Imac G3 had clean install OS 10.1; can't install 9.2; now won't boot at all

Hello,
I was given an older imac G3--has 176 mg ram; 6 gb hard drive. Due to its small memory and the fact my daughter just wanted it for games, I decided to only install OS 10.1, instead of OS 9.2.2 and OS 10.1.5 which I have on my G4.
Then, I found that most of my CD games (no internet access) need Classic to run. So, upon inserting my OS 9.1 disk to install that, I got the message that the firmware needed to be updated; then an error saying I needed installer 4.5.5.
Two questions:
1. How do I get around the fact that my firmware needs to be updated but when I boot from a locked disk, I get the error message that firmware updates can't take place due to locked disk.
2. Now, I can't get it to boot at all into OS X or any disk in the CD drive--I get a screen with a little script that says, "failed to boot, etc., Apple Firmware 3.0 3f built 12/__98
then (not exact text)
0 >boot MAC-PARTS: specified partition invalid, etc.
can't open ide1, etc.
I hooked it up to my other G3 imac and my G4 via ethernet cable but since there's no system accessible, I can't turn on file sharing/Apple talk, etc.
Hoping I'm not the only night owl going round and round with these kind of problems. Any help would be much appreciated.
Valerie in Seattle

If you don't mind wiping the hard drive, boot from the 10.1 installer disk and install the 9 drivers:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75275
Then find out what CD came with the Mac by first identifying it:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58669
And then looking at this article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25517
If it came with 9, get the original CD that came with it to install Mac OS 9.
If it came with Mac OS 8.6 or earlier, get a retail 9 CD which looks like
Do a clean install using
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58176 as a guide once you have the correct 9 disk.
Then install the firmware update that corresponds to your Mac:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
And then I would not even bother with 10.1.5 anymore and get 10.2. Repairing issues with 10.1.5 is difficult. 10.2 installer disks which work on that machine once the firmware is updated look like

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Abbstrack wrote:
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