How to use Disk Jockey for emulation on macOS

Retro computing is widespread today, and one side of classic computing is managing the assorted disk and file codecs one has to cope with when utilizing these machines.

Utilizing Disk Jockey, you possibly can create disk pictures for quite a lot of retro computer systems. You can too examine the contents of present disk picture recordsdata for overseas file methods in your Mac or Home windows pc.

Utilizing Disk Jockey, you too can create picture recordsdata for a lot of of right this moment’s fashionable emulators reminiscent of Basilisk II, Mini vMac, the SP2SD device for Apple II, and the WinUAE Amiga emulator.

Disk Jockey additionally has assist for the BlueSCSI and PiSCSI SCSI drive alternative units, and the Floppy Emu device from Large Mess ‘o Wires.

Disk Jockey lets you create disk picture recordsdata for the next computer systems and codecs:

1. Macintosh HFS, HFS+, MFS, Disk Copy 4.2, .iso, and Toast pictures
2. BlueSCSI, PiSCSI, RaSCSI
3. Basilisk and Mini vMac
4. Apple II DOS 3.3 and ProDOS pictures
5. Apple II SP2SD SD card reader units
6. Atari ST TOS .ST and .MAS codecs and ST Pi emulators
7. Commodore Amiga ADF floppy and HDF WinUAE pictures
8. Commodore Amiga partitions utilizing HDInstTools and Workbench
9. AKAI Pattern disk pictures

Earlier than the Mac appeared in 1984, two different main corporations competed within the 1980’s pc area: Atari and Commodore. Apple bought a pc known as the Apple II within the early 1980’s.

The Apple II was designed extra for enterprise customers, and is taken into account the machine that began the non-public pc revolution. However gaming on the Apple II shortly caught on and have become an enormous market.

Apple II used two disk picture codecs for five.25-inch floppy disks: DOS 3.3 and ProDOS.

Atari had a sequence of private residence computer systems beginning with the Atari 400 and 800, the XL line, and the Atari ST, which was the primary Atari residence pc that includes a graphical consumer interface.

Commodore was a Canadian firm that started as a calculator firm. It additionally acquired into the non-public pc area with the VIC-20, Commodore 64, and the Amiga.

The Amiga was thought-about the most effective computer systems of the period on account of its specs, however it was quickly eclipsed by the Macintosh. Commodore ceased Amiga manufacturing in 1992 – a full eight years after the primary Mac was launched in Jan. 1984.

Earlier than the Mac, Apple launched the Apple III, which was thought-about a business failure:

Apple III

Just like the early Macs, the Amiga was additionally primarily based on the Motorola 68000 household of CPUs. Every of those machines used its personal disk and file codecs, and so they had been largely incompatible with one another.

Immediately, there are lots of methods you possibly can learn and write these disk codecs on fashionable computer systems – after which reuse the pictures on older machines, or on fashionable emulators which mimic the unique {hardware}.

The unique Mac used a file system known as Macintosh File System (MFS) which was a bit like present Mac file methods, besides that it did not assist folders. Every part was saved at one stage within the filesystem.

MFS was itself derived from the OS used on the Mac’s predecessor, the Apple Lisa.

When the Mac Plus was launched in 1986, Apple additionally launched the Hierarchical Filesystem or HFS. Later within the Nineteen Nineties, an prolonged model of HFS was launched known as HFS+ (Mac OS Prolonged) which allowed for bigger quantity sizes and extra recordsdata.

Most older Macs from pre-2000 use HFS+ – and you may nonetheless format disks as HFS+ in macOS’s Disk Utility app right this moment.

A lot of right this moment’s Mac emulators reminiscent of Basilisk II, Sheepshaver, and Mini vMac use a number of of those codecs. Mini vMac is an emulator which mimics the unique model of the Mac OS which shipped with the Mac Plus (known as System 6.0.8):

Mac Plus

Unique Macs and a few late Apple IIGS computer systems used a disk bus commonplace known as SCSI (Small Laptop System Interface). Immediately, units reminiscent of BlueSCSI, PiSCSI, and RaSCSI permit you to exchange your unique Mac’s SCSI disk with a contemporary SD card-based answer which is smaller and sooner.

The unique Mac OS had a element within the working system known as SCSI Supervisor 4.3 which carried out a lot of the SCSI gadget command software program in Mac OS 8.5 by means of 9.x.

