Mac OS 9 on an unmodified Wii

Via Hackaday:

We’re used to the so-called “Hackintoshes”, non-Apple hardware running MacOS. One we featured recently was even built into the case of a Nintendo Wii. But Dandu has gone one better than that, by running MacOS on an unmodified Wii, original Nintendo hardware (French, Google Translate link).

How has this seemingly impossible task been achieved? Seasoned Mac enthusiasts will remember the days when Apple machines used PowerPC processors, and the Wii uses a PowerPC chip that’s a close cousin of those used in the Mac G3 series of computers. Since the Wii can run a Linux-based OS, it can therefore run Mac-on-Linux, providing in theory an environment in which it can host one of the PowerPC versions of MacOS.

So it’s not really running MacOS 9.2.2 directly on the hardware, but it’s close enough. Impressive work.

3 Comments

  1. 2022-11-25 1:44 pm
  2. 2022-11-27 4:58 pm
  3. 2022-11-28 5:51 am