(updated September 26, 2020)
(You can also set up Basilisk II for OSX/macOS)
If you are upgrading from an old version of Basilisk II, the best thing to do is to download all files into a new folder and make a fresh start (but you can still use your old disk image and ROM). Most dll (application extensions) files included are needed to run the GUI. The number of dll files may be a bit overwhelming, but the up-side is that it is no longer necessary to install the GTK development kit to run the GUI.
If you kept your Rom file and hard disk image(s) in the old Basilisk II folder, copy them into the new folder. If they are outside your old Basilisk II folder, leave them where they are now.
Next, run the GUI, point to the required Rom and disks in the new folder (or where you kept them outside of the old folder) and adjust the other GUI settings to match what you had before.
You can then run Basilisk II.
If everything is OK, you can remove the old folder and its content. If you had the GTK development kit installed to run the old GUI, and it is not used for any other program you have installed, you can remove it too.
Basilisk II emulates up to a 68040 Macintosh. You can install up to Mac OS 8.1 in the emulated machine.
There are two ways to get started with the emulator - installing MacOS 8.1, or System 7.5.3. This guide begins by describing how to get started with MacOS 8.1, which is a much faster and easier way to get started. Scroll down for instructions for System 7.5.3.
To setup Basilisk II and install MacOS 8.1, you need to prepare a few things:
Download and expand Basilisk II. There is no installation program to run.
If you are using a physical CD, insert the CD and run “BasiliskIIGUI.exe.” Select “Boot From CD-ROM.” Make sure the CD-ROM drive has the correct letter.
If you are using a CD image, click “Add…” and then select the image.
Next, click “Create…” to create a hard disk image that MacOS will be installed to. Give it a size (I recommend about 400 MB) and a name. You should not make it larger than 2 GB. Hit “Okay.”
The CD image and the new hard disk image should now be listed in the tab. See figure 1, below.
Figure One: A CD image and a hard disk image are listed
We'll adjust a few GUI settings to ensure you can install the OS. You can experiment with these settings later.
In the “Volumes” tab check “Enable My Computer…”. This will allow you to copy files directly from the host system.
Switch to the “Graphics/Sound” tab and select a Window Refresh Rate of “60 Hz”. This will ensure smoother mouse movements. Select a width of 800 and a height of 600.
Switch to the “Memory/Misc” tab. Select 64 MB of MacOS RAM. Select a Mac Model ID of “Quadra 900.” This model must be selected to install MacOS 8.1. Set CPU type to 68040. Also in this tab, check the box to “ignore illegal memory accesses.”
Switch to the “Memory/Misc” tab and select the ROM file you downloaded earlier.
Switch to “JIT Compiler” and uncheck “Enable JIT compiler”. This feature makes the emulator perform faster on older systems, but makes it somewhat unstable. On modern systems, this speed improvement is unnecessary.
Hit “Start” to launch the emulator.
You will first be asked to initialize the hard disk image you made. Give it a name and select “initialize.” See figure two, below.
Figure two: Initialize the Drive
You should see an icon named something like “Install MacOS 8.1.” Run that to start the installation. Follow the instructions on screen. I suggest that you install the default software. You probably don't need to customize the installation right now. If you need something else from the CD, you can install it later. Hit “Quit” when the installation is finished.
Potential issue: If you followed the above instructions but get an image of a floppy disk with a question mark, your CD image is not bootable. Try another one.
Figure three: The Install Screen
When the installation is finished shut down the emulated computer (special –> shutdown). Run “BasiliskIIGUI.exe” and remove the CD image. If you have been using a physical CD, remove that and switch to “Boot from Any”. Start the emulator.
The MacOS Setup Assistant will run. You can configure the given settings, but the emulator will freeze if you attempt to configure network settings. Shut down the assistant at that point.
You are now finished setting up the emulator.
Potential Issue: If you customized the installation you may get an error related to the “A/ROSE” extension. In that case, reboot while holding the “shift” key and manually delete that extension.
Figure four: A Fresh Install of MacOS 8.1
You should install Stuffit Expander so that you can download and install applications in your emulators. Download this hard disk image containing the Stuffit Installer. After downloading the disk, add it to the volumes list.
I've written a few other guides for Basilisk II. You might want to read about getting online, or about some good software for the emulated 68K Macintosh. Check out the articles page for other ideas.
Installing System 7.5.3 (which can be updated to 7.5.5) is more time consuming. Here is what you will need to download:
Download the files above. Extract Basilisk II. Remember to extract the System 7 boot disk to your Basilisk II directory.
