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gustavopi · Aug 28, 2006, 03:54 PM

When, at last, I put the Panther to rule my old iMac 333 with 384Mb RAM, I quickly found me out of game world. Very few games runs on it and also very slow. With the old Mac OS Classic 9 I can play classic games like Descent 3, UT, ONI, Total Annihilation and much more. But Panther plays only some Xadrez, Duke Nunkem...

The reason for which there is no opengl drivers is not clear. Apple have no more interest in old iMacs since Mac OS X was launch - I think Jobes never thought that it would be possible to work or play on this machines. He was wrong. Most of users don't wanna play the last thing made for the last nvidia videocard, we just wanna see DVD's, DivX and play a simple game like we allready do in Classic mode. But we need the drivers!!!

Searching and searching over the net I made my conclusion: there is a few similars ATI chips named Rage (Rage this, Rage there) - Rage Pro on my iMac. ATI develop drivers for some models and did not to others due to its low performance - they have no more interest on this chips also.

Now the question: - is there a way to install some opengl driver of a similar card in my iMac? Can I deceive the system and make to think it that it is another videocard so I can run opengl?

OptimusPrime · Aug 29, 2006, 11:15 AM

Yes, that pissed me off also. Basically, you can't use panther. OSX version 10.1, or around thereabouts, included OpenGL drivers for the Rage Pro used on the 333mhz 1st gen iMac. I believe they also included opengl stuff for the Rage IIc, used in the bondi imac, but I'm not sure.

HOWEVER, if you do enough googling, there IS a way to hack the OLD osx drivers from 10.1 into later builds of OSX. I don't have teh links... just keep trying... try "imac rage pro osx" or something.

Good luck!

goMac · Aug 29, 2006, 09:32 PM

They've never included OpenGL on original iMacs. That's the way it's been for the last 5 years. The fact of the matter was these were old machines even when OS X came out.

Either boot into Classic or upgrade. That machine is quite quite old, well on the path to being 10 years old.

gustavopi · Sep 11, 2006, 08:07 AM

Originally Posted by goMac

They've never included OpenGL on original iMacs. That's the way it's been for the last 5 years. The fact of the matter was these were old machines even when OS X came out.

Either boot into Classic or upgrade. That machine is quite quite old, well on the path to being 10 years old.

Well, think about buying a MacMini that cost US$ 2.000,00 - and it's the most cheap! This is the equivalent cost of a Mac here. So we have to think VERY different. Here there is a lot of people with Windows 98 and Linux. An iMac cannot be discarded because it still can work a lot. Course I will not work with Photoshop CS2, but I can work with Flash, Dreamweaver, even Word, so it still can help a lot, IF I GOT THE DRIVERS. Without opengl drivers, the G3 processor is overloaded. Course in Classic mode the machine flyes! But I do not accept work in Classic because I beleave that software producers must make their systems to computers, not to computer sellers! Tiger do not intall without a hack because gou no fireware ports - this is ridicule, no computer need firewire to work !!! Made these drivers is very easy for them, and if they don't wanna made, I don't wanna buy macs anymore!

kick52 · Sep 11, 2006, 12:56 PM

ask people with os x 10.1 or whatever if they could email you the .kexts

or you might be able to find a darwin one available.

goMac · Sep 11, 2006, 07:24 PM

Originally Posted by gustavopi

Well, think about buying a MacMini that cost US$ 2.000,00 - and it's the most cheap! This is the equivalent cost of a Mac here. So we have to think VERY different. Here there is a lot of people with Windows 98 and Linux. An iMac cannot be discarded because it still can work a lot. Course I will not work with Photoshop CS2, but I can work with Flash, Dreamweaver, even Word, so it still can help a lot, IF I GOT THE DRIVERS. Without opengl drivers, the G3 processor is overloaded. Course in Classic mode the machine flyes! But I do not accept work in Classic because I beleave that software producers must make their systems to computers, not to computer sellers! Tiger do not intall without a hack because gou no fireware ports - this is ridicule, no computer need firewire to work !!! Made these drivers is very easy for them, and if they don't wanna made, I don't wanna buy macs anymore!

Just like people run Windows 98 on their older computers, it might just be best to run OS 9 on that iMac.

centerchannel68 · Apr 5, 2007, 05:11 PM

This still sucks. My heavily upgraded original imac can't even play a youtube video.

gto47 · Apr 25, 2007, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by centerchannel68

This still sucks. My heavily upgraded original imac can't even play a youtube video.

This has nothing to do with openGL. Flash is unable to support opengl, nor does it support any standard that utlizes the video card. The limitation is your vram and processor speed. Might as well overclock the thing, the most you stand to lose is the processor card.

goMac · Apr 25, 2007, 06:34 PM

Originally Posted by gto47

This has nothing to do with openGL. Flash is unable to support opengl, nor does it support any standard that utlizes the video card. The limitation is your vram and processor speed. Might as well overclock the thing, the most you stand to lose is the processor card.

Flash actually does support OpenGL. That said, my G4 cube with a GeForce 2 can't play Flash on the web, so even if you got Flash to do OpenGL on an iMac 333, it would still suck just as bad.

ajprice · Apr 28, 2007, 04:21 PM

G4 867 tower here, with a GeForce 2 card. No problems with Youtube, Flash or OpenGL.

gustavopi · May 15, 2007, 07:10 PM

I'm trying to replay for months...

Anyway... There is a new factor today in discussions about keep old machines working: digital garbage. When Apple, ATI and all corporations stop supporting, a lot of still functionality equipment goes to the garbage. Industry works that way: new features, more memory, more processig, more... I do not agree with this, my iMac still can be usefull and it will. Course I'll have to make Apple change it's mind...

Who is with me ?!?