Macintosh 68k nostalgia within browsing reach

Mac OS 8.1, Infinite Mac. Mihai Parparita.

Taking you back to the ’90s in the blink of an eye, developer Mihai Parparita came up with Infinite Mac, a tool that emulates a 68k Mac running virtually with System 7 or Mac OS 8. It isn’t the first browser-based Mac emulation, but this one is particularly efficient and creative in its solutions. You’ll even reach speeds far greater than those available on a vintage Macintosh Quadra. The emulation, for example, shows the start-up screen in just one second and boots up fully in three.

Infinite Mac doesn’t run the later classic Mac OS versions (including versions 8.5, 8.6 and 9) because these worked exclusively on PowerPC Macs and didn’t support the old Motorola 68000 processors. You can launch System 7 here and Mac OS 8 here. Take warning, though: the emulation comes with a boatload of old-school games, which might compromise your productivity.

⇨ YouTube, “Infinite Mac Demo”

⇨ Ars Technica, Andrew Cunningham, “Boot up classic Mac OS in your browser window with the ‘Infinite Mac’ project.”

⇨ Persistent.info, Mihai Parparita, “Infinite Mac: An instant-booting Quadra in your browser.”

2022-04-02