Previous
 | |
 Previous 2.6 running NeXTStep 0.8 | |
| Type | emulator |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Andreas Grabher, Simon Schubiger and Gilles Fetis |
| Host platform | macOS (mainly) Windows (x86, x64) Linux |
| Guest platform | NeXTSTEP |
| Initial release version | 1.0 |
| Latest release version | 3.1 |
| Latest release date | 2024-02-13[1] |
| License | GPLv2 |
| Website | https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=2642 |
Previous is a NeXT Computer emulator written by Andreas Grabher, Simon Schubiger and Gilles Fetis which is able to emulate a NeXT computer, NeXTcube or NeXTstation. It is based on the Atari emulator "Hatari"[2]. It also uses the latest m68k emulation core from WinUAE[3] and the i860 emulator from Jason Eckhardt. Previous works on all systems that support SDL2. The emulator supports all NeXTSTEP versions from 0.8 to OPENSTEP 4.2. The current status of the project can be viewed on the NeXT International Forums.
Previous comes with a command line utility called ditool. It can be used to extract raw disk image files into a directory on the host system. Previous is also able to netboot from a directory containing an extracted bootable installation of NeXTstep. The netboot feature requires a case sensitive file system and extended file attributes available on the host system.
An image of the boot ROM of the desired PC is required to run the emulator. While the emulator is running, the configuration menu can be opened by pressing F12, toggling between fullscreen and windowed mode by pressing F11 and triggering a power event and shutting down the machine by pressing F10.
With the release of Previous 2.7, support for OS X Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan and Sierra was dropped, requiring High Sierra or higher to run.