Tag Archives: emulator

Running classic Mac games on OS X

3d Brick Bash app
I’d long ago given up being able to run my old games 3D Brick Bash! and 3D Paddle Bash! on Intel Macs, but it turns out to be possible using a program that emulates Classic Macs on modern hardware.

The one I tried was Sheepshaver but another option may be Basilisk. The instructions are a bit fiddly and there are legal issues to emulating old Macs so see the emulator home pages for details.

One step I had trouble with was renaming the ROM file to something Sheepshaver would accept. It turned out that although Finder was showing the correct name “Mac OS ROM”, there was a hidden “.rom” file extension that Finder wasn’t showing.

To see if this is the case, select the file and choose File->Get Info. If the filename in that window has an extension, remove it.

Finder's Get Info command shows the true filename

Finder’s Get Info command shows the true filename

It was a real treat to play my old games again. And now that I have the emulator running I plan to hunt down other classic original Mac games.

p.s. Speaking of original, classic Mac games: if you have fond memories of them please consider supporting Richard Moss’s book The Secret History of Mac Gaming, like I did!