Bring your disks.
Choose one image or a whole set. Name the disks, select the drives you need, and choose where the emulated machine boots.
Your old disks.
Their own
Mac apps.
Give your Apple II favourites a place in the Dock. Package a disk image, pick an icon, and build a standalone player that feels at home on your Mac.
Public alpha · v0.5.2 · macOS 13+ · Intel & Apple Silicon
Free & open source. Locally signed, not notarized.
A LITTLE BIT OF 1986. A LITTLE BIT OF NOW.
APPLE II WRAPPER BUILDER
Old-school heart. Native Mac wrapper..DSK .WOZ .2MG .HDV + MORE
Keep the ritual.
Lose the setup.
A builder for the person setting things up.
A simple player for the person pressing play.
Make it yours.
Give the app a name and an icon. Find artwork with the built-in image search, or bring your own and crop it to a square.
Build. Open. Play.
Export a standalone Mac app. On first launch, the player helps you download a supported ROM or select your own.
BYO SOFTWARE The builder and player template include no ROM firmware or game disks. Your exported app uses the disk images you supply.
The machine you remember.
The controls you have.
Keep the Mac niceties.
Keep the Apple II character.
A window. Or the whole screen.
Start in full screen, switch whenever you like, or resize the window in exact integer multiples.
Your controller, your mapping.
Map a Mac gamepad to the classic two-axis Apple II joystick, or send keypad and Apple-key presses for keyboard-controlled games.
At its own pace.
Choose 1.0, 2.8 or 8 MHz, or run unlimited. Swap disks from the menu when your app has more than one.
More than a game launcher.
A whole Apple II or IIgs inside a Mac window. Here are a few real players in action.
Software shown is supplied separately and is not included in the builder download. Select a screenshot to see it full size.
Small app.
Real computer underneath.
Do my disks need to be bootable?
Yes, the emulated computer needs a bootable disk or system image. Some games need a separate ProDOS or GS/OS system disk. The builder packages your setup; it doesn’t install an operating system for you.
Can I use several disks?
Yes. Package multiple images, give them readable menu names, and choose the available 5.25-inch, 3.5-inch or SmartPort drives. A one-disk, one-drive setup keeps the disk-swapping menu out of the way.
Where do saves and changes go?
The player copies its disk images into its own Application Support folder on first launch. The emulator uses those writable copies, keeping the images inside the app intact.
Will every Apple II game work?
Compatibility depends on the software, ROM, system disk and controls it expects. This is an early release. Some software will need configuration, and some may not work yet.
Is there a Windows version?
For now, a2emu is a macOS project. The builder and exported players run on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs with macOS 13 or later.
Give that disk
a second life.
Apple II Wrapper Builder · Public alpha v0.5.2
A universal Mac app by theredhead.
First launch on your Mac
These builds are locally signed and aren’t notarized by Apple. macOS may block the first launch.
- Unzip the download and move the builder to Applications.
- Try opening the app once.
- If macOS blocks it, open System Settings → Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway for this app.
Only approve a download you trust. Exported players may need the same first-launch approval on another Mac.
Built on decades of care.
a2emu brings a Swift macOS builder and player to the work of Kent Dickey’s KEGS and GSplus by Dagen Brock and contributors. Full source for the builder, player and bundled emulator components is included in the apps and available above. Distributed under GPL-3.0.