HyperZebra

HyperZebra is an environment for HyperCard stacks and classic Mac applications, written in Java for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

• HyperCard stacks: import a stack, browse and edit its cards, and run its HyperTalk scripts and XCMD/XFCN externals. HyperZebra keeps HyperCard’s ease of use and adds color painting, editable shapes, panels, and modern data handling such as arrays, JSON, and regular expressions.
• Classic Mac applications: run supported 68K and PowerPC applications made for Mac OS 9 and earlier. HyperZebra emulates the 68K and PowerPC CPUs and implements the Mac Toolbox services that applications call (windows, menus, QuickDraw, sound, files, QuickTime, 3D) on the host, so no Mac ROM or classic Mac OS installation is needed.

Download HyperZebra · Website · 日本語サイト

HyperZebra is free to download, and its source code is available under the MIT License. It is an unofficial compatibility environment and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Apple Inc.

HyperZebra began around 2012 as a HyperCard clone. Version 3 continues it as a complete rewrite, developed entirely by AI coding agents.

Features

HyperCard stacks

• Import HyperCard stacks, including Japanese and other non-English stacks, and save them as single-file .hzb documents. Stacks can also be exported back to HyperCard format, without HyperZebra-only features such as color.
• Create and edit cards, backgrounds, buttons, and fields.
• Paint in color with layers, and draw editable shapes (rectangles, ellipses, polygons, curves, text) with gradients, opacity, and rotation. SVG files can be imported as shapes.
• Group parts into panels that have their own scripts and data, and show fields as tables or outlines.
• Write HyperTalk in a script editor with live error checking, a command reference, and a debugger. HyperTalk extensions include arrays, dictionaries, JSON, regular expressions, and web requests.
• Edit a stack’s icons, cursors, sounds, and other resources in the built-in resource editor.

Classic Mac applications

• Run supported 68K and PowerPC applications, including games that use QuickDraw 3D, RAVE, or OpenGL (rendered in software).
• Adjust screen size, color depth, zoom, and speed for each application, and change the window appearance with Kaleidoscope schemes.
• Exchange text and pictures with the host through the clipboard.
• Open Disk Copy, HFS, HFS Plus, MFS, and ISO disk images, and keep resource forks through MacBinary, BinHex, and AppleDouble (._ files). StuffIt, Compact Pro, and LHA archives are expanded by classic expander applications running inside HyperZebra.
• Add extensions, control panels, and fonts to a virtual System Folder.

General

• Open stacks, applications, and documents from a launcher with a history and a dock.
• Use the interface in English, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, and Simplified or Traditional Chinese.
• Read HyperZebra Help (English and Japanese) for stack import, editing, the HyperTalk extensions, and the Mac compatibility environment.

Compatibility varies by stack, script, and application: HyperTalk and the Mac Toolbox are covered widely, but not completely.

Downloads

Ready-to-use packages are available from GitHub Releases:

• macOS (Apple silicon or Intel) and Windows (x64) packages include a Java runtime, so no separate Java installation is needed.
• The cross-platform jar package, for Linux and other systems, needs Java 17 or later with desktop support.

Use a release package if you want to run HyperZebra with its supporting files.

This repository contains the source files needed to build the application jar. It does not contain the runtime data or packaging tools used for the complete release distributions.

Build from source

Requirements

• JDK 17 or later, with java, javac, and jar available.
• Bash on macOS or Linux, or PowerShell on Windows.
• No third-party Java libraries or build tools are required.

JDK 22 or later also compiles the optional Foreign Function & Memory (FFM) helpers for platform integration. These helpers are skipped with older JDKs. Set JAVA_HOME to select the JDK used for the build.

macOS / Linux

From the repository root:

./build.sh

Windows

From the repository root in PowerShell:

.\build.ps1

Both scripts generate build/HyperZebra.jar and include the UI translation catalogs in the jar.

Running a source build

With the supporting runtime files in place, run:

java -jar build/HyperZebra.jar

The jar build does not create a complete distribution. This repository omits runtime resources (resource/), Home stack data, extractor applications, samples, tests, release packaging tools, and the optional macOS Swift translation helper. Use a release package for the complete runtime layout.

Source layout

Path	Contents
src/	Java application sources, organized by area; see the source guide.
src/ffm/	Optional platform helpers requiring JDK 22 or later.
lang/	UI translation catalogs included in the jar.
build.sh, build.ps1	Build scripts for macOS/Linux and Windows.
tools/jdk.ps1	JDK discovery and command helpers used by the Windows build.

License

The source code in this repository is available under the MIT License. See THIRD_PARTY.md for third-party notices.

Stacks and classic Mac applications have their own authors and terms of use and distribution.

Macintosh, HyperCard, HyperTalk, Mac, macOS, QuickDraw, and QuickTime are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Other product names are trademarks of their respective owners.