SHeepShaver and games

About SheepShaver, a PPC Mac emulator for Windows, MacOS X, and Linux that can run System 7.5.3 to MacOS 9.0.4.

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Winterlight
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SHeepShaver and games

Post by Winterlight »

Hi folks,

New to Mac in general so please bear with me. ^^

I'm trying to get SS running with games but I have a few problems:

1 - My Power Mac G5 (11,2) won't work with the Feb 2014 version of SS. I have to use the Oct 2009 version. Any chance that there is a version that will work better for G5 PPC? I hate the thought of not having 5 years of dev in the version I'm running. Also, does anyone know of a list of PPC macs that WON'T run on the Feb 2014 version?
2 - Completing a Mac OS 9.0.4 install fails. The OS Setup assistant fails at the step where it looks for network connectivity and stays in a loop forever. I can boot from the installed image but upon boot it always goes into disk repair. Over time the SS installation will corrupt and I will have to reinstall/reconfigure everything
3 - When I look at the TCP configuration I see 10.0.2.x IP addresses. I can't seem to get SS to acquire a proper DHCP address which in my home network is the standard 192.168.x.x set of addresses. I think this has to do with the failed network setup above but I don't know what to do here. (In the emulation settings the network setting is 'slirp')
4 - In general games don't run well in SS. All games will eventually crash the emulator after a few minutes. Not sure where to begin on this one. Games that have crashed so far (Dark Castle Color, Mechwarrior 2 (Rave), Myst, Myst 2, Star Fleet Academy, Falcon 3.0, Infocom Masterpieces)

My configuration is as follows:
- Power Mac G5 - 11,2 hardware
- 16GB RAM
- OS 10.5.8
- 256GB SSD

The OS install is fresh on the SSD with this machine.
I'm only using one of the Ethernet adapters (the top one on the back)

Please help me Obi-Wan, you're my only hope ^^
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adespoton
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Re: SHeepShaver and games

Post by adespoton »

Out of curiosity, why are you trying to run SheepShaver on a G5? If you install OS X 10.4.11 on there, you can run the games natively, including the ones that require a graphics card (which no emulator currently supports).

I can't think of a single piece of software that works in SheepShaver but not in Classic on a G5. Mini vMac is sometimes useful for emulating older pre-System-7 software that won't run on modern hardware, but the latest version of that still compiles for OS X 10.4 PPC.
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Cat_7
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Re: SHeepShaver and games

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi,

1. Sorry, the 2009 version is the only version running somewhat reliably on PPC hardware.
2. This is a known issue, and our guide suggest quitting the assistant when it comes up. Disk corruption can occur when you have to force-quit SheepShaver.
3. SheepShaver uses a internal DHCP server, which gives out the addresses you see. So nothing wrong there. Internet access will work.
4. SheepShaver isn't perfect, and perhaps running it on PPC hardware is even less stable compared to other hardware. But I have no experience with that. That said, all games requiring 3d support will not run.

Best,
Cat_7
Winterlight
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Re: SHeepShaver and games

Post by Winterlight »

Thx Cat7 for the timely answers. Maybe these are not the droids I'm looking for...

The network access doesn't work though. IE comes with this OS 9 install and it can't find any websites. :(
In the Network Browser AppleTalk is present but not TCP/IP. Not sure how to install TCP/IP or whether this is even the problem.

Didn't even know that 3D games won't work...

Maybe it's time for me to buy a G4 :o
Winterlight
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Re: SHeepShaver and games

Post by Winterlight »

To answer your question adespoton I'm trying to run games that require CD-ROM support while playing.

Using 10.4.11 in Classic Mode mostly works but any game that requires access to the CD-ROM while playing (StarFleet Academy, Riven, etc.) generally can't see the CD-ROM through the Classic Mode / OS 10.4.11 boundary.

For example, Riven works fine in Classic Mode until the game asks for the 2nd CD then it never recognizes that the 2nd image is (or already had been) mounted.

I've looked at ways to mount a CD image in a way that Classic Mode will consistently be able to access it but I haven't found that yet. If you have any tools that can do this please let me know.
(There is a CD/DVD mounter for OS 9 but it doesn't work for some reason)

What you said is technically true though, games work in Classic just fine...until it needs to access the optical drive.

Maybe I just need to buy a G4 to use Mac OS 9 natively.
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adespoton
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Re: SHeepShaver and games

Post by adespoton »

I used to use Toast Titanium to emulate the CDs in a way that got recognized; another option is http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/virtual ... cd-utility -- but I can't recall whether either of those worked across the Classic boundary.

The other option, of course, is finding a cracked version of the game that will play from HD instead of requiring the CDs....
Unounited
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Re: SHeepShaver and games

Post by Unounited »

I have a game that I really loved playing when I was a kid, it was called "Lightning's Shadow". I tried running it on my mac os 9 emulator and it gave me the first error saying that I needed carbonlib installed so I installed the latest version, then tried launching Lightning's shadow again but this time sheepshaver exploded. So I tried to upper my ram, tried again but tried fullscreen but still crashed. I tried to look on the internet for my issue but still can't find the solution. Do carbonlib games work on sheepshaver or does at least 1 work?

Take care!
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adespoton
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Re: SHeepShaver and games

Post by adespoton »

Unounited wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 8:27 pm I have a game that I really loved playing when I was a kid, it was called "Lightning's Shadow". I tried running it on my mac os 9 emulator and it gave me the first error saying that I needed carbonlib installed so I installed the latest version, then tried launching Lightning's shadow again but this time sheepshaver exploded. So I tried to upper my ram, tried again but tried fullscreen but still crashed. I tried to look on the internet for my issue but still can't find the solution. Do carbonlib games work on sheepshaver or does at least 1 work?

Take care!
CarbonLib games work, but games depending on the Graphics card will fail. Maybe try again using QEMU-PPC and Mac OS 9.2.2 and see if you get any further?
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24bit
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Re: SHeepShaver and games

Post by 24bit »

From a short test Lightning´s Shadow will not work with any Mac emulator I got.
Maybe this will change one day when QemuPPC has a fully working ATI GPU emulation.

The game does work on my Mac Mini G4 with MacOS 9.2, Tiger and Tiger/Classic.
Unounited
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Re: SHeepShaver and games

Post by Unounited »

Okay so I got Qemu-ppc and emulated mac os 9.2.2. I started lightnings shadow, it started for 2 seconds and went back to my menu giving me an error saying: "The application lightning's shadow has unexpectedly quit, because an error of type 12 occurred.
You should save your work in other open applications and restart your computer."
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