You should purchase a few of the SCSI alternative units on Durand’s online web shop at onegeekarmy.eu

Disk Jockey can even carry out a number of different drive alternative/conversion operations reminiscent of:

1. Convert Basilisk II iimages to BlueSCSI, PiSCSI, or RaSCSI
2. Exchange classic Mac OS LIDO SCSI drivers with a basic driver for higher efficiency
3. Copy or extract drive partitions between units
4. Extract recordsdata and folders from disk pictures to your Mac
5. Create JSON descriptions of your disk pictures

Lido 7.x was a tough disk formatter app for Mac OS 9 again within the day from Surf Metropolis Software program which was just like different disk formatters reminiscent of FWB’s Hard Disk ToolKit, Anubis, Disk Instruments, and others. Utilizing Lido or different disk formatters, you would format laborious drives, floppy disks, and detachable media in the identical method you employ Apple’s Disk Utility right this moment.

Durand understands easy design and Disk Jockey encompasses a single utility window for disk operations. To put in Disk Jockey in your Mac, obtain it from diskjockey.onegeekarmy.eu

If you happen to’re operating an older model of MacOS X or macOS from Tiger 10.4 by means of 10.12 Sierra, and solely wish to create pictures for Basilisk II, Sheepshaver, FloppyEmu, or BlueSCSI use the Disk Jockey 1999 model of the app. Disk Jockey 1999 even helps older PowerPC Macs operating 10.4 Tiger constructed for PowerPC processors.

Disk Jockey 1999 for early Mac OS X.

Motorola PowerPC was the unique CPU structure used on mid-to-late 1990’s Macs earlier than Apple made the change to Intel x86 CPUs.

As soon as you have downloaded Disk Jockey, simply double-click it within the Finder to launch it. You will see the primary window seem:

Disk Jockey’s essential window.

To create a disk picture, first click on the pc sort within the tab bar on the high. Whenever you do the UI modifications for that machine sort.

For all supported pc varieties the UI gives settings for disk title, capability, and file system sort.

Underneath the Macintosh tab there are further choices for preconfigured disks for a number of basic 1980’s and early 90s Macs which you’ll choose from a popup menu.

Older detachable media can be supported such because the iOmega Zip 100 and Imation SuperDisk drives, though most of those used commonplace HFS+ partitions of their day.

Within the second pane below the Macintosh tab in Disk Jockey, you possibly can set which alternative drive gadget you wish to use the disk picture for, or which emulator you can be utilizing it with. You possibly can even set its SCSI gadget ID quantity.

Every gadget on a SCSI bus has a quantity starting from 0-7.

There’s additionally an Superior Choices tab the place you possibly can select which disk driver to make use of. On some older SCSI units, the Mac OS disk driver was saved on the gadget itself, not within the working system.

This allowed gadget drivers to get replaced and saved with the gadget because it was moved between computer systems.

After you have all of the settings the best way you need them, click on the Create the Picture button. A typical Mac save sheet will seem the place you possibly can choose a reputation and site to avoid wasting the brand new disk picture file to.

On the far proper facet of the Disk Jockey toolbar is a button named Disk-O-Matic. Clicking this button opens a disk picture analyzer window.

If you happen to drop a disk picture into the window or open one utilizing the Open button, Disk-O-Matic will present you the contents of the picture. It is a fast and funky technique to see disk picture codecs in your Mac with out having to make use of them on precise {hardware} or in an emulator.

Disk-O-Matic shows Partition Map sort, data on the put in SCSI driver for the disk, and quantity codecs.

The Disk-O-Matic window in Disk Jockey.

If the gadget additionally incorporates an ATAPI driver, its particulars are proven as properly. ATAPI is a packetized model of ATA that’s largely used for optical drives reminiscent of CD//DVD-ROM and Blu-Ray.

In some instances, a particular auxiliary Apple “patch” driver could also be put in on a disk. It’s because Apple’s unique disk drivers included some options that had been proprietary, which third-party drivers could not replicate.

Durand has executed an important job with Disk Jockey and it is easy and simple to make use of. On this day of bloated software program and have creep, it is a welcome throwback to the early days of Mac software program – however for contemporary Macs.

If you happen to’re into retro computing, Disk Jockey is nice. There’s additionally a really concise and easy-to-read help document on the Disk Jockey web site.