I'd actually considered picking up an old iMac or something for OS9. I have a lot of nostalgia for it - I was never an Apple owner until OSX,
but used them heavily in high school in the 90s. I'd also love to play some the more interesting exclusive games and ports from around that
time - as a long time Halo fan, I've yet to play a single Marathon game, for instance.

I'd skip an older iMac, you'll have more problems with the added hardware. The Mac Mini g4 can run at 1.5GHz, way more than OS9 will ever need. And the Radeon is well supported IIRC. Plus, DVI-D and USB for keyboard/mouse/etc means KVM! Less crap on the desktop hehe

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/02/26 (Linux/64)
* Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (911:1719/0)

on 24 Sep 2024, esc said...

I'd skip an older iMac, you'll have more problems with the added
hardware. The Mac Mini g4 can run at 1.5GHz, way more than OS9 will ever need. And the Radeon is well supported IIRC. Plus, DVI-D and USB for keyboard/mouse/etc means KVM! Less crap on the desktop hehe

That's a good shout! Maybe I'll pick one of those little fellas up. I didn't realize those things supported booting OS9 still, but my old Powerbook G4 667 did, so... *shrug*

|07j |15A C K |07p |15H L A S H |07!
|08[https://jackphla.sh]

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: d i s t o r t i o n // d1st.org (911:1423/0)

That's a good shout! Maybe I'll pick one of those little fellas up. I didn't realize those things supported booting OS9 still, but my old Powerbook G4 667 did, so... *shrug*

So whereas it's not /technically/ supported by Apple, the community has gotten it to work and frankly it works super well. I have a G4 tower and the Mac Mini runs almost as well as that does!

For context on os9 running on unsupported hardware, check out https://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?board=127.0

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/02/26 (Linux/64)
* Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (911:1719/0)

On 23.09.2024 04:43, Esc wrote to Jack Phlash:

@TID: Mystic BBS 1.12 A49
@MSGID: 911:1719/0 16112306
@REPLY: 911:1423/0 46e60f55
@TZUTC: -0700

I don't plan on doing anything significant, BBS-related, with any of my old machines, personally, but who knows.

I'm touch and go on running an Amiga, Apple, and Atari BBS. They'd all just be
small scale versions of BBSes accessible only from within my main BBS, sort of
as museum pieces with some mods/games/etc. No messages or files or anything substantial, but fun nevertheless.

The main thing stopping me is that I run everything on VPSes and am running out
of resources fast...and emulation takes a lot of resources!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/02/26 (Linux/64)
* Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (911:1719/0)

Hi ESC

I agree with that. But on the other way.... if you would run it with the original Hardware, you are the best friend of the electricity company! hahahaha

In my case... my main bbs server is at home.. it's about 600 - 700 bucks each year for
my electricity company. So if I get Project 1 and 2 running, project 3 the next 24/7 computer is running.

So.. one day a really cost question.

Mike

--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v7.0
* Origin: Global Chaos BBS - The rising star of Bavaria, German (911:4982/0)

on 24 Sep 2024, esc said...

So whereas it's not /technically/ supported by Apple, the community has gotten it to work and frankly it works super well. I have a G4 tower and the Mac Mini runs almost as well as that does!

For context on os9 running on unsupported hardware, check out https://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?board=127.0

Yep, I'm definitely intrigued by this - I think I'll pick one up, but it looks like there are plenty of people still selling these things pre-upgraded for decent prices so I'll hold off for a bit. I'll just have to find a decent Apple keyboard and mouse to go with it, not that I need them, but just to complete the set.

I was looking at exclusive or otherwise unique games and it seems like most of what is out there are just straight ports of PC games. Not very exciting. I really want to play all 3 Marathon games sooner or later, and it would be fun to play with some productivity software too, so that might be worth it by itself. Unfortunately it seems like most of the more unique ports were from the 68k days (I used to drool over that Wolfenstein 3D port as a kid!) I'm all ears for any recommendations, though!

|07j |15A C K |07p |15H L A S H |07!
|08[https://jackphla.sh]

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: d i s t o r t i o n // d1st.org (911:1423/0)

On Monday, September 23rd esc said...

I love vintage Apple! I have an Apple IIGS and run GS/OS on it. If you want to see the earliest incarnation of the Apple GUI, give it a try.

