It seems that Windows NT naitively supported IBM's PowerPC processors (in addition to IA-32/x86). The "PowerPC Edition" did not sell much, so Micorosft discontinued the support in 1997.
Because Wii and GameCube were PowerPC-based, both can technically run Windows NT. This seems to be the main reason why this project was doable.
I think we are witnessing a historical accident materialized by obscure hardware legacies.
2 hours ago [-]
rvnx 1 hours ago [-]
Nobody asked for that, I love it, this is brilliant, and like art.
jakupovic 42 minutes ago [-]
Great work!
dark-star 3 hours ago [-]
Has anyone tried this on real hardware? I've searched for videos on YouTube but haven't found any.
Would love to see it running before I go searching for my old GameCube to try it myself :)
dark-star 2 hours ago [-]
To answer my own question: This looks like it is being run on real hardware (with some sort of SD card adapter/loader):
To port advanced new games like Minesweeper and Solitaire to their Gamecube. Freecell is indispensable of course.
pjmlp 7 minutes ago [-]
How could you forget about Pinball?!?
ljf 1 hours ago [-]
Hackers got to hack?
While my technical exploits are no where near this - I love reading about people doing odd and difficult things for fun.
(As a young teen who was obsessed with Road Rash on the Sega Game Gear, I wrote down every single save code, after every game I played, along with what I had (bike, level and cash) - after a week or so of doing this I worked out the save code and was able to give myself any level, bike or money by manually tweaking the code. I am sure that I am not the only person that discovered this, but at the time I felt like a god and enjoyed racing the later levels with the worst bikes etc. - sometimes it's just fun to do something because you can.)
rickdeckard 1 hours ago [-]
See, that's what I actually mean :)
I expanded in a sub-comment: I am not challenging that it was done, I would like to hear about the motivation to do it.
There's no purpose for the result described on Github, and also no background why it was done.
I have no value to run Windows NT on a Gamecube, but I would surely enjoy the story on why it came to be :)
goosedragons 58 minutes ago [-]
To run Office 4.2 and browse the web in Internet Explorer?
Paianni 4 minutes ago [-]
There were native builds of Word and Excel for Alpha that came with 4.2 and 97, but nothing else non-x86 except for the 'pocket' versions that came with Windows CE.
eMPee584 37 minutes ago [-]
unless.. HTTPS everywhere x D
fredoralive 17 minutes ago [-]
There are proxies for that.
The page doesn't seem to mention the Gamecube Ethernet card or the Wii's Wi-Fi support, so it might not have any working networking, so that might be a more important issue.
aussieguy1234 3 hours ago [-]
Because they could
rickdeckard 3 hours ago [-]
And I like that, I'm just literally missing a small intro on the motivation at the GitHub page.
Either way, always nice to read the chain of thought which drove someone to do something- :)
[0] https://github.com/Wack0/maciNTosh
[1] Windows NT for Power Macintosh (github.com/wack0)
298 points by TazeTSchnitzel 7 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 215 comments
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40945076
Because Wii and GameCube were PowerPC-based, both can technically run Windows NT. This seems to be the main reason why this project was doable.
I think we are witnessing a historical accident materialized by obscure hardware legacies.
Would love to see it running before I go searching for my old GameCube to try it myself :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrcZ2-I0CbQ
While my technical exploits are no where near this - I love reading about people doing odd and difficult things for fun.
(As a young teen who was obsessed with Road Rash on the Sega Game Gear, I wrote down every single save code, after every game I played, along with what I had (bike, level and cash) - after a week or so of doing this I worked out the save code and was able to give myself any level, bike or money by manually tweaking the code. I am sure that I am not the only person that discovered this, but at the time I felt like a god and enjoyed racing the later levels with the worst bikes etc. - sometimes it's just fun to do something because you can.)
I expanded in a sub-comment: I am not challenging that it was done, I would like to hear about the motivation to do it.
There's no purpose for the result described on Github, and also no background why it was done.
I have no value to run Windows NT on a Gamecube, but I would surely enjoy the story on why it came to be :)
The page doesn't seem to mention the Gamecube Ethernet card or the Wii's Wi-Fi support, so it might not have any working networking, so that might be a more important issue.
Either way, always nice to read the chain of thought which drove someone to do something- :)