#this old mac

[thisoldmac]

This Old Mac Episode 12

Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my continued quest among the world of Macintosh software and stuff.  Well it seems I have just found an old piece of software which I believe I actually bought at an Apple Store.

I actually believe I purchased it from the Apple Store in Bath when it first opened in 2010, so it's been quite a while since I bought this software.  The Software in question is Mariner Software's StoryMill.

So what is StoryMill ?

Well it's a tool for writing novels.  The idea is you start writing your novel and you can use it to track your characters, scenes and locations.  Basically you write your novel using it and it keeps a database of certain aspects so you can refer back to them later should you ever need to refer to them or write a sequel and need to keep track of events and characters.

I admit I have been an aspiring creative writer for years but never have I ever completed a novel.  I completed a set of 3 short stories but then some how I managed to lose Part 3 so technically I finished a series the final part just got deleted in an overzealous deleting session and I had not backed it up to any media.  Oh well such is life.

I have started about 7 novels but never finished any of them. They all remain in fragmented chapters on various CDs/DVDs.  The idea was buying StoryMill I would finally get a grip and actually get a novel under control and finally finish a project.

Well it's 2020 and I still don't have a novel on shelves.  So how do you think it went...

I like the idea of the software but I will be brutally honest with you.  I think since 2010 I have not written anything creative for years and buying StoryMill was kind of putting the cart in front of the horse.

I bought it hoping that if I had the right tools maybe something inspiring would happen and I may find a reason to carry on or start a new novel and bring it through to its conclusion.

Well oddly enough that didn't happen.  The interface is fine and to be honest I am sure StoryMill does an amazing job.  Sadly I would normally start it, sit staring at it for quite a while, realise I had no ideas and close it down.

After about a week of doing so I would get frustrated and uninstall it.

So I have just reinstalled it on the Mac Pro.  Will I be suddenly inspired to write the novel I have always dreamed of.  I doubt it but its nice to know it still works.

Upon installation it informed me there is an update as the version I am running is version 3.22.  There is version 4.05 however as I am a version 3 user if I want to update I will have to pay.

Considering I can't remember how much I paid for this originally given it was 10 years ago.  I can't see much point in further investment given this is probably only the third time I have installed it within that allotted time.

Strangely enough I can't see why I would.

However now I have it installed I might see if I have any creative novel ideas knocking about in my head.  The fact that I have not written any creative fiction since my 20s and I'm now 46.  I won't hold my breath.

However it has inspired this blog entry so not all bad...

Well that's enough waffle for this episode, so until next time... Take care

[thisoldmac]

This Old Mac Episode 17

Oh no it seems that Steam will be dropping support for OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and OS X 10.12 (Sierra) on 1st September 2023.

So that means that the Mac Pro 1, 1. I have setup will no longer be able to run Steam games. Which is a bit of a shame as it means I can't play games like Terraria and Shadowrun on it which I used to do occasionally.

Sure I can still play it using my Windows account on my laptop so not the end of the world but it means that the Mac Pro loses again.

As much as I still like the machine it really does feel as if there is less and less I can do with it.

Sure I still have Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro X on there but to be honest it is so long since I have done anything remotely video or podcast that it doesn't even get started the best of times.

Is it time to put the Mac Pro 1, 1 out to pasture and see if there is any way I can find something like a 5, 1 for cheap that can run something a bit newer.

If I used the machine more I may consider it but I honestly think the Old Mac may be heading to the cupboard under the stairs.

To be honest it just doesn't get enough usage for me to justify messing with it really. However I am not planning on getting rid of it at this time just kind of in limbo what I do with the machine.

Ok just a short update for now ... so until next time... take care.

[thisoldmac]

This Old Mac Episode 14

Hello folks, welcome to my ongoing escapade in the world of Apple Macintosh computers.

There is now a new addition to my collection in the form of an iBook G4 which is currently running OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger).

So far due to the world of Macintosh Garden, I have Microsoft Office 2008, Quark Xpress Passport 6.5.2, Adobe Creative Suite CS3 and many more programs installed.

I also managed to get it to play Unreal Tournament 2004, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, Spyhunter and You Don’t Know Jack UK Edition (using OS9 Classic mode).

The machine is in reasonable condition. It has plenty of scratches on the back but the main screen and keyboard area is pretty much unscathed.

So what am I going to use this machine for, as of yet its kind of a machine can play around with things and has no particular function set for it. It is not powerful enough to be used for anything serious.

As much as the 1.42 Ghz G4 (7450) processor is a nice setup, it isn’t really powerful enough to be used for anything that requires Internet, as the browser is so out of date even with the latest TenFourfox iterations, that half the major sites don’t work.

