So... the retro computing bug just got you, and you had to get that iBook; maybe it was an iMac G3, a sleek PowerBook G4 12" or PowerMac G5? In any case, this is a guide for you to make the most out of your new-but-old computer.

PowerMac G5 in Southern Oregon

Upgrades!... Okay, now what?

There are too many models and upgrades to cover, and finding information on the upgrades is actually the easy part; between LowEndMac, EveryMac, MacRumors Forums, archived XLR8yourMac articles and posts, ActionRetro, Mac1984, This Does Not Compute, and so on. Therefore, I'm going to pass on this or hardware recommendations. CPU upgrades for the old computers are non-existent, RAM can be maxed out, HDDs can be replaced with SSDs and video cards can be swapped. There's a joy to modular computing, and for some the hunt for rare CPU upgrades or flashing video cards is part of the joy. Even the less-modular Macs of the day are much more hackable than today's computers.

Therefore, this is a map of recommended software and hopefully an inspiration board to make use of your old hardware. PowerPC computers are too dated and power sipping to have practical value, seeing as a Raspberry Pi has more raw processing power than almost anything in the PowerPC sphere.

Modern Software

Believe it or not, there are still people developing retro software for old PowerPC Macs, including Discord, web browsers, and even Chat GPT, as who doesn't want to be gaslit even in the world of retro computing? The video contains a deeper breakdown of the software listed below.


  • Discord Lite - A lightweight Discord client for PowerPC Macs
  • Legacy AI - A modern AI for PowerPC Macs
  • PPCAppStore - A app store for PowerPC Macs
  • Newsstand - A news reader for PowerPC Macs, OS 9 only
  • TigerBrew - A package manager for PowerPC Macs
  • TenFourFox - A semi-modern web browser for PowerPC Macs
  • InterWebPPC - A fork of TenFourFox
  • AquaFox - fork of TenFourFox, incorporating tweaks from InterWebPPC and TenFourFoxPEP

There's always Linux...

Adelie Linux is a Linux distribution that supports PowerPC Macs and still being developed. Popular YouTubers like Action Retro have made videos demoing Adelie on PowerPC Macs, but you bought a Mac to be a Mac.

Okay.... but really, what now? Project ideas!

Gaming

Gaming is an obvious first stop for any retro computer enthusiast to experience games as they were. Apple used to be able to pull in major releases sans the time when Valve canceled the Half-Life port.

I've compiled a list of 100+ Games worth checking out on your PowerPC Mac. This list is not exhaustive, but it's a good starting point. I've tried to include a mix of genres and games. I've also tried to include games that are still fun to play today. It's a topic within itself.

Check out The best games for late PowerPC G4/G5 Macs - OS 9 and OS X (100+ games)

Music creation

This is one I'm particularly fond of, as there's a lot of quality retro software be it Logic, Ableton or Cubase for a DAW and oddball apps like Reason, plus a lot of plugins to boot. If you're a digital musician, you're able to make studio quality music on your Mac on the extreme cheap. USB midi is supported in OS X out of the box and it doesn't take a maxed out PowerMac G5 to be able to create quality tunes.

OS X supports low latency USB midi out of the box, and it's a compelling way to get into digital audio as you can score hardware cheaply, and the limitations can be a blessing. There are musicians (although dwindling) still using PowerPC Macs for audio, building multitrack Protools setups on the cheap. Unlike, say, video, where technology becomes a huge limiter, audio is much freer of restrictions (given you embrace freeze tracks, and RAM caps).

Reason 4.0 is intuitive, and also a great learning tool for understanding routing and wiring and for people who are new to digital audio and MIDI, it is a great "my first audio app" if you're looking to make music.

If you've never really messed with music creation, Reason is a brilliantly beautiful

Digital Photography Workflow

As of late, early digital photography has had a boom in popularity, partly for the aesthetics and partly for the art. A modern iPhone performs thousands of pre-baked calculations to tune, balance, color correct, and otherwise sweeten a photograph. Old digital cameras have radically less as they mostly take data from a CCD or CMOS and record it to a file. For some, this also means eschewing modern digital darkroom solutions for a more "pure" digital photography experience.

Programming / Scripting

Retro software development isn't easier than modern as the barrier for software creation has lowered drastically with the rise of various frameworks and open-source projects that can turn a full-stack web developer into an app developer. For the hardcore, you can take a crack at learning Objective-C or Carbon for classic Mac development.

Retro Web Development

Web development might not be the first thing on your mind with a retro computer, but being a much simpler time, much easier to understand. Creating a simple web page was a rite of passage in days past, before social media. If you're feeling particularly inclined, Set up a local web server and build sites with period-appropriate tools or Create a retro webpage or website using the limitation of the early 2000s with CSS 1.0 / Javascript ES3, and embrace Create websites using Dreamweaver MX or GoLive.

