How good is MAC emulation on a windblows PC

[carmel_andrews]

Like it says on the tin, how good (in terms of compatibility/accuracy) is MAC emulation on a windblowz PC, what's the compatibility like (i.e is it as good as say winUAE on a PC, namely pretty much spot on)

 

Also since the MAC was more for heavyweight Apps and productivity software, which classic versions of them heavyweight apps have been 'dumped' or converted to run on PC based emulators

 

I am mainly/only realy interested in mac emulation of the pre PPC based systems as the only mac emulator i recall was actually built into an all-in-one atari computer emulator (namely a later version of PC xformer) which emulated one or more of the very early 68k mac systems, unfortunately i never saw it used since i didn't known a MAC bios image (at the time) which was neccessary if you wanted to see the mac emulator part of pc xformer working

Edited June 1, 2012 by carmel_andrews

[Forrest]

SheepShaver is one popular emulator for running System 7.x - 9.x. SheepShaver works best with OS8.5 or 8.6. More info http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/mac_emulation

 

I've had mixed results with SheepShaver - some apps work, but some graphics intensive programs don't. Networking is not well supported in my opinion.

 

Prices for old 68K Macs is very low - this might be your best option for true compatability. If you want trouble-free operation with VGA monitors, try to find a later 68040 based Mac such as the 660AV or 840AV. With a Mac-VGA adapter, you'll be able to display 640 x 480, 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768.

[eeun]

If you want to run pre-PPC, Basilisk II is your best bet. Sheepshaver would be a better choice if you needed PowerPC emulation.

 

Sheepshaver is based partially on Basilisk, so setup of both emulators is the same.

 

Basilisk II is reasonably stable, at least for applications. I haven't run any games other than some simple ones like Jetpack.

 

Also an emaculation link like Forrest's; a good setup guide is here: http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/68k_software

[Rex Dart]

Mac isn't an acronym.

[Gibbersan]

Media Access Control?

[gary1068]

I think that ALL Mac emulators SUCK EXTREMELY BAD!!!!! Like a malfunctioning Hoover vacuum cleaner!

[akator]

Over the last several months I've experimented with running Mac OS X in Virtual Box on a Windows 7 PC. I was able to get 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6 all running using OSx86 hacks. And yes, I own multiple Macs and legit OS X installation disks... this was just for fun and to see if I could do it

 

The 10.4 VM runs well enough to install applications and access/translate old data, but there is no audio and the screen resolution can't be changed from 1024x768. I tried many different solutions for the video/audio limitations but they all made the VM unbootable. I wouldn't use the 10.4 VM for anything demanding like productivity or gaming, but if you've got an old AppleWorks document that needs to be rescued/exported, it will likely do the trick for something like that. (Another reason I fought to get 10.4 running is that so far it is my favorite version of OS X. Even though I've got a G4 iMac running 10.4, I like the idea of having it as a VM as well -- silly, but still fun.)

 

The 10.5 and 10.6 VMs run pretty well, mostly because those were better written for Intel machines and that's also about when the OSx86 projects really got rolling. Audio and video are much better than the 10.4 VM, with only slight hiccups now and again. I wouldn't try any serious gaming on them, but they seems to run general productivity applications well enough.

 

For older Mac OSes, the emulators already suggested above work pretty well. I've even run emulators in those emulators and they worked fine

Edited August 8, 2012 by akator