Noob question about Mac OS Emulators

[AJ5daddy]

I just downloaded LaunchBox when I was browsing through the platforms I came across Apple Mac OS. I am beyond thrilled about this as my favorite game growing up was Bubble Trouble (fish game) I have wanted to play this for years. Seeing that MESS had a lot of Apple cores I gave it a try found a tutorial about setting apple and Apple II. Sadly these did not work. I have looked up tutorials and attempted to find a OS Emulator and have been unsuccessful. Can anyone point me in the right direction. the file is a Bin and Sit. and I am having no luck.

[sundogak]

MAME doesn't have fully working emulation of most Mac's beyond the initial "classic" series (i.e., Mac Plus, 128K , SE).  Mac's like the IICX are not fully working, although I found some games worked fine.  See this link to see which models are fully emulated: MAME machines > macintosh (arcadeitalia.net).  The commands for Mame are basically the same you just substitute the MAME name (macclassc or maciicx or macse as examples).  

So for example, I have a setup with MAME for a Mac Classic.  MAME can run the following disk formats (and basically same for all Mac series):

macclasc         floppydisk1      (flop1)    .mfi  .dfi  .hfe  .mfm  .td0  .imd  .d77  .d88  .1dd  .cqm  .cqi  .dsk  .ima  .img  .ufi  .360  .ipf  .dc42 .woz  .2mg  
macclasc         floppydisk2      (flop2)    .mfi  .dfi  .hfe  .mfm  .td0  .imd  .d77  .d88  .1dd  .cqm  .cqi  .dsk  .ima  .img  .ufi  .360  .ipf  .dc42 .woz  .2mg  
macclasc         harddisk         (hard)     .chd  .hd   .hdv  .2mg  .hdi  

DSK and IMG files tend to be the file types you see within the MAME zips.  

Within LB you would then have within your MAME emulator setup a command like:

macclasc -flop1

That tells MAME to load whatever disk image you throw at it in Floppy Drive 1.  Floppy drive 2 would be -flop2

So in this example I have a disk called Dark Castle.dsk and that is what is imported into LB as the "ROM" (I would skip the LB MAME importing process for these types).  

 

And this is what MAME will launch (will take some time to load):

 

There are other emulators that run Mac software and those include BasiliskII and Mini vMac.  Basilisk is probably the more advanced and can run Quadra Mac emulation (but also more complicated to setup).  You will have to hunt down an Apple Mac ROM for those two emulators.  The Mini vMac is limited the original "all in one classic Mac" series and the Mac II.  One nice thing with Mini vMac is you can drag and drop a dsk/img file onto the emulator and it will run.  

A full blown Basilisk Quadra setup using a hard drive image with System 7.5.  

Your other file type you mentioned was "SIT" which is a "Stuffit" archive format similar to Zip only it was the defacto format used on Mac's for many years.  You cannot run an SIT format file directly in any emulator, you have to unpack it first.  Which leads to a pain which is Windows has no easy way to unstuff a SIT file, particularly the generation of SIT files from the classic series.  If you do a search you will find some versions that will supposedly work on Windows, but I found they didn't work.  So what you wind up having to do is to setup an emulation in vMac or Basillisk and install Stuffit.  Then unstuff it via the emulator.....all somewhat painful until you get working.  I would initially skip the Stuffit format files and get your setup working with DSK and IMG files first.  I would also stick initially to Mac software that typically had the System/Finder installed as part of the game such as Dark Castle, Lode Runner, Uninvited, etc.  What you will eventually run into is that just like a "real" Mac the game will need to run from via the Mac Desktop vs a direct boot.  So that means you have to have System 6 or 7 disk to launch then swap to the game disk to launch from the Finder.  I had a Mac SE and the single disk Macs were somewhat infamous for disk swapping from the system disk to the application file.  Hunting down a Hard Drive image with System 7 will save a lot of hassle in that case.  

If the format is a BIN format it is most likely a Stuffit auto launch archive (similar to a zip exe auto installer) or a general installer file that would need to be launched from within the emulator running a Mac Desktop session.  More than likely that will require you to use something like HFVExplorer to act as a bridge between Windows and the file if using Mini vMac.  So you won't be able to point the emulator to a BIN file and run it.  I would skip dealing with binary files personally (particularly if a game) and find a dsk/img format file (see note below on Bubble Trouble).  Google for Mac Repository.  

 

EDIT:  I just looked at Bubble Trouble.  That is example of game that has to be launched directly from the Mac Desktop and cannot be "direct booted".   It also is a "newer" game in that it requires a 68030 or newer CPU (i.e., Mac Quadra, LC, IICX). It will not run on a Mac Classic, SE or Mac II for example. So that leaves you with Basilisk only as emulator.  So you would have to setup Basilisk II, ideally using a hard drive image Finder/System and then install Stuffit, then drag the SIT folder into the emulator to unstuffit.  Then you can install it on the emulated Desktop.  Unfortunately, it isn't a simple endeavor.  

