- How to play Windows games on your Mac without Windows
- GeForce Now
- The Wine Project
- CrossOver Mac
- Boxer
- Some final thoughts
- How do you play your Windows games on Mac?
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- Games for PC
- Mac Games
- Categories
- Platforms
- Devices
- Genres
- What Are Mac Games?
- The History Of Mac Games
- Early Days
- Changing Times
- What Are Mac Games Like Today?
- The Future
- Windows vs Mac – Which is Best For Gaming?
- What Makes the Best Mac Games?
- Gaming Experience
- Quality Graphics
- Games to Suit your Personality
- Seamless Performance
- Enjoy a New Way to Play With the Best Mac Games
How to play Windows games on your Mac without Windows
Source: iMore
The Mac has plenty of games, but it’ll always get the short end of the stick compared to Windows. If you want to play the latest games on your Mac, you have no choice but to install Windows . or do you?
There are a few ways you can play Windows games on your Mac without having to dedicate a partition to Boot Camp or giving away vast amounts of hard drive space to a virtual machine app like VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop. Here are a few other options for playing Windows games on your Mac without the hassle or expense of having to install Windows.
GeForce Now
Source: Nvidia
PC gaming on Mac? Yes you can, thanks to Nvidia’s GeForce Now. The service allows users to play PC games from Steam or Battle.net on macOS devices. Better still, the graphic power of these games resides on Nvidia’s servers. The biggest drawback: the service remains in beta, and there’s been no announcement when the first full release is coming or what a monthly subscription will cost.
For now, at least, the service is free to try and enjoy. All supported GeForce NOW titles work on Macs, and yes, there are plenty of them already available!
The Wine Project
Source: Wine Project
The Mac isn’t the only computer whose users have wanted to run software designed for Windows. More than 20 years ago, a project was started to enable Windows software to work on POSIX-compliant operating systems like Linux. It’s called The Wine Project, and the effort continues to this day. OS X is POSIX-compliant, too (it’s Unix underneath all of Apple’s gleam, after all), so Wine will run on the Mac also.
Wine is a recursive acronym that stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator. It’s been around the Unix world for a very long time, and because OS X is a Unix-based operating system, it works on the Mac too.
As the name suggests, Wine isn’t an emulator. The easiest way to think about it is as a compatibility layer that translates Windows Application Programming Interface (API) calls into something that the Mac can understand. So when a game says «draw a square on the screen,» the Mac does what it’s told.
You can use straight-up Wine if you’re technically minded. It isn’t for the faint of heart, although there are instructions online, and some kind souls have set up tutorials, which you can find using Google. Wine doesn’t work with all games, so your best bet is for you to start searching for which games you’d like to play and whether anyone has instructions to get it working on the Mac using Wine.
Note: At the time of this writing, The Wine Project does not support macOS 10.15 Catalina.
CrossOver Mac
CodeWeavers took some of the sting out of Wine by making a Wine-derived app called CrossOver Mac. CrossOver Mac is Wine with specialized Mac support. Like Wine, it’s a Windows compatibility layer for the Mac that enables some games to run.
CodeWeavers has modified the source code to Wine, made some improvements to configuration to make it easier, and provided support for their product, so you shouldn’t be out in the cold if you have trouble getting things to run.
My experience with CrossOver — like Wine — is somewhat hit or miss. Its list of actual supported games is pretty small. Many other unsupported games do, in fact work — the CrossOver community has many notes about what to do or how to get them to work, which are referenced by the installation program. Still, if you’re more comfortable with an app that’s supported by a company, CrossOver may be worth a try. What’s more, a free trial is available for download, so you won’t be on the hook to pay anything to give it a shot.
Boxer
If you’re an old-school gamer and have a hankering to play DOS-based PC games on your Mac, you may have good luck with Boxer. Boxer is a straight-up emulator designed especially for the Mac, which makes it possible to run DOS games without having to do any configuring, installing extra software, or messing around in the Mac Terminal app.
With Boxer, you can drag and drop CD-ROMs (or disk images) from the DOS games you’d like to play. It also wraps them into self-contained «game boxes» to make them easy to play in the future and gives you a clean interface to find the games you have installed.
