What have you done with a PowerPC today?

[Alexis Trinquet]

I guess it's time for me to resume fighting with the 7500, last time I posted, I ran into many troubles (floppy drive dying, running into brick walls with Netatalk-2...) but this time we're making some progress!

First, I got a new Mac, and that's my iBook G3/466SE (which runs OS9, you'll see why in a few instants), second, I ordered a replacement FDD (along that a Zip drive carrier caddy).

With all that said and done, I've set up a small network with the iBook (which will act as a server, I could've used my iMac G4 if I had kept 10.2 Jaguar on it, but since I'm out of CDs to burn, and that I've always dreamt of owning a iBook G3 Clamshell... The rest is history.) and the 7500 in it. So that way, I don't have to rely on floppy disks (especially after the incident I had with the older FDD!).. It's a bit slow (and for some reason my iBook tends to lock up a few times) but it works... And that leads us to the next thing I'm doing, transferring a System 7.6.1 installer onto a Zip disk. (I don't have any other storage medium capacious enough to accommodate the install files)

I've already made a disk image of the 7500's HDD if I would ever want to go back to 7.5.2, so I don't have qualms about erasing the HDD and making a fresh install of 7.6.1.

Plus another thing I noticed, if I put my Sonnet G3 upgrade card in the 7500, I cannot format floppy disks anymore (I can erase them but can't create a new partition, and reading already formatted disks works perfectly) but if I put in the original 601 card in it, that's where I can format floppies again without issues... I have little to no idea why. I thought it is because the G3 is too fast for System 7.5.2's formatting routines (speed sensitivity issue?) so I'm going to try with 7.6.1 and see if it does the same thing.

I'm tempted to make a new thread here about this problem (as I want to use this 7500 as a bridge Mac to load up software on older 68K Macs that lack a 1.44M-capable disk drive), because I can't find anything about this strange issue.

 

[B S Magnet]

First, I got a new Mac, and that's my iBook G3/466SE

It’s remarkably clean! No yellowing of keys, and all the white polycarbonate looks (mostly) free of cracks. Nice.

 

[mmphosis]

I turned on Internet Sharing due to a lack of ports on the "modern" router. That was easy! Tell me how this would be easy to do on any other device -- good luck!

 

[Amethyst1]

I turned on Internet Sharing due to a lack of ports on the "modern" router. That was easy! Tell me how this would be easy to do on any other device -- good luck!

It’s just as easy to turn on the hotspot feature on Android and iOS. *hides*

 

[WalnutSpiceTheIII]

Today I looked at my Dual 1.8 PowerMac G5 in the basement and thought "Would be fun to mess with it, too bad I'm not carrying that boulder upstairs"

 

[mmphosis]

It’s just as easy to turn on the hotspot feature on Android and iOS. *hides*

You are correct the hotspot feature is somewhat easy. Where do I plug in the ethernet cable on a phone?

 

[Amethyst1]

You are correct the hotspot feature is somewhat easy. Where do I plug in the ethernet cable on a phone?

I wouldn't be totally surprised if an USB-to-Ethernet adapter worked with an Android phone that has USB host functionality. I no longer have one of those to test though.

 

[vorob]

So, since I've got some stuff done with my iBook G4 I would like to share my story. I love laptops and old videogames, few years ago I've started searching for an ultimate retro laptop. Bought quite a number of them to find the perfect one and succeeded in this crusade (it's Toshiba Satellite 2805-402). Since then I'm collecting unique laptops and laptops that will close niches which my ultimate one can't do.

I knew that some games took their origin from Apple computers and decided to get a laptop that can handle these classic games and some general ones, and this device, as you guess, is iBook G4. It can play classic games, general games and doesn't cost tons of money

Right now I'm downloading games like crazy and testing them. Alice, Fallout 2, Unreal, NOLF, Quake III, I'm so happy they all are working here and have native PPC versions!

As for classic stuff I've tried Myst. Despite I bought this game on every platform including Oculus Quest 2, I never played it. So I'm going to play it here, original 1993 version.

By the way, small question, to run these classic games like Myst and System Shock 1, OS 9 environment is launched. It's emulator, right? Not a cod translator like Rosetta 1 and 2? And what's the story behind this, Apple changed OS X dramatically so old stuff stopped working, while OS 7-8-9 was perfectly compatible?

--

But a small portion of sadness also have its place in my story. Surprisingly there is no PPC Half-Life and, less surprisingly, there are no ultimate immersive sims from Looking Glass Studios Thief and Thief II. System Shock 2 is also not here... Though I'm happy to see Deus Ex!

Another thing that bothers me is sluggish performance of Diablo II. I've got three disk and OSX installer, the version is 1.10. First of all the game stutters, you walk and sometimes game freeze for a sec. Also it runs in 640x480 while game supports 800x600. I took a screenshot and its resolution is 640x. No idea what to do. This is a powerful laptop for this game and I'm playing native version...

 

[lepidotós]

Surprisingly there is no PPC Half-Life

There was going to be an official port, but it got canned because the multiplayer wasn't up to snuff. There's work done on a port of the Xash3D engine to I believe Tiger now, though, so there's that for a PPC Half-Life experience.

