yawetaG wrote:derSammler wrote:yawetaG wrote:Actually, it depends for what processor architecture and Mac OS version the games were made.
Only OS X 10.5 can run both PowerPC and Intel CPU programs. 10.6 and later are Intel-only. I think older PowerPC versions of MacOS (not sure about OS X) should be capable of running 68k code, but there might be speed problems.
Just to correct this: eMacs were all PPC. Also, "Only OS X 10.5 can run both PowerPC and Intel CPU programs" is not correct as you wrote it. OS X 10.5 exists for PPC and Intel platforms. On PPC, it can run PPC code only! On Intel, it can run PPC and x86 code. 68k was dropped with 10.5. That's probably how you meant it, but you wrote it as if 10.5 can run Intel code even on PPC, which it of course can not.
No, I didn't know there was a PPC version of 10.5... 😀
Both 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard) came in x86 and PowerPC versions - I have a Tiger restore CD for a 2006 MacBook in my CD binder, and I beat up 10.4 to work for the most part (no ACPI suspend/sleep) on a Thinkpad T42 back in the early Hackintosh days. PowerPC builds can only run PowerPC binaries, while Intel versions run Intel native (usually through universal binaries) AND PowerPC via Rosetta PPC emulation services.
Tiger is the last release that can boot MacOS classic (PPC and m68k) in both native and classic mode. Classic mode runs a sandbox copy of MacOS 9 services that allows classic apps to work while being within MacOS X, while native is pure MacOS 9...which can be an unstable, crashy piece of crap if you have too many extensions installed. Classic has 68k support all the way from 7.6 all the way to 9.2.2 for most well behaved apps.
As for MacOS classic hardware native/classic mode boot compatibility, there's a list on EveryMac.com here -> https://everymac.com/systems/by_capability/ma … -9-classic.html .
The general gist is that none of the hardware with native USB2 ports will do native boot. It might have to do with Apple not bothering to release system extensions to support the newer system controllers (The Intrepid series) on those hardware to support an OS that they'll kill off soon.
As for PowerPC not running on 10.6 (Snow Leopard) - that's partially correct - there are no PowerPC builds of 10.6, but it doesn't mean 10.6 on Intel can't run PowerPC code. Snow Leopard is the last version of OSX with Rosetta, so it could run non-universal binary OSX apps compiled for PowerPC - it was coincidentally the last version of MacOSX that allows you to do system migrations from a PowerPC source and port it over successfully to Intel Macs - it's also one of the first MacOS X Intel versions that can run in VMWare rather successfully . This actually saved my bacon a few times when I had to fire up Snow Leopard VMs to do a 2-stage migration for stubborn end users in my previous IT gigs - one stage from a PowerBook with Tiger to a VM, and then from that VM to a MacBook pro with Mountain Lion - it took a while, but it worked. In a way, Tiger and Snow Leopard are like the Win98/WinXP of the Mac world - both are kept around for longer-than-you-might-think to bridge the gap (MacOS 9 to 10, and 10 PPC to 10 x86) in large IT shops.