Getting The Fool's Errand to Work on an OS 10.5 Intel Mac

Co-authored with Eric Ivancich.

Cliff Johnson has made his old puzzle game The Fool's Errand available for free download, but to use it you have to get it to work on your modern computer. The following procedure worked for me on my Intel Mac Pro.

Get all the stuff you need:

• From http://rolli.ch/MacPlus/ download:
  
  • vmac.rom
  • System 6.0.8 - Finder 6.1.8
  
  
  
  You must own a Mac Plus and System 6 to do this legally.
  


• Go to the miniVMac download page and download:
  
  
  
  • miniVMac for OS X, Intel (or whichever version is appropriate for your computer).
  
  
  
  


• Go to the miniVMac site blank disk image page and download:
  
  
  
  • blank floppy disk images
  
  


• Go to Cliff Johnson's downloads page and download:
  
  
  
  • The Fool's Errand
  
  


• Use Unstuffit to unstuff and unzip all of the above.
  
  • Note: On OS X, you can use the built-in unzipper (i.e., double-click on the .zip file and it will unzip) for most things above. However for The Fool's Errand .zip file you get from Cliff Johnson's download page, you apparently must use Unstuffit or Stuffit Expander. Otherwise the files are not of the correct types. You can download Stuffit Expander for free.


• Put the vmac.rom in the same folder as the "Mini vMac" application.

Make a disk image containing The Fool's Errand:

• Unzip the blank disk images file, and unzip the hfs1400k.zip file in the resulting folder.
• Rename the resulting file hfs1400k.DSK to hfs1400k.dmg.
• Double-click hfs1400k.dmg to mount it.
• From the folder "The Fool's Errand", drag "Fool's Puzzles", "Prologue & Finale", and "The Fool's Errand" onto the mounted disk image.
• Unmount the disk image.

Run Mini vMac:

• Launch the "Mini vMac" application.
• Choose File -> Open Disk Image and choose "Disk608.dsk" from the "System 6.0.8 - Finder 6.1.8" folder.
• This should make the question-mark disk go away and start up your emulated Mac Plus.

Run the game:

• Choose File -> Open Disk Image and choose "hfs1400k.dmg" from the "blanks" folder. You should see a new disk called "Untitled" on the desktop.
• Rename "Untitled" to "FoolsErrand" or some such, and open it.
• Launch "The Fool's Errand"!
• "One sunny day a light-hearted fool strolled along a hilly path..." Indeed!
• To quit Mini vMac: hold down Control while typing 'q' and then 'y'.