Which iBook G4 is it? If it's the original 2003 model or the early 2004 one, they can run Mac OS X Jaguar for the best Classic experience -- Panther introduced a new Classic that's less performant.​

 

[wicknix]

Just monkeying around and figured i'd test out macproxy. It should probably be run on a better machine, but i just wanted to test os9 browsers in classic for this test on the powerbook. It requires python3 and pip3, so you'll need macports. After those are installed just enter the extracted macproxy directory and run:

$ pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Then execute it.

$ python3 proxy.py --html-formatter html5 --port 5001

The terminal output will display the IP address and port to enter in to netscape/internet explorer etc's proxy settings.
I tested known https sites that don't work in safari, and they worked with these ancient browsers with this proxy.

Cheers

 

[konfusion]

A happy day for me!
Finally I built a working quad from parts from local craigslists. It took me 3 dead machines and half a year to build a working one and get a nice set of spares to keep it running for years to come.
Dropped in a samsung 850 evo ssd and installed Sorbet on it. Man, this beast is fast, hot and loud! Such an upgrade from my lovely g4 MDD and actually my first fully working g5.

Now I want to get a power cord and install a faster GPU (1950XT maybe) and full 16 gigs of RAM.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Just monkeying around and figured i'd test out macproxy.

What's the CPU overhead? From the screenshot it looks minimal?

 

[chaosbunny]

Played Oni on my 12" PowerBook in Tiger's Classic mode. I love that game for it's brilliant mix of ranged and melee combat and played it a lot back in the day. Coming from Horizon: Zero Dawn at high settings on my Mac Pro I think it's amazing how far we have come in terms of visuals but how little has improved in terms of gameplay.

 

[wicknix]

What's the CPU overhead? From the screenshot it looks minimal?

Very minimal. Shockingly minimal actually.

 

[galgot]

Just monkeying around and figured i'd test out macproxy. It should probably be run on a better machine, but i just wanted to test os9 browsers in classic for this test on the powerbook. It requires python3 and pip3, so you'll need macports. After those are installed just enter the extracted macproxy directory and run:

$ pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Then execute it.

$ python3 proxy.py --html-formatter html5 --port 5001

The terminal output will display the IP address and port to enter in to netscape/internet explorer etc's proxy settings.
I tested known https sites that don't work in safari, and they worked with these ancient browsers with this proxy.

View attachment 2048380

View attachment 2048382
Cheers

Thank you ! will try it.

 

[wicknix]

Yes. You are correct. I typo'd. Fixed my post. Thanks.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Gave my a1047 an SSD. It shouldnt but still surprises me how much snappier an SSD makes these old boxes. I have been enjoying a fresh install of Tiger+InterwebPPC post upgrade.

Simple pleasures in life I suppose.

 

[onre]

https://soundcloud.com/fallujah-taxi-ensemble%2Fsen-aikaa-demo
Recorded and mixed this. Okay, not all of it today, but still.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Recorded and mixed this. Okay, not all of it today, but still.

Nice. What machine did you use?

 

[onre]

Nice. What machine did you use?

Powerbook G4 17" and a TC Electronic Powercore DSP box for running a mastering plugin.

 

[dandeco]

I acquired an early 2005 1.67 GHz 17" PowerBook G4 from my workplace today.

Of course in addition to adding another gigabyte of RAM, I swapped out the original 100 GB hard drive with the 256 GB SSD I had in my 15" PowerBook G4 with dead battery. For now I put said 15" G4 aside largely for spare parts.

 

[dandeco]

This wasn't today, but I did so this weekend...

I recently got a 2003 14" iBook G4, with 933 MHz processor, 40 GB hard drive and "combo drive", and an AirPort Extreme card already included. Initially I decided to give Mac OS X 10.3 Panther a shot, but then I found it couldn't connect the Internet with that OS, regardless if it's the Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection. So I ended up upgrading the system to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

I also maxed out the RAM to 1.12 GB. As we know back then, the "iBooks" had some RAM soldered to the motherboard (like on newer Macs) and a single slot for upgradeability.

Tiger running on the iBook.

But I left the iPhoto 2 software from 2003 that was included in the Panther install intact. It was pretty good for its' time, but the editing features do not hold up to later versions of iPhoto, and are a far cry from the editing features available on the MacOS version of Photos.

Testing out the DV capture in iMovie 3. This was the first Mac OS X-only version, and also introduced the Skywalker Sound effects, DVD chapter mark creation, and more fancy video effects, along with the ability to import existing QuickTime video files. But it doesn't have audio waveforms; that wasn't introduced until iMovie 4.

 

[MarkC426]

Love the convention costume.....😁🥸
Was that SDCC....looking at the date...maybe not, it's July isn't it.

 

[dandeco]

Love the convention costume.....😁🥸
Was that SDCC....looking at the date...maybe not, it's July isn't it.

Nope, it's Fan Expo Boston 2022.

 

[Amethyst1]

Testing out the DV capture in iMovie 3.

You're using a Sony Digital 8 beast, I see. D8 was a somewhat under-appreciated format.