Mini vMac 37

Mini vMac 37 emulates Apple Macintosh. It reads 1 file, 1 of them required: without a required file it does not start games.

About this profile

Detail	Value
Type	standalone
Classification	Community fork
Source	https://github.com/minivmac/minivmac
Version	37.03
Revision	minivmac/minivmac@6860a9a7f372
Built by	retropie, under its core name. The libretro buildbot does not publish this build.
Profiled	2026-10-20
Profile	YAML, JSON
Cores	minivmac
Systems	Apple Macintosh

Install this emulator's files

With RetroPie: the installer finds RetroPie and its BIOS folder, then downloads only the files Mini vMac 37 reads there and checks each one.

On the device

Open a terminal on the device. Or connect from a computer with SSH, a terminal over the network. Paste the line. Press Enter.

Terminal

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --emulator minivmac37

Technical notes

Mini vMac 37.03 (setup/SPBASDEF.i:21-24), maintained from Paul C. Pratt's code (setup/SPBASDEF.i:30). The emulated model, the ROM name, the ROM size and the accepted checksums are fixed when the setup tool writes the build configuration, so one binary runs one model. The default model is the Macintosh Plus (setup/SPBLDOPT.i:101,108). The entries below describe a build with -m Plus, which is also the default.

The setup tool names the ROM after the model (setup/SPCNFGAP.i:28-63): Twig43.ROM (Twig43), Twiggy.ROM (Twiggy), Mac128K.ROM (128K), MacPlusKanji.ROM (Kanji), MacSE.ROM (SE), SEFDHD.ROM (SEFDHD), Classic.ROM (Classic), PB100.ROM (PB100), MacII.ROM (II), MacIIx.ROM (IIx) and vMac.ROM for 512Ke and Plus. ROM sizes per model are set at setup/SPBLDOPT.i:3229-3257 and the per-model checksums at setup/SPCNFGAP.i:81-126. A build for another model reads only the name of that model.

The SDL backend (-api sdl, sd2 or sd3, src/OSGLUSDL.c) looks for the ROM in this order (src/OSGLUSDL.c:606-620): the path given by --rom or -r (src/OSGLUSDL.c:4962-4968), the directory given by -d or else the directory of the executable from SDL_GetBasePath (src/OSGLUSDL.c:576-604,5185), the mnvm_rom folder under SDL_GetPrefPath("gryphel", "minivmac") (src/OSGLUSDL.c:546-573,5187), then the working directory. The executable directory and the preference folder are searched only on SDL 2 and later (src/OSGLUSDL.c:67-72). The default Linux backend is X11 (setup/GNBLDOPT.i:1609-1621), which searches the command line path, the executable directory, ~/.gryphel/mnvm_rom/ and the working directory (src/OSGLUXWN.c:957-1022).

When no ROM loads, the emulator keeps running and waits for a ROM image dropped on its window (src/OSGLUSDL.c:470-483,620).

At startup the SDL backend mounts disk1.dsk to disk9.dsk from the executable directory, stopping at the first missing one (src/OSGLUSDL.c:486-540). These are user disk images.

Files

1 file: 1 required, 0 optional.

In this collection: 1 in repo and 0 missing.

Required

vMac.ROM required in repo

• System: Apple Macintosh

• Size: min 128.0 KB
• Validation: size
• Source: setup/SPCNFGAP.i:60-63, setup/SPCNFGAP.i:115-124, setup/SPBLDOPT.i:3240-3243, src/OSGLUSDL.c:435-468, src/OSGLUSDL.c:606-620, src/CONTROLM.h:1314-1326, src/CONTROLM.h:1344-1388
• Collection copy: bios/Apple/Macintosh/vMac.ROM
• Platforms: RetroDECK: bios/vMac.ROM

• Macintosh Plus ROM. LoadMacRomFrom reads kROM_Size bytes, 131072 for the Plus (setup/SPCNFGGL.i:73-77), and rejects a shorter file. ROM_IsValid then compares the first long word of the image with the three Plus checksums 0x4D1EEEE1 (v1), 0x4D1EEAE1 (v2) and 0x4D1F8172 (v3), and recomputes the sum of the 16-bit words from offset 4 over 131072 bytes, which must equal the stored value. A ROM that fails either test is refused. The -chr 0 setup option compiles both tests out (setup/SPBLDOPT.i:3288-3311, setup/SPCNFGAP.i:128-130, src/CONTROLM.h:1309-1310).

Next steps

• Get your files, for the setup you play on
• Every system, and the files each one needs
• When a game does not start

Data as of 24 October 2026.