Basilisk II Setup Guide

From the Macscene Wiki

If you want to run programs written for the Classic Mac OS on an Intel Mac or on a PowerPC Mac running Mac OS 10.5, you might want to try Basilisk II. Basilisk II is a 68k Macintosh emulator, meaning it will run programs made for 68k Macs (PowerPC-only applications will not run on Basilisk II). Basilisk II can run Mac OS versions up to Mac OS 8.1, however Mac OS 7.5.5 is the latest version that is free to download. This tutorial will show you setup Basilisk II to run Mac OS 7.5.3 (which you can freely update to 7.5.5) using Basilisk II.

Here's what you’ll need to get started:

1) The Basilisk II Application – This guide explains how to set up Nigel Pearson's Basilisk II port. Unfortunately, his Universal Binary version crashes when trying to emulate a 68040 Mac. So you'll need to use the PowerPC version, available from here. It will run on Intel Macs, but may be slow. Alternatively, Gwenole Beauchesne has released his own Intel Mac version of Basilisk II which can emulate a 68040 and is available here. Setup is similar to the Nigel Pearson version, although the user interfaces are different.
2) A Macintosh ROM Image – This guide uses a Mac Quadra ROM. If you own a Mac Quadra, you can copy the ROM from your computer if you follow the instructions here. Otherwise, a Mac Quadra ROM can be downloaded from here.
3) A Macintosh Boot Disk – You can download one from here. Unzip the archive to get a file named "Network Access.image".
4) Mac OS 7.5.3 – Download all 19 parts from here.

Once you have everything, open Basilisk II and choose the "Preferences" menu item under the Basilisk II menu. Click the Disk Volumes tab and you’ll be at the screen shown below.

Click the button labeled “Create…” Select a size, name, and location to save your disk image and then press “Create” to make a disk image. A disk image is a virtual hard drive that will be used to store your data. Mac OS 7.5.3 doesn’t take up much disk space, but you’ll want room for lots of cool old Mac games, right? I made my disk image 100 MB and named it “machd.img”. You will want to give the disk image the file extension “.img”, so that you will be able to mount the disk image directly in Mac OS X simply by double-clicking it. Whenever I refer to this disk image later in this guide, I'll refer to it as "machd.img".

Now, click the “Add…” button back in the Disk Volumes pane of the Preferences window, and choose the "Network Access.image" disk image. Your Disk Volumes window should now look something like this:

Next, click the “Emulation” tab. Click the button labeled “Browse…” and choose your Macintosh ROM file. We're using a Mac Quadra ROM, so set the CPU type to 68040. I also increased the RAM to 64MB.

Click “Save” and close the Preferences window. Now click “Run”. Basilisk II will beginning running, and will boot off the "Network Access.image" disk image. After the Mac OS begins to load, you'll be presented with a screen like the one below:

Choose a name for your drive (such as MacHD) and click "Initialize". Click "Continue" when you see the message saying that initializing will erase all information on the disk. Now the "machd.img" disk image will be readable not only in Basilisk II, but also under Mac OS X as well. This is good because we need to copy the Mac OS 7.5.3 install files onto that disk.

Next, choose "Shut Down" from the "Special" menu, which will quit Basilisk II. Now, back in Mac OS X, double-click the "machd.img" disk image to load it in the Finder. Copy all 19 files named "System 7.5.3 xof19" to your mounted disk image. It should like this when you're done:

Now, eject "MacHD" just like you would eject a CD or DVD. (You always want to make sure you eject a disk image before running Basilisk II so that the disk image won't become damaged.) Open and run Basilisk II again. Open the file named "System 7.5.3 01of19.smi" on MacHD.

After you open the file, click "Agree" at the screen that appears. After the "Verifying" screen, a disk image named "Sys7.5 V7.5.3 CD Inst" will mount on the Basilisk II desktop. Open the file named "Installer" on that disk image.

Click "Continue" at the first screen that appears. Make sure the Destination Disk is your hard drive (again, mine was "MacHD.img") and not "Sys7.5 V7.5.3 CD Inst" or "Network Access". Then click "Install". After the install finishes, click "Quit" and shut down the emulated Macintosh.

Now, open Basilisk II one more time, and go back to the "Disk Volumes" part of the Basilisk II preferences. Select "Network Access.image" and press “Remove” because we don’t need it anymore. Then, press "Save" and close the Basilisk II preferences window.

OK, we’re done! Press "Run" and enjoy your new (old) Mac OS! You can delete the 19 Mac OS 7.5.3 install files because we're done with them. Now that you’re familiar with Basilisk II, you should be able to figure out how to run different Mac OS versions (such as Mac OS 8), and install your own software. I also recommend that you make a backup of "MacHD.img", because sometimes Basilisk II can crash and render "MacHD.img" unreadable. If you need more help running Basilisk II, feel free to ask at the Emuscene forums.