:
Sent: Fri Aug 8 06:23:56 2014
Hi,
I know it's neat and all that the emulation can build a tar of all the files, but this really complicates trying to make a NetBSD pkgsrc package of the latest versions of Mini vMac.
Is there some place or some way where a source tarball can be downloaded and some documentation explaining where the options can be set when compiling for the first time?
Thanks!
See the topic in the FAQ - “What format is the Mini vMac source code in, and why don't you use something more standard?”.
From my point of view, complicating making a NetBSD pkgsrc package is feature, not a bug. People who know what they're doing are welcome and encouraged to compile their own variation of Mini vMac for their own use. Otherwise, I'd prefer people use a binary that I have compiled, especially if it is using the name Mini vMac.
It is true though that I'm no expert in NetBSD. Any suggestions or patches for small changes to make Mini vMac work better with NetBSD are welcome.
Sent: Wed Aug 6 05:53:37 2014
Hi. I just compiled the latest Mini vMac from source on my x86-64 laptop and it works great except for this one thing:
Every time anything changes on the screen the graphics in that area get messed up. If I drag the cursor across the screen I get little copies of the cursor left behind in the path of the cursor. Tabbing away to an application (outside of the emulator) that covers the emulator window and then back to the emulator clears these artifacts. Is there an option I can use that will force a full redraw?
Thanks for an otherwise great emulator!
--
Marc Juul
There isn't such an option. But the source code could be modified to always do a full redraw. In HaveChangedScreenBuff (in MYOSGLUE.c) at the top, after the variable declarations, insert some assignments:
top = 0; left = 0; bottom = vMacScreenHeight; right = vMacScreenWidth;I suspect the problem is that Mini vMac is drawing single bit images to the screen, which is apparently rare these days, and so buggy on some systems. This sort of thing on Linux has been reported before. I'm considering having an option to always draw color images, though that would be less efficient.
Sent: Tue Aug 5 13:50:08 2014
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your wonderful project. After playing around with mini vMac, I decided to own a vintage real Macintosh SE.
Can you compile MinivMac in ARM hard floating point? The current arm version seem to use soft float. I don't know how to cross compile in this case.
cheers,
Ricky
I'm not an expert on ARM issues. Is the soft float version not compatible with your version of linux? The thought was that compiling a version that doesn't use the FPU ought to work on machines with or without one.
Regardless of how it is compiled, Mini vMac would not make any use of the ARM FPU. Even for Mac II emulation, the choice was made to emulate the Mac II FPU using integer arithmetic, to ensure getting identical results on all platforms.
Sent: Tue Jul 29 12:52:41 2014
Classic II, Classsic Color. Add it them!
See this earlier question.
Sent: Tue Jul 29 01:11:13 2014
I'm looking for mini vmac
not 68000 but PPC603 version
my sheepshaver wont work for Quicktime
my emulated 68000 Mac will play quicktime (v1.5 or earlier)
See the FAQ section “Emulation of a PowerPC Macintosh”.
Sent: Fri Jul 25 04:56:12 2014
How do I get color in the iOS version of Mini vMac
You could download the source code of zydeco's port, merge it with the latest Mini vMac source code, add color support in the platform dependent layer, and then compile for Mac II emulation. (Major technical skill required.)
Sent: Thu Jul 24 14:15:19 2014
I started up Mini vMac using the "sys1.1.img" disk, to see the earliest Mac OS. When I tried to Quit Mini vMac, a message appeared saying I should Shut Down the emulated computer before quitting Mini vMac. Only there is no Shut Down command in the earliest Mac Systems. I see I can force quit Mini vMac, but "at the risk of corrupting the mounted disk image file"-which I certainly don't want to do. I sort-of vaguely remember that on the earliest Macs, one simply turned the hardware switch off to shut it down. So should I just force quit Mini vMac when running a Mac System that has no Shut Down command?
I did look in both documentation and FAQ, but found nothing about this. You might add something to documentation about it.
Thanks,
Andrew Main
PS to previous message: I did force quit Mini vMac once because of the lack of a Shut Down command in System 1.0, but then when I did Get Info on the "sys1.1.img" file, I found it had been modified, which made me nervous. Is it a problem?
Yes, there is no Shut Down command in the earliest system versions. You are instead supposed to eject all disks before turning off the power, using the "Eject" command in the "File" menu of the Finder.
Mini vMac is actually checking whether any disks are still mounted, so ejecting all disks first will get rid of the message when trying to quit.
Disk images that are not locked will most always be modified when mounted by Mini vMac.
Sent: Mon Jul 21 23:45:32 2014
I had tremendous fun yesterday playing "Dark Castle" on my Macbook for the first time in...more years than I care to count.
I tried running minivmac (v3.3.3) on my Linux system, which has two monitors, and in full-screen mode the minivmac window ends up split between the two monitors, which isn't all that fun. If minivmac would restrict full-screen mode to a single monitor that would be much more playable.
Thanks for your efforts!
It might be possible to do what you want using the “-display [display_name]” command line argument. I haven't ever tried this.
I get the impression that using Multiple screens isn't too standardized in Linux. I found this page about Multihead setup for archlinux, which describe various versions. Do you know any way to use Xlib to reliably determine the position of the main screen, regardless of distribution? The section on Full screen games on that page doesn't seem encouraging.
Sent: Sun Jul 20 16:52:42 2014
The Mac OS 7.5.5 On Milions of Colors not have Color Desktop patterns. I set to Colors radiobox : Milions in the list In Monitors Control. When set on 256 colors is have colored patterns. Is Bug In Emulator, Rom or System Version?
I don't know. We'd need to ask someone who has a Mac II set up. My old Macs are mostly in storage.
Oddly, if the start up disk has been set to use a color pattern on a 256 color version of Mini vMac, when that disk is used on a millions of color version, the color pattern will show until it finishes booting to the Finder.
Update: I found a page about Configuring System 7.5.3 which indicates Basilisk II has a similar issue, reducing the chance that the problem is with the emulation.
