Classic Mac OS emulators

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Classic Mac OS

Developer	Apple Computer
Initial release	January 24, 1984
Final release	9.2.2 / December 5, 2001
Succeeded by	Mac OS X
Emulated	✓

This page is about software that emulates Classic Mac OS systems on other non-native hardware.

For macOS (formerly Mac OS X and OS X) emulation, see macOS emulators.

For emulators that run on Classic Mac OS, see Emulators on Classic Mac OS.

The Macintosh is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Inc. since January 1984. The original Macintosh was the first mass-market personal computer that featured a graphical user interface, built-in screen, and mouse, eschewing the command-line interface and/or BASIC interpreter that had been the mainstay for home computers since the late '70s. Apple offered the Macintosh alongside its popular Apple II family of computers for almost ten years before those were discontinued in 1993.

Throughout its history the Macintosh has spanned four CPU instruction set architectures that represent the four commonly known generations. From its launch in 1984 up until 1996, Apple sold Macintoshes with the Motorola 68k family of CPUs. In the early 90s, Apple partnered with Motorola and IBM to combine IBM's POWER with Motorola's 68k to produce the PowerPC (PPC) architecture they used in Macs from 1994-2007, naming some of them accordingly as Power Macintosh. They switched to x86 in 2007, justifying it with the explanation that PPC failed to be competitive with Intel's Pentium M series. And in 2020 have started a transition from x86 to ARM, further integrating with its more popular iOS mobile spinoff.

Macintosh computers have always included a platform-exclusive operating system that never had a consistent name.^{[lower-alpha 1]} An important divide relevant for Mac emulation is "Old World" vs. "New World" motherboard ROMs, with Old World used for System 1-7 on 68k/PPC targets, and New World generally used for Mac OS 8-10 PPC targets, since New World ROMs were stored with the OS, they are available legally from Apple for free online in OS updates. A quick way to distinguish an Old World from a New World Mac is that all New World Macs have onboard USB ports, while no Old World Macs do. Mac OS 8.5 dropped support for 68k CPUs. Mac OS X, which has UNIX underpinnings different from its predecessor, was introduced in 1999 requiring a PowerPC G3 at minimum,^{[lower-alpha 2]} and ported to x86 in 2006. With version 11 in 2020, macOS is now being ported to ARM (like its mobile cousin iOS).

A ton of Macintosh emulators have appeared over the years, some early in the system's release (mostly for competing m68k microcomputers) and others as late as a few years ago. As a PC platform in its own right with its own userbase and varying degrees of unique software and hardware features, most major emulators of other platforms maintain a macOS port, or are ported to macOS by external collaborators, in addition to a number of emulators originating on the Mac over the years. It should be noted that we do not aim to be the last word on Mac emulation; there's a community called E-Maculation that covers this more thoroughly, as they offer builds for many of the emulators shown here on their forums. We'll either be further ahead or severely behind.

↑ It used to be called System or System Software until version 7.6, when it was renamed Mac OS in 1997. Version 10 was named Mac OS X (Ten, not Ex) in 2000, and when version 10.8 was released in 2012, it was shortened to OS X. When version 10.12 was released in 2016 it was rebranded as macOS to match the style of their other OSes at the time: iOS, iPadOS, tvOS and watchOS. They kept using the 10.x versioning until the release of macOS 11 Big Sur in 2020, and continue to increment every year.
↑ With the exception of one orphaned early G3 laptop. Though that didn't stop some users from programming OS X bootloaders for most PCI-based Macs, especially those with G3/G4 upgrades.

