Windows - emulation help!!! - Macintosh Garden

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2011, March 12 - 6:27pm

TSE

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Joined: 2011 Mar 12

Windows - emulation help!!!

Hi guys. Here's some background:

17 year old right now. First Mac was a family computer Mac Clone we bought very very long ago. We used to get Mac: The Discs every single month from about 1996 to 2001 and we still have them! They are sitting up in a box in my room, man there are some pretty neat games and demos on them. I love love love playing the game demos on my current iMac G3. I feel a rush of nostalgia playing Mac games.

I am getting a Thinkpad X220 in a month or two for university next year.

What is the best way to run all these Mac games? Is it possible for a Windows PC running either Windows 7 64-bit or Windows XP 32-bit to play all these games?

Thank you!

PS - By the way, would Macintosh Garden be interested in receiving my old Macintosh discs or a small donation? I really appreciate what you guys are pulling off here.

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2011, March 12 - 9:27pm

24bit

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Joined: 2010 Nov 19

Hi, over at http://www.emaculation.com you may find some answers for your questions.
WinXP is all right for emulating the classic Mac OS, a GNU/Linux distro like Mandriva may even perform better. Windows7 is reported to give problems with SheepShaver, emulating a PPC604.
Some games will not run at all in emulation if they need e.g. special graphics chips, but quite a lot will work, some with a little tinkering.
Best wishes!

2011, March 12 - 10:20pm

TSE

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Joined: 2011 Mar 12

Do a lot of games not run well or not run at all? Any of The popular ones?

I can install xp 32bit So that shouldn't be a problem.

2011, March 12 - 10:57pm

bittin

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Joined: 2009 Jul 27

if the disks are near Sweden i want them and can try to upload them here also

2011, March 13 - 12:23am

24bit

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Joined: 2010 Nov 19

I have to admit, I am not a gamer. As far as I know, only a few will be problematic.
Everything asking for a G3 or better, like Nanosaur will not run.
Gather some info about the games you want to play, and which hardware they require.
Some info is here: http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/compatibility_sheet
The emulated Macs basically are:
- MiniVMac emulating a Macintosh Plus, SSW 1 to 7
(for old b/w games see also: http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/system_6_hell)
- BasiliskII emulating a MacII or Quadra, SSW 7 to 8.1
- SheepShaver emulating a PPC 8500, SSW 7.5 to 9.0.4
Just make your choice...
Except for MiniVMac, little active development has taken place for years.
Among other things there is no USB, no MMU, no FireWire, no preemptive multitasking for emulated Macs.
On the other hand (almost) everything is available for free, and even with a low end dual core cpu the Classic Mac OS can be run at reasonable speed. A 2GHz dual core will perform like a G3 400 approx. with SheepShaver.
Full screen display, sound and ethernet/internet usually work fine with BasiliskII and SheepShaver.

Edit: Replaced 'xxx7' with 'SSW 7' - IIGS User

2011, March 13 - 12:57am

TSE

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Joined: 2011 Mar 12

So a dual core intel sandy bridge processor at about 2.5 ghz will run at like a g3 400 MHz with an ok video card? Is that enough for some of the 3d games like star wars racer and tomb raider?

Thanks for the help thus far, really appreciating it.

By the way, I am located in Minnesota so I would have to ship them to Sweden, would it be easy to upload all the macworld's the discs that I have?

2011, March 13 - 1:12pm

24bit

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Joined: 2010 Nov 19

I was thinking of a Conroe or Allendale ~2GHz rather, outperforming a G3/400.
SheepShaver is said to run with approximately 1/8 of the hosts cpu computing power.
I am doubting SheepShaver will handle star wars racer, tomb raider might just work.
Maybe someone else knows.
All games for dedicated 3D graphics chips will cause problems, I'm afraid.

Regarding you planned uploads you might read this:
http://www.macintoshgarden.org/forum/how-make-a-proper-copy-of-a-cd-shar...

2011, March 13 - 2:11pm

bertyboy

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Joined: 2009 Jun 14

Ask yourself how much your time is worth.

ie. would you spend $40 on an old eMac to save perhaps 2 hours of fiddling with Sheepshaver for EACH game you wish to play ? And then you would not have any guarantee of success.
Of course, I've helped others before, they've bought an old eMac of iMac or PMG4 and immediately upgraded it ti run Leopard - giving them next to absolutely no chance of running the old games. So if you get one you have to realise that it might be OSX 10.3.9 and/or OS 9.2.2 at the very latest.

Star Wars Episode 1 Pod Racer runs like a dream on a G3 - which is why we think Sheepshaver may not handle it - but it also runs even faster under Classic on a faster Mac, even my dual 2.5GHz G5 - where you really do need Jedi reflexes to get through unscathed in the later races.

2011, March 13 - 6:16pm

TSE

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I've been searching around craigslist for a good later g3 or g4 mac.... All the good deals are out of the twin cities and far away. Would a later iMac g3 be able to play all os9 games or should I spring for a g4 emac or iMac?