Worth Dual Booting a Mac Classic (System 6 & 7)?

[Tempest]

I have a nice 4GB hard drive that I was going to use in my Amiga but can't (the Amiga won't detect the CD drive with this hard drive attached for some reason), so I figured I might as well stick it in my Mac Classic.  4GB is just freaking huge for a Mac Classic, so I was thinking I might do something interesting with all that extra space like make a separate partition just for System 7 (I need to make two 2GB partitions anyway).  My questions about this are:

1. Is there any real reason to do this (other than for fun I suppose)? 

2. What's the best way to go about doing this?  I think I need to use something called System Picker to switch between them.

3.  I use my Classic for playing games, are there any System 7+ only games that would actually run on a B&W Mac Classic?

 

[ArmorAlley]

I would make a couple more partitions, say 3x 1GB, 1x 128MB and 1x for the rest.

Have the System 6.0.8 on the 128MB. I expect that you'll find your Classic to be faster under System 6 when using System 6 apps and games.

You can then System 7.1 on to one of the partitions and System 7.5.5 on to another of them. Another drive can be used as an archive.

You can use System Picker to swap between installations. I'd keep it simpler and have one System Folder per partition and use the Startup control panel to choose what the next volume will restart with.

 

[Tempest]

Isn't System 7.5 really slow an a 68000 machine?

 

[Elfen]

It is, Plus you need to Max the RAM to 4MB.

You will also need another utility, whose name currently eludes me, but it puts an end to the constant Desktop Rebuilding when you switch between System 6 and System 7 by preserving the Desktop files.

There are quite a few programs that will only work on System 6 and not on System 7. ComicWorks is one of those that fall into this category. And there is a lot of things that will not work on System 6 that does on System 7. It depends on your software collection and what you use your Mac for.

 

[Tempest]

My Classic has 4MB.

Well I only use the Classic for gaming, but I've only looked into System 6 games because I assumed all the games that required System 7 or greater wouldn't work on an old B&W compact Mac.  

 

[olePigeon]

Depends on the game.  I believe Warlords, Warlords II, and PGA Tour Golf work in B&W.  So does Sim City.

 

[motley2659]

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3.  I use my Classic for playing games, are there any System 7+ only games that would actually run on a B&W Mac Classic?

There are very few commercial games that require System 7 that run on a 68000 Compact Mac.  The later Electronic Arts stuff like Syndicate and Theme Park require System 7 and will work on a Compact Mac in B/W, but also require 68020 minimum which would limit you to an SE/30 or Classic II.  Same thing with Chessmaster 3000. 

IMHO, The only adavantage of using System 7 on a 68000 Compact Mac would be for networking.

 

[Elfen]

I've used them (Mac Pluses and SEs) on System 7 to run programs like PageMaker and standard Office Suite Apps (Apple works/MS Works/MS Office) because they would not run on System 6.

 

[tanaquil]

I bought my first Mac, a Classic with 2 MB RAM, literally one month before System 7 came out. I can very well remember how many things I longed to run and couldn't until I upgraded to 4 MB and installed System 7 years later. (I was a very poor grad student at the time.)

At least one was a game, but which game I don't remember - might have been (the latest version of?) Glider or 7th Guest.

I like keeping a dual boot system with System Picker on all my macs that are capable of running both. I prefer System 7.1 in general, but System 6 often comes in handy.

 

[Tempest]

Sounds like I'm better off just sticking with 6 and using that second partition for even more games.

 

[ArmorAlley]

A second bootable System Folder on the second partition is worth having. In the event of being unable to boot from the first partition, then you can boot from the second and re-install the first. There may also be some games that you want to play in System 7.1 that won't run under System 6.0.8.