With some creative coding and a lot of time, a Wii user from France converted his Wii into a Mac OS workstation. The user then uploaded a video demonstrating the Wii-turned-capabilities. Mac’s
Following in the footsteps of GameCube, the Wii was launched in North America on November 19, 2006. For many years, it was Nintendo’s best-selling home system, outselling both the PS3 and the Xbox 360. After a decade-long reign at the top of Nintendo sales numbers, the Wii was ultimately dethroned by the Switch early this year. The Wii created a lasting impression on the public, not only Nintendo and game lovers, with over 100 million systems sold and fans all over the globe.
A French programmer named Pierre Dandumont revealed how the Wii could run Mac OS version 9.2, which predated contemporary Mac computers, and how the system was loaded on the device. In a video broadcast on his own website and YouTube, he described the process of hacking and programming his Wii, as well as some of the compromises that come with his efforts to run Mac OS on a 16-year-old machine. Dandumont was able to run Mac OS 9.2 utilising Mac-On-Linux technology and an SD card with a Mac OS disc image while using the famed Homebrew Channel on a modified Wii device. Despite being dated 2000, the specifications required for Mac OS 9.2 exceed the capabilities of the 2006 console.
When I checked the system details in Mac OS 9.2, I discovered that the Wii console only has 52 MB of RAM available, which falls just short of the memory requirements required to operate Mac OS 9.2 or its successor, Mac OS X Cheetah, efficiently. Dandumont demonstrated the system’s sluggishness by launching a web browser, a music player, and a game. Even Doom, a game known for its ability to operate on a broad range of devices, was unable to get more than a single frame per second before collapsing. To summarise, Mac OS 9.2 on a Wii cannot run Doom and is unsuitable for gaming in general.
This isn’t the first time Nintendo and Apple have been linked in the same sentence. Classic Nintendo controllers designed for Nintendo Switch Online may now be used on current Apple devices through Bluetooth or USB-C connections thanks to recent upgrades to iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers. Despite the fact that Dandumont’s hacking revealed how the Wii’s hardware compared to an earlier Mac OS edition, the notion that Apple and Nintendo may be linked in many ways is both bizarre and interesting.
