[spacezoomer]

i'm pretty sure this has been done before, but here i go anyway.

i have heard about this parallel 7 software for Macintosh. supposedly you can run Windows software on Macintosh computers with it. I was thinking about buying it to play my adventure collection that i wouldn't be able to play on my Macintosh computer. Is this possible? or is it not as simple as all that?

[Collector]

You can also use Boot Camp to install Windows on your Mac to dual boot. I am not sure how well developed WINE is on Mac, but that may be another option. Someone with experience with any of these three can give you more information.

[spacezoomer]

Originally Posted by Collector

You can also use Boot Camp to install Windows on your Mac to dual boot. I am not sure how well developed WINE is on Mac, but that may be another option. Someone with experience with any of these three can give you more information.

so it is possible to play the windows games on mac? But not necessarily just with parallel 7?

[mimisdutch]

You can also use Boot Camp to install Windows on your Mac to dual boot.

I second with that.

I have been a windows developer for some years but recently I was forced to develop some stuff for iOS so I had to buy a macbook. Couldn't do without windows though, so I had my dual boot machine by using bootcamp.

It works fine since windows run natively directly on the circuit (assuming you have a x86 mac), without any virtualization layers (like in Parallel).

Just take care to follow the instructions and you' ll be just fine.

You may rollback and delete the windows partition any time you decide.

[Crunchy in milk]

Originally Posted by spacezoomer

i have heard about this parallel 7 software for Macintosh. supposedly you can run Windows software on Macintosh computers with it. I was thinking about buying it to play my adventure collection that i wouldn't be able to play on my Macintosh computer. Is this possible? or is it not as simple as all that?

Parallels 7 is a virtual machine application, it creates a 'fake' windows machine that runs official windows software (really slowly). You will require a copy of Microsoft Windows as well, and have to install it onto the 'virtual machine'. Your macintosh must be an intel chip powered model, not the really old power pc based models.

Its fairly easy to use and get software onto it (my 70 year old father bought it, installed his old train simulators and runs them to his satisfaction). Its also pretty compatible but it does run games at a slower clip than running them on a native windows machine or via Bootcamp.

The only real benefit to using Parallels or some other virtual machine software is that you don't have to reboot to play a game, and then reboot when you're done playing to get back to your normal computer use.

Bootcamp is a dual booting option. You use the bootcamp assistant that comes with compatible macintosh operating systems to partition part of your hard disk for windows use, reboot and install the Windows operating system (self bought) onto that partition and from that point on you can pick and choose which operating system to run when rebooting. Windows runs natively and games are installed and run natively just as if you had a PC, but to get back to Finder and your mac stuff, you have to reboot once more.

Wineskin is a wrapper system that interprets (fakes) a windows environment for windows applications and games, allowing them to run at near native speeds without having to reboot your system or even own a copy of Microsoft Windows. Its not at all user friendly for novices but when you get a hold of the basics its quite possible to run your games with the convenience of a virtual machine like Parallels offers, and at nearly the performance of a Bootcamp setup.

PaultheTall maintains a site for downloading pre-made and tested wineskin wrappers for many windows games, including some adventures. As well as great 'how to' videos that cover installing to running windows games with wineskin wrappers.

Another alternative to Wineskin is Crossover. Crossover is an attempt to make wine more user friendly for Mac. It tries to make installing windows software as easy as putting the game/software disk into the drive. Its not very successful though (based on my really outdated opinion mind you).

Also worth mentioning are SkummVM, ResidualVM, Boxer and the like. These let you run windows games like Curse of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle, Sierra's classic etc, natively on Mac. They take the data files from your windows disks and run the game at full tilt from your hard drive.

[ADan]

I am using VMWare on a MacBook Pro for XP (mainly for being able to play the games that I have translated or am about to translate) to my complete satisfaction.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is that you can create an image of your existing Windows with all files and applications and simply use it like you did before. (To the best of my knowledge you don't even have to buy a new Win license to be able to do that).

Another advantage is that you can share data from your Mac with your Win virtual machine which might come in handy if you, say, downloaded a demo on your regular Mac and now want to go ahead and install it on your Win Virtual Machine. Combined with the Spaces application on the Mac it's as easy as drag and drop. Or you use the shared files folder.
(My wife, a physicist, uses it quite a lot to transfer data that needs some analyzing software that only exists for Win).

And finally a thing that I think is very cute although I haven't tried that yet is portability: You can take the image of your Win system with you and very quickly install that on any Mac that has VMWare installed. (Or you park it on a server where you can easily access it).

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Dan.

[Crunchy in milk]

The latest crop of virtual machines for mac, like Parallels etc are also aware of Bootcamp installs.

If you decide to set your machine up with a bootcamp windows partition and interact with it like a normal PC, you can also install Parallels on the mac side and point it to your bootcamp install to run your windows apps from within finder.

[Collector]

Keep in mind that a dual boot (Boot Camp) or a VM (Parallels, VMware, etc.) require a legal copy of Windows. Wineskin or whatever they are calling a Mac OS port of WINE does not. It simulates or redirects API calls to let Windows apps to run as if they were running on a real Windows machine. WINE on Linux has gotten good enough to run some older Windows games on that platform better than they do on modern Windows. I cannot say how far along it is on Mac. There is also the beginnings of WINE for Windows. This will be great for older Windows games that do not work on modern Windows. I don't believe that it is in usable shape, yet.