| Cult of Mac

Run every version of Classic Mac OS in your browser

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Infinite Mac running Macintosh System 1.0 in Safari on macOS Ventura
Experience 1984 from the comfort of 2023.
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

You don’t need to buy an old Macintosh to experience classic Mac OS anymore. In fact, you don’t even need to fiddle around installing an emulator and downloading ROMs. Thanks to a new project, you can boot up every major release of Mac OS from the 1980s and ’90s right in your web browser.

With more than 25 Apple computers and devices in my collection, I’m something of a vintage Mac collector. It’s an expensive hobby that few can indulge in, but the Infinite Mac website lets you experience one of the joys of collecting vintage gear: Taking ancient software for a spin on a vintage Mac.

Today in Apple history: New card runs Apple II software on Macs

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Running Apple II programs on a Mac with an Apple IIe Card was pretty darn awesome.
Running Apple II programs on your Mac was pretty darn awesome.
Photo: Microwavemont/YouTube

March 1: Today in Apple history: Apple IIe Card lets users run Apple II software on Macs March 1, 1991: Apple introduces the Apple IIe Card, a $199 peripheral that lets users turn Macs into fully functioning Apple IIe computers.

The ability to emulate the popular Apple IIe on a Mac brings Apple’s two operating systems side by side for the first time. While not quite the equivalent of Apple letting you run iOS on a Mac today, it’s not a world away.

Get emulators, clipboard history on your iPhone without jailbreaking

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Install the apps Apple doesn’t want on the App Store with AltStore.
Install the apps Apple doesn’t want on the App Store with AltStore.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Apple bans apps like emulators and clipboard history on your iPhone, but there’s a clever way to sideload these apps without jailbreaking.

The official App Store is the only way Apple wants you to get apps on the iPhone. If there’s an app that doesn’t fit Apple’s strict rules, it doesn’t get on the App Store at all.

Apple strictly forbids a few categories of apps. Emulators — apps that play games from old consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System and GameBoy — are prohibited. Porn is not allowed either. System-wide features like clipboard managers — which are very popular and even downloadable on the Mac App Store — are not allowed on the iPhone. (My favorite is Maccy.)

That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get these types of apps, though. You can install an alternative App Store for iPhone called AltStore right now with the help of a Mac or PC. With AltStore, you can install verboten apps like emulators and clipboard history without jailbreaking your iPhone.

GB Operator adapter lets you play real Game Boy cartridges on Mac

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GB Operator lets you play Game Boy games on Mac
GB Operator supports original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and GBA games.
Photo: Epilogue

Got a stack of Game Boy cartridges lying around but no Game Boy to play them on? GB Operator is a new adapter that lets you connect and play those physical games on your Mac, Windows, or Linux computer.

GB Operator supports original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges. It combines with an emulator to allow the games to be played on non-original hardware.

Play classic 1990s games with a fully functional Mac OS 8 emulator

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Mac OS 8 emulator
Return to the thrilling days of yesteryear with a Mac OS 8 emulator loaded with games from the 1990s.
Photo: Felix Rieseberg

Anyone wanting a serious dose of nostalgia should install a just-released emulator of a classic Apple desktop computer running Mac OS 8, first released in 1997. There’s even a bunch of games and productivity applications from the same era.

See an iPhone X run Mac OS 8, Warcraft II and SimCity 2000

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iPhone running Mac OS 8
An iPhone X emulates Mac OS 8 very well, including running Warcraft II and Sim City 2000.
Graphic: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Because phones are small, it’s easy to underestimate how powerful they are. Give an iPhone a larger display and it would make a fine desktop PC. Case in point: A new video shows an iPhone X running Mac OS 8.1 as well as a couple of games.

This toy Mac built for dolls now runs Photoshop

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This tiny toy Mac runs Photoshop for work on tiny pictures.
This tiny Mac can run tiny Photoshop for work on tiny pictures.
Photo: Javier Rivera

Javier Rivera has a daughter, but the American Girl doll accessory he found on eBay was for him. It was a miniature Macintosh computer, a non-working toy for an 18-inch doll, and he had to have it.

The nerd in him believed he could make it run Photoshop.

Vectrex Emulator Coming Soon To iOS

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Retro heaven: Vectrex is on its way to the iPhone and iPad.

Vectrex, the sent-from-the-future vector-based games console from 1982, is soon to come to iOS. The Vectrex Regeneration emulator, complete with the entire original game catalog, will launch soon as a Universal app, and will use optional expansion packs to enable extra features.

iMAME Retro Arcade Emulator Appears In The App Store, Get It While You Can!

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The Simpsons Arcade running on an iPad 2 http://bit.ly/vQkywj

Apple has never shown favor to emulators in its App Store (with the exception of examples like the Commodore 64 app), so it’s surprising to see iMAME available in the App Store for free right now. iMAME allows you to run thousands of classic arcade titles if you’re lucky enough to have the original ROMs.

The emulator app includes 9 less-than-popular arcade games to run, but the possibilities are pretty endless if you know what you’re doing.

Use Windows Phone 7 On Your iPhone Now, No Jailbreak Required

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windows-phone-iphone

It’s probably not very popular to say on a Mac blog, but Windows Phone 7 is actually pretty damn good. Not iOS good, of course, but it does a lot of cool, unique things, and unlike Android, doesn’t just rip off Apple’s ideas wholesale: its tiled Metro UI is very pretty, very informative, very smart and its own thing entirely.

Even so, if you’re on an iPhone, you aren’t likely to envy Windows Phone owners very much, but if you want to see how the other half lives — and find out for yourself that it’s not actually that bad — Microsoft has just posted a WP7 emulator in HTML5 on their official site.