Edited September 2, 2021 by sundogak
Edit for comment on Bubble Trouble

[yontala]

Hello,

I try to running dark Castle on Mame with retroarch but I only have a boot screen with a Disk and it never gone.

I put my macclasc.zip in the same folder as the .dsk files. 

What am i doing wrong ? 

Thanks for your response

[sundogak]

7 hours ago, yontala said:

Hello,

I try to running dark Castle on Mame with retroarch but I only have a boot screen with a Disk and it never gone.

I put my macclasc.zip in the same folder as the .dsk files. 

What am i doing wrong ? 

Thanks for your response

First off, you shouldn't move MAME zips around they should be left within the standard MAME folders as you setup in your MAME.INI, particularly when running Software List programs.  You can put the DSK file wherever you want but the files MAME needs to run (like macclasc.zip) should remain in the MAME folder structure.  

Also, I don't recommend using RA for most things MAME related, particuarly when it is non-arcade emulation since just adds another layer of complexity and troubleshooting.  But...if you still want to run with RA this is how you do it. This all assumes you have MAME up and working within RA for arcade (i.e., you have your RetroArch\System\MAME\INI\ path settings all correct).  

Note the "remove quotes" option is checked for this setup process.  

"macclasc -flop1 \"%romfile%\""

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by sundogak

[yontala]

Hi Sundogak, and thanks for all, I tried my best but it doesn't work at all.

Can you give me a screenshot from your mame.ini ? May be there is something wrong inthere for me. 

Edited February 24, 2022 by yontala

[sundogak]

This all assumes you are using the "mame_libretro.dll" core which is at 0.239 and not one of the ancient hacky versions.  Also assumes you have a full MAME arcade set in whatever rom path you put below in your ini file (which will include the needed mac zip files to run but not the DSK software).

Need to make sure your MAME.cfg in your \\Retroarch\config\MAME\ folder has this which allows you to have a specific MAME options file:

game_specific_options = "true"

Then your MAME.OPT file in your \\Retroarch\config\MAME folder has this:

mame_boot_from_cli = "enabled"
mame_boot_to_bios = "disabled"
mame_mame_paths_enable = "enabled"

The key one tends to be that first line and if you are pointing to roms outside the RA path structure you have to have that last entry. 

Then your \Retroarch\system\mame\  folder has copy of at least your hash files, samples, and ini files.  You need to make sure your HASH files are close to the same version of the RA MAME core version you are using (copy from normal MAME install).

The rompath to your MAME roms can point outside your RA folder structure as long as the mame_mame_paths_enable = "enabled" is set

My MAME.ini in the \Retroarch\system\mame\ini\ file has following paths which you would need to update to reflect your actual paths:

#
# CORE SEARCH PATH OPTIONS
#
homepath                  G:\Emulators\Retroarch\system\mame
rompath                   G:\Emulators\MAME\roms;G:\Emulators\MAME\roms_chds;G:\Emulators\MAME\software;G:\Emulators\MAME\software_chds
hashpath                  G:\Emulators\Retroarch\system\mame\hash
samplepath                G:\Emulators\Retroarch\system\mame\samples
artpath                   G:\Emulators\Retroarch\system\mame\artwork
ctrlrpath                 G:\Emulators\Retroarch\system\mame\ctrlr
inipath                   G:\Emulators\Retroarch\system\mame\ini
fontpath                  G:\Emulators\Retroarch\system\mame
cheatpath                 G:\Emulators\Retroarch\system\mame\cheat
crosshairpath             G:\Emulators\Retroarch\system\mame\crosshair
pluginspath               G:\Emulators\Retroarch\system\mame\plugins
languagepath              G:\Emulators\Retroarch\system\mame\language
swpath                    G:\Emulators\MAME\software

#
# CORE OUTPUT DIRECTORY OPTIONS
#
cfg_directory             G:\Emulators\Retroarch\saves\MAME\mame\cfg
nvram_directory           G:\Emulators\Retroarch\saves\MAME\mame\nvram
input_directory           G:\Emulators\Retroarch\saves\MAME\mame\input
state_directory           G:\Emulators\Retroarch\saves\MAME\mame\states
snapshot_directory        G:\Emulators\MAME\snap
diff_directory            G:\Emulators\Retroarch\saves\MAME\mame\diff
comment_directory         G:\Emulators\Retroarch\system\mame\comments

 

Edited February 25, 2022 by sundogak