There are three “main” classic Macintosh emulators: Mini vMac, Basilisk II and SheepShaver.
The website E-Maculation is dedicated to classic Macintosh emulators. (For instance, macOS is based on BSD UNIX the classic Mac isn’t.)
macOS has evolved since Apple introduced it back in 2001 as Mac OS X, but it is very different from its precursor. The Macintosh operating system’s history is often split into two sections: the classic Macintosh OS, and the modern macOS. The Macintosh operating system has evolved greatly since its introduction in 1984. Since my DOSBox post, where I demonstrated classic MS-DOS software, I’ve wanted to find and use a classic Mac emulator to experience the classic Mac experience – to run classic Macintosh software, experience the user interface and see what has and hasn’t changed. Want to run yesterday’s Macintosh software on your modern Mac or PC?