Emulator is the software that helps us to run multiple OS on a single hardware. It typically helps one OS to behave as another for as much amount of time as we want and then switch back to our original OS. This in turn helps people to run different apllications exclusively for various OS on a single platform. Like if you have an Windows PC emulator, or the iOS one, you can run Windows or iOS appliactions on your Mac computer, especially good for app developers.
Mac PC is now common around the world, and it’s not surprising that some people would want to play game with it. But there are some games that only built for Windows, Nintendo or other devices, and hence you may need the game emulator for these games to run on Mac OS. So, here in this article, we will show you some of the best Game Console Emulators for macOS.
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Sega Genesis(Mega Drive) Emulators The Sega Genesis was one of the two great 16-bit systems of it's time, the other being the Super Nintendo. As Sega was not able to obtain the trademark in the US, the unit was called Genesis there. SMS Plus is a Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear emulator for Mac OS X. The hardware for the Sega Master System and Game Gear consoles is almost identical from a technical standpoint, which means that when you emulate one, it is trivial to emulate the other. SMS Plus features accurate emulation of both systems, with full sound support. Best Mac emulators guide: Emulate Mac OS 9 with SheepShaver Should you want to delve into the Apple period between the Macintosh Plus and OS X, SheepShaver will emulate Mac OS 7.5.2 through 9.0.4. File Name: gplus-131.dmg File Size: 1.42 MB System: Sega Genesis Version: 1.3.1 Downloads: 86,837 Not what you are looking for? Check out our Mac emulator section!
Also read: 6 Best iOS Emulator For Windows To Build & Run iOS Apps
Top 15 Gaming Emulators for Mac Computers
1. Virtual PC for Mac
This emulator by Microsoft aims to emulate Windows OS on your Mac giveing you the freedom to run those programs specifical for Windows OS that you can not use on your Mac OS.
This game emulator will successfully take out your worry about the fact that you cannot run your Windows games on Mac. This Windows emulator will work as Windows 7 version, which may be a bit outdated but still it can do your job perfectly.
Redream is an emulator of the latest SEGA console, the legendary Dreamcast. This program offers one of the most fluid and simple emulation experiences you can find on Mac.
Download: Virtual PC for Mac
2. XBOX 360 Emulator for Mac
As the name suggests this is an XBOX oriented emulator completely made for Mac OS. For playing XBOX games, XeMu360 emulator is the most widely used emulator. This is comparatively a new software and it does support almost all XBOX games.
This is a very powerful emulator so that Mac OS users can enjoy playing XBOX games on it flawlessly.
Download: XBOX 360 Emulator for Mac
3. Playstation Emulators for Mac
PCSX-Reloaded is one of the the best emulator that can be installed on your Mac OS ideal for playing Playstation games. As an open source software, this emulator gives you the freedom to install it on all versions of Mac OS. Things become much simpler and easier after its installation process has been modified recently.
It would be better to keep all your playstation games inside one folder on Mac. Then after installing PCSX-Reloaded all you have to do is to drop the game you want to play in it. The emulator also has a built-in BIOS and the ability to edit memory cards as well.
Download: Playstation Emulators for Mac
4. Nintendo 64 Emulator for Mac
Mupen64 is one of the well-known emulator for Nintendo 64 to use on Mac OS. This emulator is very stable and compatible with all types of Mac OS.
However, you will require to install the GTK+ for this Nitendo 64 emulator to work smoothly. GTK+ is a graphical toolkit that needs to be installed on the Mac to process graphics. GTK+ will remains in the background and rightly handles the graphics of the N64 ROMS on Mac.
Download: Nintendo 64 Emulator for Mac
5. GameCube and Wii Games Emulator for Mac
Dolphin is one of the best game emulator for macOS to run GameCube, Wii and Triforce games. This emulator is very much compatible with multiple platforms including the macOS. It is also free to use as an open source project. The emulator works well with macOS 10.6 to 10.8 and is very user friendly as well.
The only thing the user needs to do is to specifiy the BIOS file which comes always with the ROM. When you start playing the game, Dolphin emulator automatically senses the game file and starts playing it on Mac.