Sent: Fri Jul 18 18:29:47 2014
Hello Paul,
I'm a little confused by your FAQ answer regarding the source code for Mini vMac. I don't understand how, for example, Mini vMac for Windows was compiled.
Is it feasible (and would it be useful) to post the source code for each operating system outside of the disk image on SourceForge? Or is all the useful code the code that has to be compiled within the emulator and therefore what you compile on (for example) Windows would not be of great interest/value?
Thank you,
Euan Cochrane
twitter.com/euanc
As the FAQ says, compiling Mini vMac is documented on the “Building Mini vMac” page. If you give some hints as to what isn't clear, I can try to improve it.
The Mini vMac build system, contained in the source disk image, is used to generate source code for the desired one particular variation of Mini vMac.
As a starting point, the source of one particular variation would be much simpler and more interesting than all source in the entire build system.
There are far more options that the build system deals with than the target operating system. So it isn't just a matter of posting source code for each operating system. Or, it could be possible to port the entire build system to run on other operating systems, but that is a much bigger project than I want to deal with.
Sent: Tue Jul 15 12:48:38 2014
When i not add hard dis in mini vmac and interupt it, i have sad mac. this is on Mac II, And Mac Plus.
“... and so the doctor says, Don't do that!”
(I think I remember a real Mac Plus doing the same thing, i.e. this is not a Mini vMac bug.)
Sent: Mon Jul 14 10:06:48 2014
Do you will create Mini vWindows?
No, see FAQ.
Sent: Sun Jul 13 11:06:42 2014
Do Mini Vmac Can Run ROM Power Macintosh G3 All-In-One And Mac OS 8? On Windows PC?
No, as stated in the FAQ, Mini vMac is only for emulation of 680x0 Macintosh computers. Also, “Mini vMac can currently be used with up to System Software 7.5.5, and any earlier version back to the earliest known prereleases. In theory some (distant) future version of Mini vMac may be able to work with up to Mac OS 8.1, the last version to work on a 680x0 Macintosh. Later system software, starting with 8.5, runs only on a PowerPC Macintosh.”
Sent: Fri Jul 11 00:27:30 2014
I submitted the earlier bug report today about importfl saying "disk full". I thought it was a problem w/ Mavericks not supporting OS standard disk images, but it turns out it was my error. The file I was trying to import was much bigger than I had thought-- too big to fit on the disk.
Sorry for the confusion.
I'm glad you figured out the issue.
Sent: Thu Jul 10 20:58:37 2014
Hi. I just updated to Mavericks and am having trouble mounting disks with mini vMac-- or more specifically with importfl.
I think the problem is that all Mac OS standard disk images are getting mounted as read only. Importfl gives me a "disk full" error when I try to import.
I tried creating a new OS extended version of my boot disk, but vMac wouldn't open it. Is there a disk image format issue?
Thanks for all your great work on this project.
Yes, as mentioned on my “how to work with Disk Images” page, OS X 10.6 and later mount HFS disk images as read only. An alternative is to use ImportFl, which is not affected by what disk image formats the host operating supports.
[The following message says problem with ImportFl resolved.]
Sent: Wed Jul 9 19:57:23 2014
Any argument (depth 1,2,3,4, m II, itc.) not working.
I Want to see this comment and repair this bug. I Only want to run mac os 7.5.5 in color. i trying this about some days.
According to server logs, a successful request for a Macintosh II variation came from your IP address about an hour prior to your message. The variation service unfortunately takes longer than that, I process a batch once a day.
There were also unsuccessful requests 6 hours prior, but the server doesn't record details about what it didn't like.
Once you do get a Mac II variation, one thing to watch out for is that it will start in Black and White, you have to enable color with the Monitors control panel.
The Macintosh II emulation is incomplete, but it should work to that extent.
Sent: Wed Jul 9 17:04:03 2014
I happen to have found a typo in the variations service. Half 1080p is 960x540, but is half WUXGA 960x540, or 960x600?
Thanks much for finding this. I have fixed it on both the 3.3.3 and the 3.4.0 variation pages.
Sent: Thu Jul 3 04:24:57 2014
Hi,
I'm a big fan and really appreciate the work you do. The OpenBSD version is compiled against libX11.so.15.0, but my system binary is for libX11.so.16.0. I'm running OpenBSD 5.5, default install amd64 on a Toshiba laptop. I tried creating a symlink in /usr/X11R6/lib/ that bumps the version number down by one, but that gives me:
./Mini vMac: can't load library 'libc.so.60.1'
So in other words I'm in the OpenBSD version of DLL hell. Any idea how I might get out?
[... linker messages ...]
Sorry, I'm not an expert in OpenBSD. Some googling turned up an old message about OpenBSD Libc compatibility from Theo de Raadt. It seems backward binary compatibility is not a priority at OpenBSD. So compiling from source seems to be the suggestion. To compile Mini vMac from source, see the “Building Mini vMac” page. Oops, that page doesn't mention OpenBSD. But it is similar to compiling for Linux.
I did find another message about OpenBSD backward binary compatibility which suggests it might be possible to find and install older libc versions.
Actually it does seem that OpenBSD tries to maintain backward compatibility in the kernel. So that if Mini vMac was linked statically, it should work across many versions of OpenBSD. But this would probably make Mini vMac dramatically larger, unless a lot of work had been done in writing the libraries and linker tool to prevent it (by allowing effective dead code stripping), which I doubt.
Sent: Fri Jun 27 23:31:20 2014
Hello, I really enjoy your emulator
Will you be supporting sound in the Mac II builds any time soon? I would really like to play The Colony color version with sound.
[...]
Thank you very much
See this earlier question.
Sent: Wed Jun 18 08:46:35 2014
When I'm Start Floppies, I have black screen. I restarted my virtual machine , I have black screen. Repair This and, Speeder test , i 7 months development of versions!
