MoofStationDisks that remember
What the emulated Mac writes goes back to the image file, so work saved inside it survives being switched off. A DiskCopy image's header checksum is put back in order afterwards, so other tools don't call a good image damaged.
Version 1.0 · macOS 14+ · Free
A Macintosh from 1984, running on the one in front of you.
MoofStation emulates six classic Macintoshes — from the original 128K to the IIci — written from scratch in Swift. The 68000 family, its buses and its chips are modelled rather than wrapped: no Basilisk, no Mini vMac, no Musashi.
Every one boots to the Finder
Each machine is emulated from its own ROM rather than approximated. Memory sizes are only offered where they have actually been seen to boot — which is why the lists differ from machine to machine, and why a few sizes are missing.
| Machine | CPU | Screen | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mac 128K | 68000 | 512×342, built in | 128K |
| Mac 512K | 68000 | 512×342, built in | 512K |
| Mac Plus | 68000 | 512×342, built in | 1–4MB |
| Mac II | 68020 | NuBus card, up to 8-bit colour | 1–5MB |
| Mac SE/30 | 68030 | 512×342, slot E | 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32MB |
| Mac IIci | 68030 | NuBus card, up to 8-bit colour | 1–64MB |
The Mac II family carries a 68881/68882 floating-point unit, ADB for mouse and keyboard, two VIAs, an Apple Sound Chip, and NuBus video with a synthesized declaration ROM. The IIci adds the 68030's MMU — as the address mask classic Mac OS actually uses it for — and the RBV.
A real Mac application, around a real machine
Swap disks while it runs
Insert a disk and the running machine notices. A Mac sitting at the blinking question-mark icon will start from one you put in — no restarting the emulator.
Floppies, hard disks, CDs
DiskCopy 4.2 images and raw dumps, hard disk images with an Apple Partition Map, and CD-ROMs as .iso, .toast or .cdr — mounted read-only and told so properly, so the System marks them locked instead of deciding they're faulty.
Sound on every machine
The compact Macs' DAC, reading its buffer out of RAM a byte per scanline. The Mac II family's Apple Sound Chip in both modes — the FIFO the Sound Manager pours samples into, and the four-voice wavetable that plays the startup chime.
Save the whole machine
Write the entire running state to a file and pick it up later, exactly where it was.
Blank disks on demand
File → New Blank Disk… makes an empty, formatted floppy to save your work onto.
Full screen
Fill the display with 512×342 pixels of 1984, or run it in a window alongside everything else.
Nothing to install
Universal for Apple silicon and Intel, with no dependencies beyond macOS itself. No Xcode, no runtime, no helper.
Screenshots
Five minutes, start to desktop
You supply the ROMs. MoofStation can't emulate a Macintosh without
that machine's ROM, and ROMs are Apple's — they aren't included here, and this site
doesn't link to anywhere that has them. The same goes for disk images. What you put
in, and whether you have the right to it, is yours to sort out.
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Put the app somewhere
Drag MoofStation.app wherever you like — Applications is fine.
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Give it a ROM
Make a folder called
ROMsnext to the app, with a subfolder per ROM size:64KB ROMsfor the 128K and 512K,128KB ROMsfor the Plus,256KB ROMsfor the Mac II and SE/30, and512KB ROMsfor the IIci.If the app is somewhere you can't write to, put that same folder in
~/Library/Application Support/MoofStation/instead — MoofStation looks in both. Or point it anywhere you like in Settings. -
Choose a machine
MoofStation → Settings → Machine. A Mac Plus is the friendliest place to start: it asks for the least, and almost every classic Mac disk image will boot on it. Pick the RAM while you're there.
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Give it a disk
Click Insert Disk… and choose an image —
.image,.dsk,.img, or a hard-disk image with an Apple partition map. The machine starts from it.A floppy icon with a blinking question mark is a Mac telling you it has no startup disk. Insert one and it will go.
Disk writes are real. What you save inside the emulated Mac goes back
to the disk image — and, just as on a real Mac, it can damage one. Keep copies of
images you care about. CDs are read-only. Your typing goes to the emulated Mac,
⌘Q included, so use the menu bar to quit MoofStation itself.
The gaps, written down
Every emulator has edges. These are MoofStation's, in the open rather than found the hard way.
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No SCSI controller
Hard disks and CDs are served by intercepting the
.Sonydriver's entry points, so the volumes are real but the bus underneath them is not. -
The MMU is an address mask
Rather than a page-table walker — which is all classic Mac OS asks of the 68030.
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No AppleTalk
There's no network.
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ISO-9660-only discs won't mount
CDs mount from their HFS side, which is how Mac software shipped — hybrid discs included. A disc carrying only ISO-9660 needs Apple's CD-ROM extension and Foreign File Access, which this doesn't provide, and says so rather than failing quietly.
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Two memory sizes are missing
The Mac II won't take 8MB and the SE/30 won't take 64 or 128MB. Both are understood: the memory sizing those ROMs perform disagrees with how this emulator lays those configurations out.
MoofStation 1.0
Free. Universal for Apple silicon and Intel. macOS 14 or later.
The image carries the app, the Quick Start, the manual and the change notes.
It just opens. Signed with a Developer ID and notarised by
Apple — the disk image and the application both, each carrying its own notarisation
ticket. Drag it to Applications and double-click. No right-clicking, no security
warning, and no need to be online for macOS to check it.
Standing on two projects
Written from scratch, but this hardware was documented by others first. Mini vMac, whose source is the clearest account anywhere of the IWM's sense lines, the M0110 keyboard, the mouse's route through low memory and the VIA wiring; and MAME, whose Macintosh drivers were the reference for the RBV, the Apple Sound Chip, the ADB transceiver, the memory controller's banks and the interrupt levels.
Both are cited in the source at the points where they were consulted. No code was taken from either.