--- title: My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii | daily.dev description: A hobbyist reports getting classic Mac OS running on ArtX-chipset PowerPC hardware (Nintendo GameCube, Wii, eventually Wii U), likely the first time since the... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/my-favourite-powermac-is-a-nintendo-wii-tsttuscr5 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii | daily.dev og:description: A hobbyist reports getting classic Mac OS running on ArtX-chipset PowerPC hardware (Nintendo GameCube, Wii, eventually Wii U), likely the first time since the... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/my-favourite-powermac-is-a-nintendo-wii-tsttuscr5 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/TstTUScr5.png og:image:alt: My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 13 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A hobbyist reports getting classic Mac OS running on ArtX-chipset PowerPC hardware (Nintendo GameCube, Wii, eventually Wii U), likely the first time since the CHRP clone era anyone outside Apple has done this. The project started on 2025-06-22 by forking OpenBIOS, with no coding agent or LLM used. Challenges included patching the 'Trampoline' bootloader's physical memory assumptions, faking a PCI-based interrupt controller, writing a fake-SCSI driver over EXI/SD, and fixing a crash caused by Open Transport. Mac OS 7.6 boots on real hardware over SD-over-SPI in about 40 seconds. Next steps are bringing up the Wii's SD and USB controllers, then the Wii U. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Has anyone gotten classic Mac OS to boot on a Nintendo Wii or GameCube? Yes, a developer reached the classic Mac OS desktop on ArtX-chipset hardware (GameCube, Wii, and eventually Wii U), likely the first time since the CHRP clone era that anyone outside Apple has booted classic Mac OS on new hardware. The project began June 22, 2025 by forking OpenBIOS, and Mac OS 7.6 now boots in about 40 seconds from an SD card over SPI on real Wii hardware. _Developers curious about retro OS porting projects like this one can follow deep-dive write-ups on daily.dev._ ### Why does Mac OS 9.2.2 crash on boot when running on non-standard PowerPC hardware without a network or serial device? Open Transport appears unable to handle a system with no serial or network device present at all, causing Mac OS 9.2.2 to crash during boot. Removing Open Transport from the Extensions folder fixed the crash and let the OS boot normally, while Mac OS 7.6 crashed earlier until MacsBug was also removed. _Anyone debugging obscure legacy OS boot crashes can find similar low-level war stories on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 3 discussions and 82 comments across hackernews, lobsters (as of 2026-10-31). **TL;DR:** The technical feat of booting classic Mac OS on GameCube/Wii hardware drew admiration, but much of the discussion drifted into nostalgic debate over whether the Wii was 'peak gaming' and tangents about Classic Mac OS code lineage in modern macOS. **Sentiment:** 55% positive · 35% mixed · 10% skeptical **The case for** - Several commenters praised the Wii era for physical media quality, broad accessibility (even non-gamers and grandparents used it), and lack of microtransactions. - Some found the project itself delightfully pointless but fun, in the spirit of hobbyist hacking. - The Wii's UI and WiiMote pointer were called out as surprisingly good even by today's standards. **The pushback** - Others pushed back hard on the 'Wii was peak gaming' claim, calling it childhood nostalgia bias. - Commenters noted the Wii had a lot of shovelware/cash-grab titles despite no microtransactions. - Some pointed out the Wii's motion controls aged poorly and were often gimmicky or badly implemented. - One noted the Wii was an early example of mandatory firmware updates via game discs that could restrict device ownership. **By community** - hackernews (mixed): Engagement split between genuine interest in the technical porting feat and a long tangential debate about whether the Wii represents 'peak gaming'. - lobsters (positive): Minimal discussion, with the one comment noting the Wii hardware is basically a G3 Mac underneath. **Hottest debate:** Whether the Wii was the 'peak' gaming console, with strong disagreement over nostalgia versus the Wii's actual merits compared to the PS2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. **Open questions** - Could the SD/USB controller work and eventual Wii U port actually succeed as planned? - How much of modern macOS still contains genuine Classic Mac OS-era code versus just similarly-named ported APIs? **Highlights** > Well, it's basically a G3 anyway. > — [classichasclass on lobsters · 3 points](https://lobste.rs/s/siebde/my_favourite_powermac_is_nintendo_wii#c_uvfabl) > There's an objective argument behind this statement that could be made though - everyone, and I mean _almost literally everyone_ tried a Wii at some point during its regular lifespan. Even if it was just Wii Sports, it brought millions of people into video games who only considered them another toy. Parents, grandparents, a lot of the people who chastised video games for years were suddenly enamoured with virtual bowling and sword fights, while the rest of us still got our fill of Mario et. al. > — [FractalParadigm on hackernews · 3 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50308973) > Probably, but the Wii games are actually good, as well, not microtransaction slop factories. > — [cowlevel on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50309843) > The motion controls make it age really poorly imo (motion controls aren't bad, but forced motion controls to do anything is) > — [Ohentis on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50310647) > Same guy who made NT for Macintosh https://github.com/Wack0/Macintosh and GC/Wii https://github.com/Wack0/entii-for-workcubes if you're unaware. > — [unleaded on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50312359) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50292156) · 5 points · 0 comments - [lobsters](https://lobste.rs/s/siebde/my_favourite_powermac_is_nintendo_wii) · 52 points · 1 comments - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50307190) · 255 points · 81 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [You’ve All Seen A Hackintosh, But Have You Seen One On A Wii?](https://daily.dev/posts/you-ve-all-seen-a-hackintosh-but-have-you-seen-one-on-a-wii--z5chiy4ph) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Porting Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii](https://daily.dev/posts/porting-mac-os-x-to-the-nintendo-wii-dxi5em77b) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Classic MacOS for non-Apple PowerPC kit rediscovered](https://daily.dev/posts/classic-macos-for-non-apple-powerpc-kit-rediscovered-elzp9un95) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Recreating One Of The First Hackintoshes](https://daily.dev/posts/recreating-one-of-the-first-hackintoshes-2rtwswgag) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [For once, Mac gets a game first as Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom now runs natively on Apple's M4 chip](https://daily.dev/posts/for-once-mac-gets-a-game-first-as-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-now-runs-natively-on-apple-s-m4-chip-443mp0g13) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#reverse-engineering](https://daily.dev/tags/reverse-engineering) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/my-favourite-powermac-is-a-nintendo-wii-tsttuscr5) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/my-favourite-powermac-is-a-nintendo-wii-tsttuscr5","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/my-favourite-powermac-is-a-nintendo-wii-tsttuscr5"},"datePublished":"2026-10-30T18:36:12.011Z","dateModified":"2026-10-31T03:07:26.614Z","description":"A hobbyist reports getting classic Mac OS running on ArtX-chipset PowerPC hardware (Nintendo GameCube, Wii, eventually Wii U), likely the first time since the...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/7fd750efc882e828e671715d8ac8f2b4?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/7fd750efc882e828e671715d8ac8f2b4?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/my-favourite-powermac-is-a-nintendo-wii-tsttuscr5","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"reverse-engineering","timeRequired":"PT13M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/my-favourite-powermac-is-a-nintendo-wii-tsttuscr5#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Has anyone gotten classic Mac OS to boot on a Nintendo Wii or GameCube?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, a developer reached the classic Mac OS desktop on ArtX-chipset hardware (GameCube, Wii, and eventually Wii U), likely the first time since the CHRP clone era that anyone outside Apple has booted classic Mac OS on new hardware. 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