Snow EMU - Emulator for 680x0-based Macintosh computers

[eric]

Snow v1.2.0​

New features​

• Macintosh SE/30, IIx, IIcx model emulation (68030 still pretty experimental)
• Easy file sharing, powered by the BlueSCSI protocol, by @erichelgeson
• New Snow mascot! Thanks to @dbalsom
• Serial port bridging over TCP and pty, by @erichelgeson
• Add labels to Disassembly view by @rezafouladian
• Drag and drop support for ROMs, floppies, disk images, ISOs, etc.
• Added a CRT-shader
• Accurate compact Mac open bus behavior (see https://thomasw.dev/post/compact-mac-openbus/), fixing a number of applications and copy protections
• Option to show all framebuffers
• Macintosh 15" Portrait monitor support
• Allow saving floppy in workspace by @erichelgeson
• Drive RPM variance simulation

Bug fixes and misc​

• SCSI updates and fixes, by @erichelgeson
• Fixed a crash on long filenames when creating ISO-files
• Many ASC (sound) fixes
• Fix incorrect memory size in memory view when changing sizes
• Disassembly widget fixes and toggle to show/hide labels
• MacII: implement proper RAM size detection
• Updated Rust toolchain version to 1.91.1

New Contributors​

• @cmykflutterby made their first contribution in #162

Full Changelog: v1.1.0...v1.2.0

 

[PL212]

Curious if anyone has tried out the LToUDP feature in the new version of Snow? I can get it to see AppleShare servers, but not connect to them. This is under System 6.05, with AppleShare clients 2.02, 3.01, and 3.5.

I'm aware of timing issues and have the emulator set to 1x speed...

 

[eric]

What is the other side of the LToUDP? I've tested with another snow instance, mini vmac, and jrouter. I have a tash router but havent had time to fire it up.

 

[Mu0n]

I've been migrating my development into Snow (from Basilisk II) and I'm having a ball.

I'm working on MIDI in and out stuff so I've started to pay attention to how it deals with the serial ports:

* it can use a host machine TCP port to send/receive data from/to its emulated serial (modem, printer) ports
* modem port is tied to TCP port 1984 and printer port is tied to TCP port 1985
* I can shimmy a python script (https://github.com/Mu0n/talkMIDIboth/tree/main) running on my host Windows 11 machine to listen to those TCP ports and have it interface with the host's own serial USB ports, one of which happens to be hooked to a hardware midi interface that can receive (MIDI in) or send (MIDI out) using regular DIN5 chunky MIDI cables
* if you don't have a midi interface for your modern machine, then using the Microsoft GS wavetable software synth driver is also an option!

needless to say, EVERYTHING WORKS.
I can hook a midi piano controller and have it drive regular apps that expect this, like cubase or Master Tracks Pro. I'm working on my own app that expects MIDI in and outputs to the Sound Driver of the mac (square, triangle, even freeform).
I can hook a midi module like the Roland MT-32 and receive all the midi messages sent out by games like Space Quest III.

All of this is super fun already on real hardware and I've been doing it for years, but everything can now also be done in emulation with Snow! I wouldn't know where to begin doing all that with any of the other emulators.

I'll make a thread when the project is more mature during this 2026 #MARCHintosh

 

[ClassicHasClass]

What game is that?

 

[Mu0n]

What game is that?

Space Quest III

 

[twvd]

I've been migrating my development into Snow (from Basilisk II) and I'm having a ball.

I'm working on MIDI in and out stuff so I've started to pay attention to how it deals with the serial ports:

* it can use a host machine TCP port to send/receive data from/to its emulated serial (modem, printer) ports
* modem port is tied to TCP port 1984 and printer port is tied to TCP port 1985
* I can shimmy a python script (https://github.com/Mu0n/talkMIDIboth/tree/main) running on my host Windows 11 machine to listen to those TCP ports and have it interface with the host's own serial USB ports, one of which happens to be hooked to a hardware midi interface that can receive (MIDI in) or send (MIDI out) using regular DIN5 chunky MIDI cables
* if you don't have a midi interface for your modern machine, then using the Microsoft GS wavetable software synth driver is also an option!

needless to say, EVERYTHING WORKS.
I can hook a midi piano controller and have it drive regular apps that expect this, like cubase or Master Tracks Pro. I'm working on my own app that expects MIDI in and outputs to the Sound Driver of the mac (square, triangle, even freeform).
I can hook a midi module like the Roland MT-32 and receive all the midi messages sent out by games like Space Quest III.

All of this is super fun already on real hardware and I've been doing it for years, but everything can now also be done in emulation with Snow! I wouldn't know where to begin doing all that with any of the other emulators.

I'll make a thread when the project is more mature during this 2026 #MARCHintosh

View attachment 27043

As I said on Discord; if you or anyone with some level of MIDI and basic Rust knowledge would like to integrate this as a bridge in Snow, I'd welcome a PR!

Looks like this should work: https://crates.io/crates/midir

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Space Quest III

Ah, Bob Siebenberg's music. Not exactly Supertramp, but it will do.

 

[MacOfAllTrades]

Is this the best way to migrate files between the emulated environment (in my case system 7.5 on a pretend se/30) and my host machine (in this case on macOS)?

I’m about ready to switch off of basilisk completely for my development workflow on doom but I find that I still need Basilisk for its shared folder feature where it treats a shared folder as a unix drive.

Edit to add:
Nevermind I see this: https://docs.snowemu.com/manual/sharing


Edit 2 to add:
Wow this worked amazingly easy. The clincher was having that “Insert BlueSCSI Tools floppy” built into the app.. Reminds me of the old VirtualBox “Insert Additions CD” or whatever it was. Nicely done.

 

[eric]

You are using Retro68 so why not use LaunchAPPL over serial or networking in snow? (and bluescsi for wads/etc) Also if you grab the latest bluescsi toolbox it'll do bin/hex stuff automatically. (bluescsi.com/toolbox)

 

[SitesOnFire]

I've been using Snow for the last few weeks to code with Think C. I've been (slowly) developing a Slack client (using a proxy to handle the API requests and send back plain text) on my Macintosh Classic, working on the native hardware was very time consuming. Since Snow emulates network connections, I've been able to sit on the couch and code away on an emulated SE/30 far quicker than the my classic will run. No sitting around waiting for endless reboots. It's a great app.

 

[Mu0n]

I've been using Snow for the last few weeks to code with Think C. I've been (slowly) developing a Slack client (using a proxy to handle the API requests and send back plain text) on my Macintosh Classic, working on the native hardware was very time consuming. Since Snow emulates network connections, I've been able to sit on the couch and code away on an emulated SE/30 far quicker than the my classic will run. No sitting around waiting for endless reboots. It's a great app.

are you on the bleeding edge version? check what just happened (mouse over-'ed button)

 

[SitesOnFire]

are you on the bleeding edge version? check what just happened (mouse over-'ed button)

View attachment 27709

I am not on the latest, that's a handy feature!

 

[MacOfAllTrades]

You are using Retro68 so why not use LaunchAPPL over serial or networking in snow? (and bluescsi for wads/etc) Also if you grab the latest bluescsi toolbox it'll do bin/hex stuff automatically. (bluescsi.com/toolbox)

thx eric — launchappl I’m familiar with from tinkering days making MacDock hehe but using it over serial or networking i don’t know — and hooing up networking in snow is the next layer — not saying it’s hard but you’re a few dimensions beyond what I’m familiar with.

I did just try and get the new bluescsi toolbox but didn’t see anything in the scsi transfer utility — kept crashing each time i tried to download my built .bin file.

Edit: Different launch application thing. whups (explaining my strikethrough)