To start with ... Are you using one of the standard variations from the download page, and if so, for what platform? Or have you downloaded one of the variations from the Variations Service, and if so which one? Or are you try to compile your own version, and if so what options?
Sent: Wed Jun 18 02:38:40 2014
From: Dragon Mech (www.theoldcomputer.com/forum/index.php)
To: Paul C. Pratt
I've noticed that the 512k emulator needs the vmac (Mac Plus) rom file instead of a 512k rom file. why is that?
I expect that you are referring to the Macintosh 512Ke emulation (“-m 512Ke”). A Macintosh 512Ke is different from a Macintosh 512K. To emulate a Macintosh 512K, use the Macintosh 128K emulation (“-m 128K”) with the 512K of memory option (“-mem 512K”).
Sent: Fri Jun 13 19:01:08 2014
"An emulator such as Mini vMac (or alternatives) allows you to use, unmodified, your programs and data from your old Macintosh. But first you must transfer the files to your current computer. This can be difficult. The commonly used 400k and 800k floppy disks cannot by read by modern computers."
My company performs this service as well. If you would, I would appreciate it if you'd list us please.
http://www.techmeback.com/Services/services.html
Charlotte, NC USA
Thanks!
Thanks for the information. I have added an entry to my Disk Conversion Services page.
Sent: Sat May 31 18:59:39 2014
Thanks for spending so much time on this awesome project!
I’m happy to play ThinkAhead+ again after ages and can play some other vintage games I bought for the MacII on my Droid devices.
Sound is not that bad with the latest custom build mnvm1615-3.4.0-imch!
Best, 24bit
Sent: Sat May 31 02:25:45 2014
is there a way to save states? .. so i can finally beat dark castle :P
Mini vMac doesn't have this feature. One work around might be to run Mini vMac inside a virtual machine that does have this feature, such as using VMware or VirtualBox or Parallels.
Sent: Tue May 27 03:06:37 2014
the tool that you said were interesting:
HFS Disk Maker.
won't work ony Mac OS below X.9
do you have earlier version
for Mac OS 10.6. 10.7 or 10.8
You seem to be refering to the message from Charles.
HFS Disk Maker is not my software, so I don't have versions for previous versions of OS X.
My page on how to work with Disk Images lists some of the alternatives.
Sent: Tue May 27 03:01:11 2014
I'm glad you fixed bug in 3.4 of mini vmac
You're welcome. Whichever bug it was.
Sent: Sat May 24 18:06:50 2014
To: Paul C. Pratt
From: Dragon Mech ( www.theoldcomputer.com/forum/index.php )
i have noticed that in the linux x86 build, using the mouse wheel (moving it up or down) acts like a single mouse click in the emulator. infact, it is possible to perform double clicks with the mouse wheel to open folders, files and applications within the emulator. but the windows x86 build lacks this feature. this is by no means any problem or inconvenience, i just thought i would let you know about my discovery.
That wasn't an intentional feature. Looking around, there is a comment in the SDL source code, in the routine X11_IsWheelEvent in SDL_x11events.c, that explains what is going on. Mouse wheel events are communicated in x11 by sending a mouse up/down pair for mouse button 4 or 5. Mini vMac is treating all mouse button events the same. So wheel movement gets treated as clicks.
Sent: Fri May 23 06:34:06 2014
Hello Paul. Interest has been shown in miniunzp-0.1.0 in the Macintosh Garden forum. If you'd care to read some comments made there, please view this thread: [...]
Thanks for the link. This was also discussed on E-Maculation, where Adam P links to his own utility “miniunz”, which is more advanced.
Not restoring the creation date is due to what appears to be an omission of the file format. As far as I can tell, it just isn't saved. If you extract the archive in OS X, it won't restore the creation date either.
Sent: Sat May 17 03:18:23 2014
Hi Mr. Pratt,
I disassembled my Mac 128k ROM the other day, and noticed that at the end of the listing file, you show two sets of initials: WDA and RHS. I've been working with several original Mac team members, and I may be able to shed some light on these. WDA is indeed, as you guessed, William D. Atkinson. RHS, the one you couldn't figure out, is Rony H. Sebok. Hope this helps!
- Tom Frikker
Thank you for the information. I have made an updated fdmac128-0.4.1. This lead to finding a report by ‘Dog Cow’ about more initials in the Twiggy Mac ROM (for an early prototype). So there may only be two initials in the Mac 128k ROM because the rest got overwritten, like happened in later versions of the Macintosh Plus ROM.
Sent: Fri Apr 18 13:40:53 2014
Hello Paul
Sorry to bother but I've been looking up and down all over the internet about a problem I'm having the Mini vMac 3.3.3, for some reason the "arrow keys" are not working at all, and I can't find anything on the internet about it. Is that a known bug?
Thank you for your time
[...]
Bryan Bensing
No, it's not a known bug. What operating system are you running Mini vMac upon? Do you have normal arrow keys on your keyboard, rather than needing to hold down some sort of modifier key with other keys? As an example of "at all", if you use the Key Caps desk accessory in System 6.0.8, nothing happens when you use the arrow keys?
Sent: Mon Apr 14 16:40:09 2014
I have the Twiggy Mac ROM and I have started to patch mini vMac to work with it. I can get it to the ? icon, but trying to boot any disk results in a Sad Mac. I do have the Twiggy boot disks in MFS format. Would you be interested in taking a look at this problem?
Interested is one thing, having time for is another.
One reason it wouldn't work is because of a hack in Mini vMac's replacement disk driver for the original Mac 64k ROM. In this ROM the address of the _AddDrive trap is in the middle of the disk driver. So Mini vMac's replacement sets the trap address to its own version, which soon jumps to the same location in ROM that the original version did. If you've left this hack in when using a Twiggy Mac ROM, that jump may go somewhere random.