It can’t pick up email as the security of the email services is too old and it locks them out. No SSL 2.0 here on OS X 10.4.11 I’m afraid.

Which leaves it as a word processor and old games machine which is not the world’s worst thing it can be.

If anyone has any recommendations of things I could try on the G4. I am more than willing to listen. I did try the Mac OS 9 Lives Unsupported G4 ISO to see if I could get OS9 running without going through Classic mode but the iBook was having none of it and refused to start the disc.

Obviously the temptation is to keep getting stuff from Macintosh Garden but my lack of Mac knowledge means I have no idea what is good, bad or indifferent.

I could install Final Cut Studio version 5. But to be honest I don’t really think the G4 is up to video editing. Also the hard drive is rather small at 60GB. So that really while possible isn’t a viable option.

Speaking of Hard drives this one is hanging in by a thread. The machine works provided you don’t move it in any size, shape or direction off the desk. Whoever had this machine hacked the insides to bits and there is certain elements such as various screws and things missing.

If you screw it in to the mounting then the machine can’t see the drive as the IDE connector pulls too far apart. So it is pushed as far as I can get it to allow the drive to connect but obviously its not secured.

There seems to be a section around the connector where a bar of some form could be fitted to ensure that the IDE Connector doesn’t move but it is missing and I have no idea what that would be called so I can’t find a replacement part.

Now I am sure I could hack a solution so the hard drive doesn’t move but then I risk an issue if I need to replace the drive at any point.

So basically the iBook which now has the nickname of Braeburn (because it’s an Apple) works well provided I never move it from my desk which kind of defeats the laptop notion of the IBook.

However it works well so I really can’t complain.

I did also get a Powerbook G4 1GHz Titanium model but even after several attempts to get it working, it refuses to start so I give up with that machine.

Anyway that’s enough for this episode so until next time…. Take care.

[thisoldmac]

This Old Mac Episode 13

Hello folks and welcome to my ongoing playing with the world of Macintosh computers.  Lately a friend loaned me his G4 Mac Mini (Thanks Richard).

So I have playing briefly with MorphOS.  Now for those who have never heard of or used MorphOS it is a replacement operating system which uses a look and feel to that of Amiga Workbench.

It uses the same structure setup and the desktop uses all of the same concepts of mainly icon based and everything will be familiar if you have ever used a Commodore Amiga.

MorphOS has been going for quite a while and the latest version is 3.14.  This apparently fixes many bugs.

MorphOS will work on certain G4, G5 and a few Amiga PPC boards such as the Sam460ex and the X5000.  However if your system is Nvidia based then it won't work.

So it's a limited based system and equally it costs €49-79 for registration depending on the machine it's installed on.  If you don't have a key it works for 30 minutes then slows to a crawl.

Thankfully Richard loaned me his MorphOS key for this test.

However for all it's limits MorphOS slowly over time has improved.  The last time I used it was version 3.9 and it definitely has had a lot of improvements.

In MorphOS 3.14 they seem to have sorted out the system so it runs slightly faster due to streamlining.

However it's not the base operating system you are probably interested in but the software available for use.

Well if you want to run email I would highly recommend Iris.  While it's not the prettiest looking email client.  It managed to cope with picking up and accessing my Gmail account without a problem.

Also recommended is Wayfarer.  This is a new web browser for MorphOS and definitely seems to be a vast improvement over OWB the previous one.

Because it uses a lot of Amiga code for it's base it will never be the greatest for accessing the internet but I was quite surprised how well it loaded stuff especially compared to something like tenfourfox on Tiger.

Obviously there has been various emulation been worked to MorphOS but obviously due to it running on a G4 the results were variable at best.

However if you get the Chrysalis 3.14 disc you will get several emulators, some game demos and a few applications to look at.Programs such as Morpheus (text editor), TV paint and many more.

I will be honest with you.  As much as I liked the Amiga Workbench when on an Amiga.  I have never been a huge fan of its overall design.

However if you are an Amiga person then you are definitely into a world that will seem familiar to you.

If you have the patience then you can even set up an Amiga setup with EUAE and it can be integrated to a degree to load certain elements direct to the desktop such as Whdload games and certain apps.

There is also many things for MorphOS you can download from various sources such as Warmup or Aminet.  Things are regularly updated so it's recommended you keep it in check.

To be honest the G4 is not really powerful enough to run everything at speed but I am sure if you use it with a G5 or higher then things become much more useful.

Overall it's not a bad idea but personally it's not my thing any more.  If given a choice between Mac OS or MorphOS I am definitely going to go for the Apple setup.

