Run Classic Mac OS on a Mac Plus Emulator in Any Web Browser

Dec 20, 2013 - 9 Comments

Mac Plus emulator screen shot

Ever wished you could go back to the good old days of the black & white Mac Plus, running ancient versions of Mac OS like System 7? Your dream can come true with the help of any web browser on just about any platform imaginable, be it MacOS, Mac OS X, iOS, iPadOS, Android, Windows, or Linux, and you’ll even get a whole bunch of classic Mac apps to play around with too. There are none of the installation complexities of running an unofficial emulator because the entire thing is built to run in a browser with PCE/macplus, just go to the website and let it load.

Depending on which instance you run you’ll get either either a Mac Plus with System 7 and the classic KidPix app, or you’ll get a Mac Plus with a whole variety of old school apps like BBEdit Lite, MacDraw, MacPaint, Microsoft Word, Excel, Works, Orion, PageMaker, ZTerm, Disk Copy, Disinfectant, TeachText, ResEdit (!), StuffIt, Compact Pro, Risk, ShufflePuck Cafe, and Cannon Fodder. Pick your fun:

The classic Mac OS experience is complete, you can open folders, adjust control panels, create and save files, edit things with ResEdit, or play Shufflepuck Cafe:

Shufflepuck Cafe in Mac emulator

KidPix is also entirely usable, stamps and all, so those of a certain age range can get drawing and pretend we’re all in 4th grade again:

KidPix emulator

As mentioned, this does indeed work on just about every platform imaginable. It’s actually pretty fast on any modern Mac or PC in a half-decent web browser, but you can even run the Mac Plus emulator on an iPhone or iPad within Safari or Chrome. Here it is running on an iPhone, complete with a bad Instagram filter to emphasize the retro factor:

Classic Mac OS running on an iPhone

Because it’s all contained within the browser, it does not require the old jailbreak emulator method. Not surprisingly, the Mac Plus emu runs a bit slower in iOS, and you’ll need to be pretty precise with your taps to open folders and apps, which kind of makes it more of a novelty than a usable emulator.

If this sounds similar to the linux in a browser thing we covered a while back, you’d be right, it’s the same basic idea. There’s even a web based Atari ST emulator and IBM PC 5150 with DOS for those who want to really go down the retro route. Is any of this useful? No not really, but it’s fun, and at least it isn’t a toilet paper dispenser.

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Posted by: Paul Horowitz in Fun, Retro, Tips & Tricks

9 Comments

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  1. Bert says:

    Is there an App that will run iPhoto
    Thanks

  2. SortingHat says:

    Wow too bad emulation has freaking died! I wish these online things could *read* your computer so you can put in apps that were compatible from old game sites.

    The only emulator I ever got running was Mini Mac as Basilisk II just freaks out and SheepShaver says “You need a newer something or another” and you are force to kill it the bad way.

  3. Constable Odo says:

    It was nice to see System 7 after all these years but practically useless to me. I used Chrome on my iMac 24″ and it ran just fine.

  4. Constable Odo says:

    Damn, I’ve got a whole bunch of old floppy disks with applications and games and no floppy drives save for the one that’s on my Mac Plus. A several years back the floppies were readable/bootable on the Mac Plus but I still wouldn’t be able to bring those floppy disks’ applications over to my iMac. I keep holding on to those old disks thinking they might be valuable to someone one day in the far future, but that will probably never happen.

  5. Jai says:

    I have a few Macromedia/Adobe Director CD’s that no longer work on the current Mac OS X ( Intel ) – Would the “Projectors/Movies” of this Authoring Software be accessible via this emulation ?

    Jai

  6. JA says:

    Works fine on a Mac, but on iOS7 I get a bomb! with a “bad F-Line instruction” and instructions to turn extensions off! Restart doesn’t work.

    Very nostalgic ;-)

  7. Theo Vosse says:

    Works fine in Firefox and Chrome. Amazing.

  8. a_ says:

    Actually, it doesn’t work… on Safari. :(
    I’ve Safari 5 on my laptop (running OSX 10.6.8), and this site works only on Chrome.

    However, it’s very cool. ;)

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