Find out how to use Disk Jockey for emulation on macOS

Retro computing is common as of late, and one facet 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 photographs for a wide range of retro computer systems. You can too examine the contents of present disk picture recordsdata for international file methods in your Mac or Home windows laptop.

Utilizing Disk Jockey, it’s also possible to create picture recordsdata for a lot of of as we speak’s trendy emulators akin to Basilisk II, Mini vMac, the SP2SD system for Apple II, and the WinUAE Amiga emulator.

Disk Jockey additionally has help for the BlueSCSI and PiSCSI SCSI drive substitute gadgets, and the Floppy Emu system from Large Mess ‘o Wires.

Disk Jockey means that you can create disk picture recordsdata for the next computer systems and codecs:

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

Earlier than the Mac appeared in 1984, two different main firms competed within the 1980’s laptop house: Atari and Commodore. Apple bought a pc referred to 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 private laptop 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 collection of private house computer systems beginning with the Atari 400 and 800, the XL line, and the Atari ST, which was the primary Atari house laptop that includes a graphical person interface.

Commodore was a Canadian firm that started as a calculator firm. It additionally bought into the private laptop house with the VIC-20, Commodore 64, and the Amiga.

The Amiga was thought of among the best computer systems of the period as a result of its specs, but it surely 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 of a industrial failure:

Apple III

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

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

The unique Mac used a file system referred to as Macintosh File System (MFS) which was a bit like present Mac file methods, besides that it did not help folders. Every thing was stored 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 referred to 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 as we speak.

Lots of as we speak’s Mac emulators akin to 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 (referred to as System 6.0.8):

Mac Plus

Authentic Macs and a few late Apple IIGS computer systems used a disk bus normal referred to as SCSI (Small Laptop System Interface). At present, gadgets akin to BlueSCSI, PiSCSI, and RaSCSI mean you can change your unique Mac’s SCSI disk with a contemporary SD card-based resolution which is smaller and quicker.

The unique Mac OS had a part within the working system referred to as SCSI Supervisor 4.3 which applied a lot of the SCSI system command software program in Mac OS 8.5 by means of 9.x.

You should purchase a few of the SCSI substitute gadgets on Durand’s on-line net store at onegeekarmy.eu

Disk Jockey also can carry out a bunch of different drive substitute/conversion operations akin to:

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

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 akin to FWB’s Arduous Disk ToolKit, Anubis, Disk Instruments, and others. Utilizing Lido or different disk formatters, you possibly can format onerous drives, floppy disks, and detachable media in the identical approach you utilize Apple’s Disk Utility as we speak.

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

For those who’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 photographs 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’ve got downloaded Disk Jockey, simply double-click it within the Finder to launch it. You may see the primary window seem:

Disk Jockey’s essential window.

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

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

Beneath the Macintosh tab there are extra choices for preconfigured disks for a number of traditional 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 normal HFS+ partitions of their day.

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

Every system 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 gadgets, the Mac OS disk driver was saved on the system itself, not within the working system.

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

After you have all of the settings the way in which you need them, click on the Create the Picture button. A normal 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.

For those who 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. This can be a fast and funky solution 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 kind, information on the put in SCSI driver for the disk, and quantity codecs.

The Disk-O-Matic window in Disk Jockey.

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

In some circumstances, 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 amazing 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.

For those who’re into retro computing, Disk Jockey is nice. There’s additionally a really concise and easy-to-read assist doc on the Disk Jockey web site.