Mac Mini G4 – The best « classic » Macintosh for retro-gaming?

244 点作者 freediver4 个月前

26 条评论

This is a great comprehensive article on the "why" and there are good YouTube videos on the "how." What the article is missing that makes it even better is putting an SSD in which makes it even faster of course. You can get an untested Mac mini G4 for about $60 on eBay and the rest of the parts (SSD, PATA-mSATA adapter, RAM if less than 1 GB, power adapter, any missing screws, clock battery, etc.) will run you another $60 to make the ultimate Mac OS 9 machine. If you're comfortable taking things apart and putting them back together it's not too bad.A quick tip: be sure to reset the PRAM with command-alt-p-r holding down during restart until you hear 3 chimes. Then while the machine is booting hold down command-alt-o-f and type "reset-nvram" and then "set-defaults" and then "reset-all" (all of this is in open firmware) before installing Mac OS 9 to make sure firmware is in its original state.I came across this idea of SSD upgrading and installing Mac OS 9 in April 2024 and bought three broken ones to build one for my son. [0] When the first one worked, I ended up figuring, why not just finish the other two and sell them on eBay?That led me into a hobby business. I've now cleaned, upgraded with SSDs, and sold about 70 of them. The "business" basically breaks even, so it truly is a hobby. In fact I invested so much in inventory buying 90 of them in a lot at the end of 2024 that I am negative right now. I will probably turn a slight profit in 2025. But it's fun and if you want you can buy one from me at: <a href="https://os9.shop" rel="nofollow">https://os9.shop</a>Sorry for the self-promotion, but very relevant!0: <a href="https://x.com/davekopec/status/1795872492386398683" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/davekopec/status/1795872492386398683</a>

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johnklos4 个月前

The depth of this article is wonderful. The PowerPC line did have lots of good things going for it, and the Mac mini G4 is a good example of how much you can get done with modest space, power and heat.I'm still using Mac mini G4s in several places, both for Mac OS X (legacy Final Chop) and as small, low power servers running NetBSD.There are really only two drawbacks to the Mac mini G4, in my opinion:Gigabit ethernet would've been a dollar or two more? Being stuck with 100 Mbps, or around 300 Mbps if one uses a gigabit USB adapter, isn't fun.If the DIMM slot could take 2 gig DIMMs, this'd be a perfect machine. Other PowerPC Macs could take 2 gigs - heck, even the older PowerPC 604e Power Macs 9500 and 9600 could take 1.5 gigs - so being limited to 1 gig is a bit unfortunate, especially considering that 2 gig DDR DIMMs are a thing (later Xserve G5 units could take 2 gig DDR DIMMs).Still, the Mac mini G4 is the only computer aside from SBCs that I've bought brand new, and I have always been very happy with my decision.

rollcat4 个月前

I have a 2002 TiBook[1]; it officially supports MacOS 9.2.2, but also every OS X release up to 10.5.8. I've been surprised to find that the retail copy of StarCraft that I bought in 2009 not only includes an OS X build, but also supports PowerPC![1]: <a href="https://www.rollc.at/posts/2024-07-02-tibook/" rel="nofollow">https://www.rollc.at/posts/2024-07-02-tibook/</a>I'm not sure if it can be made to run m68k apps "natively", but on the other hand you can emulate just about any classic MacOS in a modern browser[2].[2]: <a href="https://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/" rel="nofollow">https://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/</a>

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thepryz4 个月前

While the Mac mini is nice due to its size, personally, if you're choosing a hardware over emulation, I'd rather have an iMac G4 simply because of the aesthetics. It's amazing how well that design holds up even today.

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p_ing4 个月前

I picked up a G4 Cube for retro-gaming. It'll run what I'm interested in (Sim City, Sim Tower), is compact, and I've got the ADC monitor to go with it. Upgraded to 1.5GiB RAM and replaced the spinning rust with an SSD with an IDE bridge. I even have the working Apple USB speakers that it came with! Repaired the disc drive and it is good to go.Installed OS X 10.4 for kicks (will go back to 9.2) and wow, what a different OS that was from today's macOS. Brings back memories of my PB G4 Ti. What an awesome laptop that was.

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GeekyBear4 个月前

There were some small indie shops that put out fun arcade games back then.Cassidy & Greene's Crystal Quest is excellent.Ambrosia Software had shareware versions of arcade classics as well as original concepts. Escape Velocity is still talked about today.

