28 replies to this topic

[dgame]

Basilisk II is an Open Source 68k Macintosh emulator. It allows you to run 68k MacOS software on your computer, even if you are using a different operating system. However, you still need a copy of MacOS and a Macintosh ROM image to use Basilisk II.

Extract the basilisk_ii.pnd from the attached basilisk_ii.zip.
Run the PND to create the pandora/appdata/basilisk_ii folder on your SD card
Copy a Macintosh ROM (renamed ROM) into the pandora/appdata/basilisk_ii folder
Copy a bootable Macintosh disk named disk.hfv into the pandora/appdata/basilisk_ii folder

For testing purposes basic support files were included in an earlier beta BasiliskII-app.zip (10.6MB)
They should also work with the basilisk_ii.pnd when the "rom" and "disk.hfv" files are extracted and copied into the pandora/appdata/basilisk_ii folder
For information on setting up your own Disk check Mac OS Emulator at OldOs.org

Thanks to everyone who helped getting this to work!

Extract the basilisk_ii.pnd from the attached basilisk_ii.zip.

Attached Files

•  basilisk_ii.zip   313.79K   32 downloads

Edited by dgame, 15 December 2010 - 08:12 PM.

[EvilDragon]

Thanks for that
Those were the days I still liked the Apple stuff

[dgame]

I saw a little chatter about this emulator on the other board HERE so I posted my latest PND here.
This one does full screen.

To test it run the PND and it will create the Basilisk II appdata folder:
\pandora\appdata\basilisk_ii

Place "rom" and "disk.hfv" in the Basilisk II appdata folder and the PND will then boot the disk.hfv.

The BasiliskII-app.zip linked in the First post of this thread contains a good "rom" and a 20MB "disk.hfv" file.
This boots Sytem 7.5.3.

This is latest the basilisk_ii.pnd from my pandora and it is slightly newer than the one in the first post.
I forget what changed but this is the one I use.

Extract the basilisk_ii.pnd from the attached basilisk_ii.zip

Attached Files

•  basilisk_ii.zip   333.42K   46 downloads

Edited by dgame, 15 December 2010 - 08:14 PM.

[quartercast]

Hey dgame and others, thanks for porting Basilisk II to the Pandora.

After a bit of fiddling, I've got Basilisk II running with a Quadra 950 ROM and OS 7.5.3 installed on a bootable 200MB disk.hfv file.

Is there any way to change the amount of RAM available to the OS? At the moment, it's set to a measly 8MB - not enough for what I want to do!

I'm trying to get Realmz (IMO one of the best RPGs of all time) playable. Atm I have Realmz 7.1.2 up and running, I'm able to create characters and start a new game, but the world map and menus are not rendering properly. Realmz 8.0.7 does not run because there isn't enough memory.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Gruso]

Another thanks for this, and a few questions of my own.

I'm just using the files linked in the first post, because I haven't had much luck setting up my own disk images. HFV Explorer runs in WINE, mostly, but any disk images I produced (HFV or DSK) were not recognised by Basilisk. (I am able to add things to the provided disk.hfv, which is some consolation.)

The internet tells me that most people create .dsk images using the Basilisk GUI, which we don't seem to have access to here? I installed the Windowns version of Basilisk (again, in WINE) to access the GUI, but the image still wasn't recognised on the Pandora. So I suppose all of this amounts to a vague question about How Do I Disk Image.

Second question. I'm trying to run Beyond Dark Castle (the original does not run in Basilisk) but it prompts me to reduce display colours to 2 in the Mac control panel. When I do that, the display turns to grey mush and I have to force quit.

Ideally I would just be running an older system, monochrome only for the full nostalgia hit. Any help appreciated! And thanks again for the port.

[quartercast]

Welcome back Gruso.

Your disk image needs to be bootable, and named disk.hfv.

To create your own bootable disk image with Basilisk GUI, follow this excellent guide.

[Gruso]

Thanks quartercast. I did come across that page, but running HFV Explorer in WINE is pretty much ruled out. It's also very hard to find a download of the system version I want.

There are some pre-configured Mini Vmac packages floating around for PSP and iPhone; these appear to have the old monochrome system I'd like to run. I may be able to extract the bits I need from one of these, and pack it all back into disk.hfv from a Windows machine using the guide you linked.

At the end of the day, if I can run 2 colour mode in any way, shape or form I'll be happy!

[quartercast]

Hmm, i haven't tried playing with the colours yet. So, system are you looking to run?

I think i remember playing Oregon trail and warlords on a monochrome display.

[Gruso]

Just doing some research, I think I've been barking up the wrong tree. I was using Macs at school in 1991, and I'm pretty sure they were Mac Classics. Wiki says they ran system 6 onwards, which were colour operating systems - but the Classic had a monochrome display.

So I probably shouldn't spend a lot of time trying to set up an older system. I may lose game compatibility. I'll hold out for a 2 colour fix if dgame is able to fix it.

(For the record we were playing Shufflepuck Cafe, Crazy Cars and of course Dark Castle.)

[dgame]

It figures as soon as I send my Pandora back people would start using this.

