In today's article, we will see the best emulators for Mac, whether for play from the device emulating any console you want, so you can have Windows on it.
macOS may not be at the forefront of developers' focus when building emulators, but macOS is still supported by many of them, and today we'll talk about the best ones, depending on what you want to use them for.
Best game emulators for Mac
Ares
Ares is a multi-system emulator that can run on multiple platforms. You can run anything from Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Sega…to systems like the Atari 2600.
Ares is an open source project, now developed by several people. It was a continuation of higan, another multi-system emulator, developed by Near, but after his death, the project was picked up by the community.
It is one of the best multi-system emulators, which has a modern interface and features. Has support for peripherals and support for very old titles.
Dolphin
Dolphin was the subject of some controversy after its "issues" with Nintendo but it's still the best GameCube and Wii emulator that exists. It is an open source project intended to emulate two of Nintendo's many consoles.
Dolphin's development was long and arduous, but GameCube games run as well as you'd expect. The Wii games also work well, with some exceptions, but they are constantly improving. The emulator is relatively easy to use. In most cases, you simply load the downloaded game file and that's it.
Dolphin can run on multiple platforms, including macOS. Its performance may vary depending on the architecture of your CPU, as well as the power of the machine. The minimum requirements are relatively low.
duck station
The PlayStation 1 was one of the most popular consoles of the time. Many games released for PS1 are still played or coveted by Sony users. Some are not lucky enough to be able to buy the original console, in good condition, hoping that everything works well.
DuckStation is currently the best PlayStation 1 emulator and therefore one of the best emulators for Mac. The PS1 library is huge y duck station It can handle most of it, with only a few games having technical problems, which you may never know what they are. Using the emulator is simple, and covers the basics very well.
It has all the features you want an emulator to have, but most importantly for casual gamers, an easy to understand interface as well as the ability to run games from our beloved PlayStation 1.
Best Windows emulators for Mac
Have you ever needed an app so badly, but realized it's only available on Windows? But fear not, there are alternatives, simple solutions. You can use a Windows emulator to run Windows apps effortlessly on your Mac. To make things easier for you, in this article, I also show you the best Windows emulators to experience the Mac-Windows environment on your Mac.
A Windows emulator is an application that allows you to run the Windows operating system, including its graphical user interface and Windows-based applications on another computer that does not use it natively. Windows, this could be Linux or Mac. When you install a Windows emulator on your Mac, you can switch between Mac and Windows environments.
Switching to Windows using an emulator does not affect your Mac's RAM, as you may think. A Windows emulator for Mac lets you use Windows virtually as if it were your Mac's native software. When you return to your Mac environment, you can also pretend you've never had a Windows companion. However, installing Windows applications through an emulator can consume your Mac's disk space, since all applications installed on either platform are on your computer's hard drive.
These are the best Windows emulators that you can install on your Mac now.
Parallels Desktop
Parallels Desktop is back, and it comes improved with its most recent version. The platform allows you to install and run Windows 11 together on your Mac without any problems. Installation is as easy as installing any Mac application. When it is installed, you don't have to boot your device any differently.
Simply switch to the Windows icon to open the Windows 11 environment on one side of the screen, or use Windows 11 in full-screen mode for expanded interaction. You can run Windows games on Mac as if you were on a computer running Windows natively.
A unique feature of this Windows emulator for Mac is that You can easily drag folders and files, including videos and photos, between Windows and Mac environments. Parallels Desktop is also processor independent, supporting Apple Silicon and Intel processors.
Boot Camp Assistant
I wouldn't call Boot Camp Assistant a 100 percent emulator, as it involves some form of resource sharing. But it is the best way to install Windows 10 on your Mac using a built-in method. You can find Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities section of the Applications folder on your Mac.
However, the Boot Camp feature is only limited to Intel-based processors. So you may want to look elsewhere if you have a computer with Apple Silicon processing, as you won't find Boot Camp Assistant on those Macs.
You need at least 64GB of hard drive space on your Intel-based Mac to successfully install and run Boot Camp Assistant. However, it is better to keep extra space.
Installing Boot Camp Assistant is not that simple, you will have to download a Windows 10 ISO image file from Microsoft to an empty flash drive with at least 16 GB of storage capacity. Once downloaded, Boot Camp Assistant will guide you on how to complete the process.
Another setback is that you will have to restart your computer to switch between both platforms. The installation process may seem a little complex if you are a first-time Windows user. But anyone with experience installing Windows can help you.