Dual booting OS9 and OSX on eMac but I'm a Winbaby

Hello everyone, like the topic says I'm looking to setup a dual boot eMac for my retro computing room. Also like the topic says, I'm a Winbaby and I'm STRUGGLING. Outside of some memories of playing on my uncles clone mac as a child and using whatever classic mac was at my school in the 5th grade in the mid 90s I have no experience with macs. I guess my first question would be if anyone can recommend either a video or article on how to use OS9/OSX because I'm lost with basic stuff.

My real question is what eMac should I use for my project. A few years ago I picked a bunch eMacs for free, out of what I have I think one of 2 would be best for what I want (I think). I can pick between a 1ghz Super Drive model that natively supports OS9/OSX or a 1.25ghz model that doesn't but I *think* people have modded OS9 to install on unsupported Macs. The 1ghz model only supports 1gig of ram max where the 1.25ghz model can have 2gigs of DDR. Also the faster speed may help especially on the OSX side of gaming. I'm not sure how janky these unsupported OS9 installs are though. My goal is once this is setup I can just turn it on to whatever OS I'm feeling and load up games or even whatever Apple version of MS Paint or Encarta are. Also, any non game program recommendations? Like a really Apple core word processor? I don't want to use MS Office on this setup since I have plenty of windows stuff already. Would a OSX install be able to talk to my NAS SMB share? If only to play classic 4:3 content on the CRT?

Also have a few questions about peripherals, right now I have the A1048 keyboard and the white Pro Mouse. From my research I should stick with Apple KB&M during OS installs but after that I can do whatever. Does anyone know of a mechanical keyboard that have the correct media keys and eject that will look right with the eMac? What about a mouse? I can't stand the Pro Mouse. Also, what game controllers work with these computers? Would love to get some SNES emulation up and running on the eMacs wonderful CRT.

Sorry for the long post, and sorry if my questions are super basic, I am just a Winbaby after all.

One simple answer for the controller: get a Gravis GamePad Pro. Great for the era of machine. Tons on eBay. If I were you, I'd stick with the 1 GHz if you really want to run OS 9 natively. 1.25 isn't going to get you much more.

Thanks for the reply, you don't think the extra ram of the 1.25 version is worth the effort either? As got the gamepads, does anyone make mac adapters for real SNES pads? Or do modern controllers work on macs at all? Those Gravis GamePads have awful dpads

I happen to like them, but I know what you mean. SNES to USB adapters do exist (I have one). The one I have was discontinued some years ago. I am sure you can still find some on Amazon.

As for the extra RAM, I had 512 MB in my iMac G4 of the era, and it was more than enough for the OS, video game emulation, and everything else.

Not to mention that, IIRC, OS 9.2 maxes out at 1.5 GiB (max. 1 GiB per app). Unless you are doing very serious and heavy work, you would never get near those limits in practice. More than 1 GiB is more or less wasted money on an OS 9 machine.

Demo said:

<snip> whatever Apple version of MS Paint or Encarta are. Also, any non game program recommendations? Like a really Apple core word processor?<snip>

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Clarisworks 5 and World Book or Grolier World Encyclopaedia are probably the closest. MS Paint was actually modelled on the original MacPaint from 1984, but that won't run on Colour Macs. CW5, though is probably the most Mac-like integrated office package you could find. The next version: AppleWorks 6 ended up being somewhat clunky as Apple were transitioning to Mac OS X.

You can get CW5 and a lot of other Mac abandonware from the Macintosh Garden, e.g: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/clarisworks-5-fat

Office 98 is also a reasonable choice if you lean in that direction.

Thinking when I get off work I'll have some time since the kids are still occupied with their Christmas gifts. Going to try and install OS9 on my 1ghz Super drive model, can anyone link the ISO I need? Like exactly? As I understand I dont need the hacked up one to do this and I'd prefer as clean as possible install. Though I dunno if MacOS installs get bloated up like hacked Windows installs do

What’s installed on there now?

LaPorta said:

What’s installed on there now?

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Some flavor of OSX

Snial said:

Clarisworks 5

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Just a little hairsplitting here:

ClarisWorks 5 was released shortly before the Claris subsidiary was reabsorbed back into Apple proper, so an update (5.0.3, I think) was released that rebranded it AppleWorks, and all subsequent releases (boxed and bundled with machines) were known as AppleWorks 5.

So as a result, ClarisWorks 5 is a bit hard to find. I believe it was bundled with the earliest bondi (is that pronounced bon-dee, bon-dye, or bone-dye?) iMacs running Mac OS 8.1 and maybe a couple other machines, but all subsequent models bundled AppleWorks 5, which is thus comparatively much more common.

Also, a note regarding Update 5.0.4 (the last update before 6, I think): Wikipedia says the 5.0.4 update can only be applied in Mac OS 9. Is there proof of that?

It seems to me that all updates to 5 should be compatible with all the same machines and Mac OS versions as AppleWorks/ClarisWorks 5 itself.

c

CC_333 said:

Just a little hairsplitting here:

ClarisWorks 5 was released shortly before the Claris subsidiary was reabsorbed back into Apple proper, so an update (5.0.3, I think) was released that rebranded it AppleWorks, and all subsequent releases (boxed and bundled with machines) were known as AppleWorks 5.

So as a result, ClarisWorks 5 is a bit hard to find. I believe it was bundled with the earliest bondi (is that pronounced bon-dee, bon-dye, or bone-dye?) iMacs running Mac OS 8.1 and maybe a couple other machines, but all subsequent models bundled AppleWorks 5, which is thus comparatively much more common.

Also, a note regarding Update 5.0.4 (the last update before 6, I think): Wikipedia says the 5.0.4 update can only be applied in Mac OS 9. Is there proof of that?