However if you are an Amiga fan and want an operating system that looks and runs in a similar fashion to Workbench then MorphOS is the one for you.

[thisoldmac]

This Old Mac Episode 11

Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to This Old Mac my continued journey into the world of Macintosh. Well since we last were here I have been playing a lot more with some older games from my Steam library on the Mac Pro.  I don't really play games that much but I have odd days where I just sit and play games.  So what have I been playing?

The first game I have been playing is Papers Please, which is a game by Lucas Pope. He is also the man behind the Return of the Obra Dinn.  The basic story to the game is you have won the Arstotskya Labour Lottery and you have been put in charge of the Grestin Border Passport Control.

The game starts off simply but over time you have updating rules.  The idea is to try and prevent fraudulent entry to Arstotskya.  First it's checking areas, and eventually it moves on to checking permits, entries and eventually detaining suspicious people.

An added angle is you have terrorists, wanted criminals, weapons and contraband and secret societies.  You also have to keep paying rent, heat and keeping your family alive.  Adding further complications.

What starts as a five minute sit down, quickly evolves into several hours checking permits, numbers, dates, heights, weights, etc.  It is such a simple concept which quickly ramps up and gets under your skin.  You are determined not to make mistakes but you will.

Simple concept, amazingly executed which will draw you in and there is various ways to end the game.  Highly recommended.

The second game I have been playing is Holy Potatoes! A Weapon shop by Daedalic Entertainment.  Now as the name suggests its a strange game.  You play a blacksmith in a society of Potato people.  You start up making basic weapons and selling them for small amounts.

Over time you can upgrade the forge and various elements of the shop, buying better materials and actually taking on commissions.  The whole game is based in the workshop and you click away to work on certain things.

Once again another game that starts off simply and soon you are looking to make obscure weapons and trying to maximise profit.

Not the most technical game by any chalk, but quickly becomes addictive.

The third game I have been playing is Bit Dungeon II from Kinto Games.  the game is a very Diablo like game where you discover your loved ones grave has been desecrated so you as a spirit must fight your way through the various areas in order to bring peace to her soul.

Basically click left mouse button an awful lot to move and fight the various demons along the way.  A very simple game which is good for a quick game or two.

Once again starts off slow but quickly draws you in and soon you have lost a few hours.

Finally the last game I have been playing is Trine 2 from Frozenbyte.  Obviously the sequel to the original Trine and part of a trilogy.  You are tasked with getting across the various areas, solving puzzles using one of three characters.

Amadeus the wizard, Zoya the thief, and Pontius the knight are your three characters and they all have various skills they can do.  The Wizard can grab objects and summon boxes or planks. The Thief fires Arrows that can grapple to certain areas.  The Knight obvious is the muscle and he is the best in combat but can break walls.

Using the three characters you must make your way across the lands in order to stop a witch.  The game looks absolutely gorgeous.  The graphics are incredibly colourful and the puzzles are very clever.  Just because you can solve a puzzle a certain way, doing it another way may open up certain elements and bonuses so think before jumping to the next part.

You really need to learn to use the three individual characters which you can switch between and make sure they stay alive or you will lose their abilities, which can make certain areas much more difficult to progress.

A very pretty, very clever puzzle game with elements of combat between to stop it from getting boring.

So as you can see I have definitely been having a bit of fun and all the games I have recommended are normally pretty cheap on Steam regularly in sales.  So if you fancy something to amuse yourself, why not have a quick look at these games.

You may enjoy them, maybe you don't.  However feel free to recommend some games to me.  Obviously given the Mac Pro will only run El Capitan it will not run current games.

I think that's enough for this episode so until next time... Take care.

[thisoldmac]

This Old Mac Episode 10

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the ongoing saga of using Macintosh stuff.  Well since the previous episode I have been using the Mac Pro a little bit more due to moving it to a new location in my house.

So what have I been playing with at the moment.  Well as you know I was playing with Minecraft last episode.  I'm still no better of a player but occasionally I like to noodle with the modpacks.

So on the side of El Capitan I have been playing two modpacks recently using the MultiMC launcher. Both are large extensive kitchen sink type modpacks with over 200+ mods in each.

The first pack is All the Mods 5.  Now All the Mods 6 does exist and works with Minecraft 1.16.1 but I am running All the Mods 5 which is running under version 1.15.2 because ATM5 is more complete and also the Yogcast are currently playing with the modpack in their current series so I thought I would have a look to see whether it is worth messing about with.

Minecraft 1.15.2 doesn't require Optifine which is a mod to take advantage of modern day graphics cards, getting them to do some of the heavy lifting.  Minecraft is an amazing thing but because it is based in Java can sometimes take forever to load.

