Mac OS X Cheetah Successfully Ported to Nintendo Wii

Developer Bryan Keller was curious whether an old version of Apple's Mac operating system was capable of running on the Nintendo Wii after seeing Windows NT ported to the gaming device, so he decided to give it a try. He was able to get Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah to operate on the Nintendo Wii, and he shared a blog post walking through the project.

The Wii uses a PowerPC 750CL processor, which is a newer version of the PowerPC 750CXe that Apple used in the G3 iBook and iMac, which is why Keller had a hunch that the process would be successful. Keller wrote a custom bootloader and eventually managed to load OS X, with the multi-step process detailed on his website.

He had to patch the OS X kernel source code and compile a modified kernel binary, then write custom drivers so the kernel was able to read from the Wii SD card slot to boot into the file system. He also had to write a framebuffer driver for the OS X interface, bridge a color incompatibility between the Wii video hardware and OS X graphics code, and seek out decade-old OS X Cheetah USBFamily source code on IRC to get peripherals working.

Keller was able to get the Mac OS X Cheetah installer running with a functional keyboard and mouse, turning the Wii into a usable system running OS X.

Keller was invested enough in the project that he took the Wii with him on vacation to Hawaii so he could work on it. For those curious about how he solved the myriad problems required to get OS X running on a Wii, his website is worth checking out. Anyone who wants to try setting up OS X on a Wii can get the project source code on GitHub.