Turning an iPad Pro into the Ultimate Classic Macintosh

Summary

I’ve started work on the next in my 1-bit Woodblocks series: “Tekagami” (Ito Shinsui’s “Hand Mirror”). So it’s a good time to talk about how I turned an iPad Pro into the ultimate Classic Macintosh. Emulators Both Macintosh emulators available on iOS we’re ported by @maczydeco who has done an amazing job making them feel truly at home on iOS. Many thanks! They need to be built from source using Xcode but it’s a pretty straight forward process. Mini vMac Supports System 1.1 to 7.5.5 Limited RAM and CPU emulation File Sharing via bespoke method No dynamic screen resolution changing Odd interface using Control key shortcuts Source code BasiliskII Supports System 7.0 to 8.1 Advanced RAM and CPU emulation File Sharing via mapped folder Dynamic screen resolutions through Monitors control panel, or automation Native iOS interface for settings panel, negating all the issues with the desktop GUI We have a winner! Source code (use the ios branch) File Sharing This works a treat in both emulators, but the experience is better in BasiliskII. With Mini vMac you need to run a special file import app, and then whilst it’s open use iOS Share Sheet to send a file to Mini vMac. These extra steps are just enough friction to make the emulator annoying to use. With BasiliskII things are easier as it has a drive mapped to the app’s file sharing folder. You can use the Share Sheet in the same way as Mini vMac, but you can also simply copy/move a file to the BasiliskII folder and it will be accessible inside the emulator. The only gotcha with this approach is that you’re best moving the file to the emulated system’s main disk drive otherwise you’ll encounter various oddities with certain apps that don’t know how to cope with files located on this type of drive. Screen Resolutions The original Macintosh had a native screen resolution of 512×342. Conceptually, the iPad has a logical screen resolution of 1024×768, which when running in pixel doubled mode equates to 512×384. A pretty good matc...