However with Optifine it offloads some of the textures to your video card allowing you to run the modpack with a much better FPS when entering areas of block generation.

ATM5 is an interesting pack but not for people with 8GB or less of RAM as the amount of memory for all the mods is quite big.  It doesn't contain All the Mods for all the name but it does contain most of the main ones used by other packs which have been updated.

When not using ATM5.  I have been playing with the Plunger modpack once again this is a kitchen sink modpack in which you have a large amount of the mods.  So you can have various different machines and setups to play with in your Minecraft world.  I believe it has 253 mods available to it.

Does having all these mods make me a better player... of course it doesn't

On the Snow Leopard side of the Mac Pro I have installed Guitar Pro 5 which is a program that allows you to write music using TAB notation and other methods and even play it back.

Now I admit I am not exactly Mozart when it comes to being musical, but I do own a guitar and I have a few minor compositions.  Nothing to write home about before anyone asks.

However people have asked if I have ever transcribed them.  I did using Tux Guitar but that program has proved to be a little temperamental.  So now using Guitar Pro 5 which is probably a million years out of date.  I may be able to keep it running without the program keeling over.

As I have not really tested the program in anger I can only speculate, but hey a man can dream.

Also I have been playing Active Lancer which is a shoot-em-up with various levels.  Your main ship has two firing modes.  and your primary one can switch between three main weapons of Pulse, Laser and Spread which is handy depending on the number of enemies on screen.  The secondary firing is used to fire missiles at ground targets such as tanks, turrets etc.

The game is rather fun, however each level is rather long so it can get very repetitive very quickly.  However that's most shoot-em-ups in a nutshell.

Each level has 4 stages and a boss at the end and the game itself has 6 levels.  The game is quite fun.  There is an updated version of Active Lancer version 1.0.1 that adds extra music, levels and other stuff but no matter what I tried I could not get that to work so I had to stick with version 1.0

It was missing some Carbon file which it didn't tell you which one it was so I could not just go and download CarbonLib as I have no idea which version it actually wants.

So that is what has been keeping me busy in the world of Macintosh.  So until next time... Take care.

[thisoldmac]

This Old Mac Episode 9

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to my continued journey into the world of Apple Macintosh stuff.  Now for the last few episodes I was using a Hackintosh but sadly the i7 potato has finally given up the ghost.  So it seems my journey playing with stuff on Catalina is at an end.

Admittedly I didn't really learn much but I did get to play with some of the latest Adobe products and the latest versions of FCP X and Logic Pro X.  So now I am back on the old friend the Mac Pro with it's many vegetable based drives.

I admit this machine while slightly slower than the i7 it does have 32GB of DDR2 RAM so I can do a few more things with this one in some respects but because I only have access to El Capitan or Snow Leopard I am limited to the amount of programs available.

One of the things I have been doing is playing a few more games using this machine.  As I have Steam installed lately I have been playing Crashlands.

Crashlands is an adventure-crafting RPG game by Butterscotch Shenanigans.

To Quote the Crashlands wiki...

Play as Flux Dabes in Crashlands, a galactic delivery truck driver whose latest shipment gets interrupted by a megalomaniacal alien named "Hewgodooko" who tears her ship to pieces looking for useful tech. Crashlanded on Woanope, you must fight, tame, craft, quest, bossfight, and adventure your way to domination of all the things so that you and JuiceBox, your trusty sidekick cargo palette, can send a message to the Bureau of Shipping and get those damn packages delivered!

End Quote...

Basically you get crashed on a planet and have to craft items and fight creatures while helping others.  It's your standard adventurer crafting fair but it's turning out to be an interesting game.

Will I spend many hours playing this game probably not but its fun to dive in play for a little while and dive back out.

When I was not playing Crashlands I was playing a Minecraft modpack called Planetary

The modpack is based in Minecraft 1.12.2 and you are stranded on Earth after a major catastrophy has totalled Earth and your job is to start in the Wastelands and make your way slowly towards building a spaceship so you can escape to other planets and hopefully find somewhere less devastated to be your new home.

Well so far I have played about a hour and probably achieved what the average minecraft player will achieve in about five minutes because I am not what what you call a Minecraft player.

However it is quite interesting and I'm sure in time I will get better.

You know maybe it's because I don't play games much I really take much longer to progress in games than I probably should.

As I said in Planetary I am sure what I have done most experienced players would have achieved in minutes but I need to work out how to do things and being that this pack uses alternative recipes its not just your usual jam insome wood as for a start I don't think there is wood in this pack without requiring certain objects.

