Got one of these as a hand-me-down and I’m having so much fun triple booting 9.2.2, Tiger, and Sorbet Leopard. Maxed out the RAM and installed a M.SATA SSD. OS9 is ridiculously fast and it’s kind of weird not hearing the hard drive as it boots up. But all my old games run great and surprisingly enough internet apps on Leopard aren’t even that slow using InterwebPPC
That's awesome. :) I recently acquired an original 1.25 GHz G4 Mac Mini and installed a 500 GB M.2 drive dual-booting Mac OS 9 (1/4) and 10.4 Tiger (3/4), and it came with the maximum 1 GB of RAM. This Mac Mini runs very well and I'm extremely happy with it. Officially, my most powerful Mac OS 9 machine is my 667 MHz Titanium PowerBook G4, but unofficially, my most powerful OS 9 machine is, by far, this Mac Mini. :D
It worked on an Apple G4 876 (Quicksilver)! I can't believe it, I almost cancelled the download half way, thinking it would only work on the Mac Mini, but it worked on my Quicksilver! Thank you so so much !!!
Well, so much for the affordability I was talking about. It appears that the Mac Mini G4 has gotten ridiculously expensive in recent times. When I had bought mine a few years ago they were only about $50 on eBay and were quite plentiful. I didn't realize at the time of filming that prices had been skyrocketing and that certainly hasn't changed as of now. I didn't bother to check eBay for prices because I thought "well it's only a Mac Mini, the price couldn't have changed that much." It is still possible to find G4 Mac Minis for a reasonable price if you look locally. Or a trick you can use is to search using the machines model number (A1103 in this case). There's a lot more machines available when you do this for much more reasonable prices. Anyways, I hope you still find the video useful or entertaining, just keep in mind the value proposition I was making isn't as relevant anymore.
yup as soon as a product is identified as a "retro" bargain and youtube videos are shown pumping up the features the hoarder's step in. Mac Mini's G4's are now priced up there with classing gaming CRT's. Absurd that a 2012 I7 8gb ssd equipped Mac Mini machine is about half the cost of what folks are asking for G4 minis nowadays.
yes! the only way to find them as a bargain is to look for the model number rather than the G4... the only hope is to find a seller that doesn't realize that it is MAC silicon it can be had from time to time...I found a couple for reasonable prices 2022
I'm glad you made this video! My search for something cool to do with this very same-speced machine led me here. Once I can remember where I put the power supply to mine, I think I'm going to do this myself. Thanks!
I’ll try to answer some of your questions 1. PowerPC boot device select screen takes so long to load because Open Firmware is searching for everything, it literally scans all possible busses (IDE bus, FireWire bus, CD ROM bus, ethernet bus and so on and so on) 2. Mac OS 9 actually doesn’t have first time boot music, some Macs like iBook Clamshell had their personal welcome video (I think if someone could modify installation files it would be possible to implement a welcome video) 3. It identifies as G4 Cube because Mac OS 9 was designed to work with G4 Cube (and basically every Mac that had Mac OS 9 pre-installed), when Mac Mini debuted, first OS it could run was Tiger or Panther (I don’t know really) but you get the point, Mac OS 9 can’t see Mac Mini natively so this custom Mac OS 9 installation “spoofs” OS 9 into thinking that you have a G4 Cube
Yes, the Mini started with Panther. I wish there was a way to stop the boot selector from scanning once it has loocated the HD you want. It takes a couple of minutes for mine to stop by itself and it's pretty stupid, since it locates the right startup partitions almost immediately anyway.
Just got one of these things. Here's a tip, if you want to dual boot with osx but have os9 startup automatically instead of osx, just set the startup disk from os9, the 9 partition won't show up in the startup disk control panel on osx but it does on os9. I've seen people saying you have to type some commands in open firmware to edit system files, none of that is necessary
I put my heart and soul into the two previous versions. I had a bad experience because I spent nearly 2000 on a 200 mhz authorized mac clone, and it turned out to be very slow with version 9.i paid a lot of money for Mac operating systems.
