Basilisk II For PSP: MAC OS Emulator

by Mike Bendel on July 21, 2008 @ 5:26 pm


Homebrew developer Chilly Willy has released the first official build of his PSP port of Basilisk II, a 68k Macintosh emulator supporting OS 7.01 through 8.1. Based on the Basilisk II JIT project, Chilly’s PSP port features use of UAE CPU emulation, along with new SoftFloat FPU emulation for increased compatibility.

In addition to 44kHz audio support, this version of Basilisk for PSP supports on-the-fly change of desktop colors and resolution, as well as support for mounting the PSP’s memory stick as a media device. Other features include support for the extra RAM on slim units and the ability to use TV-out.

For the full-lowdown, hit the jump.

* Emulates a Mac II series machine running OS 7.0.1 through 8.1, depending on the ROM used.
* Uses UAE CPU emulation, with new SoftFloat FPU emulation for better compatibility.
* The PSP memstick can be mounted on the Mac desktop (requires File Manager 1.2).
* Supports on-the-fly change of colors and resolution (requires Display Manager).
* Has stereo, 16-bit, 44kHz audio (requires Sound Manager 3.0).
* Supports emulated floppy and CDROM with removable media (no CD audio yet).
* Supports up to four hardfiles for use as fixed drives.
* UDP tunnel for AppleTalk networking across WIFI (no general networking yet).
* Emulates a Mac Extended ADB keyboard and mouse. Buttons can be remapped on-the-fly, and popular IR keyboards are supported on the Phat PSP.
* Supports extra memory and TV out on the Slim PSP.

As always, for usage and installation instructions, make sure to refer to the included readme file. Also note that you must have a copy of Apple’s MAC OS in order to legally use Basilisk II.

Download Basilisk II for PSP / Basilisk II for PSP with in-depth guide

Release Thread

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Read moreBasilisk II PSP v1.1.1Recovery LE For 3.71 M33 v2ExultPSP v2.2 – Ultima VII Emulator, Now PSP Slim CompatiblePSPKVM v0.3.0PSPHUGO v1.0.3

Comments
Ranelar says:

so what are the practical uses for this other than showing off to friends?

Chilly Willy says:

Mostly playing certain older games that never made it elsewhere, like Spectre or Arashi. I've also got a MultiMedia Encyclopedia for the Mac that runs on it. I know of a couple planetarium type programs you could run for when you were out at a star-party and didn't want to bring a laptop.

The applications are as varied as your imagination. :)

XsavioR says:

Nice work man! would it be ok to ask for the star app?

Acerthief says:

clap clap clap clap.

I was just about to go onto ps2dev.org to check it out it's progress

Nice Job!

Chilly Willy says:

Of course it's okay to ask! Now whether you get anything is another issue altogether. :biggrin:

I don't remember where I put that CD... I can't find my Myst CD either. :sad:

mackman6151 says:

does anybody know where i can find OS img files?

Chilly Willy says:

Hate to tell people to go there, but QJ has a big arc with a rom and starter hardfile from more than a year back when ChaosKnight released his attempt at B2 for the PSP. It's still up.

http://dl.qj.net/Basilisk-II-Updated-PSP-Homebrew-Applications/pg/12/fid/13180/catid/151

dennis96411 says:

Aren't you J.F. on the ps2dev forum?

Chilly Willy says:

That's my curmudgeon-old-programmer personality, yes. :laugh:

Cloudy says:

How the hell I never knew that, I've no idea.

Nice job on the release :) Will have to try it sometime.

ElShotte says:

Hey Chilly Willy, good job on porting the emu man! I'm about to install Mac OS 8 on this thing. I have a question though, in the Read Me (Thanks alot BTW) you mentioned that on PSP Slim you can have up to 40 Mb of RAM for the emu, whilst I can only do 13 Mb max, thought this was decided by the current ROM, but the max for my is 36 Mb. Any clue man?

Chilly Willy says:

The amount of memory is determined by two things: Phat or Slim, and what plugins you're running. On my Slim with just a screenshot plugin, I can get 41 MB. My brother's Phat with no plugins gets 13 MB. If you use more/larger plugins, you'll get less memory for the emu.

