- A coder got an old version of macOS running on a Nintendo Wii
- The project involved a lot of custom code and complex solutions
- Despite the difficulties, the author said it was ‘worth pursuing’
Forget asking if your PC can run Crysisis the ultimate test of computer skills these days, whether you can hack a working copy of Doom on a random piece of electrical equipment. But maybe we should add a new test of hacking skills: can you run Mac OS X Cheetah on a Nintendo Wii?
That’s exactly what programmer Bryan Keller managed, with the enterprising coder detailing the sometimes convoluted process on his blog. And as you’d imagine, getting an operating system that was discontinued nearly 25 years ago to run on a game console that’s not much younger presented more than its fair share of obstacles.
Keller was inspired by seeing a similar project that managed to get Windows NT running on a Nintendo Wii. And given that the Wii uses a PowerPC 750CL processor—which is an updated version of the PowerPC 750CXe found in Apple’s old iMac G3 and iBook G3 computers—Keller had a hunch his attempted hack would work. It turned out to be a sensation that was right on the money.
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However, that doesn’t mean it was a walk in the park. Keller had to build a custom bootloader, patch the OS X kernel source code, compile a modified kernel binary, and even write his own drivers that allowed the kernel to read from the Wii’s SD card slot in order to boot properly. In other words, the process was about as hands-on as it gets.
‘Worth Pursuing’
Even after all that effort, Keller still ran into some unusual problems. One, for example, resulted in the device displaying Mac OS X in the wrong colors. As Keller succinctly put it, “everything is magenta.”
Fixing this was complicated, Keller said, because “it concerns a fundamental incompatibility between the Wii’s video hardware and the graphics code that Mac OS X uses.” The solution was to use two framebuffers – one for Mac OS X Cheetah and one for Wii – and have the output from one converted into something the other could understand.
That was just one of many problems that Keller (unsurprisingly) encountered in this unusual hack. However, despite the problems, the endeavor was a success, with Mac OS X Cheetah (released in 2001) fully operational on the Nintendo Wii (first launched in 2006). Keller has posted the source code on GitHub for anyone brave enough to take on the challenge themselves.
After reflecting on the project, Keller said that “There is something deeply satisfying about achieving something that you weren’t even sure was possible at first… In the end, I learned (and achieved) far more than I ever expected—and perhaps more importantly, I was reminded that the projects that seem just out of reach are exactly the ones worth pursuing.”
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