Emulators

Name	Platform(s)	Latest version	Active	License	Compatibility	Emulated CPUs		Recommended
Name	Platform(s)	Latest version	Active	License	Compatibility	68k	PowerPC	Recommended
PC
Classic Environment		Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger"	✗	Proprietary		✗	✓	✓
Snow		1.5.0	✓	MIT (Permissive)		✓	✗	✓
Basilisk II / SheepShaver		Basilisk II: 31-01-2025 (Win) git (Linux) 25 January 2025 (Mac OS X) git SheepShaver: 31-01-2025 (Win) git (Linux) 25 January 2025 (Mac OS X) git	✓	GPLv2 (Copyleft)		✓ (Basilisk II)	✓ (SheepShaver)	~
Mini vMac minivmac_libretro		37.00(beta) libretro core 36.04	✓	GPLv2 (Copyleft)		✓	✗	~
MAME		git artifacts^{[lower-alpha 1]} 0.289 libretro core	✓	GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause		✓	~	~^{[lower-alpha 2]}
QEMU		11.1.0	✓	GPLv2 (Copyleft)		✓	✓	✗^{[lower-alpha 3]}
Clock Signal		2026-07-23	✓	MIT (Permissive)		✓	✗	✗
PCE		0.2.2	✗	GPLv2 (Copyleft)		✓	✗	✗
Ardi Executor		2.1.17	✗	MIT (Permissive)		✓	✗	✗
vMac		0.19	✗	?		✓	✗	✗
DingusPPC		Alpha104a	✓	GPLv3 (Copyleft)		✗	✓	WIP
UTM		4.7.5	✓	Apache 2.0 (Permissive)		✗	✓	?
Mobile
Mini vMac		Ports	✓	GPLv2 (Copyleft)		✓	✗	~
UTM		4.7.5	✓	Apache 2.0 (Permissive)		✗	✓	?
Console
Mini vMac		36.04 Ports	✓	GPLv2 (Copyleft)		✓	✗	~
Basilisk II		git	✗	GPLv2 (Copyleft)		✓	✗	~

Basilisk II: An emulator targeting the "Mac Classic" and "Mac II" lines, capable of booting System 6.0.7 to OS 8.1 depending on ROM. The successor to Basilisk, a similar emulator for Linux and BeOS, it works by providing replacement drivers for components that would normally be hardware (a sort of HLE approach). Aside from the usual Windows, macOS, and Linux ports, Basilisk II also received an acclaimed (homebrew) PSP port.

Mini vMac: The successor to vMac, an older emulator. Targets the Macintosh Plus (capable of booting Systems 3 to 7.5.5), but can be built targeting other models (128K, 512Ke, SE, SE FDHD, Classic, or [buggy] II).

MAME: To say it's a multi-system emulator would be an understatement. It covers a wide range of electronic history, with its namesake being arcade machines. Just typing in "Macintosh" will list basically everything Mac-related like the original Macintosh 128K (labelled as Working) and the Macintosh II (which is OK). See the full list here. MAME supports emulation of all m68k Macintosh models.

Clock Signal: A multi-system emulator with full-hardware cycle-accurate emulation of the Macintosh Plus, as well as the Macintosh 128K, 512K, and 512Ke.

Snow: A 68k Mac emulator coded in Rust that currently emulates the Macintosh 128K, 512K, Plus, and II computers. Contains detailed debugging options.

PCE (PC Emulator): A multi-system emulator. Computers it targets include the Macintosh Plus, SE and Classic. Stables used to release every two years but stopped in 2013. A snapshot exists for December 2018 however, which suggests that the project isn't completely dead.

Ardi Executor: A formerly payware compatibility layer targeting System 1 to 6. Requires no ROM images or other copyrighted Apple code, as it instead translates Macintosh API calls into equivalent Win32 or POSIX API calls similarly to Wine. Compatibility is limited however, and as such some games and applications which depend on Mac System Extensions may not work properly. An updated fork called Executor2000 is under semi-active development, and only is for modern macOS and Linux. It includes a mode similar to Parrallels's Coherence mode and the early Mac OS X's classic environment.

QEMU: Supports emulation of the Macintosh Quadra 800 able to run Mac OS 7.1 to 8.1. ROM (BIOS) file required. Due to QEMU for m68k not supporting booting from the floppy disk, you need to use a bootstrap to install A/UX 3.x.

SheepShaver: An open-source "run-time environment" that includes a PowerPC emulator for non-PowerPC host systems. Originally commercial software named ShapeShifter, it is the companion app of the 68k Mac emulator Basilisk II. It boots System 7.5.2 through (due to a lack of MMU emulation) OS 9.0.4, runs most Mac applications at full speed on any modern PC, and can interface with and copy files to and from host hardware. It hasn't seen significant development in a while, not to mention that it is riddled with hacks and workarounds, which accounts for why some applications such as the default bundled Internet Explorer flat-out crash. Like Basilisk and vMac, it needs a firmware image from a working Mac. Note that SheepShaver does not have a JIT recompiler for ARM hosts, meaning users on Apple Silicon Macs will get better performance using UTM instead.

