I’ve been running Mini vMac with some luck, but I hate the limitations it presents. Basilisk II ran perfectly on the 2014 MacBook Air (which is still on Sierra), but I always hit a brick wall when trying to install it on my 2019 MacBook Pro. As we know, Catalina drops support for 32-bit applications, and I’m guessing Basilisk II was somehow one of them. My go-to classic Mac emulator was Basilisk II until Catalina hit. (Note: I have not yet covered SheepShaver on this site.)
Mini vMac covers the compact Mac/System 6 era by emulating a Macintosh Plus (circa 1986.) Basilisk II covers the later System 7 era by emulating a Macintosh Quadra 900 (circa 1991.) SheepShaver’s specialty is PowerPC Macs running OS 8 or OS 9. However, recently, there’s a new kid on the block.Įach emulator has its era of specialty. On this blog, I’ve covered Basilisk II and recently Mini vMac, two of the more popular classic Macintosh emulators.