I love mine, I use it basically any time I want to play any of the old late 90s/early 2000's games and not mess around with trying to build a vintage gaming PC.
It would probably be pretty similar in terms of performance. The only real edge I see the MDD having is expansion and that you can get it with higher clocked G4s, as well as dual CPUs on certain models.
@@NTGTechnology I just bought the unicorn Mac mini G4 with a 1.5 GHz CPU and double the VRAM, 64mb ATI card -- if I had the space I'd compare it against the power Mac G4 with a dedicated GPU... Wonder what performance difference there'd be ..
Plus, this isn’t a daily driver. It’s a hobby toy, at least it is for me on my OS9 Mac mini. The smaller size let’s me plug and unplug it easily to my monitor. I just can’t do that with a huge powermac g4. Too much space
You can install the AirPort card aftermarket but it would cost more for all the bits and pieces than you paid for the Mini. Cheapest/easiest way to get internet in is to use a mini USB-powered router as a bridge device and feed the internet in via ethernet.
I think a long time ago I experimented with installing OS 9 on USB. I don't remember the specifics, but I think it installed successfully, it just wouldn't boot though. You could certainly give it a shot though.
Not on the mini (Mac OS X works but you need to boot manually using the Open Firmware consolle, no idea if 9 would work this way too). It should work using a FireWire disk, though.
I managed to get a G4 Mac Mini from eBay (without paying ridiculous prices) I have yet to do an SSD upgrade on it, and it seems it already has 1GB RAM installed I can’t remember the exact specs of the one I have, all I can remember is I discovered that Mac OS reports that it has 1GB RAM It seems that the keyboards and mice i have don’t work correctly with the Mac Mini On boot up, the keyboard seems to ignore held keys if I press them too soon, and the keyboard doesn’t seem to work with the boot picker screen And there is also the problem of the mouse buttons not working on the boot picker I ended up having to get an Apple USB mouse to get around the problem of the mouse buttons not working, and I am thinking of getting an Apple USB keyboard to get around the problem of the keyboard ignoring held keys It’s not a fault with the keyboards and mice I have, as apart from the held keys issue, they work fine on the newer Mac Minis I have, and also every Windows PC I have
I'd recommend trying this version of Lubuntu for PPC if you're interested. forums.macrumors.com/threads/lubuntu-16-04-remix-updated.2204742/ I haven't tried this on the Mac Mini but it worked pretty well on a Powerbook G4
Why do you keep waving your hand around and tapping the case. Are you sick? And since when is 1440 x 900 a very high resolution. Even my G4 (Sawtooth) with Rage 128 runs great at 1920 x 1080, so why mention it like it's a highlight?
Got one of these as a hand-me-down and I’m having so much fun triple booting 9.2.2, Tiger, and Sorbet Leopard. Maxed out the RAM and installed a M.SATA SSD. OS9 is ridiculously fast and it’s kind of weird not hearing the hard drive as it boots up. But all my old games run great and surprisingly enough internet apps on Leopard aren’t even that slow using InterwebPPC
That's awesome. :)
I recently acquired an original 1.25 GHz G4 Mac Mini and installed a 500 GB M.2 drive dual-booting Mac OS 9 (1/4) and 10.4 Tiger (3/4), and it came with the maximum 1 GB of RAM. This Mac Mini runs very well and I'm extremely happy with it. Officially, my most powerful Mac OS 9 machine is my 667 MHz Titanium PowerBook G4, but unofficially, my most powerful OS 9 machine is, by far, this Mac Mini. :D
It worked on an Apple G4 876 (Quicksilver)! I can't believe it, I almost cancelled the download half way, thinking it would only work on the Mac Mini, but it worked on my Quicksilver! Thank you so so much !!!
No surprise it does: the Quicksilver supports Mac OS 9 officially.