QEMU: Best known for its use as an x86 hypervisor, QEMU also emulates a wide range of CPU architectures. In 2015, a Google Summer of Code event brought PowerPC Macintosh support from a curiosity to a possibility and it now supports a specific range of versions as of 2017. QEMU is run from a shell.

DingusPPC: Experimental emulator early in development. Plans on supporting all Macintosh models using PowerPC, and can boot many of them, including the Apple Pippin (despite being nearly useless due to not supporting the Pippin's CD-ROM drive nor the AppleJack controllers) but is pretty active.

MAME: Only supports the Power Macintosh 6100 for now as of MAME 0.289 and can boot to the installer, but cannot install. On an emulated iMac G3, only the boot chime can be heard.

UTM: UTM is full featured system emulator and virtual machine.^{[lower-alpha 1]} Under the hood of UTM is QEMU, so it's essentially a frontend for QEMU and it can do everything QEMU does. Windows (ARM is virtualized, x64 is emulated), PowerPC Macs, SPARC Solaris, etc.^{[lower-alpha 2]} Emulates multiple operating systems on Intel and ARM Macs, including Mac OS 9 but does not currently support GPU emulation/virtualization.^{[lower-alpha 3]} Keep in mind that UTM SE ("slow edition", for iOS devices that haven't been jailbroken) version uses a threaded interpreter which performs better than a traditional interpreter but still slower than JIT used on macOS and jailbroken iOS devices.^{[lower-alpha 4]}

Enhancements

Name		Classic Environment	Basilisk II / SheepShaver	Mini vMac	MAME

Hardware and peripherals

ROMs

Name		Classic Environment	Basilisk II / SheepShaver	Mini vMac	MAME
64 KB	Macintosh 128	✗	✗	✓	✓
64 KB	Macintosh 512K	?	✗	✓	✓
128 KB	MacPlus v1	?	✗	✓	?
	MacPlus v2	?	✗	✓	?
	MacPlus v3	?	✗	✓	?
256 KB	MacII (800k v1)	?	✗	✓	?
	Mac SE	?	✗	✓	?
	MacII (800k v2)	?	✗	✓	?
	Mac II FDHD & IIx & IIcx	?	✗	✓	?
	Mac Portable	?	✗	✗	?
	Mac SE FDHD	?	✗	✓	✓
	PowerBook 100	?	✗	✗	✓
512 KB	Mac IIci	?	✓	?	?
	Mac IIfx	?	?	✓	?
	Mac IIsi	?	✓	~	?
	Mac LC	?	✓	?	?
	Mac Classic	✗	✗	✓	✓
	Classic II	?	✓	?	?
	Mac LC II	?	✓	?	?
1 MB	Quadra 700&900 & PB140&170	?	✓	?	?
	Quadra 950	?	✓	?	?
	Mac IIvx & IIvi or Performa 600	?	?	?	?
	Powerbook 160 & 165 & 165c & 180 & 180c	?	?	?	?
	Powerbook 210 & 230 & 250	?	?	?	?
	Mac LC III (older)	?	✓	?	?
	Mac LC III	?	✓	?	?
	Color Classic	?	✓	?	?
	Quadra, Centris 610,650	?	?	✓	?
	Quadra, Centris 610,650,800	?	?	✓	?
	Powerbook Duo 270C	?	?	?	?
	Color Classic II & LC 550 & Performa 275,550,560 & Macintosh TV	?	?	?	?
	LC475,575,Quadra 605,Performa 475,476,575,577,578	?	?	?	?
	Powerbook Duo 280 & 280c	?	?	?	?
	LC,Quadra,Performa 630	?	?	?	?
	Powerbook 150	?	?	?	?
	LC, Performa 580 & Performa 588	?	?	?	?
2 MB	PowerBook 520 520c 540 540c	?	?	?	?
	Quadra 660av & 840av	?	?	?	?
	Powerbook 190 & 190cs	?	?	?	?
4 MB	Power Mac 6100 & 7100 & 8100	?	?	?	?
	Workgroup Server 9150 80MHz	?	?	?	?
	Power Mac 7100 (newer)	?	?	?	?
	Workgroup Server 9150 120MHz	?	?	?	?
	Power Mac & Performa 5200,5300,6200,6300	?	?	?	?
	Powerbook 2300 & PB5x0 PPC Upgrade	?	?	?	?
	Power Mac 7200&7500&8500&9500 v1	?	✓	✗	?
	Power Mac 7200&7500&8500&9500 v2	?	✓	✗	?
	PowerMac, Performa 6400	?	?	?	?
	PowerBook 1400, 1400cs	?	?	?	?
	Power Mac 6500	?	?	?	?
	Power Mac 7300 & 7600 & 8600 & 9600 (v1)	?	?	?	?
	Power Mac 8600 & 9600 (v2)	?	?	?	?
	Power Mac G3 (v3)	?	✓	✗	?
	Power Mac G3 desktop	?	✓	✗	?
	PowerBook G3 Wallstreet	?	?	?	?
	PowerBook G3 Wallstreet PDQ	?	?	?	?