Retrocomputing Documentation and communities

A bit of ironic self-awareness for this suggestion. One of the big draws is to map out what's feasible and possible. There's an entire world of YouTube, blogs, forums, and Reddit groups dedicated to the pursuits of retro computing that even result in expos.

Vintage Software

There's a lot of classic software that's worth checking out. I've compiled a list of some of the best software for PowerPC Macs. This list is not exhaustive, but it's a good starting point. I've tried to include a mix of genres and software. I've also tried to include software that is still useful today.

Games

There's so much to cover in Mac gaming (no really, I'm serious) that it demands an entire article of it's own: The best games for late PowerPC G4/G5 Macs - OS 9 and OS X (100+ games)

Audio

  • Ableton Live 5 - Ableton still had some growing to do, but PowerPC Macs can enjoy Ableton.
  • Apple Logic Pro 7 - Logic Pro 7 is a full-fledged DAW that's still very capable today. Entire albums were recorded on this. It, however, is a bit of a resource hog
  • Audion - Audion was a popular MP3 player that was ahead of its time and offered the most amazing skins of any software. Beautiful, and still a masterclass in Mac software.
  • Cubase LE 1.08/1.04 - Cubase is a powerful DAW that's still used today. The light version caps tracks to 48 audio tracks and 64 midi tracks.
  • Propellerhead Recycle 2.0 - Recycle is a loop editor that allows you to slice up audio for use in other audio applications, allowing you to sample in a unique way. Recycle "REX" loops are still used to this day. It has a short learning curve.
  • Propellerhead Reason 4 - It runs on relatively modest hardware very nicely and features a beautiful skeuomorphic design, allowing you to construct and wire virtual instrument racks. It's a blast and a good way to get into digital music. Highly recommended.
  • Propellerhead Rebirth - ReBirth emulates two Roland TB-303 synthesizers, a Roland TR-808, and a Roland TR-909 drum machine, and paved the way to Reason.
  • Sound Studio 3 - Sound Studio is a simple two-track audio editor that's still very capable today. It's fast, stupidly easy to use, and a good complement to any audio suite.

Audio Plugins

Emulation / Virtualization

Emulation was very popular in OS 9 and OS X. Thus, a wide range of emulators were ported to OS X and OS 9. One of the most impressive is Virtual PC, although requires a beefier Mac as it emulates an x86 CPU. Virtual PC is surprisingly usable on late gen PowerPC G4s and G5s and will also make you thankful for modern virtualization software like Parallels. Connectix VGS is super impressive, as even iMac G3s can join in on PlayStation gaming with near flawless emulation for most titles. It's actually a viable way to play PSX games to this day. I highly recommend trying it out.

  • Boycott - A Gameboy / GameBoy Color emulator for OS 9.
  • Boycott Advance - A Gameboy Advance emulator for OS 8 - OS X.
  • bsnes - A SNES emulator for OS X, only for the PowerMac G5.
  • Connectix Virtual Game Station - Kicked off a major lawsuit by Sony which established emulators as legal, PlayStation games on your PowerPC Mac in OS 9.
  • DGen and Dgen OS 9 - A later emulator for Sega Genesis / Megadrive games on your PowerPC Mac in OS X.
  • GenEm - Play Sega Genesis / Megadrive games on your PowerPC Mac in OS 9.
  • Genesis Plus - A Sega Genesis / MegaDrive emulator for OS 8 - OS X.
  • Generator - A Sega Genesis / MegaDrive emulator for OS 8 - OS X.
  • GrayBox - A NES emulator built for System 7 - OS 9.
  • Handy - An Atari Lynx emulator for OS 8 and OS X.
  • iNES - iNES is an NES emulator that allows you to play NES games on your PowerPC Mac in OS 9.
  • KiGB - Gameboy emulator for OS 8 - OS X.
  • Mini vMac - Mini vMac is a Mac Plus emulator that allows you to run classic Mac software on your PowerPC Mac.
  • M1 multi-platform arcade music emulator - play music from videogame ROMS for OS 8 - OS X.
  • MAME OS X - MAME is an arcade emulator that allows you to play arcade games on your PowerPC Mac in OS X.
  • MasterGear - A Sega Master System / Game Gear emulator for OS 7 to OS 9.
  • Mupen64 - A Nintendo 64 emulator for OS X, limited compatibility.
  • NeoPocott - A Neo Geo Pocket Color emulator for OS 9 and OS X.
  • Nestopia - A NES emulator for OS X.
  • PCSX - The PowerPC version of the popular PlayStation emulator
  • RockNes - OS 8 to OS X NES emulator
  • SMSPlus - A Sega Master System / Game Gear emulator for OS 9 and OS X.
  • Snes9x - A powerful SNES emulator that worked on relatively modest hardware.
  • QuickNES - An NES emulator that works both on OS X and OS 9.
  • Virtual PC 7 + Windows XP - Virtual PC is virtualization software that opened up the world of emulating Windows on a Mac.
  • VisualBoyAdvance - A Gameboy Advance emulator for OS X.
  • Blitter Library - visual enhancements for many popular OS 9 emulators
  • Emulation Enhancer - visual enhancements for many popular OS X emulators