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jamal-kumar4 个月前

Does anyone remember how Steve Jobs kind of hated video games? Even though him and woz worked on 'breakout' which I thought was kind of funny. I guess John Carmack was a huge fan of NeXT, having developed Doom on that platform, which is wild because he wanted the branding of that OS right on the title screen and the request was denied (Would have been a tiny thing that could have changed the regard of that system alot) [1][1] <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2146412825593223&id=100006735798590" rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2146412825...</a>

weare1384 个月前

The 2002 Power Mac G4/1.25 Dual Processor (MDD) is a good option too. It has dual PowerPC 7455's w/ 2MB L3 cache, supports 2GB RAM, 4 PCI slots and a 4x APG slot that came with either a 64MB ATI Radeon 9000 Pro or a 128MB NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti. Plus there's a ton of after market upgrades for these.<a href="https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/specs/powermac_g4_1.25_dp_mdd.html" rel="nofollow">https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/specs/powerma...</a>

amatecha4 个月前

One of my favorite machines for classic Mac gaming is the first iteration of the iMac G4 (700/800mhz) , which allows booting into OS 9. Not only is it an amazing form factor, it's got a great screen and the official speakers are really nice. It's the complete package for a great gaming experience. The machine is powerful enough to run any game prior to its release (and so many after, of course). It's also a great conversation piece when it's not actively in use! :)

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jasoneckert4 个月前

I did the same, but with my old 12" PowerBook G4 when it became obsolete. I replaced the PATA HDD with a PATA SSD for speed, and removed the problematic cells in the original battery (so it must run with the power supply attached). This made it incredibly lightweight (most likely lighter than the Mac Mini G4), and more portable (it doesn't need to be plugged into a screen, although it could be).

scarface_744 个月前

In my early years I had an Apple //e, a Mac LC II with an Apple //e card, a PowerMac 6100, some PCs and the Mac Mini G4.My mom still has my old Core 2 Duo Mac Mini. It’s running Windows 7 now. But I could put an old version of OS X that still runs PPac apps.All that being said, I can run old Mac apps on new Macs via emulation. Why would I want an old Mac

eadmund4 个月前

I feel like ‘classic’ in the context of a Mac ought to refer to the Macintosh Classic (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Classic" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Classic</a>) or Classic II (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Classic_II" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Classic_II</a>), or one running the Classic Mac OS (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Mac_OS" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Mac_OS</a>). Key items should be the lovely bitmap graphics, the iconic case and the thoughtful UI which changed the world. Oh yeah, and an OS written in Pascal, of all things!Something in colour, on a PowerPC chip, running Mac OS X, just seems too modern.

chongli4 个月前

If you’re going to the trouble to buy retro hardware for retro gaming, you probably don’t want to be settling for emulation. While Apple’s built-in 68K emulator for PowerPC is remarkably fast and compatible with a lot of software, there are plenty of games that freeze or crash on PowerPC chips or newer operating systems for various reasons (non-protected memory, many operating system APIs in ROM, breaking changes, etc).Thus I think if your retro-gaming dream includes lots of 68K Mac games (especially black and white ones) then you’ll probably want to pick up a 68K Mac as well. Not to mention how cool it looks to have a B&W compact Mac on your desk, such as the Mac SE/30 (one of the best computers Apple ever made).

cmiller14 个月前

I use an eMac for this purpose. Available in similar configurations to the mini, the 1 ghz combo drive model and below can boot os 9 natively without the hacked os9lives version, and it comes with a beautiful 17 inch trinitron CRT built in!

wiredfool4 个月前

Huh. I sent one of these to ewaste in the last 6 months.

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nemo4 个月前

I have an iMac G4/800 that can run 9.2 as well as OS X. It's not as fast as the later G4s, but it's performant enough, the flat-panel is nice, and the all-in-one design makes thing really delightful to work with. Replacing the HDD with an SSD isn't fun since iMacs are unpleasant to work on, but is crucial. It's great for old games.

empressplay4 个月前

I have an eMac G4, can't beat that CRT!

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system7rocks4 个月前

Yes, the Mac Mini G4 is an amazing machine to own. I sold mine. I am sad. I would like to have another, but the one I had was falling part and someone gave me like $50 for it. It is extremely versatile though.

amcaskill4 个月前

Some other classic Mac OS 9.2 compatible games from that era, ranked:1. Command and Conquer2. Rainbow Six3. Total Annihilation4. Unreal Tournament

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simonjgreen4 个月前

Ah those videos of Marathon, Sim City 2000, AoE2, and Deus Ex bring back such memories. Fantastic games.The G4 PPC series were great, such an upgrade from G3 and really solid performance at the time.

nsxwolf4 个月前

I have 2 and I found them almost unusably slow since day 1. I’d hate to try running even a very old version of MAME.

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wslh4 个月前

There are other operating systems supported for the Mac Mini G4. For example, NetBSD and Linux.

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voltagex_4 个月前

$200-300 in Australia, so I'll just keep hoping emulation improves.

Fnoord4 个月前

How much energy does it use?

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Kbbt4 个月前

One can also have a look at ScummVM if they want to play "new-old" games on OSX PPC (mostly, but not only, adventure games and RPGs). Releases are still being made in 2025 for your G3/G4/G5s running OSX 10.4/10.5, yes :)

ajross4 个月前

PowerPC/USB/new-world-ROM macs are "classic" now?

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