Some of us can’t even imagine a digital world before 2010, while others have been around for long enough to remember the thrills of a BBS.
And most of us don’t even realize how much computers have evolved in the last 30 years. For example, Mac OS 8.1 could be written today entirely in JavaScript and run as an app on Linux, macOS and Windows.
FSM EXCLUSIVE DEAL That’s exactly what Felix Riesenberg did. He turned an entire 1991 Macintosh Quadra running Mac OS 8.1 into a single Electron app that can run cross-platform.
NOTE: Mac OS 8 was released in 1997.
The app emulates a Macintosh Quadra 900 with the Motorola CPU Apple used before its transition to IBM’s PowerPC chips.
The best part, it really is fully functional and it comes preloaded with a bunch of games and apps like Duke Nukem 3D, Civilization II, Dungeons & Dragons, Namely, Oregon Trail, Alley 19 Bowling, Damage Incorporated, Photoshop 3, Premiere 4, Illustrator 5.5, StuffIt Expander, and Apple’s Web Page Construction Kit.
The only thing that’s not working, although fully understandable, is web browsing. Felix included Internet Explorer and Netscape into the app but the programs are so old they are incapable of resolving anything.
Furthermore, as the app is basically a virtual machine, you can even transfer files to and from the machine.
Check out the official Github project to learn more and download Mac OS 8.
You can download standalone or installers for macOS and Windows. Linux users can download .deb and .rpm packages. Would’ve been great if macintosh.js came as an .AppImage.