If you still have the original installer CD lying around, great! You can still use that.
![mac os 7.6 vs 8.1 mac os 7.6 vs 8.1](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5894c269e4fcb5e65a1ed623/f3da246c-55a1-4de2-934d-7e1097385030/Figure1-log4j.png)
These used to come on bootable CD-ROMs, or depending on the age of the OS, floppy disks.
#Mac os 7.6 vs 8.1 mac os
You’ll need the program that installs the desired operating system that you’re trying to recreate/emulate: let’s say, for example, Mac OS 8.5. We’ll go over these in more detail in a minute.
#Mac os 7.6 vs 8.1 software
There are several free and open-source software options for emulating legacy Mac systems on contemporary computers.
#Mac os 7.6 vs 8.1 for mac
The tinkering enthusiast communities that come up with emulators for Mac systems, in particular, are not always the clearest about self-documentation (the free-level versions of PC-emulating enterprise software like VirtualBox or VMWare are, unsurprisingly, more self-describing). I elided much of the technical process of setting up a legacy operating system environment in an emulator, since my focus for that post was on general strategy and assessment – but there are aspects of the technical setup process that aren’t super clear from the Emaculation guides that I first started with.
![mac os 7.6 vs 8.1 mac os 7.6 vs 8.1](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ipod/images/2/23/1998_Mac_OS_8.1_(Bride_of_Buster)_(PPC).png)
Last fall I wrote about the collaborative technical/scholarly process of making some ’90s multimedia CD-ROMs available for a Cinema Studies course on Interactive Cinema.