Oct 18, 2012 GOG.com is the ultimate destination for downloadable DRM-free games. The site offers gamers some of the greatest PC games of all time for a low price and free from copy protection.
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
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
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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GOG GALAXY 2.0
All your games and friends in one place.
Games For Mac Computers
Join the Open Beta, enjoy the app and share your feedback with us! You'll need a GOG account to use GOG GALAXY 2.0.
Gog.com Mac Games Free
Privacy Policy terms applyWhat is GOG GALAXY 2.0 and why should I use it?
GOG GALAXY 2.0 is an application, thanks to which you’ll be able to combine multiple libraries into one and connect with your friends across all gaming platforms, consoles included. If your games and gaming buddies are scattered between different launchers and platforms, this is a solution for you! Keeping track of all achievements earned by you and your friends, hours played, and games owned across platforms has never been this easy. And the application is entirely free, all you need is a GOG account to use it.
How can I add my games to GOG GALAXY 2.0?
In GOG GALAXY 2.0 you’re adding games through official and community created integrations. By connecting platforms, the data about the games you own is automatically imported to the application. On top of that you are also able to manually add single games even if they are not connected to any platform.
Will GOG GALAXY 2.0 show all my games, or only those I have installed on my PC?
Yes, GOG GALAXY 2.0 will show all your games from connected PC and console platforms… even if they are not currently installed.
Do I still need to have other gaming clients installed on my PC?
Yes, if you want to get access to any features specific to that platform, e.g. installing or auto-updating games, cloud saves, etc.
Will I be able to customize my games library?
Yes, our goal is to provide you with the most options possible to customize your games library. In GOG GALAXY 2.0, you’ll be able to create your own views based on different filters available in the app, tags that you’ll create on your own, and search queries you’ll come up with. Mix and match all of those options to create countless library views. Once you do, save them for quick access and automatic synchronization. On top of that, you can also manually edit the metadata of every game in your master games collection.
How can I add my friends to GOG GALAXY 2.0?
Like with games, in GOG GALAXY 2.0 adding friends begins with connecting platforms. By doing so, you can find other GOG GALAXY users who are your friends on the platforms or social networks you have connected.
Additionally, you’ll be able to see non-GOG GALAXY users from friends lists of connected platforms – with an option to check their online status and chat with them cross-platform.What kind of stats and activities will GOG GALAXY 2.0 show me?
You’ll see all your games from connected platforms together with your progress in each title – achievements you’ve earned and your game time. Also, for your GOG GALAXY friends, you’ll be able to see their online status and what games they are playing, with their achievements and time spent in each title.
Will GOG GALAXY 2.0 spy on my computer?
No. We’re not in the business of users’ data. GOG GALAXY 2.0 is only importing information from connected platforms – you always know what is imported through official integrations. Additionally we’ve made the community created integrations open-source, to ensure the transparency of imported data.
Gog.com Mac Games Downloads
What data does GOG GALAXY 2.0 share with other platforms?
We don’t share any data with third parties.
How can I delete my data from GOG GALAXY 2.0?
Once you have disconnected a platform from GOG GALAXY 2.0, we will remove all your imported data from our servers.
What are the community created integrations and how I can create one?
We want to offer integrations with all possible gaming platforms. This is a challenging and time-consuming process, not only because these are technically complex projects, but they also require negotiations and agreements with partners. We want all our official integrations to be supported by respective platform holders, so we make sure they’re in-line with partners’ policies and that they’re safe.
While we’re hard at work on adding more official integrations, we’ve decided to give you – the community – an opportunity to work on your own open source platform integrations. The documentation about how to build your own GOG GALAXY 2.0 integrations for various gaming platforms can be found here.I’m a GOG.COM user, what’s new for me in GOG GALAXY 2.0?
The whole client has been rebuilt from the ground up to be better and faster. All features for third party platforms work for GOG.COM. With the new games library, you’ll be able to filter, sort and add tags to customize your views and save them for easy access. Thanks to the new friends section, you’ll have a chance to track your friends progress in every GOG.COM game, as well as see what they are currently playing. On top of that, GOG GALAXY 2.0 will remain your optional client for GOG.COM games – features like auto-updates, cloud saves, cross-play, rollbacks and more stay the same as the GOG GALAXY you’re currently using. Once we finish all beta phases and release officially, the current version of GOG GALAXY client will be updated to the GOG GALAXY 2.0 application.
How can I participate in the Open Beta?
The Open Beta is already available and everybody is welcome to participate in it. To get access to GOG GALAXY 2.0 download the installer from www.gogalaxy.com. Once dowloaded, launch it and follow the instructions. GOG account and consent to GOG GALAXY 2.0 EULA are required to participate in the test. The GOG account is entirely free.
I found a bug in GOG GALAXY 2.0, how can I report it?
There is an 'Report an issue' option in the app under settings icon. We also encourage you to tell us what you think about GOG GALAXY 2.0 via the 'Share feedback' option, in the same settings menu.
I’m a journalist/content creator and would like to get in touch with you, how I can contact you?
Drop us an email at pr@gog.com and we’ll get back to you!