Sent: Sun Apr 13 01:22:35 2014
I made a little tool that you and your users may find interesting: HFS Disk Maker.
http://www.charlessoft.com/HFS_Disk_Maker.zip
Drop any file or folder onto this and it will create an old-school HFS volume with your files on it, with all resource fork information preserved, along with some extra space so the Mac OS can write the Desktop files. This image can then be imported into emulators such as Mini vMac.
This image creates the catalog file and other structures completely from scratch. Afterwards, it runs fsck_hfs on the image, just to make sure I didn't make any mistakes while digging through the HFS documentation and putting this together. :-)
I made this tool in order to have a more convenient way to get files into emulators, without having to resort to things like FUSE.
Charles
Thanks for the information. I'll link to this in Gryphel project documentation when I have time.
Sent: Mon, 7 Apr 2014 09:37:53
Hi Paul,
I have tried to download the source code of minivmac.
I downloaded minivmac-3.3.3.src.zip and minivmac-3.3.2.src.zip
But both just bring inside the minivmac-3.3.3.dsk and minivmac-3.3.2.dsk What is wrong? How do you get the source files from those dsk files? I guess that something is not okey with those src.zip files.
Please, can you help me to get the sources?
Thanks in advance,
Rafa
Please see the “Building Mini vMac” page for instructions on using the source archive.
Also, see the topic in the FAQ - “What format is the Mini vMac source code in, and why don't you use something more standard?”.
Sent: Sat Apr 5 11:26:42 2014
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your hard work on Mini vMac.
Can you currently give an ETA on a 'fix' for the sound problem when emulating a Mac II?
Thanks,
Adam
No. (See previous question.)
Sent: Sat Mar 29 15:30:37 2014
When will you emulate the Mac II?
I assume you mean finish emulating the Mac II. There is already an incomplete emulation that can run much Mac II software. You can request this version of Mini vMac through the Variations Service.
The main known limitations are that sound doesn't work very well, and that the FPU emulation (for floating point calculations) shouldn't be trusted to be accurate.
As to timeline for improving these, well, funding of an open source project is an interesting problem, to which I haven't found a solution. So I'm currently spending most time on other paid work, with limited time to spend on Mini vMac, and that limited time is being spent on other areas.
Sent: Tue Mar 25 13:05:14 2014
How complete is the 68020 emulation? Are there gaps in which instruction sets that are emulated?
Thanks for a fantastic software. I sometimes fire up Word 5.1a in Mini vMac
to write drafts, just for that nostalgic kick.
/C
One gap that I know of is that the CALLM and RTM are not implemented. They don't seemed to be used by Macintosh software (and probably not used by anybody, they were dropped in the 68030). Otherwise, you are asking me what I've forgotten. The 68020 emulation seems to work well enough for Mac II software to run, the known problems are elsewhere.
Looking at the 680x0 emulation code, I see that a number of of emulated instructions have calls to "ReportAbnormal". This means that I haven't encountered any software that uses them yet, and so have no idea if they are emulated correctly. Such as: UNPK, PACK, much of TRAPcc, Link.L, BKPT, CHK.L, MoveS, CAS2, and CAS.
Sent: Thu Mar 20 05:02:03 2014
re : Wed Mar 19 11:41:23 2014
Thanks Paul, yes the MD5 of my SE rom is fine. The accelerator does patch functionality into the rom but does not overwrite its address space, so reading it worked fine. I will try to compile an SE version of 3.3.3; maybe using an old LC...
I have also had success with running games on the emulator with one emulated HDD image, including Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle using system 5.3. Dark Castle did not work well on system 6 and beyond, so we always used seperate disks then!
Albert
Sent: Wed Mar 19 11:41:23 2014
Hi Paul,
I have used Mini vMac sucessfully with Mac SE rom, under windows using version 2.6.1 (SE ROM from my SE with Radius accellerator! ;-) but cant work out how to emulate SE, on linux/NetBSD or OpenBSD. Can you please point me in the right direction! The program complains the SE rom has checksum failure (it still works in the windows version)
Thanks, Albert
Version 2.6.1 is pretty ancient. The current stable 3.3.x branch has many improvements for Linux and other operating systems using the X Window System.
As mentioned in the Download Mini vMac page, the standard variation of Mini vMac emulates a Macintosh Plus. To emulate an SE, you can either compile a variation yourself, or request me to compile one using the Mini vMac Variations Service.
If there is a question of whether your ROM image is valid, you should compute the MD5 checksum, and compare it to the value in my List of 680x0 Macintosh models. For an SE, the expected value is 9fb38bdcc0d53d9d380897ee53dc1322. I seem to remember hearing that some old accelerator products would somehow patch the ROM.
Sent: Tue Mar 11 02:26:59 2014
Just a simple question. BTW i love Mini vMac. but i noticed that some of the disk once installed on the mini vmac have a tick in the diskette image. What does that mean? Many thanks.
I would guess you’re talking about a ‘v’ on the disk image icon in Mini vMac. From the Floppy Drives section of the Emulated Hardware Reference:
“Besides 400K or 800K, the replacement disk driver of Mini vMac will also work with disk images of any other size less than 2G. It will pretend to have something more like a hard disk, though not exactly. This is not too authentic, but it is very useful. Mini vMac defines its own icon for these disks (with a ‘v’), which can be seen in the Finder on the emulated computer.”
Sent: Tue Mar 4 16:04:53 2014
(re Fri Feb 28 21:50:07 2014)
Dear Mr. Pratt,
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Yes, by "Intel version" I mean that I downloaded "minivmac-3.3.3-imch.bin.tgz". I'm running OSX 10.8.4. Here is a link to a screenshot [...]
Please don't make the screenshot available on this forum.
The computer icon has a blinking question mark not captured by the grab.
Thank you so much for your help.
Sincerely,
Gabby
Are you quite sure you downloaded "minivmac-3.3.3-imch.bin.tgz" from https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/download.html, getting a file of 43,199 bytes, with an MD5 checksum of 8fd4668719816758175bf001d08170bb, that expanded to an application named "Mini vMac", which you launched by double clicking on it?