I also use GS/OS. But I think https://www.a2desktop.com/ predates GS/OS, read the "history" there, it was authored by an independant company to bring Macintosh-like interface to the Apple ][ in 1985 and Apple bought and re-licensed it, it was the initial GUI for the IIgs, but its an 8-bit OS and was replaced by a 16-bit re-write as GS/OS, they're very similar.

GS/OS is actually pretty good though, its my primary boot environment for my IIGS, whereas I prefer the ][e boot into ProDOS/Bitsy Bye.



--- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.0.14-beta (linux; x64; 18.18.2)
* Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.l33t.codes:44510 (911:1801/0)

On Monday, September 23rd esc said...

I also have a decent 68k mac and a couple of PPC macs. If you want to really putz around and have some fun, pick up a G4 mac mini for next to nothing on eBay and put OS9 on it

I used PowerPC g3 and g4's in the early 2000's mostly running Linux and OpenBSD but I did occasionally try/dualboot the latest OSX. It was OSX and its X11 integration that allowed me to ssh onto a linux machine and run Linux GUI apps natively on OSX that first attracted me. I was all-in, with dual-CPU cards and so on.

But anyway I mostly skipped past OS9, but I'm re-appreciating what I missed out on. It is a pretty steller OS. I miss when everything that was clickable *appeared* clickable, when window titles were totally free and uncluttered from distracting icons and drawers (looking at you, explorer.exe), and damn if it doesn't feel more snappy and clean than my Mac M1/OSX or Intel NUC/Win10.

I actually *prefer* single-tasking operating systems. I like to know that the program I'm running is the only one running. No distractions. No hidden delays or resource hogs. It's so peaceful!


--- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.0.14-beta (linux; x64; 18.18.2)
* Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.l33t.codes:44510 (911:1801/0)

I was looking at exclusive or otherwise unique games and it seems like most of what is out there are just straight ports of PC games. Not very exciting. I really want to play all 3 Marathon games sooner or later,
and it would be fun to play with some productivity software too, so that might be worth it by itself. Unfortunately it seems like most of the
more unique ports were from the 68k days (I used to drool over that Wolfenstein 3D port as a kid!) I'm all ears for any recommendations, though!

Use it as a DAW. It's incredible. OS9 was way ahead of its time. I mean, all the classic NiN records were written using classic MacOS and protools (I think?). That forum I linked has a ton of info about OS9 DAW stuff. Really neat.

Also you can run a Hermes II BBS :P

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/02/26 (Linux/64)
* Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (911:1719/0)

I also use GS/OS. But I think https://www.a2desktop.com/ predates GS/OS, read the "history" there, it was authored by an independant company to bring Macintosh-like interface to the Apple ][ in 1985 and Apple bought and re-licensed it, it was the initial GUI for the IIgs, but its an
8-bit OS and was replaced by a 16-bit re-write as GS/OS, they're very similar.

Oh interesting. Thanks for the link. Gonna give this a read now.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/02/26 (Linux/64)
* Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (911:1719/0)

On 23.09.2024 04:43, Esc wrote to Jack Phlash:

@TID: Mystic BBS 1.12 A49
@MSGID: 911:1719/0 16112306
@REPLY: 911:1423/0 46e60f55
@TZUTC: -0700

I don't plan on doing anything significant, BBS-related, with any of my old machines, personally, but who knows.

I'm touch and go on running an Amiga, Apple, and Atari BBS. They'd all just be
small scale versions of BBSes accessible only from within my main BBS, sort of
as museum pieces with some mods/games/etc. No messages or files or anything substantial, but fun nevertheless.

The main thing stopping me is that I run everything on VPSes and am running out
of resources fast...and emulation takes a lot of resources!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/02/26 (Linux/64)
* Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (911:1719/0)

Hi ESC

I agree with that. But on the other way.... if you would run it with the original Hardware, you are the best friend of the electricity company! hahahaha

In my case... my main bbs server is at home.. it's about 600 - 700 bucks each year for
my electricity company. So if I get Project 1 and 2 running, project 3 the next 24/7 computer is running.

So.. one day a really cost question.

Mike

--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v7.0
* Origin: Global Chaos BBS - The rising star of Bavaria, German (911:4982/0)