“My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii”

The Nintendo Wii and related consoles can now run classic Mac OS, adding another milestone to their already impressive compatibility list. Developer Rairii successfully brought the classic Mac OS to the desktop on PowerPC systems with ArtX chipsets, including the GameCube, Wii, and eventually Wii U.

This achievement likely marks the first time since the CHRP clone era that someone outside of Apple has brought classic Mac OS to a new system's desktop. Various versions of Mac OS, including the final version 9.2.2, can now boot to the desktop on this hardware.

Project Challenges

Despite this progress, the developer notes there's still substantial work required before the project is ready for public release. The ArtX chipsets used in these Nintendo consoles were designed by ArtX before its acquisition by ATI, with the Wii's Vegas and Wii U's Latte being direct successors to the GameCube's Flipper chipset.

Future Prospects

Given Rairii's impressive track record of porting various operating systems to PowerPC machines—including getting Windows NT to run on PowerPC Macs—there's confidence that this project will eventually reach a fully releasable state. The developer's previous successes suggest this classic Mac OS port will follow a similar trajectory.