SoftMac Central

After posting the Complete Idiot's Guide a few weeks ago, I received a big flurry of bribes in the mail the past few weeks. T-shirts, pre-paid Starbucks cards and such. Many of you wisely now used pre-paid FedEx envelopes to easily get things done.

As such, I've run out of three key Mac OS releases: Mac OS 7.5 packages with CD/floppy are now gone, as are the loose Mac OS 8.0 setup CDs, as is the one loose CD of Mac OS 9. No more!

What I have left now are about 30 unopened packages of Mac OS 8.1 (which contains a setup CD-ROM and printed manual) and a handful of loose Mac OS 8.0 boot floppies.

What I'll do for the remaining inventory now is for pre-paid Starbucks orders of $30 or more I will bundle the unopened Mac OS 8.1 CD with the loose Mac OS 8.0 boot floppy as well as a ClarisWorks 4.0 CD-ROM, a Macintosh shareware CD-ROM, and a SoftMac CD-ROM.

That's 5 CDs and a Mac boot floppy for a prepaid Starbucks card of $30 and your self-addressed stamped (or pre-paid) return shipping envelope. Get it while it lasts.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!! Hi, my name is Darek, and I too am an idiot!

Motorhead - the 30 year old band from England that won a Grammy award for covering a Metallica song -  is playing Seattle tonight and I don't have a ticket! I didn't think they'd sell out the show. i didn't think. I was going to buy a ticket at the door. I didn't know... I didn't know... Bwaaaaaaah.

Fortunately, Motorhead moves on up to Canada later this week to complete their 30th anniversary tour and will be hitting my home town of Toronto on April 25th at a cool waterfront club called The Docks the day after I'm done attending the Star Wars Episode III Gencon convention. So after Indianapolis, I'll be off to Toronto for the Motorhead show, ticket in hand.

This is your chance, if you live in the Toronto area or are planning to come to Toronto for the Motorhead concert, to bribe me in person with your gift of Metallica concert shirt, Motorhead concert shirt, or just a good shot of whiskey.

I'll bring an ample supply of Mac OS 8.1 and Mac OS 9 CDs up with me to Toronto, but please do email me in advance to make sure a disc is reserved for you!

I've still been getting a lot of requests about exactly how to get one of the free Mac OS 8.1 packages. I received an email tonight from a "Chris A." who was so distraught at not being able to find out address or know what to send, it just brought me to tears.

So I've decided to put together this idiot's guide, complete with visual aids. Follow along now.

Step 1: go to the U.S. Post Office and pick up two Priority Mail envelopes - one the normal cardboard version that you'll send everything to me, and the other one of those larger Vytek versions made from that indestructible paper.

Step 2: find an old Metallica T-shirt or similar T-shirt (Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Motorhead may be substibuted) or get a $20 prepaid Starbucks card.

Step 3: write me a short letter that includes your name and address, the gift that you are offering me, and specify which Mac OS you desire: Mac OS 7.5 CD-ROM and boot floppy, Mac OS 8.0 CD-ROM and boot floppy, or Mac OS 8.1 CD-ROM (no boot floppy).

Step 4: assemble all four items and double check that you're written your return mailing address on the larger envelope and pre-stamped it before stuffing everything into the cardboard Priority Mail envelope.

Step 5: write my mailing address on the cardboard Priority Mail envelope:

Darek Mihocka
c/o Emulators
14150 N.E. 20th Street, PMB 302
Bellevue, WA 98007
U.S.A

Step 6: mail it and wait. Upon receiving your fine gift, I will take a fresh un-opened original package of Mac OS and place it in your return envelope and mail it back to you.

Thanks to Jeff S. from Chicago for providing the picture perfect items that I used for the visuals. And thanks to Chris A. for being so hopeless that it inspired me to write this tutorial.

We frequently get email from people confused about Mac emulation asking to go the other way around: running Windows on Mac OS. PC-on-Mac is completely opposite of what our emulation products - SoftMac XP, Gemulator 2000, and Fusion PC 3.0 - and other Mac-on-PC emulation products such as vMac, Basilisk II, Execution, Sheepshaver, and PearPC do.

To run old DOS games, Windows programs, OS/2, and other PC software on your real Macintosh computer, what you need is this product: Virtual PC for Mac. There is also an older program called Soft Windows which I believe is no longer available except at used software dealers.

But to summarize:

To run PC programs on your real Macintosh,you need Virtual PC or Soft Windows.

To run Macintosh programs on your real PC, you need SoftMac XP, Gemulator 2000, vMac, Fusion PC, Basilisk II, PearPC, or other such emulators listed on the Emulators Downloads page.

We've been giving away Mac OS 7.5 and Mac OS 8.0/8.1 CDs for about 6 months now. People STILL email and ask, "is it for real?"

Sheesh, c'mon folks, it's for real. Take it from the latest thank you email we just received:

Ryan wouldn't lie, would he? For details on how to receive your own original unopened shrink wrapped, or used open whichever you prefer, Mac OS floppy and/or CD-ROM, go to our main web site http://www.emulators.com and read about it.

Welcome to the newly formed SoftMac Central blog from emulators.com. I'll update this blog with information on running the SoftMac, Gemulator, Xformer, Fusion PC, vMac, and other free emulators related to running classic Apple Macintosh, Atari 8-bit, and Atari ST software on your PC.

Feel free to email me with your questions at darekm@emulators.com and the answers may appear here in future postings.

Be sure to also check out our main web site: http://www.emulators.com.

- Darek