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SoftMac
(Last updated November 3, 2009)
Description
Developed by Emulators, Inc, SoftMac is a closed-source emulator of 68xxx based Macintosh computers. It runs in Windows only. The current version of SoftMac is 8.2 (released in 2002), available as a free download. SoftMac can run OS 7.0.1 to 8.1 within its emulated Macintosh.
Formerly a commercial product, SoftMac is now completely free.
A SoftMac setup guide is available.
Lastest Version
Help and Documentation
History
SoftMac is developed by Emulators, Inc., a fairly old name in the Macintosh emulation field.
SoftMac spun off of Gemulator, an Atari emulator for Windows, which in 1997 was expanded to include emulation of the 68000 Macintosh classic. A 1999 release of Gemulator included a separate Macintosh emulator, now called SoftMac, which could emulate up to a 68040 Macintosh.
Early releases of Gemulator required that Macintosh ROM card be plugged into a free ISA slot on the host machine. Other emulators, such as Fusion and vMac emulator allowed users to just use a ROM file that could be dumped from a physical Mac (and therefore distributed illegally online). When SofftMac became a separate emulator, it did not require a physical ROM card.
SoftMac has been successful for many years (outlasting Fusion and ARDI's Executor as a commercial offering) but many users of online emulation discussion boards are highly critical of difficulties with SoftMac's support of sound and networking. Developer Darek Mihocka's defiant attitude toward online critics has solidified opposition to his company and products in some quarters.
The current stable release of SoftMac dates from 2002, although a beta from 2007 is currently available for public download. Mihocka has stated that although he has accomplished and publicly demonstrated the feat of PPC emulation in Windows, he will not be developing or releasing such an emulator at the present time. The beta version of SoftMac 9 mentioned above is not a PPC emulator.
Screenshots