First we will create a blank hard disk image that we will later install System 7.5.3 to. Start by running HFVExplorer. Click on “File” and then “Format New Volume.” Give your volume a name and a size of at least 100 MB. Click the arrow beside “Volume File Path of Floppy Selection” and browse to your Basilisk II directory. Give your hard disk image a name (“install.hfv” is used in this tutorial) and click “save” to create the image. See figure one, below. Note that in the future you can create images within the Basilisk II GUI to save time.
Figure one: Creating a blank disk image in HFVExplorer
Now we will copy the System 7.5.3 files to the blank disk image that we just created. Check that the image you just created is listed at the top of the left hand pane of HFVExplorer. If not, click on “File” and “Open Volume” to open it.
Next, within HFVExplorer, navigate to the folder that contains the System 7.5.3 files that you downloaded earlier. Click and drag that folder over to the blank image that you just created. When the “select copy mode” dialog appears, just click “OK.” See figure two.
Figure two: Hit “OK” when the “select copy mode” dialog appears
Close HFVExplorer. Run BasiliskIIGUI.exe. In the “volumes” tab click on “Add…” and select the System 7 Boot disk (system70_boot.dsk) and the disk image you created in the previous step (install.dsk in this case). See Figure three for some help.
Also in the volumes tab, enable “My Computer” which will allow you to copy files directly from your host system.
Switch to the “Memory/Misc” tab. Click “browse” and select your ROM file. To boot the boot disk from this guide, the Mac Model ID should be set to “MacIIci (MacOS 7.x). You can change this later if needed.
Switch to the “JIT Compiler” tab. Deselect “Enable JIT Compiler”. The JIT compiler might improve performance on very old host systems, but it is not needed on modern systems, and can also cause the emulator to crash frequently.
For smoother mouse movements, I recommend selecting “Dynamic” Window refresh rate in the “Graphics/Sound” tab. You might also wish to adjust the width and height in that tab.
Figure three: The volumes tab of the Basilisk II GUI. Two volumes are loaded.
If your emulated Macintosh has booted successfully, it should look a bit like figure four.
Figure four: The Macintosh desktop after booting the System 7 boot disk
Now we are going to install System 7.5.3. One of the disks on the Macintosh desktop is the one you created using HFVExplorer and that contains the System 7.5.3 installation files. Open that disk. Open the folder containing the install files and locate the file called “System 7.5.3 01of19.smi.” That file should be easy to find - it's got color (see figure six)!
Figure five: After the system files have been verified
You can now install System 7.5.3 in several easy steps:
Figure six: Proceed with an Easy Install
Congratulations, you have installed System 7.5.3! But there are a couple things you have to do before you can boot the OS. First, shut down the emulated Mac (click “Special” and “Shutdown”). Now, run the Basilisk II GUI again. In the volumes tab you must remove the System 7 boot disk, leaving only the disk that you created in HFVExplorer (and installed the Operating System on). Click “start” to run the emulator again, booting from your fresh install of System 7.5.3. Once the system is booted, you should keep the original System 7 installation files on your disk image, as they contain additional system software you might want to install at a later time.
Figure seven: System 7.5.3. Beautiful and elegant.
You should install Stuffit Expander so that you can download and install applications in your emulators. Download this hard disk image containing the Stuffit Installer. After downloading the disk, add it to the volumes list.
You may also want to update to System 7.5.5. The update process is very simple. You can get the update here. Download that file to Windows and drag it into your install.hfv disk image using HFVExplorer, or the “My Computer” option (see above). Run the installer.
I've written a few other guides for Basilisk II. You might want to read about getting online, or about some good software for the emulated 68K Macintosh. Check out the articles page for other guides.
NOTE: The Basilisk II builds from 22-09-2020 or later do support reading and booting from real CDs in 64-bit Windows
NOTE: Basilisk II supports networking over a TAP device in Windows.
For users of builds from before 22-09-2020: Both the cdenable.sys driver and the basilisk ethernet driver will not work in 64-bit Windows versions. Therefore you can't access cd-roms and can't make appletalk work on these windows versions. You can, however, make .iso images of your cd roms and add them to the volumes list in the BasiliskII GUI. For internet access you can use the “slirp” option. You can place the cdenable.sys driver in the \Windows\SysWOW64\drivers folder to get rid of the (faulty) error reported about not being able to find the driver in the \windows\system32\drivers folder. The currently available experimental 64-bit GTK package has not been tested with BasiliskII.
We're all done! For more help you should check out our Macintosh Emulation Forum. Big thanks to Gwenole Beauchesne for developing JIT Basilisk II. Thanks also to Marc Hoffman. This is based on a guide he wrote in the late 1990s, which can be found over here.
