Restore CDs
Article #42929 - Using Restore Discs with Mac OS X 10.2 or later
Article #151871 - Mac OS X 10.3: Installing Classic
Article #301408 - Using Restore discs with computers that ship w/ OSX 10.3.7 or later
Article #86775 - Install Mac OS 9 to Use Classic Applications

Hi, SamLW -

Some games just won't run as well in Classic as they do in OS 9. However, if it ran okay in Classic before, it should do so again.

Perhaps one item to consider is the use of RAM by both Classic as well as programs run within it. This Apple KBase article offers some advice in that regard -
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh1834.html

Hi, SamLW -

If you were running in OS 9 (rather than Classic), I'd suggest trying disabling any unneeded extensions - making a special set of extensions (a very minimal one) is one way to improve game play in OS 9. And, OS 9 usually installs 2 ATI extensions of which only one is needed - ATI Rage 128 3D Accelerator and ATI Radeon 3D Accelerator; which should be retained depends upon the machine and its hardware.

However, I'm not familiar enough with the use of OS 9 as Classic, mainly which (if any) of OS 9's extensions are actually in use when it is used as Classic, to give accurate advice along those lines. Perhaps someone who is familiar with that interplay will post in with advice.

Hi, Don and SamLW. As a rule, extensions and control panels that OS 9 uses to talk to hardware and set the parameters for hardware operation when it is in full control of the computer are sidelined when OS 9 is running as Classic within OS X. Therefore, I suspect it doesn't matter which ATI extensions are installed or enabled when you try to play an OS 9-based game in Classic mode: OS X will ignore and override them and use its own equivalent drivers and controls instead. The hardware-related extensions and control panels provided with or for OS 9 come into play (for better or for worse) only when the computer is booted into OS 9. In Classic mode, they can neither help nor hurt you.

Sam: One possibility that occurs to me is that since Tiger makes far heavier demands on your hardware than Jaguar did, there are fewer processor cycles and less RAM available to Classic in Tiger than there were on the same hardware, under the same circumstances, in Jaguar. Tiger's video processing requirements probably strain the iBook to its limits, leaving your game starved for video cycles too. Tiger's minimum RAM requirement of 256MB is really inadequate — you need 512MB or more to run Tiger well. And finally, if you have a small hard drive with less than 3-5GB of available space on it now, that's also part of your problem in all likelihood.

Is your iBook a G3 or a G4? What is its processor speed, and how much built-in memory (RAM) is installed in it?

In that case, I really suspect your iBook's relatively slow G3 processor and limited video acceleration are just not up to handling the game together with Tiger's enormous overhead. Turn off all widgets and background processes; make sure nothing at all is running except the game. That's probably the best you can do to speed it up/smooth it out. But as has been said above, games tend to run less satisfactorily in Classic mode than other apps. If you've gotta play Escape Velocity and it just won't work well in Clasic under Tiger, buy a $10-25 used Mac on which to run OS 9 and EV.

check to be sure you need classic at all: EV, EVO and EV Nova all have updates that run native on OS X (even intel macs).

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/strategy.html

A much better idea, Keyes! Not being a gamer, I had no idea whether EV was available in OS X-native form. If it is, that's easily the best solution to Sam's problem.

When I first got my iBook, it came with OS X 10.2 and
had the Classic Environment.

If your model of iBook was introduced before april 2003 you should be able to boot into OS 9 without running Tiger - much faster than running in classic mode (or Tiger native). See if OS 9 is an option in the "startup disk" system prefrence. The next fastest option would be to update Escape Velocity to the OS X native version as mentioned previously.
good luck..


PowerMac G4 867 Mac OS X (10.4.7) macbook 2GHz/2GB 160HD