Boxer is built using DOSBox, a DOS emulation project that gets a lot of use over at GOG.com, a commercial game download service that houses hundreds of older PC games that work with the Mac. So if you’ve ever downloaded a GOG.com game that works using DOSBox, you’ll have a basic idea of what to expect.
Some final thoughts
In the end, programs like the ones listed above aren’t the most reliable way to play Windows games on your Mac, but they do give you an option.
Of course, another option is to run Windows on your Mac, via BootCamp or a virtual machine, which takes a little know-how and a lot of memory space on your Mac’s hard drive.
How do you play your Windows games on Mac?
Let us know in the comment below!
Updated October 2019: Updated with the best options.
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Games for PC
Bring out your inner gamer and make the most of these games for PC: from graphic adventures to actions games, as well as the most classic video games
The PC version of Grand Theft Auto V
Become the most fearsome criminal of Vice City
Build your own virtual world
Help CJ in his comeback to San Andreas
The 2020-2021 season PES for PC
Fourth installment of the social simulation game
Take control of Liberty City
Possibly the best soccer game
Run around the subway lines at full throttle
The king of Match 3 games
The best battle royale game for PC
Terror game set in the house of the neighbor
Tool to create cheats for games
The strategy game based on Clash of Clans
The Windows version of the famous tower defense
One of the most succesful MOBAs in the world
One of the most popular installments of the NFS series
Play the second part of Temple Run on your PC
Platform with online games created by users
Addictive puzzle game
The craziest multiplayer game of the moment
The second part of Plants vs. Zombies
Free Fire Battlegrounds for PC
Follow the rhythm of the rap battles with lots of flow
The fastest and most acrobatic car races
First-person shooter game
Your favorite real-time strategy game on Android, now on Windows
Find the impostor among your spaceship crew
Pack of mini-games for kids
Third installment of The Sims saga
Fight to close the Gate of Shadows
Survive on a dangerous island inhabited by dinosaurs
Learn to drive around town
Run your own farm and make it grow
Video game adaptation of the latest Incredible Hulk movie
Version of Ludo for PC
Return to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza
The multiplayer ‘version’ of Hello Neighbor
Build your slime ranch in the galactic far west
The North American version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
Mac Games
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Genres
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Frigid PvP Strategy Warfare
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Futuristic MMORTS Warfare
RTS Adventure on the High Seas
Post-Apocalyptic MMORTS Combat
Chilling PvP Strategy Mayhem
Fun Slot Machine Extravaganza
Build & Explore Sim in Alaska
Magical MMORTS Saga
Apple’s range of Mac computers have always been viewed as fantastic machines for designers and photographers, but they’ve never had a strong reputation in terms of gaming. This is surprising, as you’d think the qualities that make macOS ideal for creatives might make it well-placed to perform effectively from a gaming standpoint. But, traditionally, Macs have lacked cutting edge graphics cards and the processing power to run the best games.
Attitudes around the gaming abilities of Macs have changed in more recent times. There has been a rapid increase in the number of quality titles available, from free Mac games download options to AAA product launches. Here, we look at the history of gaming on Macs, as well as the key attributes you can find in the best Mac games today.
What Are Mac Games?
To answer the key question, Mac games are games developed for Apple’s computer system – formally known as Macintosh, but is now known simply as Mac. Apple released their first Macintosh in 1984, and it has since developed into a major player with new systems released even to this day.
There is no limit as to what games you can enjoy on your macOS systems. While some may require upfront payment, players can even try free Mac games as we mentioned before. The best free Mac games have become really popular and they often include optional in-game purchases, which allow you to customize your experience by buying certain items.
The History Of Mac Games
It could be argued that in the past the Mac was not the best system for gaming. However, the landscape has since changed, and the best Mac games are plentiful for everyone to enjoy. The story of macOS games is an interesting one, showing the computing titan’s changing attitude to the gaming industry.
Early Days
Back in 2010, VentureBeat published Richard Moss’s deep dive into the history of macOS games. The article revealed that while the machines may not be synonymous with the pastime, games have always been a part of the Mac experience since the beginning. Apple might have marketed the Macintosh as a productivity machine, but text adventures and ports did emerge on the first model.
Further titles were released as the years went by, but major competition appeared in the form of both Windows and consoles created specifically with gaming in mind. The release and subsequent success of Windows 95 made things even harder for Apple, with just 28 macOS games in total released in 1998.