Well, so much for the affordability I was talking about. It appears that the Mac Mini G4 has gotten ridiculously expensive in recent times. When I had bought mine a few years ago they were only about $50 on eBay and were quite plentiful. I didn't realize at the time of filming that prices had been skyrocketing and that certainly hasn't changed as of now. I didn't bother to check eBay for prices because I thought "well it's only a Mac Mini, the price couldn't have changed that much." It is still possible to find G4 Mac Minis for a reasonable price if you look locally. Or a trick you can use is to search using the machines model number (A1103 in this case). There's a lot more machines available when you do this for much more reasonable prices.
Anyways, I hope you still find the video useful or entertaining, just keep in mind the value proposition I was making isn't as relevant anymore.
yup as soon as a product is identified as a "retro" bargain and youtube videos are shown pumping up the features the hoarder's step in. Mac Mini's G4's are now priced up there with classing gaming CRT's. Absurd that a 2012 I7 8gb ssd equipped Mac Mini machine is about half the cost of what folks are asking for G4 minis nowadays.
yes! the only way to find them as a bargain is to look for the model number rather than the G4... the only hope is to find a seller that doesn't realize that it is MAC silicon it can be had from time to time...I found a couple for reasonable prices 2022
I will be attempting to corner the market on G4 mac minis!!! LOL j/k
I'm glad you made this video! My search for something cool to do with this very same-speced machine led me here. Once I can remember where I put the power supply to mine, I think I'm going to do this myself. Thanks!
I’ll try to answer some of your questions
1. PowerPC boot device select screen takes so long to load because Open Firmware is searching for everything, it literally scans all possible busses (IDE bus, FireWire bus, CD ROM bus, ethernet bus and so on and so on)
2. Mac OS 9 actually doesn’t have first time boot music, some Macs like iBook Clamshell had their personal welcome video (I think if someone could modify installation files it would be possible to implement a welcome video)
3. It identifies as G4 Cube because Mac OS 9 was designed to work with G4 Cube (and basically every Mac that had Mac OS 9 pre-installed), when Mac Mini debuted, first OS it could run was Tiger or Panther (I don’t know really) but you get the point, Mac OS 9 can’t see Mac Mini natively so this custom Mac OS 9 installation “spoofs” OS 9 into thinking that you have a G4 Cube
Yes, the Mini started with Panther.
I wish there was a way to stop the boot selector from scanning once it has loocated the HD you want. It takes a couple of minutes for mine to stop by itself and it's pretty stupid, since it locates the right startup partitions almost immediately anyway.
Just got one of these things. Here's a tip, if you want to dual boot with osx but have os9 startup automatically instead of osx, just set the startup disk from os9, the 9 partition won't show up in the startup disk control panel on osx but it does on os9. I've seen people saying you have to type some commands in open firmware to edit system files, none of that is necessary
I put my heart and soul into the two previous versions. I had a bad experience because I spent nearly 2000 on a 200 mhz authorized mac clone, and it turned out to be very slow with version 9.i paid a lot of money for Mac operating systems.
1) Hold C on startup 2) Format Disk 3) Install!
I love mine, I use it basically any time I want to play any of the old late 90s/early 2000's games and not mess around with trying to build a vintage gaming PC.
I have the original base level Mac mini. Put an ssd in it with 3 partitions. Can boot into tiger or leopard or OS9. Fun to play with.
Look at me getting side-tracked. I wanted to slap Debian on mine for the giggles.
Guess I'm installing OS 9 for the giggles!
I did it. Works great. Thanks for this video! Big PPC greetings:)
Mac minis are pretty cool. All the awesomeness of mac in a tiny package.
a USB to audio device might come in handy, there were a lot of those back in the day
How would this compare to PowerMac G4, MDD? Definitely wanna try to run OS9 as fast as humanely possible ~
I wonder if it's mostly comparable ~
It would probably be pretty similar in terms of performance. The only real edge I see the MDD having is expansion and that you can get it with higher clocked G4s, as well as dual CPUs on certain models.
@@NTGTechnology I just bought the unicorn Mac mini G4 with a 1.5 GHz CPU and double the VRAM, 64mb ATI card -- if I had the space I'd compare it against the power Mac G4 with a dedicated GPU... Wonder what performance difference there'd be ..
