Emulators that don't require a mass of

Anything about Mac emulation that does not belong in the above categories.

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thomaskvillar
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Emulators that don't require a mass of

Post by thomaskvillar »

Okay, I see a whole host of emulators on this site, but almost all of them require a few spare items, such as a mac OS CD (sheepshaver's guide makes frequent references to mac OS installation disks, but doesn't mention if we are talking the desired OS you want, or the one specified for your laptop if you're running OSX.)

A large amount of prior knowledge or programs are also necessary, such as toast ($80) to make a .toast file, or to make a .iso file. No guide is provided for how to make one.

There is a small workaround, in the form of "if you have none of the above, make this file your boot disk." Again, no guide on how to do such a thing.

I think that what is needed are better guide videos. Perhaps a mounted camera at the screen during booting up or the early mac OS instructional bits, and using camstudio or some other recording program for the other steps. As it is, I've gotten about halfway through before I just threw my hands up and said "I'll just buy a classic mac for $20."
Last edited by Ronald P. Regensburg on Mon Oct 21, 2019 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Emulators that don't require a mass of

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

It is this board's policy to not have direct links to material that is protected by copyright or license agreement. That includes ROM files and OS software.

Yes, setting up one of these emulators for the first time is challenging.

I understand that you studied the SheepShaver for OSX/macOS setup guide. That guide explains which ROM files you can use and how and where you can get them. The guide also explains which MacOS versions you can use and how and where you can find a MacOS 9.0.4 installation disk image. It also explains how to create a working disk image from a (installation) CD-ROM using Disk Utility. No additional software needed to manage disk images.

Carefully reading and following the setup manual will get you a working emulator.

And when you encounter problems or if a manual is not clear, just ask. You will get an answer. For many of us the start was difficult.
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Jorpho
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Re: Emulators that don't require a mass of

Post by Jorpho »

thomaskvillar wrote:(sheepshaver's guide makes frequent references to mac OS installation disks, but doesn't mention if we are talking the desired OS you want, or the one specified for your laptop if you're running OSX.)

A large amount of prior knowledge or programs are also necessary, such as toast ($80) to make a .toast file, or to make a .iso file. No guide is provided for how to make one.
Are you referring to https://emaculation.com/doku.php/sheeps ... os_x_setup ? The only reference to "toast" there is "an install CD image named 'Mac OS 9 Retail.toast'" and "toast" does not otherwise appear to be necessary. The "You need a Mac OS install CD" provides instructions on making a disk image using Disk Utility and also provides instructions on how to find a download.

Or perhaps you're referring to https://emaculation.com/doku.php/sheepshaver_setup ? I agree there is some discrepancy in the level of detail.
I just threw my hands up and said "I'll just buy a classic mac for $20."
It's not a bad idea, if you can do that and have the space. (I wouldn't have expected them to be that cheap.)
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adespoton
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Re: Emulators that don't require a mass of

Post by adespoton »

Jorpho wrote:
thomaskvillar wrote:(sheepshaver's guide makes frequent references to mac OS installation disks, but doesn't mention if we are talking the desired OS you want, or the one specified for your laptop if you're running OSX.)

A large amount of prior knowledge or programs are also necessary, such as toast ($80) to make a .toast file, or to make a .iso file. No guide is provided for how to make one.
Are you referring to https://emaculation.com/doku.php/sheeps ... os_x_setup ? The only reference to "toast" there is "an install CD image named 'Mac OS 9 Retail.toast'" and "toast" does not otherwise appear to be necessary. The "You need a Mac OS install CD" provides instructions on making a disk image using Disk Utility and also provides instructions on how to find a download.

Or perhaps you're referring to https://emaculation.com/doku.php/sheepshaver_setup ? I agree there is some discrepancy in the level of detail.
I just threw my hands up and said "I'll just buy a classic mac for $20."
It's not a bad idea, if you can do that and have the space. (I wouldn't have expected them to be that cheap.)
I picked up my G4 Minis for free :) One's using the OS9Forever install CD to run OS 9, the other's running 10.4.11 with Classic. Between the two, I can run almost all classic Mac software. But I still find I tend to use my custom packagings of BII and SS more often than running those, despite the fact that I can WOL-launch them and VNC in without any difficulty.

At some point, we should do a survey, to see people's use cases and level of expertise coming in. I started using BII and SS back when I was still using OS 9 on my main Mac, to run my same configuration on PCs I was using as well. For people who never used classic Mac OS and are new to emulation as a whole, the setup could definitely look daunting. But that's where the likes of Chubby Bunny and Emendelson's pre-packaged builds come in, that aren't hosted/linked/documented here for obvious reasons.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Emulators that don't require a mass of

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

adespoton wrote:But that's where the likes of Chubby Bunny and Emendelson's pre-packaged builds come in, that aren't hosted/linked/documented here for obvious reasons.
These are discussed in our "Other SheepShaver configurations" subforum. Emendelson's package is discussed here (with a search suggestion in the first post to find the software): https://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewt ... =33&t=9358
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