Graphic Design

We've both come a long way and are not terribly far in the world of graphic design software as Photoshop 9 is still more than capable today, even if it lacks some of the ML/AI features of upscaling, content-aware replacements, focus correction and so on. If you get good with Photoshop 9, you're basically ready-to-go on the current version of Photoshop CC.

  • Adobe Creative Suite 1 & Adobe Creative Suite 2 - The suite were much smaller with Adobe Acrobat Professional, GoLive, Illustrator, ImageReady, InDesign, & Photoshop. Even today, Illustrator and Photoshop 9 remain capable as they feature HDR support, warping tools, and smart objects (still lacking from virtually all competitors). Photoshop 9 is a beast and, while intensive, is surprisingly nimble compared to its bloated modern versions. Most everything you'd ever need is in this version.
  • Aperture - Apple's professional photo editing software that developed a small cult following.
  • Cinema 4D R9 XL - Cinema 4D is a 3D modeling and animation software. It's robust for its time.
  • Macromedia Studio MX - Macromedia Studio MX is a suite of software that includes Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, and Freehand. This is mostly a nostalgia binge, but Freehand, in my opinion, was much easier to use the vector illustration app.

Productivity

It's unlikely you'll be using your PowerPC Mac for writing the next great American novel, but there are still a few productivity software packages you may want to experience.

  • Microsoft Office 2004 - Yep. It's Microsoft Office, and that means Word, Excel, PowerPoint but also Virtual PC 7
  • OmniGraffle - If you're after some 2000s-era diagramming and flowcharting in a native Mac-only experience, OmniGroup has you covered.

Utilities & Enhancements

OS X was infinitely more hackable than modern macOS due to less OS security. OS customizations were popular and varied. It's one of the more senseless and fun things to explore for early OS X.

  • Diskwarrior 3.x - Absolutely a must. HFS+ is pretty awful and prone to a lot of errors. Diskwarrior saved my ass many a time back in the day and makes retro computing more enjoyable as it's able to fix the by far and away the most problems with disk corruption, and much better than Apple's own disk utility.
  • Drag Thing - A dock alternative that predates OS X
  • Drop Drawers - A lesser-known but useful utility that allowed for spring-loaded folders on any side of the screen and could house links, application aliases, text, etc
  • FruitMenu - customize the Apple menu
  • Kaleidoscope - An OS 9 theming application
  • Onyx - Onyx is an OS X system maintenance tool that allows you to clean up your system, repair permissions, and optimize your system. It's a good way to keep your system running smoothly. Depending on the OS X version, lets you modify the dock appearance and default behaviors.
  • Roxio Toast 6 Titanium - Toast is a CD/DVD burning software that allows you to burn CDs and DVDs and mount disk images. Highly recommended.
  • OmniDiskSweeper- quickly find and delete large files.
  • Shapeshifter - early OS X was wildly themeable, and Shapeshifter offered awesome theming capabilities. It only worked until 10.4 Tiger.
  • QuickSilver - application launcher
  • TinkerTool - exposes hidden system customization
  • Window Shade X - Staple of OS 9, allowing for collapsible windows that made its way to OS X

Development & Programming

Many developers have fond memories of coding on PowerPC Macs, and some might want to relive that experience. Modern devs might want to take a swing at writing a new app with the challenges of retro software.

Networking & Internet

Less "fun" than more practical as FTPs are a surefire way to transfer software, especially to OS 9 computers.

Video and Media

PowerPC Macs were the go-to for video editing and media production, although they struggled during the High-definition transition as even the mightiest of G5s were somewhat ill-equipped for 1080p editing. If you have an old DV camera, they'll chew through 480i and 480p video.

  • Final Cut Studio - Apple's professional video editing suite, including Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Motion, Live Type, Compressor, Cinema Tools, and Soundtrack.
  • iLife - iLife is a suite of software that includes iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and GarageBand that makes any Mac user a multimedia wizard.
  • iMove HD - Who doesn't love editing 1080i video?
  • VLC - The legendary open source media player