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?
Play Steam games on your Mac You need to recognise that Steam is a hub - a combination of a shop and launcher. It's not a system for playing games - only accessing them.
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
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!
Can You Play Pc Games On Mac
The 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.
This is what a submarine simulation game should be. Windows games on mac.
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.
Games You Can Play On A Mac
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. Stream pc games on mac.
How do you play your Windows games on Mac?
Let us know in the comment below!
Updated October 2019: Updated with the best options.
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.
Concepts everywhere
Free Pc Games On Steam
Another day, another iPhone 12 Pro concept. How much would you pay?
If reports are accurate we might be waiting a little while longer than normal for iPhone 12 Pro. But would you care if it looked like this?
Steam is one of the most popular online gaming stores for gamers everywhere and it's not just for PC, you can enjoy Steam on your Mac too!
Here's how to install and download games using Steam for Mac.
How to install Steam on Mac
In case you haven't installed Steam on your Mac already, here's how.
- Go to steampowered.com in your browser.
Click Install Steam.
- Click Install Steam Now.
Click the show downloads button. Depending on the browser, this may open automatically when the file finishes downloading.
- Double-click on steam.dmg to launch the installer.
Click on Agree button.
- Drag Steam into the applications folder.
Castle building game mac free. Exit the window.
How to download a Steam game onto your Mac
- Launch Steam from the Launchpad.
Wait for Steam to update.
- Tap Create New Account or Log in into an existing account if you have one.
Go through the necessary steps to create an account. Wireless gaming controller for mac.
- Click Store.
Browse the store for a game you want to download. You'll need to make sure it's compatible with Mac. You'll see the Apple logo on any game that can be played on Mac.
- Click on the title you want to download.
Click Add to Cart.
- Click Purchase for myself.
Select your payment method.
- Fill out your payment information.
Click Continue.
- Click the checkbox to agree to the terms.
Click Purchase.
Can I Play Pc Games On A Mac Using Steam
From here your game will begin to download, and you can start playing as soon as it's done, so go nuts!
Anything else you need to know?
Let us know in the comments below!
Can I Play Steam Pc Games On Mac
macOS Catalina
Main
Is Steam On Mac
Concepts everywhereRun Pc Games On Mac
Another day, another iPhone 12 Pro concept. How much would you pay?
If reports are accurate we might be waiting a little while longer than normal for iPhone 12 Pro. But would you care if it looked like this?