Ever wished you could go back to the time of MacOS 8? While I’m not a fan of even the latest version of Mac OS, it is certainly far more user-friendly and a reminder of just how far Apple has come with their operating systems and understanding what a good UI should look like. However, in case you are a sadist out there who for some reason wants to run Mac OS or you simply want a nostalgic trip Slack developer Felix Rieseberg has transformed Mac OS 8 into an app you can install on your Mac or PC (Windows and Linux), as reported in The Verge.
Rieseberg who is no stranger to enabling old operating systems to run on a modern system, having done so with a Windows 95 app a few years ago, has now turned his attention to something even older with an app that runs the entirety of Mac OS 8.1. It even includes a number of apps and games, thanks to an old MacWorld demo CD from 1997 that he still had, which features trial versions of Photoshop 3, Premiere 4, Illustrator 5.5, StuffIt Expander, and Apple’s Web Page Construction Kit. The guy clearly has far too much time on his hands.
The macintosh.js app has been written entirely in JavaScript, and it uses a virtual machine to emulate a Macintosh Quadra 900 with the Motorola CPU Apple used before its transition to IBM’s PowerPC chips. An incredibly impressive achievement. And to make sure he could get full value out of it, Rieseberg even installed some classic games from the era like Duke Nukem 3D, Civilization II, Dungeons & Dragons, Namely, Oregon Trail, Alley 19 Bowling, and Damage Incorporated running. There’s even a bunch of apps and trials preinstalled, including Photoshop 3, Premiere 4, Illustrator 5.5, StuffIt Expander, and Apple’s Web Page Construction Kit.
While Internet Explorer and Netscape are preinstalled, the versions are too old to be compatible with any website today. The standalone versions are less than 250MB and can be downloaded from GitHub. I don’t know why you’d want to, but at least you know you now can.
Last Updated: August 3, 2020