Hardware and peripherals

Name		Classic Environment	Basilisk II / SheepShaver	Mini vMac	MAME
External monitors		✓	?	?	?
Input	Microphone	✓	✓	✗	✗
Input	Multi-button mouse	✓	✓	?	?
Networking	Ethernet	✓	✓	?	?
Networking	Modem	✓	✓	?	?
Power light		✗	~^{[lower-alpha 1]}	~^{[lower-alpha 1]}	?
Printers	Generic	✓	✓	✗	✗
Storage	3.5 floppy drive	?	✓	✓	✓
	5.25 floppy drive	?	✓	✓	✓
	CD-ROM drive	✓	✓	✗	?
	Hard drive	✓	✓	✗	?
Upgradable components	Upgradable RAM	✓	✓	?	?

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Only from a modified version on Infinite Mac.

Resources

E-Maculation - This links to their wiki, but they also have a forum that's "super busy." They provide setup guides and builds when the emulators themselves don't.
Macintosh Garden (They feature many abandonware games. This page shows guides with links to installing any of the three covered emulators, two for the 68K line called Basilisk II & Mini vMac; and one for the PowerPC called SheepShaver.)
Macintosh Repository A page with tons of software for the Macintosh and other Apple computers, including games and much more.
Pathways into Emulators - A Guide to Pre-Halo Bungie Games (www.bungie.net forums. Mar 17 2011. Includes guide links for running Basilisk II on Windows, macOS and Linux.)
InfiniteMac/Github A project based on Basilisk II, SheepShaver and Mini vMac which makes several Macintosh and Early Mac OS versions available on any web browser.

Notes

Apple(edit)

Desktop: Apple I • Apple II (Apple IIGS) • Apple III • Lisa • Macintosh line • MacOS
Mobile: iPod • iOS & iPad
Consoles: Pippin

[1] It used to be called System or System Software until version 7.6, when it was renamed Mac OS in 1997. Version 10 was named Mac OS X (Ten, not Ex) in 2000, and when version 10.8 was released in 2012, it was shortened to OS X. When version 10.12 was released in 2016 it was rebranded as macOS to match the style of their other OSes at the time: iOS, iPadOS, tvOS and watchOS. They kept using the 10.x versioning until the release of macOS 11 Big Sur in 2020, and continue to increment every year.

[2] With the exception of one orphaned early G3 laptop. Though that didn't stop some users from programming OS X bootloaders for most PCI-based Macs, especially those with G3/G4 upgrades.

[3] CI-Windows CI-Linux CI-Macos

[4] ttps://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/apple/mac128.cpp#L1518
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/apple/macpdm.cpp#L1195

[5] Largely untested.

[6] ttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Hypervisors#Type_2_hypervisors

[7] ttps://old.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/1e2vey3/after_initially_rejecting_it_apple_has_approved/ldaod3n/

[8] ttps://mac.getutm.app/

[9] ttps://github.com/utmapp/UTM?tab=readme-ov-file#utm-se

[Infinite_Mac-10] 1.0 ^1.1 Only from a modified version on Infinite Mac.

[lower-alpha 1]

[lower-alpha 2]

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[lower-alpha 4]

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