Snow is a modern emulator for classic Motorola 68k-based Apple Macintosh computers. It focuses on accurate hardware-level emulation rather than patching ROMs or intercepting operating system calls. The project provides a graphical interface for running and interacting with emulated systems while also offering powerful debugging capabilities that allow developers and enthusiasts to inspect system behaviour, memory, and CPU state.
This emulator supports a variety of early Macintosh models and emulates key hardware components such as Motorola 68000 series CPUs, floppy drives, SCSI devices, networking interfaces, and serial connections. Snow is particularly useful for running vintage Macintosh operating systems and software in a controlled and debuggable environment, helping preserve and study classic Mac software ecosystems.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Hardware-level emulator for Motorola 68k-based Apple Macintosh computers.
- Supports Macintosh 128K, 512K, 512Ke, Plus, SE, Classic, II, IIx, IIcx, and SE/30 systems.
- Emulates Motorola 68000, 68020, and 68030 CPUs.
- Supports floppy disks, SCSI hard disks, and SCSI CD-ROM devices.
- Handles multiple floppy image formats including DiskCopy, DART, A2R, MOOF, PFI, PRI, and raw images.
- Graphical interface for controlling and interacting with the emulator.
- Advanced debugging tools including breakpoints, watchpoints, disassembly, register editing, and memory inspection.
- Networking support including Ethernet emulation and LocalTalk over UDP.
- Serial port bridging via TCP or PTY connections.
- Cross-platform support – runs under Linux, macOS, and Windows. ARM architecture is also supported.
Website: github.com/twvd/snow
Support:
Developer: Thomas
License: MIT License
Snow is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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