Changing Times
Steve Jobs went on to revitalize the company and its hardware, but Macs continued to lag behind other devices when it came to gaming. Again, games tended to be released, but they were generally adaptations of titles that had already been out on Windows or consoles for some time.
Mac games continued to face many ups and downs over the years, with developments like the switch to Intel architecture having an impact. It’s clear that Apple is committed to offering an alternative gaming platform, aiming to win players over, even if it is a long-term goal.
One such development is Apple Arcade, which has brought a vast range of titles to Mac gamers for a reasonable subscription fee. From casual games to AAA titles, Apple Arcade has been a welcome change of pace for Mac users.
Meanwhile, Apple has attempted a grassroots revolution in cross-platform play between iOS and MacOS with the introduction of Mac Catalyst, helping developers port iOS apps across to the Mac. While the system is far from perfect, Apple can at least be seen to be making a concerted effort to bring iOS titles to Mac users.
On a more technical level, Apple has tried to bridge the hardware gap by providing compatibility between Macs and external graphics cards in 2018 while pushing its Metal graphics API. Once the territory of PC gamers, modern graphics cards can output intense, immersive gaming experiences. While Macs themselves haven’t widely adopted this technology, allowing users to connect to external graphics cards could be the next step in making the Mac a fully viable gaming system.
What Are Mac Games Like Today?
While the future of Mac gaming looks bright, the present is certainly showing signs that the smaller changes Apple have been pushing are having an effect.
The internet is full of articles from various sites discussing the best Mac games out there now. Whether you’re a fan of action and adventure, puzzles, or even strategy games, you will find plenty you can enjoy on Mac. The emergence of new monetization models also means that there are more Mac games download options, with the best free Mac games today matching the quality of any top game while having no barrier to entry.
The Future
Gaming is well and truly on Apple’s radar for the years ahead. The company has plans to develop its own ARM-based hardware to run games more efficiently. More recently, Apple has confirmed that the cloud gaming platform NVIDIA GeForce Now will be available to play on the Mac platform. This means players can play high-end games, regardless of how powerful their Mac is.;
In the long term, there is also speculation that Apple may shift focus and give macOS the ability to run iOS and iPadOS apps natively, giving players a bigger library of titles to choose from. This would be a game-changer, adding the whole iOS gaming world to the Mac.
Many believe that Apple may not be stopping there when it comes to their gaming interests. At the start of this year, there were reports that the company might be working on a Mac designed specifically for gaming. While that speculation has died down a little in more recent months, it is still an intriguing suggestion.
Windows vs Mac – Which is Best For Gaming?
So, if you’re totally new to the gaming world and are looking to buy a machine, should you go for a Windows PC or a Mac? It is a big question that many experts have examined through the years, with the key comparisons coming down to:
- Graphics
- Hardware
- Computing power
- And compatibility
Ultimately, Windows has an edge in terms of its community of players and developers, as well as the massive existing catalog of PC games. However, the likes of the App Store and Steam have ensured that the gaming experience on Macs has improved greatly.
What Makes the Best Mac Games?
While there are many elements that go into making great games, here are some of the key characteristics you should look out for to find the best Mac games, whether you access them online or via free Mac games download platforms.
Gaming Experience
MacOS games these days can offer a high-quality experience, so the very best titles will undoubtedly offer plenty of depth in terms of gameplay.
Quality Graphics
Macs always look the part, so you can expect that the best Mac games will have excellent graphics across the board.
Games to Suit your Personality
The best Mac games come in many different forms, and it is fair to say that the machines excel across a wide variety of genres. This means that, whatever you’re into, you should be able to find a title that’s perfect for you.
Seamless Performance
When looking for the best Mac games, you should consider whether the game delivers the best experience with all resources offered by your Mac. After all, your gaming experience will not be ideal if it is not running at a stable frame-rate. This is a question that should be asked when looking at free Mac Games download options too.
Enjoy a New Way to Play With the Best Mac Games
Apple device owners are now enjoying a healthy variety of top gaming titles, and it’s worth noting that MacOS games have experienced many evolutions over the years and will continue to do so.
Today, players have a range of Mac games download options on digital stores, and even more, a collection of the best free Mac games to experience for the first time. Macs might not have had the strongest gaming reputation in the past, but they’re more than making up for lost time now.