In your screen shot, the Mini vMac window is named "minivmac", when "Mini vMac" is expected. And the terminal window has what looks like a file path that ends in "minivmac", when no such file is expected. Is there a file named "minivmac" at that location? And is that what you double clicked on?
Sent: Fri Feb 28 21:50:07 2014
Dear Paul C. Pratt,
I'm trying to use the Intel version of Mini vMac to load a disk image. A Terminal window opens at the same time as the Mini vMac window, and when I drag the image onto the Mini vMac the Terminal window seems to prevent me from interacting directly with the emulated computer. For example, I can't see File menu or any other headings, and the Terminal window, not the emulated machine, responds when I hit enter or click with the mouse. I'd be happy to send you a screen shot if that would help clarify my explanation. The same disk image loads and works perfectly in the Windows version of Mini vMac. In Windows, I see only the emulated computer, no Terminal window. Do you have any ideas about what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks for your help.
Sincerely,
Gabriela Redwine, Beinecke Library
That is very strange. By "Intel version" do you mean you downloaded "minivmac-3.3.3-imch.bin.tgz" from Mini vMac download page? And what version of OS X are you running?
One wild guess is that there might be a stray printf call somewhere in the source, which usually just gets ignored. But perhaps if you had some sort of debugging software installed on your machine, it might then have effect after all. But nothing is displayed in your terminal window?
A screen shot might help. You could upload it somwhere and send a link.
Sent: Wed Feb 26 06:08:46 2014
My name is Marcio. A few months ago I came across some work that James Friend had done to get Hampa Hug's PCE/macplus emulator to run inside a web browser. This absolutely blew my mind and before long I got myself involved writing a nicer web interface in JavaScript that primarily added the ability to manage disks (something James' port did not do). To make a long story short, I accomplished that and decided I wanted to add support for vMac disk images as well. Even though I initially started down the path of hacking support for vMac images into PCE, it dawned on me that it would be far more proper for me to port vMac to JavaScript, and use vMac to read and write vMac disk images, than it would be for me to bastardize PCE into being something that it is not.
So, this brings me to where I am now. I have just done a fresh compilation of the SDL 1.2 port of Mini vMac 3.3.3 under Linux (-t lx86 -api sdl -no-asm -e bgc) and it does not run properly. Without a ROM, I get what looks like a error console on the screen, but it is severely garbled; with the ROM, I simply get a blank screen and nothing else.
I just wanted to ask you whether the SDL port is currently functional and whether you can offer any hints as to why it does not work.
If you are curious as to what my eventual plans are, you can see a demo here:
http://marciot.freeshell.org/macplus/
That demo is currently running PCE/macplus. I would like to add support for vMac and give the end user a choice of emulation engine. It probably would look more-or-less exactly the same, except for the minor detail of allowing the user to use vMac rather than PCE disk images :)
Any assistance would be appreciated!
Thanks!
The SDL port is believed to be functional, but it is true I've only tried it on OS X recently. Bug reports are welcome. I'll try it on Linux when I find time.
One possible issue is that if you're running a modern version of Linux on a modern machine, it is likely you are running a 64 bit linux. In that case you should be using "-t lx64" instead "-t lx86". Normally, trying to compile the wrong version of assembly code would alert you, but you have disabled that.
Did you try the standard compile without SDL (using X)?
Update: I have tried "-t lx64 -api sdl -no-asm" on a VMware image I have of Ubuntu 10.04 with SDL 1.2.14. It seems to work without problems. I tried "-t lx32 -api sdl -no-asm" and as expected it didn't work, hanging with a black screen with the ROM image, and gives a "Segmentation fault" without the ROM, which matches pretty well what you describe.
For the next version, I'll look into having the build system put a check for this situation in the configuration file it generates.
Sent: Tue Feb 25 18:46:20 2014
It Says it cant load Disk Image
Could you be more specific what Mini vMac says? There is no error message with that wording. It could say "I could not open the disk image."
Also what operating system are you using (Windows?), and which version of Mini vMac? And I guess you mean that can't open any disk image, rather than a problem with a particular one? Are you trying to open the disk image with drag and drop, or using the open dialog, or by the command line, or some other way?
Sent: Sun Feb 23 18:53:20 2014
Just wondering if the LocalTalk emulation allows you to communicate with REAL macs, or just Mini vMac emulators?
Well, certainly not with recent real Mac computers. OS X 10.6 dropped support for AppleTalk.
And certainly not directly to older Mac computers without ethernet, that use LocalTalk hardware.
As to whether Mike Fort's LocalTalk emulation is compatible with the EtherTalk protocol that could be used by Mac computers in between those ages - I don't know.
Sent: Sat Feb 22 21:29:50 2014
I have gotten some old games to work on Mini vMac, but when I tried "DARK CASTLE" and "BEYOND DARK CASTLE" I get the error message...
"Sorry, Dark Castle cannot run because there is a problem with the way memory is allocated (10366 high bytes used)
-------------------------------------------
Another program got an error message ....
"This game is incompatible with one or more inits. Try removing various inits from the system folder."
Can you help me figure out what is wrong? Thanks
One thing to try would be a fresh install of System 6, to be sure of having no extra inits or MacsBug. (See the System 6 Utility Disk Recipe.)
Searching through my old email, I see I've had reports that Dark Castle works better when the entire game and Mac OS is on a single disk image.
As listed on the Related Forums page (final entry), there is an entire forum devoted to Dark Castle. It includes a section on "Dark Castle Support and Emulation".
Sent: Fri Feb 21 21:00:02 2014
With the Linux version of Mini vMac, is there a way to mount and unmount drives through the command line while Mini vMac is running?
Unmounting a disk image properly requires the cooperation of the operating system of the emulated Macintosh, so it would be hard to initiate from the Linux command line.
To mount a disk image, I guess in theory it would be possible to write a command line tool that follows the drag and drop protocol to make Mini vMac think a disk image has been dropped on its window. Or Mini vMac could be modified to look for some other signal that could be sent from the command line.
