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SheepShaver is an open source PowerPC Apple Macintosh emulator

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Re: SheepShaver is an open source PowerPC Apple Macintosh emulator

#31
I’m surprised nobody mentioned the Rosetta Stone that is infinitemac.org - it’s “just” compiled to JavaScript or whatever but really well done.

From their “About”: >>>Infinite Mac is a project by Mihai Parparita to make classic Mac and NeXT emulation easily accessible. It uses WebAssembly ports of Mini vMac, Basilisk II, SheepShaver, DingusPPC, and Previous to allow a broad set of System Software/Mac OS versions to run on the web.

Shortcuts to the most popular versions are available: system6.app, system7.app, kanjitalk7.app, macos8.app, and macos9.app. <<<

Re: SheepShaver is an open source PowerPC Apple Macintosh emulator

#32

Are there any ways to do some sort of upscaling for HiDPI displays? I’ve always wondered what MacOS 8 or 9 would feel like with 2x retina style rendering.

> I’ve always wondered what MacOS 8 or 9 would feel like with 2x retina style rendering.

I'm not sure what that would even mean. Most of the UI was drawn from bitmaps - there isn't any higher resolution internal representation of e.g. a window border or a radio button.

Re: SheepShaver is an open source PowerPC Apple Macintosh emulator

#34

I use it to this day to run the "Best Books" accounting software (cut down MYOB) I bought in 1991 for the single-digit number of invoices I issue in a year. That's M68k software. Accounting doesn't change. The only thing I've had to do is change the GST rate from 12.5% to 15% in 2010. I use print to PostScript for invoices and reports then copy them to the host machine (which these days can be anything) and PDF or pr…

I think I found MYOB but not Best Books here: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/2021-m-y-o-b-v5-0-1 Is the interface similar for Best Books? and also in color?

Re: SheepShaver is an open source PowerPC Apple Macintosh emulator

#35

Are there any ways to do some sort of upscaling for HiDPI displays? I’ve always wondered what MacOS 8 or 9 would feel like with 2x retina style rendering.

> I’ve always wondered what MacOS 8 or 9 would feel like with 2x retina style rendering. I'm not sure what that would even mean. Most of the UI was drawn from bitmaps - there isn't any higher resolution internal representation of e.g. a window border or a radio button.

Sounds like an opportunity to shove AI into some more products! :P

Re: SheepShaver is an open source PowerPC Apple Macintosh emulator

#37
post #9

The name SheepShaver is a play on ShapeShifter, which was a Mac II emulator for Amiga. I remember running an Amiga Emulator (UAE) AND Shapeshifter on top of that since it was the best Macintosh Emulation at one point in the late 90s.

Fun fact: ShapeShifter was virtualized, not emulated, so software ran at full speed. I used it to play Myst and other games on my Amiga. Its 68060 CPU was faster than any real Mac, so programs were screamingly fast on it.

I’ve got it on my Amiga 500 with Vampire 500 accelerator (so-called 68080 MMX). Pretty sure that’s nearly the fastest native 68k Mac, even if it’s an FPGA.

Re: SheepShaver is an open source PowerPC Apple Macintosh emulator

#38

I used this to run the original Myst... on a PPC OS X iBook (I... think it was PPC. I genuinely don't remember). It worked great. Not sure about ARM64, but it should work there too. Well, sometimes it all randomly crashed once in a while.

The iBook range was PowerPC. Initially very rounded, truly clamshell shaped, then a white curved plastic rectangle.

The MacBook was the similar-looking x86 range: plastic unibody cases.

Re: SheepShaver is an open source PowerPC Apple Macintosh emulator

#39

It’s too bad there isn’t more momentum in the Mac emulation scene. It seems like it stalled out with SheepShaver and Basilisk II. The only new thing is “make it run in JS.” I would love to see an emulator that could run later OS versions like Tiger.

> I would love to see an emulator that could run later OS versions like Tiger.

UTM.

https://github.com/utmapp/UTM

Re: SheepShaver is an open source PowerPC Apple Macintosh emulator

#40

Are there any ways to do some sort of upscaling for HiDPI displays? I’ve always wondered what MacOS 8 or 9 would feel like with 2x retina style rendering.

> I’ve always wondered what MacOS 8 or 9 would feel like with 2x retina style rendering. I'm not sure what that would even mean. Most of the UI was drawn from bitmaps - there isn't any higher resolution internal representation of e.g. a window border or a radio button.

>I'm not sure what that would even mean.

What it would mean is something like hq2x, 2xSaI or similar. These algorithms are popularly for emulation of 8 and 16 bit era games consoles. The example image on this Wikipedia page is illustrative of what's possible with a deterministic algorithm:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hqx_(algorithm)

Imagine what could be possible with a well trained neural network, with knowledge of every icon, every element, and every font glyph at every bitmap size.

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