ElShotte says:

No plugins whatsoever, stock 3.71 FIRMWARE. I just tried an 8.6 ISO twice, both times PSP turns off on "Smiley Mac" (booting), will try that preinstalled OS 7 you posted earlier.

EDIT: Ok, Im in OS 7, rather speedy so far. Can't access the MS probably due to fileformat...

Chilly Willy says:

Anything beyond 8.1 is PPC only. 8.6 will NEVER work on B2. :wink:

Reading the memstick takes FileManager 1.2 or better, which started with 7.5.3 or something in that area.

Stock 3.71 won't run anything, much less B2. You need custom firmware. :laugh::biggrin:

Even then, 3.71 M33 is not a recommended version of the cfw. Update. 3.71 changed all the NIDs, but doesn't have the NID Resolver like 3.80 M33 or newer. Either run older cfw, or newer. Avoid 3.71.

ElShotte says:

Hmm... yeah I got 3.71 CFW... but stock. So I can run B2. Oh, and activating VM will cause it to crash on boot. Now onto updating my firmware...

EDIT: Just updated to 3.93, yeah I can set the memory to 41 Mb now. What are the chances of getting PPC support?

Chilly Willy says:

There's no MMU in the emulation, so no VM.

ElShotte says:

PPC support?

Reason Im attempting this is because I want to play RTS on my PSP. Warcraft 2 and StarCraft mainly. They both require a PPC processor. I am sure the game would run fine anyway, but still...

Chilly Willy says:

Basilisk II is the 68K emu. No PPC at all. There is a 68K version of WC2. I've got that (it's actually a dual-format CD - works for both PC and Mac 68K). Not sure if there was a 68K version of StarCraft.

While it would be possible to port the PPC emu to the PSP, it would be dog slow, even with JIT. I don't have any intentions of working on that any time soon.

ekmuas says:

eww a mac

fenaralan says:

how i can use this for my psp slim plzz someone tell mee

Chilly Willy says:

There's a 3 MB PDF... did you bother to even look at it?? :glare:

ElShotte says:

Yeah make sure you download the version with the readme.

drmalvadeza says:

hey guys, I tryed the app, and it worked perfectly, however my IR keyboard isnt working anywhere (both with and without the OSK toggled). I've got a Palm Universal Keyboard. Am I doing something wrong or my keyboard is simply not supported?

Chilly Willy says:

What firmware? I tried zx81's trick of loading IRDA.prx for 3.80+, but couldn't find anyone to test it. Palm works fine on 3.52OE.

drmalvadeza says:

I'm on 3.90 m33-2. Gonna text the IRDA.prx and give u feedback in a second, thank u for replying =]

UPDATE:

Downloaded it on PSPupdates, instaled, rebooted the system and anabled it on PLUGINS section at the recovery mode. Booted mac OS 8.1 opened SIMPLETEST and tryed to write using the keyboard, then tryed with the OSK on the screen, none worked for me.

Any ideas? Or i need to go back to 3.52?

Chilly Willy says:

I forgot... you DO have all the irkeyb junk in seplugins, right?

Here's the files... already set for palm in fact as that was the last thing I tested on my brother's PSP.

drmalvadeza says:

OMG it freaking works!! muahahahaha

Just tested it on 3.71 m33 (was already going to return to 3.52).

Thanks a lot man, very good app, it's gonna be very useful to me... Even the shortcuts work... like "ctrl"+z

=]

ElShotte says:

Yeah, since StarCraft and WC2 are a no go, does anyone know of a translator app? I'm looking for Polish to English (and vice versa), anyone know of anything? This way I can put it to good use.

EDIT: Or better yet, some sort of map software that will give me turn by turn driving directions on the screen, not that GPS sh*t cause I honestly don't see the point in goin' that far.

fenaralan says:

yea i put the folder of basilisk on my psp slim 4.01 M33 in the folder of GAME when i run basilisk on my psp i press the O and he said basilisk error cannot open the rom file. i need help plz someone tell me why i can run the basilisk whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

ElShotte says:

Yeah, had to figure out this part as well. On page 7 in the manual, the part explaining about the "The Memory/Misc sub-menu", he simply wrote that:

"The ROM File item shows which file has been selected to use with the emulation. When you press the

CROSS button while this item is high-lighted, you are taken to the file requester. You will be presented

with a list of all the files in the roms directory. Use the d-pad to move between the files (assuming you

have more than one). Press CROSS to select a file, or CIRCLE to cancel without selecting a file."

