Hobbyist running Mac OS 9.2 on Wii Console – Games – .Geeks

A tech enthusiast managed to run Mac OS 9.2 on a Wii using virtualization software. Some interface elements are not displayed correctly and the sound is not very good. Despite all this, the man managed to run Doom for Mac OS on the Wii.

explains French technology hobbyist Pierre Dandumont on his blog page how to install macOS 9.2. i got it working on the wii console. The man notes that this console has almost the same PowerPC G3 processor as, for example, iMac G3 and iBook G3.

Dandumont first made sure that the Wii console had the latest version of The Homebrew Channel. This is software that allows Wii users to bypass console security and run their own applications on the console. Then the man installed BootMii, a piece of software that allows users to gain low-level control over the console. He then turned to Mac-On-Linux virtualization software, which he had to modify the source code and completely recompile so it could run on the Wii. With that done, he could prepare Mac OS 9.2 for a virtual installation.

The OS boots fine, but the text doesn’t look good according to Dandumont. This is mainly because the virtualization software cannot generate a virtual GPU which can also be used by the software. This hampers the graphics capabilities. The sound doesn’t sound right either, but according to the man, it’s functional. Video playback also leads to problems.

To support his experiment, Dandumont tried installing and running Doom for Mac OS 9 and it worked. However, the game was unplayable as the Wii console only showed one frame every few minutes.

According to the man, the Wii console must also be able to run Mac OS X. He tried to install Max OS X Puma but got numerous errors. According to Dandumont, lack of sufficient RAM memory is currently the biggest problem.