Sent: Wed, 12 Feb 2014 10:38:19
Hi, so this is a dumb question and It's probabally already answered, but how do I launch applications? When I try to launch anything it says "The file "Program name" cound not be opened/printed (System files can't be opened)
Perhaps the resource forks of your applications have gotten lost. Where did you get the applications, and how did you get them into a disk image for Mini vMac?
To see how applications should work, you could look at my Software for Macintosh Plus, and try something marked “(hosted)”. These include zipped disk images convenient for use with Mini vMac.
For some further information about getting files (including applications) into a disk image, see the documentation of ImportFl.
Sent: Tue Feb 4 22:21:23 2014
Please CANCEL variation Tuesday Feb 04.
I'm learning about Mini vMac.
I'm newbie in the world of Mac emulation.
The request was sent only to know the options offered by MinivMac.
I do not want to disturb their work, sorry.
You didn't say which variation on Feb 04. But don't worry, I compile variations in batches, and it takes about the same amount of time for me to compile a batch of several dozen variations as it does to compile a single one, so making one extra isn't a problem.
Sent: Wed Jan 29 11:37:17 2014
Hi, I saw you got British install images from the Apple website. The "Multicountry directory" button on the download page is broken but apparently the files are still there. Do you know how I can get some Dutch (Nederlands) images of 7.0.1, 7.5.3 and 7.5.5? I hope you know how the file naming works at Apple.
It used to be that going to an address such as http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/Dutch/ would return a listing of the file and folders inside. Apple seems to have disabled this feature. You can learn a little bit with Google by using the “site:” search feature. But it doesn't find too much.
Sorry, I don't know the addresses of the Dutch files.
Update: I just found something very odd at https://discussions.apple.com/message/22926266. One message from “Hiroto” notes that if you go to http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/ you will usually get the page not found, but if you reload several times, eventually it will work and give a directory listing. The same applies to sub directories. But sometimes they have odd names, like “Apple_Software_Updates_sr16310449”, which may change over time, so permanent links can't be given.
I've tried this and it worked for me. But who knows how long it continue to work.
Sent: Sun Jan 26 22:32:31 2014
I downloaded Mini vMac 3.3.3 and copyroms 1.1.0. I moved copyroms to my MacSE and ran it. I moved the resulting rom file back to my PC and got the message ROM checksum failed. I tried and got the same results with my Mac Plus.
I went back to my Mac SE to track the MD5 checksum. I downloaded Checksum 1.3 and ran the RSA MD5 checksum which results in '51b8bce5624235c9cf725973477a0cal' and MacEnvy reports the ROM Checksum as '$B2E362A8 (Mac SE ROM)' and the ROM Version as '256K (Version 118), rev. 1'
I moved the file from the Mac SE to my Linux PC using zmodem, with no errors and ran md5sum on it resulting in '3637521a95c534512e56a623cc5d46d5'. After moving the file through DropBox to my Windows PC I check the checksum again and it matches the Linux version.
Once again the checksum failed. Both Macs appear to be working fine although the Plus is not run regularly like my SE.
If the md5 checksums don't match, that suggests the transfer didn't work. I don't know much about zmodem, so I couldn't help much with that.
But that doesn't explain why the first checksum isn't the correct value of 9fb38bdcc0d53d9d380897ee53dc1322 (from my 680x0 Macintosh List). You could try my Md5Fl program to see if it gets the same result as Checksum 1.3. You could also try running CopyRoms a second time, and make sure it get the same result (by comparing checksums).
Is the size of the file right (256k = 262144 bytes)? Checking the source, CopyRoms does not seem to check if there is enough free space on the disk, and if there isn't it will just create a file that is too short. But on second thought, if the ROM image was too small, Mini vMac should have said so, and not given the corrupted ROM warning, so this is not likely the problem.
Sent: Thu Jan 16 03:37:25 2014
I downloaded the mac classic version of mini vmac (nmvm0025) and Tried it with my classic rom and it didnt work. I tried copyrom and getrom both with extensions on and off. from the classic it shows as a 256k file and when coppied to my osx machine it says it is 262 kb. when I load minivmac it tells me the rom image is too short. I can type C to continue but it just stays at a black screen. I couldnt find a forum to ask this of
The Macintosh Classic ROM actually is 512k, some utilities for acquiring ROM images are incorrect. My CopyRoms should work correctly. Also see my 680x0 Macintosh List".
Sent: Sat Jan 11 04:07:56 2014
Can you make it compatible with A/UX (MMU and other hardware)?
Not in the Macintosh Plus emulation. If you mean emulation of later models that support A/UX, maybe someday I'll figure out how to support more time working on Mini vMac, but don't hold your breath.
The MESS emulator may be making progress at this, see the Mini vMac Alternatives page.
Sent: Fri Jan 10 19:27:40 2014
Hi this emulator is very good, but I want to ask is there any way to install system to Mac hard disk ?
Mini vMac can not actually emulate a hard drive, but the replacement floppy disk driver can use disk images of arbitrary size. Also, when Mini vMac is launched, it can automatically mount disk images with the right names and location. See the Floppy Drives section of the Emulated Hardware Reference.
If you meant you just want to know how to install system software, see the Recipes for Mini vMac page.
Sent: Fri Jan 10 00:00:16 2014
Hey, I'm not the most computer-adept person, so this problem may just be me, but when I try to download minivmac my computer (MacBook Air) say the "developer is not recognized" by the computer
I expect this is due to Gatekeeper, Apple's anti-malware feature. Gatekeeper is in some ways a good idea, but some people consider it as one step along the way to making Mac OS X like iOS, where no software can be installed without Apple's permission, and emulators are forbidden, including Mini vMac. So I decline to participate, and Mini vMac is not signed with an Apple Developer ID.