Basically I am working my way through the quest book and will eventually get started on it with earnest but I am sure I will probably get murdered numerous times before that happens.

So that's what I have been up to since last episode.  Nothing wonderfully exciting.  So until next time ... Take care.

[thisoldmac]

This Old Mac Episode 8

Hello people, welcome to the continuing saga of my foray into the world of Macintosh stuff.  Well I must admit for main time recently I have been working with this i7 Hackintosh.   The Mac Pro I admit I have not really used much as I currently don't have any projects regarding it.

So lately I have been playing with emulation.  I have been working with two emulators in particular.

Both emulators have been primarily Japanese machines.  The first one I have been looking at is OpenMSX.  Obviously the MSX was designed between a conglomerate of companies including Panasonic, JVC, Sony, Hitachi and many more to try and create a central standard of home computers.

All had similar components and Basic provided by Microsoft.  However for all the had a standardised base. It never really caught on.  The concept of a universal base was a good idea but sadly it just didn't gain traction.

The main idea they did try and develop each standard moved a bit further.  There was MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+ and finally MSX Turbo R.  So they really did try and get the machine over.

Anyway enough history and onto the emulator.  OpenMSX can emulate all the above standards, the idea was each update was backwards compatible.  OpenMSX allows you to set which machine you want to emulate.  Obviously you need the system roms but they are widely available.

OpenMSX does come with a bios in the form of CBIOS which is a freeware bios replacement which means you can get most games and apps running.  However I have been using the Goldstar A1GT bios which is a MSX Turbo R machine so I have the maximum compatibility.

Now MSX had various add-ons such as additional drives and sound chips.  OpenMSX can have these added by selecting extensions providing you have the rom.  So the amount of options is pretty high including hard drives and more.

I admit MSX games are not reasonably good but I had an issue when I tried Boulder Dash on the A1GT so I used the CBIOS MSX 1 bios and all was fine. One thing I will say is Boulder Dash on the MSX seems to run slightly faster than every other version I have played but it is possible to play if a bit twitchy.

OpenMSX is very comprehensive for its coverage but can be a bit awkward to get setup. If you have never used an MSX emulator it can be not straightforward to get working.  The CBIOS is default so games can be played but if you want a different machine.  In emulator it's easy to select but if you don't have it set up can be a bit of a headache to set up.

However once setup OpenMSX is a more than capable emulator.

The second emulator I have been using is XM6 Pro 68K which is an emulator of the Sharp X68000.

The Sharp X68000 was only released in Japan.  The initial machine was released in 1987 which had a 10Mhz Motorola 68000 CPU.  It went through a many iterations and the final machine was in 1993 which had a 25 MHz Motorola 68030, with 4MB or RAM and an 80 GB SCSI hard drive.

The Sharp X68000 while popular in Japan never got out its home territory.  Many games were written for the Sharp X68000 series and most are obviously in Japanese but certain games were in English.

Being a Japanese machine a lot of the games were Manga inspired with scantily clad young girls everywhere. However the Sharp X68000 had some very good arcade conversions.  I wish I knew how to read Japanese so I could appreciate the games more as many are visual novel style so they have a lot of text.

However I spent a lot of time playing the excellent Akumajou Dracula aka Castlevania.  The game is amazing and seems to be Rondo of Blood.  The comparison to the PC Engine version is obvious and it has multiple paths just like the PC Engine has but it does have differences.

Now I have discussed the machine and the games.  I now have to admit the XM6 Pro 68K emulator is a Windows version.  I did try to run native Mac versions of Sharp X68000 emulators but I had issues.

The first emulator was called XM6i which I could get to open but i could not get it to play any games.  The entire menu system was in Japanese so I had no idea what I had to do to get it started.  So I couldn't use it.

I then tried to run RetroArch, which is a multi machine emulation system where you have to install various emulation cores.One of the cores is PX6a which apparently runs Sharp X68000 games.  However every time I tried to run the machine regardless of the game I chose, it would just crash out.

So I had to try a different method.  I had to run XM6 using CrossOver from Codeweavers.  Crossover is a version of Wine for the Mac and the Codeweavers do contribute tot he actual Wine project as well as CrossOver.

Initially I could get the emulator running which it does by creating a Windows instance in a container they call a bottle but could not figure once the bottle was created how to run it again.

After a few attempts I discovered you could get a shortcut to the program in the bottle by running the emulator and there is an option to create a launcher for program ran.

So now I have XM6 Pro 68K running with with an icon on my dock.  The Sharp X68000 is a very interesting machine but sadly due to not many of the games having translations many of them I can't get to appreciate.

Well I think that's enough for this episode so until next time... Take care.