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Macintosh 68k Software Depot

How to extract the different file formats?

PC Users note: If you like to use the files with a 68k Mac Emulation, transfer the compressed files into the emulated System and decompress them using the following applications. If you transfer compressed files via a PC 3,5 Inch disk to an old Mac you need to change the file name from APPLICATION.SIT to (small caps) application.sit, otherwise the StuffitExpander will not recognise them as sit files.

Common Compression File types

.bin
Macbinary II Encoded File. Make sure to download as MacBinary or Binary. The .bin file downloads faster but is less compatible with older systems. Use Stuffit Expander or BinHex to turn back into a usable Macintosh file.

.gz
.gz is the Gnu version of zip. It is a compression method developed for use on UNIX systems. The compression algorithm is DEFLATE.Use MacGzip to view and extract archives.

.hqx
Encodes a Macintosh file into 7-bit text so it can be safely transfered. Most Mac files appear in .hqx The .hqx file takes longer to download but is more compatible with older systems. Use Stuffit Expander or StuffIt.

.image (.img)
Macintosh Disk Image, most commonly found on Apple's FTP sites. Use DiskCopy to mount the disk image, and deal with it like you would a floppy.

.rar
RAR is a proprietary file format for data compression and archiving, developed by Eugene Roshal (hence the name RAR: Roshal ARchive).
Use UnRAR (please contact me if you have a 68k version)

.sit
Stuffit Archive - Binary. A compression format common on Apple Macintosh computers. Use Stuffit Expander, StuffIt or SitExpand to extract archives.

.sea
Macintosh Self Extracting Archive. A pre-Mac OS X Self-Extracting Archive format. StuffIt, Compact Pro, Disk Doubler and others could create .sea files, though the StuffIt versions were the most common. Download as MacBinary, and launch it. Self Extracting.

.tar
The "tarball" format combines tar archives with a file-based compression scheme (usually gzip). Commonly used for source and binary distribution on Unix-like platforms, widely available elsewhere. UNIX tar program takes seperate files and turns them into one file. Often also compressed. Extensions such .tar.Z, .tar.gz and .tgz (latter two are equivalent) requires decompression first, then un-tar. Some UNIX ftp servers will un-tar a file if you request it without the ".tar" extention. Download and use tarExpander

.zip
The most widely used compression format on Microsoft Windows. Commonly used on Macintosh and Unix systems too.
Use UnZip or MacZip to unzip.


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