How to Emulate OS 9 in SheepShaver

Download SheepShaver

SheepShaver is a free emulator available from emaculation.com. To use it without infringing Apple’s copyright, you’ll also need to own a PowerPC Mac, because the emulator requires a copy of the system ROM to work.

The system ROM

There are utilities that will copy the ROM file from your old Mac, but it’s much easier (and necessary if that Mac no longer works) to get a working copy from

bit.ly/2cqx5W2. Save it as “Mac OS ROM” in the SheepShaver folder.

Start up the emulator

With the ROM file in SheepShaver’s folder, open the app. The blinking ? shows the ROM is recognized by the emulator. If you no longer have the OS 9 install discs for your Mac, you can download a disk image file from redundantrobot.com.

Name your disks

Click Browse to locate the ROM file from earlier. Click Create and name the virtual hard disk “MacOS9HD.” Use the other Browse button to point to a folder outside SheepShaver’s so you can transfer files between OS 9 and macOS.

Tweak other settings

Choose a memory (RAM) size for your virtual machine (you can be generous), then click the Miscellaneous tab, turn on “Use Raw Keycodes” and browse to the keycode file in the SheepShaver folder. Enter slirp in the Ethernet Interface box.

Install OS 9

In macOS, select the OS 9 image file, press ç+I and lock the file. SheepShaver will see it as a CD. In SheepShaver, click Add, select the file, then press ≈+oe to restart the emulator. In OS 9, initialize the disk as Mac OS Extended and wait for it to finish.