512K Software

[OmniKnight]

Games... all marked "512K required - Macintosh or Macintosh II" ... One includes a sticker on front: "Macintosh II - Now in Color!"

Noob question probably - Any way to get these running on a 68k machine? Or am I stuck hunting for a Mac II (only way to play them in color)?

 

[equill]

I'm not quite sure what the essence of your question is. The 512K is a 68000/8MHz monochrome AIO that supports (nominally) System 1.0 to System 6.0.8, but only from a 400kB floppy drive unless it has had ROM surgery or an upgrade to 512Ke. The Mac II is a 68020/16MHz colour-capable modular that supports System 2.0 to System 7.5.5 from either 800kB autoinject floppy disk drive. They are both 68K machines.

Colour is not an option in 512Ks. They will not read (800kB) floppy disks made for a Mac II, but the Mac II will read any (400kB) diskette in HFS format made for the 512K, and display its contained graphics in glorious living monochrome.

Does this help you?

de

 

[Mac128]

Noob question probably - Any way to get these running on a 68k machine?

Yes that is a "noob" question. All of those are 68K Macs. Thanks to equill's eloquent recitation of the system specs, you can safely expect to use these disks on any 68K Mac that will run System 7.5.5. Since these disks can be used on a 512K Mac, they are most likely 400K, meaning nothing above 7.5.5 will read them (7.6 will read them, but if anything needs to written to them, it will fail). The one marked Mac II in color, might be an 800K disk and should be accessible up to OS 9.2. However, the ones marked 512K are likely limited to how advanced a system they will run under, given that the 512K can't run over System 4.3, which is within a year of the minimum Mac II System support of 3.3. System 6 should run anything written under System 3 or above, and System 7 stands a good shot, but I wouldn't get my hopes up for System 8 and above. Your best bet is not to use the original disks in any event. 400K disks can be transferred to 800K disks for better compatibility with newer Macs (System 7 is supposed to work with 400K disks, but I wouldn't push it).

 

[OmniKnight]

my apologies - was typing too fast. i mean to say a 68030 machine. :lol: I'm not THAT green

my color classic and lc will both read the disks fine (both running 7.6.1), but the software won't operate in these environments normally. instead of one regular sized window opening on the display, 3 to 5 'mini-windows' appear at the top of the screen (depending on color and screen resolution settings) and i've only gotten sound output once (randomly).

 

[Mac128]

i mean to say a 68030 machine. ...my color classic and lc will both read the disks fine (both running 7.6.1), but the software won't operate in these environments normally.

Anything that runs under a 68000 or 68020 should run under a 68030 so long as the OS supports it. Given that this software was written for System 2.x & 3.x, you are already making a big leap to System 6, which dropped a lot of 64K ROM support for the 512K since it couldn't run it. System 7 changed many things and dropped a lot more old code. 7.6 left behind all of the 68000s and 68020s. I would not expect the software to run well under System 7, much less 7.6 at all. Boot your LC under System 6 and check the results. Sadly your CC may be out of luck unless 7.0.1 will run it.

 

[OmniKnight]

great info - i guess i could have phrased differently, but i was really wondering if it was a hardware or system software issue. i'll certainly explore the route you're suggesting.

thanks!