Plus, this isn’t a daily driver. It’s a hobby toy, at least it is for me on my OS9 Mac mini. The smaller size let’s me plug and unplug it easily to my monitor. I just can’t do that with a huge powermac g4. Too much space
Forgot to mention that this computer doesn't have an AirPort card so I have no idea if wifi would work using this
Under OS 9, AirPort and Bluetooth will not work (too new).
OS9 can use airport cards and OS9 has the control panels needed to connect to 802.11b and g networks. Bluetooth keyboards and mice work fine as well.
You can install the AirPort card aftermarket but it would cost more for all the bits and pieces than you paid for the Mini. Cheapest/easiest way to get internet in is to use a mini USB-powered router as a bridge device and feed the internet in via ethernet.
ask sir, my mac mini 2006 can't normaly boot, only hear a fan with big wind.. not sound apple chime and no display on monitor... why?
I used that macos9lives disk to get Mac OS9 dual-booting with my 1Ghz eMac.
I recently bought a Mac mini g4 running 10.3.7 for $20! Can't wait to try this, can I install Mac OS 9 on an external (USB) Drive?
I think a long time ago I experimented with installing OS 9 on USB. I don't remember the specifics, but I think it installed successfully, it just wouldn't boot though. You could certainly give it a shot though.
Not on the mini (Mac OS X works but you need to boot manually using the Open Firmware consolle, no idea if 9 would work this way too). It should work using a FireWire disk, though.
I managed to get a G4 Mac Mini from eBay (without paying ridiculous prices)
I have yet to do an SSD upgrade on it, and it seems it already has 1GB RAM installed
I can’t remember the exact specs of the one I have, all I can remember is I discovered that Mac OS reports that it has 1GB RAM
It seems that the keyboards and mice i have don’t work correctly with the Mac Mini
On boot up, the keyboard seems to ignore held keys if I press them too soon, and the keyboard doesn’t seem to work with the boot picker screen
And there is also the problem of the mouse buttons not working on the boot picker
I ended up having to get an Apple USB mouse to get around the problem of the mouse buttons not working, and I am thinking of getting an Apple USB keyboard to get around the problem of the keyboard ignoring held keys
It’s not a fault with the keyboards and mice I have, as apart from the held keys issue, they work fine on the newer Mac Minis I have, and also every Windows PC I have
8:27 it doesn’t have music.
I got one of these given to me for nought... Be nice to see if it runs Linux..any ideas?
I'd recommend trying this version of Lubuntu for PPC if you're interested. forums.macrumors.com/threads/lubuntu-16-04-remix-updated.2204742/
I haven't tried this on the Mac Mini but it worked pretty well on a Powerbook G4
can i use this on a imac g3?
Just needs ssd to speed it up
Nice video and benchmark!
Considering also its rarity, would you recommend a purchase of a Mac Mini G4 for about 50$?
That's about how much I paid for mine a few years ago so I definitely recommend
I'm trying this on my Mac Mini A1176 1.66GHz 2GB RAM machine... will not boot the OS9 for Mac Mini DVD... any ideas? (I'm running OSX 10.6.8
You have an Intel Mac Mini which isn't going to work with this. You need an older PowerPC G4 Mac Mini like an A1103
why are u making it sound like owning a Mac is such a crazy thing "I have a confession to make. I own a Mac." so? any problem with that?
any problem with him saying that?
Can a eMac run OS9?
The earlier ones can. Not too sure about the later ones but I imagine it's possible since the hardware is very similar to that of the Mac Mini.
Why do you keep waving your hand around and tapping the case. Are you sick? And since when is 1440 x 900 a very high resolution. Even my G4 (Sawtooth) with Rage 128 runs great at 1920 x 1080, so why mention it like it's a highlight?
so you telling me that the device that was design to run mac os 9 is a excellent mac os 9 machine?
would of never excepted that
It was designed for OSX and will not boot retail OS9.
This is using a community-created hack of OS9. As is explained at 1:20 in the video