"Hi Mike, I don't have an Intel Mac yet but on my coming MacBook I'd definitely want to run OS 9. There's too much good old software that I cannot replace in OS X. I read this article about Sheepshaver:
http://www.uneasysilence.com/archive/2006/08/7352/
(another reader mentioned a guide here)
Here's a detailed article in german:
http://classics_for_x.macbay.de/macintosh/shaver_ger.htm
Sheepshaver homepage:
http://www.gibix.net/dokuwiki/en:projects:sheepshaver
I think people will miss their classic now that there is no other choice than buying an Intel Mac. I suppose sheepshaver will run at least as fast on those Macs as OS 9 was a few years ago on the G4s, anyway - not too slow.
For extracting the ROM from the installer with Tomeviewer you just need classic, booting into OS 9 is not nessecary. You'll even find a ROM in the OS 9.0.4 updater that's available from Apple here.
To find a system CD won't be difficult - you can ask friends or look at ebay.
The only thing that worries me a bit is that the developer of sheepshaver writes:

"To: whoever at Apple that have the right information
Hello, it is well known that you dropped support for MacOS Classic applications in MacOS X for Intel. Should you care of your users, people that made you a living for years, please consider the following: either (i) bring back a Classic environment, or (ii) help SheepShaver development.
The latter can be realized by releasing code and/or documentation about MacOS Classic internals. Thanks."

I hope he makes it.
Best regards, Wolfgang"

Reader Replies: (later reports first)
If you're using Sheep Shaver on an Intel Mac, let me know your experiences with it. Include OS version used (9.0.4 or earlier) and what Apps, utilities, etc. you've used with it. Also include notes on any compatibility problems you've seen. Thanks.

(added 9/20/2006)
"I have installed Sheep Shaver on an Intel Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Dual-Core.
I had some initial problems like everyone else in trying to find a suitable 9.0.4 installer. But this is what I was able to do. I had an early Power Mac G4 Software Restore CD, version 691-2740-A. This has the SSW version 9.0.4. I followed the Sheep Shaver GUI instructions on the Sheep Shaver site. Make sure and create a volume that's a minimum of 500 MB in size. Sheep Shaver will boot using the G4 Software Restore CD. The only problem is that the software restore installer will not run because it does not recognize the Intel Mac as G4 hardware. So this is what I did as a work around:

Once Sheep Shaver has booted from the G4 Software Restore CD, double click on the CD and open the "Configurations" folder. Copy the "Power Mac G4 HD.img" file to the OS 9 desktop.

Now launch the "Disk Copy" utility found within the "Utilities" folder on the G4 Software Restore CD. Drag and drop the disk image onto Disk Copy window to mount the contents. Once the "Macintosh HD" contents have been mounted, select all the contents of the mounted volume and copy them to the 500 MB volume that was created through the Sheep Shaver GUI. This will give you a clean and "Blessed" system folder and system applications.

Now quit Disk Copy and go the the Apple menu. Launch the "Startup Disk" control panel and select the 500 MB volume to be the startup disk. Close the control panel and click on the "Special" file menu and restart OS 9.

I have successfully installed and ran Quark 4, Freehand 8, Suitcase 9 among other apps. Runs a bit slow but does the trick. I have also been able to access files on my Intel by connecting to it through the Chooser. Click on the "AppleShare" icon. Click on the "Server IP Address" button and enter the Intel Macs IP address. This will mount the Intel Mac internal HD onto the OS 9 desktop as a shared volume and you will be able to see and copy all your files.
-Alex"

(added 8/28/2006)
" I'm blogging my SheepShaver experiences on my web site. The posting is at:
http://www.zathras.de/angelweb/blog-sheepshaver-classic-for-intel-macs.htm
It's still a little iffy. I'll update the article as I find out more.
This is on a Mac Mini Core Duo, 10.4.7, with 8.6 installed.
Cheers, M. Uli K. "

(added 8/25/2006)
" Greetings Mike, I spent a bit of time trying out Sheepshaver (May 14, 2006 build) on my MacBook Pro (2Ghz core duo, 2GB RAM), using ROM 1.6 with OS 9.0.4.

I created a 700MB disk which boots quickly. Mostly it works pretty well. Internet access, sound, viewing QT movies, and accessing shared files on the network by entering the IP directly all worked fine. I got printing to work by setting up my HP Laserjet 2300 as an IP printer. The Clipboard works transparently with OS X.

I'm not sure why, but sometimes files and folders that exist in the OSX (Unix) plane simply don't show up under Sheepshaver. The only reliable way I found to easily move files between the two was to alias my OSX user Desktop onto the OS9 Desktop. Then, I was able to copy files between them, except for the fact that Types/Creators get reversed. For example, if the Type/Creator is: MooV/TVOD once the file is copied over it becomes VooM/DOVT under Sheepshaver. The problem occurs when copying in either direction. Fixing the files with File Buddy solves the problem: icons reappear. Contrary to what one of your readers said, the resource forks are not damaged.

