Classic Mac OS Ported to Nintendo Wii Hardware, Reaching Desktop for First Time

Classic Mac OS on Nintendo Hardware

A developer, Rairii, has achieved a significant milestone by successfully porting classic Mac OS to Nintendo Wii hardware, with the system reaching the desktop. This effort represents a rare accomplishment, as it is likely the first time since the CHRP clone era that classic Mac OS has been brought up to the desktop on a new system outside of Apple.

Motivation and Background

The project stemmed from previous work porting Windows NT to PowerPC systems, including Mac laptops. This exposure led to an interest in classic Mac OS. The developer noted the historical 'jank' and internal naming conventions, such as the m68k part of TBXI being called 'SuperMario', as points of interest.

Technical Challenges and Solutions

Initial boot required porting OpenBIOS, as 'New World' classic Mac OS uses a bootloader called 'Trampoline' that runs on an Open Firmware environment. The developer utilized some drivers from an existing OpenBIOS port for Mac OS X on Wii by Goldfish64, while adapting it for broader compatibility with GameCube. Display driver development was facilitated by reusing existing code, and the NT ARC firmware loader was modified to load a big endian ELF. Disk drivers for the EXI bus were also ported for initial system bringup.

Project Scope and Future

The project specifically targets PowerPC systems with ArtX chipsets, including the Nintendo GameCube (Flipper), Wii (Vegas/Bollywood), and eventually the Wii U (Latte). While not yet ready for public release, the achievement demonstrates the feasibility of running classic Mac OS on these platforms.