It is still possible to run Mini vMac, even without disabling Gatekeeper (so far, as of OS X 10.9). To give an application permission to run, hold down the control key and click on its icon (or right click) to get a contextual menu, then choose the Open item, and in the warning dialog that comes up click on the Open button.
Sent: Tue Jan 7 04:25:58 2014
Is it possible to obtain macpascal for the mini vmac?
This is not the place to look for Macintosh Abandonware. You might search elsewhere for "Macintosh Pascal 2.0" (quotes included). Also, you could search for the later “Think Pascal 4.5d4”.
Some history can found in this interview of Rich Siegel, and this article about Macintosh Pascal 1.0, and this press release about Macintosh Pascal 3.0.
Sent: Sun, 5 Jan 2014 10:34:42
MINI VMAC GREAT PROGRAM (the first mac emulator i got to work on my windows xp.)
(1) can i run safri or any other .. to surf the internet on mini vmac.
Sorry, no. Mini vMac does not emulate internet access. Also, Safari is for OS X, and would not run on Mac OS 7.5.5, the last system version that runs in Mini vMac. There are very old web browsers that can run on a Mac Plus, and can be used in Mini vMac to view local files.
(2) right now i am using o24m disk (i.e the one i made in in the start up guide. how many disk can i use at a time in mini vmac
As mentioned in Floppy Drives section of the Emulated Hardware Reference, by default the replacement disk driver in Mini vMac can mount up to 6 disk images. It is possible to compile a version of Mini vMac that supports more disk images.
richard
Sent: Wed, 1 Jan 2014 06:46:27
Subject: color
When you gonna add colors ?
A Macintosh Plus, which Mini vMac emulates by default, can not display color. Mini vMac can be compiled to emulate a Mac II, but this emulation is incomplete. It does work well enough to run some software. See the Model option of the build system.
And your emulator is just awesome !
Thanks
Sent: Sat, 21 Dec 2013 11:39:41
Subject: iOS and larger screen
Hello, I love Mini vMac. I would like it very much if you created an iOS app. I would be willing to pay for one.
Apple forbids emulators on iOS, so this is not possible.
Except, Mini vMac can run on a “jailbroken” iOS device. A iPhone/iPod Touch port has been created by “zydeco”. (I don't have an iOS device, so I don't know much about this port myself.)
Also, could you make it possible to enlarge the window on the Mac one. Thanks for making a great emulator.
It is already possible to compile Mini vMac with a larger emulated screen. See the Screen Size options of the build system.
It is also possible to magnify the emulated screen with Control-M (normally by a factor of 2). See the Screen section of the Emulated Hardware Reference.
Sent: Wed, 18 Dec 2013 06:09:40
Subject: doesn’t work
Nothing there.
No functionality.
Well, it works for me, and for many, many other people. The question is, what are you doing differently, or what is different about your computer?
Does not boot anything, System 1.0 to System 6.08 as specified in the data provided.
What “data provided”? Please follow the Getting Started with Mini vMac instructions, and tell me if and when the results you see differ from what is described. (By the way, Mini vMac should work up to System 7.5.5. Selected system versions are still available from Apple.)
update: I think I might have found on the web what you were looking at. The good news is that it doesn't seem to violate Apple's copyright. The bad news is that is because it seems to be purely malware. It doesn't contain Mini vMac either.
So please only download Mini vMac from https://www.gryphel.com/.
A/UX AWS 95 also tested with a disk image from Apple. No functionality.
A/UX will not work on a Macintosh Plus, or Mini vMac's emulation of one. It may run on a Macintosh II, but require an MMU, which Mini vMac doesn't currently emulate.
Hacker code present for play with the network. Noticed when "interrupt" is pressed.
Sorry, I don't know what you mean.
Sent: Sat, 7 Dec 2013 21:31:41
Subject: startup sound
On Windows, does it always Statup with that loud single sine wave sound? Or is that just me?
Yes, it is emulating the sound a real Macintosh Plus would make upon being turned on. There is code in the Macintosh ROM to produce it. (It is more complex than a sine wave.)
If you don't like it, one option is to compile Mini vMac with sound turned off (using “-sound 0” in the build system). Another possible alternative might be to figure out how to patch the ROM to remove the sound.
Began: Mon, 3 Jun 2013 08:56:52
Subject: viruses
Why the [...] did I download this. Thanks to you my computer is now filled with viruses and unwanted programs. Every time I feel like trusting some guy with what looks like a nice program to download, it always goes wrong, you absolute [...]
Where did you download Mini vMac from? If not from https://www.gryphel.com/ then I can't promise anything. I've heard some software download sites modify the files they provide.
Actually I can't promise that my website could never be compromised. But if it was I'd likely hear about it quickly. (I just checked the Windows version download and it seems ok.) To be more sure, check the size and md5 checksum. And to be even more sure, check the MacPGP signature on the checksums.
It is also possible that your problems come from something unrelated that happened about the same time you downloaded Mini vMac.
I'm not an expert on the subject, but I think even on Windows there are precautions you can take to avoid viruses and other malware. I've heard good things about Microsoft Security Essentials. You could try out new software in a virtual machine before installing it on your real machine, using virtualization software such as VirtualBox or VMware. Mini vMac should run fine in virtualization. And also, when web browsing, you can disable scripting except for trusted sites, such as by using NoScript. (I haven't used NoScript myself, I disable scripting entirely for most browsing, and use a different web browser when I really need it.)
Began: Sat, 25 May 2013 11:42:29
Subject: go-phone Mini vMac
do you have minivMac for att go-phone, a version of go-phone that have blackberry-like keypad, for those that have just a go-phone
From the Wikipedia article on the AT&T GoPhone, this seems to be a pay as you go plan (no contract), not a specific phone. It could be used with an Android phone, for which a Mini vMac port exists. More likely though, you have a feature phone which doesn't support 3rd party apps.