What he didn't mention is that you have to get the ROM file yourself, and plase it in the "roms" directory within the B2 folder on your PSP. You can download the ROM file on this page. Make sure you grab the MAC 1MB rom under the Apple section and set the Mac Model ID to Quadra 900 and CPU Type to 68040. When you do, you should be able to boot up fine.

Chilly Willy says:

It's not my place to tell how or where to get ROMs, OS install disks/CDs, or 68K applications. Either the person already has them, or can look the info up in the many forums around on Mac emulation, or even just google it. This is particularly true since B2 isn't my emulator - I just made a port to the PSP. Anything specific about Mac emulation is none of my concern here. I leave it to folks like yourself to point out things like where to get ROMs and such. :wink:

ElShotte says:

Yeah but you couldve mentioned that we need to find our own. ;)

Chilly Willy says:

Updated to 1.1.1. See first post in thread.

fenaralan says:

thans ElShotte and chilly willy it works thx

fenaralan says:

when i press O in the mac os program in my psp slim 4.01 M33 said basilisk II error basilisk II error: Cannot open the ROM file. i need the rom file plz help me chilli willi i need your helpp

fenaralan says:

i need the quadra 900 rom

Chilly Willy says:

While I hate to refer people over to QJ, they did put together an arc to help people when ChaosKnight put out an older port of B2.

http://dl.qj.net/Basilisk-II-Updated-PSP-Homebrew-Applications/pg/12/fid/13180/catid/151

fenaralan says:

for wat is that

Chilly Willy says:

"Stuff" for any Mac emulator.

fenaralan says:

i need the rom fileeeeeeeeeeeeeeee someone help me

Chilly Willy says:

Did you even bother to check that download from QJ? :glare: :rolleyes:

drmalvadeza says:

Hey Chilly, its me again... Now i have a new problem, actually 2.

First, I managed to read from MS0 inside the emulator, so I can copy whatever I want from there and paste it to the emulated hard drive. However I always get an error when trying to write anything to the MS0 while inside the emulator.

Also, I was trying to get a HTML or text editor to work on it, but I'm having some serious problens trying to decompress their installers, which I'm getting from my PC. I've read that there is some kind of incompatibility between Mac's and PC's archives. Tried some tutorials but no results till now. Would u have any clues about it?

Thanks in advance : )

Chilly Willy says:

As mentioned before several times, that's a bug in the emulator, not the port. It does that on many platforms, not just the PSP. I may or may not look into that more later.

Make sure you set the StuffIt Expander preferences to expand to the hardfile, not the source. It might be easier to copy the file to the hardfile before expanding it. B2 isn't terribly stable on things like decompression. I've found that it's best not to try to expand more than one thing without quitting and restarting.

As far as the format goes, when on a PC, it should be handled like a binary file. You should probably read more from a Basilisk forum on that for more details. That's nothing specific to the PC... people have been struggling with that weird Apple file format since the Macs came out.

watchsmart says:

Really neat to see Basilisk II on a PSP.

For what it's worth I wrote a guide to setting up a MacOS 7.5.5 disk image on my site. Setting up this way might be an easier way to include Quicktime, which I guess that the starter image doesn't include. Using the install disks in the guide gives you access to a ton of control panels and extensions that aren't in the starter image.

Chilly Willy says:

Very nice tutorial for installing 7.5.3. That may help some people who don't want/have OS 8.

henshinzhu says:

hello,

Firstly, i want to thank and congratulate those who made this possible.his is indeed something i must have on my psp.This said, i got only 1 minor problem i wanted to fix and i though, well, perhaps, someone here might know since i got it here in the first place.

Well here it is, : when i press the buttons square circle triangle and the arrows when i play a game like , : prince of persia i keep hearing some kind of system noise or something.

I dunno how to describe them but they are weird little silly sounds i suppose.This said, i wanted to know if it was possible to disable those sounds that occurs each time i press one of them buttons that i mentioned earlier.

Thank you so much to whoever is in the possibility to answer to my post.

Cordially,

Micheal

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