Mini vMac Macintosh Classic

Mini vMac Macintosh Classic

Mini vMac

Mini vMac is an open source emulator for the original Macintosh series (from Mac 128k to Mac Classic, up to 4Mb ram). It is a fork of vMac.

Install Mini vMac

You can download the software from https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/download.html, available for Mac, Windows and Linux system.

For Mac, is easier to install using home-brew:

$ brew cask install mini-vmac

To run mini-vmac, you need 1. the ROM file and 2. Classic Mac OS System. I will show you how to do it.

History of Original Macintosh

Macintosh 128k

The original Macintosh was introduced by Steve Jobs in 1984, it has 128k ram, 7.8336Mhz Motorola 68000 cpu. The display's 9-inches size with resolution was fixed to 512x342 pixels, 72 dpi (to match with the Apple ImageWriter 144 dpi resolution?).

The Macintosh 512x342 pixels remained that size till 1990-1993 Macintosh Classic and Macintosh Classic II (Classic Mono).

Macintosh Classic

The first low cost Macintosh sold below USD1,000, expandable to 4Mb ram, using the old 68000 cpu, and the original Macintosh 128k design. Macintosh Classic can run Mac OS System 6-7.5.5.

Macintosh Classic was introduced in the year 1990, later succeeded by Macintosh Classic II.

Using Mini vMac

1. Macintosh ROM file

Macintosh ROM is owned by Apple. According to wikipedia, vMac accept "Gemulator ROM board from Emulators Inc.".

gryphel.com ask user to copy the ROM from a real Macintosh machine using utility eg. CopyRom. Refer here https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/start.html.

A vMac.rom is available from https://sites.google.com/site/minivmacapplicationsv6/disk-images-and-roms.

2. Classic Mac OS

Classic Mac OS System 7.5.5 is available to be downloaded from https://sites.google.com/site/minivmacapplicationsv6/systems-os.

Mini vMac Application

Need a Macintosh ROM file

Load the ROM file from Mini vMac > File > open, or just drag the file to Mini vMac.

This this to auto load the rom file, rename vmac.rom to vMac.ROM and place it same directory as the mini-vMac application.

Need to load a system

Load the OS system file from Mini vMac > File > open, or just drag the file to Mini vMac.

System 5

System 7. Text Edit.

Aldus PageMaker

MacPascal

Import and export files

Import files into vMac using ImportFI, and export files using ExportFI.

*.DSK, *.IMG can be mounted by Mac OS system, just drag the file to vMac.

*.sit is compress file by Stuffit. Use Stuffit Lite or Stuffit Expander to extract the file.

There are many old application and games can be downloaded from macintosh repository website here.