I found out that this LC 475 was still running in 24-bit addressing mode. That explains the rather ridiculous memory display! In that mode, System 7 can only make 8 MB of physical RAM available for normal use. Anything installed above that gets accounted for as though it belongs to the System heap, even though applications can’t actually use it.

With 36 MB installed, it looked as though System 7 had developed an absolutely enormous appetite for RAM. I turned on 32-bit addressing in the Memory control panel, restarted, and suddenly all that extra memory became usable normally. The reported System footprint dropped back to around 2 MB. I knew System 7 wasn’t THAT hungry for RAM! Thanks to MicroMac for pointing me in the right direction.

In other news, my copy of Geist Force for the Dreamcast arrived today. Thanks to the ASSEMbler Games community and everyone who helped make that prototype release happen. Here’s to many more preserved releases in the future!

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