Mac OS 8.1 on the iPhone X

Mac OS 8.1 on the iPhone X. © Hacking Jules.

Yes, we totally agree, this type of geeky thing really serves no purpose, but it’s fascinating nevertheless. A French hacker came up with the idea of running Mac OS 8.1, which dates from 1998, on the iPhone X, with an emulation of a Quadra 900, a Mac from 1991 with a 68040 Motorola processor. The neatest thing is that it seems to work really well and does so smoothly (starting up and loading system extensions is definitely faster than on computers from that era, for those who remember those days). The main problem is definitely how to adapt an interface developed for a keyboard and mouse, to a small touch-screen. The video shows that you can run Warcraft II (1996) without any issues. This exercise in style really demonstrates the phenomenal power that today’s phones have achieved. Jules, the hacker, replicated the experiment on an iPad Air 2, with even better results - you can actually play SimCity 2000 (launched in 1993). This magician’s secret is Basilisk II, a free software for emulating computers with a 680×0 processor. For those who are into this kind of stuff, Jules is a specialist in this type of operations: on his YouTube channel, you can also find demonstrations of Windows XP on the iPhone 7 and on Android, Super NES on Android Wear, Macintosh Plus on the iPad Air 2, and so on.

⇨ Cult of Mac, “See an iPhone X run Mac OS 8, Warcraft II and SimCity 2000.”