Began: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 14:02:16
Subject: Emulation of the real SCSI hard disk and floppy disk drives in a Macintosh Plus
Mini vMac currently does not emulate a Macintosh Plus with real SCSI floppy disk and hard disk drives, and instead patches the ROM with a replacement "disk image driver", but I have a suggestion for how that would be emulated.
In control mode, there would be a disk control menu (Control-D) for changing the disks (Control-D-F to change the emulated floppy disk to a different disk image or Control-D-R-F to remove the floppy disk from the emulated SCSI floppy disk controller, Control-D-0 to select a different disk image for the emulated hard disk in SCSI controller #0 or Control-D-R-0 to have it removed from SCSI controller #0 on the next reset of the emulated Macintosh Plus, Control-D-1 to select a different disk image for for the emulated hard disk in SCSI controller #1 or Control-D-R-1 to have it removed from SCSI controller #1 on the next reset, etc.)
The disk image for the floppy disk may only be 400KB (for emulating a single-sided single-density floppy disk in the floppy drive), 800KB (for emulating a double-sided double-density floppy disk in the floppy drive), or 1440KB (for emulating a high-density floppy disk in the floppy disk drive), in raw, Disk Copy 4.2 (unless "-sony-dc42 0" is set in the build system), or uncompressed Disk Copy 6.1 formats. However, if a Disk Copy 4.2 is selected for the emulated floppy disk and "-sony-sum-1 -sony-tag-1" is not set in the build system, Mini vMac will still patch the floppy disk driver in the ROM so the emulated floppy disk will be "locked" at that time.
How many SCSI controllers for hard disks are emulated varies on the "-hds N" option in the build system (which by default is "-hds 1"). When Mini vMac starts, all the SCSI controllers for the hard disks will be emulated, but with nothing attached to them, and the floppy disk drive will be emulated, but with no floppy disk in it.
However, the ROM will still be patched to add Mini vMac's "disk image driver" unless "-drives 0" is set (disabling Mini vMac's original style of disk images), although now the SCSI hard disk and floppy disk drivers will no longer be removed. "-hds 0" can be set in the build system to emulate no SCSI controllers for the hard disks and "-hds 0 -drives 0" can also be set, but the floppy drive will always be emulated.
Thank you for your suggestions for a user interface to control SCSI and accurate floppy disk emulation. But before a user interface can be implemented, the emulation must be implemented.
A good starting point for adding accurate floppy disk emulation to Mini vMac would be to peruse the “MESS” emulator source code for ideas. If anyone wants to work on this, I'd be quite likely to merge the result into the source code that I maintain. (As a compile time option.)
By the way: In a Macintosh Plus, floppy drives are controlled mostly through the IWM chip, and not the SCSI chip. Other early Macs are similar. Also, a Macintosh Plus has only a single SCSI chip, which can be used to connect up to 7 SCSI peripherals. And also, a real Macintosh Plus can only use 400K and 800K floppies. More advanced hardware is needed for 1440K floppies.
Began: Tue, 29 May 2012 04:17:03
I'm the user in korea but my minivmac doesn't worhask. My floppy disk has x mark on it. What can I do? Notice-I have dsk file and vMac.rom.
Probably there is a problem with your dsk file.
When a Macintosh Plus finds a bootable floppy disk, the picture on the screen of a floppy disk with a blinking question mark changes to a picture of a smiling Macintosh. If it finds a floppy disk that is not bootable, it instead displays a picture of a floppy with a blinking X mark, ejects the disk, and then goes back to displaying the picture of a floppy with a blinking question mark.
Follow the instructions on the Getting started page to get a bootable disk image. Make sure to extract the archive to get a file named “System Startup” and drag this file into the Mini vMac window, rather than attempting to boot from the “SSW_6.0.8-1.4MB_Disk1of2.sea.bin” archive.
Began: Sat, 26 May 2012 10:33:35
---------- Suggestion for image.html ----------
Also, if you run the command "defaults write
com.apple.DiskUtility advanced-image-options 1", you will
then be able to create Disk Copy 6.1 images, or even Disk
Copy 4.2 images in even the latest version of Mac OS X by
setting the format in the "advanced options" when creating a
disk image with Disk Utility to "Disk Copy 4.2", and the
Disk Copy 4.2 images you create can then also be mounted
with Mini vMac.
For me, using OS X 10.7.3, setting advanced-image-options works to add additional options in the Disk Utility "New > Disk Image from Folder" Command. However, trying to create "Disk Copy 4.2" images or "NDIF" images doesn't work, failing at the end with “Unable to create "my_image". (Invalid argument)”. I didn't think the underlying command line tools used by Disk Utility support these formats. What version of OS X are you using?
There's only one problem: Mini vMac does not allow the emulated Finder to write to Disk Copy 4.2 images, it only allows the emulated Finder to write to raw HFS disk images, while Mac OS X does not have anything built-in to read or write to raw HFS disk images (although MacFUSE with FuseHFS might be able to do that)
Recent versions of Mini vMac by default mount Disk Copy 4.2 images as read only. Full support for Disk Copy 4.2 images, mounting as read/write and handling tags and checksums, is available with the build system options “-sony-sum 1 -sony-tag 1”.
Began: Tue, 15 May 2012 15:56:45
Hi Paul...I love the Mini vMac.....I am currently writing a book about Dragon's Lair & Space Ace, and was FINALLY able to create archival images of the game from the original "Mac Plus/SE" disks! These do not exist on the internet today. The original Dragon's Lair on Mac says "Mac SE/PLUS - 1MB OF RAM". On a REAL Macintosh I had trouble running it on a Classic...I finally did get a machine to run it on, but STRANGELY even though it says 1MB, if you run on a 4MB machine you get "not enough memory". It's obviously poor programming that is causing the issue.
I am desperate to get this thing running so I can use some screen shots and so on (right now I literally have taken shots of a real screen and they don't look so great!).
I was wondering if there is a way (or could be a way) to limit the memory to 1MB or 2MB instead of 4 to see if these files will run?
Yes, with the “-mem” option to the build system.