Applications mostly worked fine (under very limited testing). Graphing Calculator was quite snappy, 4th Dimension 6.7 was a little sluggish, but worked fine. FoxPro 2.6 (which works fine in Classic), on the other hand, worked poorly, displaying odd mathmatical errors and crashing on occasion. I would guess this is an FPU emulation problem, as there's a note about a later build than I was using:

"As of 2006/07/04, the current SheepShaver CVS branch contains a more accurate FPU emulation engine. It passes VEX tests with more precision & exception bits. All the following glibc tests pass on PPC: test-fenv, test-arith{,f}, test-{float,double}. Almost all of them pass on x86-64 too (modulo a few errors in test-float), provided that GCC >= 4.0.1 is used. The more accurate engine is enabled with PPC_ENABLE_FPU_EXCEPTIONS."

Also, the certain characters didn't keyboard correctly, there apparently are some keycode mapping issues.

Other things I tried, that seem to work: File Buddy, TomeViewer, Disk First Aid (reports that the disks are Floppies, but otherwise seems to work), Desktop Printer Utility, SimpleText, Speech, Stuffit Expander, Internet Explorer 5.1.7 and Quicktime.
All in all, it's a pretty impressive start. That's it for now.
-Dave "

Notes on Sound and Networking:

(added 8/24/2006)
" Aloha, I decided to take a look at it when I read your article last week. At first I had a bunch of crashes but once I brought the system software up to 8.6 it seems pretty stable.

So far I've been able to run AppleWorks, HyperStudio 3.1, and iCab 3.03.
Generally the speed is very good.

Originally I didn't have sound and seemed unable to bring up the volume. I found the sound control panel buried on the 8.5 installer CD and used that to activate sound.

I've also been unable to get AppleTalk to work but I am able to access a file server using the IP number.

Overall I'm very impressed. I don't have too much need for Classic applications but this allows me to access the ones I do need.
Mahalo, Kevin B,
Kapolei, Hawaii"

(added 8/23/2006)
"I found my OS 9.0 Disk and Sheepshaver is up and running.
(Yesterday he mentioned crashes with OS 8.5.-Mike)
System Profiler noted it as a PowerMac 9500

I had copied some old apps from an external drive to the iMac internal drive and appearently lost the resource fork as they all apear as generic icons. I will have to reload some apps from disk.

Waiting to see how Bugdom I runs. My kids love that game
-Richard S.
Intel iMac (20 inch, 2GB of RAM, 2GHz)"

(added 8/23/2006)
"I have SheepShaver installed and running on my MacBook Pro using Mac OS 8.6. It's fairly stable. Tends to lock up intermittently (which is pretty much normal). I'm still trying to get networking to work (AFP) but haven't had much luck yet. It's faster then my old 6100/66 was.
-Scot F. "

(added 8/23/2006)
" Hi, I have an intel Mac (iMac?) and I installed sheepshaver to try to export some videos captured with the digital radar of Logitech, that uses the videc codec.

To make the story short, I have to make and image .smi on the sheepshaver and copy to the unix disk, open it on the os x, put inside the installers, and copy the image back to the sheepshaver disk. That was the only way to make the sheepshaver recognize properly the installer file, that was not compressed. Works fine with the .hqx and .sit but can't recognize the uncompressed files.

Later when all was installed, when I try to open the video, The application Sheepshaver unexpectly quit.
Best Regards from Venezuela,
Eduardo "

(8/22/2006)
" I purchased a black MacBook a week or two after release and getting Sheepshaver to run on this machine became a kind of obsession, even though I only rely on one OS 9 app (Inspiration -- I could buy the OS X upgrade but I'm too cheap). Still, there are plenty of small niche apps that have never been replaced and it's a shame to lock oneself out of 25+ years of software.

The most difficult part of installation was finding a suitable install CD. The only OS 9 disc in my possession was a 9.2.2 disc from my PowerMac, which is incompatible with Sheepshaver (it requires 9.0.4 or earlier). Outside of eBay there's not many means of finding the discs and most auctioneers never mention the exact version numbers, only that it's OS 9). Mac-using friends all seemed to have 9.1 CDs . . . I wonder what stops Apple from offering OS 9 for free as they do 7.5.3?

Performance wise things are acceptable. Perhaps Apple could adopt the project and polish it up a bit, offering it as a free download with OS 9 images included? I doubt it would take much effort.

I zipped up my Sheepshaver folder and keep it handy for any friends who might need an OS 9 app on their Intel Mac. It will save them the shock of finding out an app they relied on for years no longer runs.
-Haroon "

I asked him if he's found anything (drivers, utilities, etc.) that didn't work and what apps, etc. he used with it so far.

(8/22/2006)
" I tried it this morning on an Intel iMac (20 inch, 2GB of RAM, 2GHz)
I was able to create the disk image and boot from a System 8.5 CD I ran the install program to set up 8.5 on the image, but Sheepshaver would crash upon restart.
I plan on investigating later plus find my os9 disk to try.
-Richard S. "

See above for Richard's later report on using OS 9.0.