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Instant Messaging in the 68K Macintosh

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:09 am
by ClockWise
Hey, so getting an instant messenger working in my emulated Macintosh running System 7 has always been a dream of mine. Google never released a 68K client for Google Talk, the 68K ICQ client stopped working last month and the third party MSN client stopped working a long time ago.

All of the web-based IM clients don't work in the old 68k-compatible browsers.

Nonetheless, I have finally found a way! Stephen introduced me to Bitlbee a couple of days ago. Bitlbee is a project that allows IRC servers to access all of the popular IM networks, including Google Talk/Jabber, MSN, AIM, ICQ!

I've written a short illustrated guide to getting Bitlbee set up in System 7.5.5 within Basilisk:

http://emaculation.com/doku.php/68k_instant_messaging

It works! I spent last night chatting with my Google Talk contacts from within System 7.5.5.

It uses MacIRC. I find it very reassuring that I can talk to people using an operating system last updated in 1996 and an IRC client last updated in 1997.

Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 2:49 am
by SSS
Bringing up an old thread here - but I've not been active here for a while and I'd like to point out something.

The 68k AIM client is mentioned in that article as not-functioning; but it actually does work perfectly fine - almost.

Image

Because this is an old AIM client, it WON'T retrieve the buddy list from the server, so when your first log on, you'll just get a blank buddy list (I assume this was the problem you encountered). You'll have to export the buddy list from AIM on the host OS, transfer it to the Mac OS, and then import it into AIM.

There is one issue with the 68k AIM client, however: if someone you're chatting with has an animated buddy icon, it causes Basilisk II to crash. You can disable buddy icons in AIM Preferences to prevent this from happenning.

With all that said, that IRC trick is a neat find; I'll have to try that sometime. 8)

Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 3:43 am
by ClockWise
Thanks for the tips SSS. I'll update the article to reflect that information.