It seems to me that all updates to 5 should be compatible with all the same machines and Mac OS versions as AppleWorks/ClarisWorks 5 itself.

c

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This is the type of information I'm looking for! I want this type of deep knowledge to have this setup the way a Mac superfan would have had it setup. A fan that holds grudges

I am curious which games you're planning to play? The Graphics card in eMacs isn't great. eMac were for the education sector.

Here is a summary from google.
The Radeon 7500 (circa 2001) is an extremely old graphics card, only capable of playing very early 2000s or late 90s games (like Unreal Tournament 2003, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, GTA 1-3, Quake 3 engine titles) at low settings, supporting only DirectX 7, and will not run modern games at all due to lacking unified shaders and modern APIs (DX10+); it's a piece of retro hardware, not for current gaming, but a nostalgic entry point for vintage gaming.

mikes-macs said:

I am curious which games you're planning to play? The Graphics card in eMacs isn't great. eMac were for the education sector.

Here is a summary from google.
The Radeon 7500 (circa 2001) is an extremely old graphics card, only capable of playing very early 2000s or late 90s games (like Unreal Tournament 2003, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, GTA 1-3, Quake 3 engine titles) at low settings, supporting only DirectX 7, and will not run modern games at all due to lacking unified shaders and modern APIs (DX10+); it's a piece of retro hardware, not for current gaming, but a nostalgic entry point for vintage gaming.

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Tomb Raider, Myst and the sequels, Duke3D. Stuff like that

If you're keen to play older Mac OS games (and what you've mentioned will fly on a 1Ghz G4), go the native supported 1Ghz eMac, OS 9 is certainly possible on the later 1.25Ghz however with quirks, and if you're freshly coming into the Mac side save those dramas for another day. I'd also consider an iMac G4; they can be picked up cheaply as hard to post so local sales are only the real option, or a Quicksilver G4 in the same vein where you can choose your upgrades more easily.

For USB gamepads, any generic unit will work using the utility USB overdrive; this includes the cheap ass SNES gamepad copies with USB:

Byrd said:

If you're keen to play older Mac OS games (and what you've mentioned will fly on a 1Ghz G4), go the native supported 1Ghz eMac, OS 9 is certainly possible on the later 1.25Ghz however with quirks, and if you're freshly coming into the Mac side save those dramas for another day. I'd also consider an iMac G4; they can be picked up cheaply as hard to post so local sales are only the real option, or a Quicksilver G4 in the same vein where you can choose your upgrades more easily.

For USB gamepads, any generic unit will work using the utility USB overdrive; this includes the cheap ass SNES gamepad copies with USB:

Downloads – USB Overdrive

www.usboverdrive.com

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More I look into this the more I think OSX is something I should revisit later. I guess my thought was to get as much gaming covered on the wonderful CRT that comes in the eMac as possible. Think I will try and find a G4 tower or even a G5 tower ( i'm assuming anything OSX related that runs on a G4 will run on a G5). I still want to figure out dual booting because from what I see SNES/SEGA emulators are way more updated for OSX then OS9 and emulation is something I really want to do on this setup.

I really want this eMac to be a showcase of Apple and Apple exclusive software compared to my x86 setups. I already have 3 retro x86 setups. A DOS machine, Win98 machine, and a XP machine. Outside of gaming I really want stuff like World Book or Grolier World Encyclopaedia which was recommended in this thread. Looking for more recommendations like that. Like once a month i'll have a drink or two and click around on Encarta on my Win98 box having a blast. I know OS9 has Encarta but that's MS thing and the whole point is to avoid that stuff. Want to mess around with AppleWorks 5 as well, if only to type things out. Like, does OS9 have multimedia cookbooks like Windows has?

Anyways, got the OS9 install disc burning now. Gonna see how far I can get.

Have a look through the Macintosh Garden website, you will find heaps of “interactive multimedia” programs just different enough from x86 releases to pique your interest. You might like HyperCard releases or some alternative encyclopaedias as mentioned.

Also putting it out there the flat, late model eMac CRT is wonderful but almost closer to an LCD than it is an older monitor experience.

As it turns out, I'm an idiot. After burning a few discs with none of them booting I finally take a closer look at my eMac. The unit I've been working on is a 1ghz/256/80/Superdrive/56k, its the Combo Drive models that are fully OS9 bootable. So I go burn one of the universal OS9 lives discs and it boots and installs with mostly no issues. Well it has two issues, one is the volume keys don't work on the keyboard but everything else with audio works fine.

The second and way bigger issue is the GPU driver is not working right. I get no options for resolution modes and the video takes up only like 25% of the screen. I already installed the Jasper ATI GPU driver, don't think that even installed. I dragged and dropped it into the Extensions then rebooted. Nothing changed.

My eMac has a ATi 7500 and USB1.1, it should be able to boot a vanilla OS9 install disc if the BIOS (or whatever they are called) would let the disc boot. Is there a way around this or am I wasting my time? I really want to boot OS9 natively.

Demo said:

does OS9 have multimedia cookbooks like Windows has?

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There are many, I'm sure, but one in particular I remember is the Williams-Sonoma Guide To Good Cooking, which again was bundled with early iMacs.

Link: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/williams-sonoma-guide-good-cooking

It appears there's also a PC version. I never knew that.

c

Demo said:

As it turns out, I'm an idiot. After burning a few discs with none of them booting I finally take a closer look at my eMac. The unit I've been working on is a 1ghz/256/80/Superdrive/56k, its the Combo Drive models that are fully OS9 bootable.

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Had to look this up, that's new it appears there are slightly different revisions of 1Ghz eMac and it's not related to the optical drive but presume a firmware revision that needs the unsupported OS 9 install CD for the later models. You can download standalone Mac OS 9 drivers for the ATI 7500. I'd also reset the PRAM and NVRAM.