Most of Basilisk's parameters can be set in the .basilisk_ii_prefs file located in the /pandora/appdata/basilisk_ii folder.

An explanation of the various preference file options is here:
http://basilisk.cebix.net/README

@quartercast
Edit the ramsize line in the .basilisk_ii_prefs
The default is <in bytes>:
8MB
ramsize 8388608

32MB:
ramsize 33554432

64MB:
ramsize 67108864

@Gruso
You may have to add a screen <video mode> entry to .basilisk_ii_prefs,
See http://basilisk.cebix.net/README

I know that I have played shuffle puck and glider in B&W with system 7.5.3 on the Pandora.
Unfortunately I can’t definitively test/solve this until I get my Pandora back.

Unsing an Mac Classic rom and older OS could be another solution.

Edited by dgame, 14 January 2011 - 02:50 PM.

[quartercast]

Thanks dgame, sorry to hear you're without a pandora

Well, this was a case of RTFM. Or maybe FTFM (F = find). Is it possible to include a readme inside the PND?

Anyways, time for some realmz!

[Gruso]

Argh, there is a config file! I should have hit ctrl-h.

I'm not quite there yet, but I've managed to get a 512x384 greyscale display (not 2 colour yet). I've been ROM swapping and conf editing all over the shop, so I'm about to start with a clean slate and step through it more methodically. I'll report back.

Cheers dgame, I hope you're not too long without your Pandora.

[update] Ok, no success with 2 colour mode yet. Here's what I've learned though:

Spoiler

- Mac Classic ROM does not work. It goes to black screen, requiring a Pandora reboot (can't kill it with the Pandora button).
- Color Classic, LC and Quadra650 ROMs all work (in regular colour mode).
-If I add this line to the config:

screen win/512/384/1

The splash screen will display at 512x384, but the Mac desktop appears to ignore the config file and will revert to 720x480. It will only display at 512x384 if changed within the Mac control panel. The color depth I am setting in the config file (the "/1" in the above example) is ignored no matter what I do. Changing colour depth to "Black & White" via Mac control panel continues to result in grey mush.

I'm wondering about this line from the readme:

The set of color depths depends on the capabilities of the X11 server, the operating system, and Basilisk II compile-time options, but 1 bit and the default depth of the X11 screen should always be available.

...is it possible that Pandora is not even capable of two colour / monochrome mode in X11?

[update2] I think this colour mode thing is a dead end. But I've had a little success.

Spoiler

First new thing I learned: To get a new disk image (*.dsk) to show up on the Mac desktop, you need to add the name of the disk in your config file. Right underneath disk.hfv. In the readme? Probably.

Back to Dark Castle, i've gotten it to the title screen. Turns out there was a patch released to make it work on 'newer' systems (7.6+) without the need for 2 color mode. The patch is compressed in sit.hqx format, which I couldn't penetrate, but you can also hex edit one of the game data files for the same outcome. I used HexWorkshop3.11 successfully. Details: Link1 Link2

The game now starts, hangs at the title screen for a while, then returns a data error (on the very file I messed with). So I still can't play it, but it somehow feels like a huge victory. Time to put this aside for now, maybe later on I'll try hex editing the original files inside Basilisk.

[quartercast]

Well, I've finally got Realmz running and behaving quite well on Pandora (820 MHz).

My basilisk settings are:

Mac Rom:
Quadra 650

Preferences:
fpu false
frameskip 1
ramsize 134217728
jit true
jitfpu true
jitcachesize 2048
jitinline true
screen win 800 480

My MacOS settings are:

OS Version 7.6.1
200 MB HFV disk image
Screen resolution 720 x 480
Thousands of colours

Realmz settings:

Min RAM 8000K
Max RAM 32000K
Music off
Fast spell casting
Fast spell resolution

Spells are still casting a bit slow, maybe I'll try bumping up the Pandora to 1 ghz when HF5 is released

[wally]

Just doing some research, I think I've been barking up the wrong tree. I was using Macs at school in 1991, and I'm pretty sure they were Mac Classics. Wiki says they ran system 6 onwards, which were colour operating systems - but the Classic had a monochrome display.

So I probably shouldn't spend a lot of time trying to set up an older system. I may lose game compatibility. I'll hold out for a 2 colour fix if dgame is able to fix it.

(For the record we were playing Shufflepuck Cafe, Crazy Cars and of course Dark Castle.)

Black & WHite games should work fine under Colour.

[wally]

I'm quite amazed at how well this works, I think its great (particuarly 3 in three ) but there's a few things that are going to be quite annoying unless fixed..


1) No proper way to restart, it just exits the emulator.. This is quite a high priority bug as it can corrupt your disk image (It did to mine, basically deleted the system folder)
2) When clicking with the stylus, it remembers your last location of clicking, so if you click in a new location it clicks back in the old location. (Weird)
3) Shufflepuck Cafe and phrase craze plus don't have sound.
4) Bards Tale crashes the emulator (probably a basilisk 2 issue)

Oh and, it'd be awesome if somehow we could check our battery life through basilisk

Edited by wally, 06 February 2011 - 02:10 AM.