Amiga line

Apple Macintosh

Developer	Apple Computer, Inc.
Type	Computers
Release date	1984
Predecessor	Lisa, Apple ][
Emulated	✓

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 88k 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. 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, 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.

Emulators

68k

Name	Platform(s)	Latest Version	FLOSS	Active	Recommended
PC / x86
Basilisk II		1.0 R5	✓	✓	✓
Mini vMac		36.04	✓	✓	✓
MAME		0.264	✓	✓	TBD
Clock Signal		Template:Clkver	✓	✓	TBD
PCE		0.2.2	✓	✗	TBD
Ardi Executor		2.1.17	✓	✗	✗
vMac		0.19	✓	✗	✗
Consoles
Mini vMac		36.04	✓	✓	✓
Consoles
Basilisk II		git	✓	✗	~

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.

Clock Signal

A multi-system emulator with full-hardware cycle-accurate emulation of the Macintosh Plus.

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.

PowerPC

Name	Platform(s)	Latest Version	FLOSS	Active	Recommended
PC / x86
SheepShaver		2.4	✓	✓	✓
Classic Environment	(PPC)	Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger"	✗	✗	✓
Rosetta		Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" (Intel)	✗	✗	✓
QEMU		4.0.0	✓	✓	TBD
PearPC		0.6.0	✓	✗	✗

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.

PearPC

This emulator had been developed since 2004, and is capable of booting OS X 10.1-10.4, but not prior Mac OSs, nor OS X's Classic environment. It was the subject of controversy when a closed-source emulator, CherryOS, was revealed to have used code stolen from PearPC. PearPC lacks a GUI (all that's available is the "Change CD" button), so using a frontend may be necessary.

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. Like PearPC, QEMU is run from a shell.

Rosetta

Apple's official PowerPC emulator for x86-based Macs included in Tiger (10.4.4). Though it wasn't included in Snow Leopard, it was still possible to transfer it from a previous Leopard install. It was removed entirely in OS X Lion. Rosetta uses QuickTransit technology licensed from Transitive Corporation, and works transparently from the end-user, leading Apple to market it as "the most amazing software you'll never see." as it, unlike most emulators, does not have a user interface. Rosetta works best on software that isn't system-intensive, such as office applications; games and other software applications which rely on kexts, libraries or certain instructions may not work properly if at all. A compatibility list is available here.

x86

Name	Platform(s)	Latest Version	FLOSS	Active	Recommended
PC / x86
Rosetta 2		macOS 11 “Big Sur” (Apple Silicon)	✗	✓	✓

Emulation issues

Currently, no 3rd-party Macintosh emulators support hardware graphics acceleration, due to certain CPU instructions left unimplemented in their upstream PPC softcores. This means no GLIDE, RAVE, nor OpenGL. Fortunately, though as was generally the case in every platform of the period significant visual and feature differences exist between the two, the majority of Mac-exclusive software using these APIs also included software fallback renderers.

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.)
• 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, mac OS and Linux.)