Download: GameCube and Wii Games Emulator for Mac
6. OpenEmu
OpenEmu emulator is one of the most reliable emulators in the market, compatible with Mac OS 10.7 and higher. Being very user friendly, it also has an iTunes type menu. This is the ultimate gaming emulator that detects the game Roms according to their requirement.
OpenEmu – How To Run Emulators on a Mac N64 PSP SNES NES And More!
OpenEmu supports a great number of consoles like:
- Game Boy
- NeoGeo Pocket
- Game Gear
- Sega Genesis and lot more
Download: OpenEmu
7. RetroArch
RetroArch seems to be an all-in-one emulator for macOS that helps the users to play any kind of retro games. The emulator even can be used to play PlayStation 1 games and older ones as well. In the handheld game console RetroArch even supports Game Boy Advance games. It is totally based on the number of cores with each of the core emulating a console.
Download: RetroArch
8. PPSSPP
The name PPSSPP stands for Playstation Portable Simulator Suitable for Playing Portably, which is an emulator for playing PSP games. The emulator was originally created by Dolphin developers and is widely used across the globe. PPSSPP is very easy to install and to use on Mac, and also it supports a wide number of PSP games.
Download: PPSSPP
9. ScummVM
This emulator is speifically designed for those people who like to play point-and-click games. SucmmVM is supported by macOS and uses the Scumm scripting language shown as its name. The emulator also supports many of the adventure games like the Monkey Island 1-3, Sam & Max and much more.
Download: ScummVM
10. DeSmuME
DeSmuMe is another emulator for macOS that helps users to play with the dual screens of Nintendo, i.e. by simulating dual screens on the monitor itself. The emulator also supports games that we want play on the devices sideways.
The best part of this emulator is that its constantly being modified by developers and new features are getting added to it on a regular basis. And now over the years this has become one of the best game emulators for Mac in the market.
Download: DeSmuME
11. DosBox
As the name suggests this emulator is purposefuly made for DOS based programs. Many DOS based games are still played by users; so to make those games available even on macOS this emulator has been created.
Download: DosBox
12. Xamarian Android Player for Mac
This is an Android emulator that can be run on macOS so that you can play the millions of Android games onto your Mac. Xamarain Android player also supports OpenGL and actually virtualizes the device instead of simply emulating it.
This also helps to enhance the performance of your Mac. The emulator has a great integration with both the Visual Studio and the Xamarin Studio, and this one has a native user interface.
Download: Xamarian Android Player for Mac
13. PS3 Emulator for Mac
PS3 emulator typically supports macOS and allows users to play PlayStation 3 games on Mac. It is completely free and only need you to have any PS3 supported game. This gives complete freedom for users to choose whatever PS3 game they want to play on their Mac.
Download: PS3 Emulator for Mac
14. iOS Emulator iPadian for Mac
As its name suggests, this is an emulator that helps you run iOS applications on your Mac. By downloading this simulator, users can use iPad applications on a Mac as well. The best iOS emulator currently available is the iPadian.
This emulator is based on Adobe AIR and readily creates an interface similar to iPad on your Mac. iPadian is a very good emulator if you are just looking to run iOS appliactios and games on your Mac flawlessly.
Download: iOS Emulator iPadian for Mac
15. Visual Boy Advance
Sega Cd Emulator For Mac
The Visual Boy Advance, also known to be the Mac Boy advance, can play almost all games of the Nintendo consoles on Mac. This GBA is written and developed specifically for the OS X and is compatibile with almost all kinds of macOS.
Download: Visual Boy Advance
So, here are our top 15 picks of game consloe emulators that you can readily download onto your Mac and seamlessly enjoy Android, DOS, Windows, iOS and much more experiences. By this way, you do not have to buy other kinds of OS, but just an emulator that will help you to run other applications on the single macOS.
Each of these emulators for Mac has its own advantage, and gaming on them is another treat to be honest. With such wide variety of support for games, you can download each of them and find out your favorite one and play all along. If you have any other good suggestion or question, welcome to comment down.
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Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.The SEGA Saturn was long said to be impossible to emulate, because of its unusual (ridiculous) architecture that incorporated eight processors (two Hitachi SuperH SH-2 processors, one Hitachi SH-1 processor just for streaming and decompressing from the disc in realtime, two “video display processors” from SEGA, a Motorola 68EC000 for sound, another custom SEGA DSP chip for sound built by Yamaha, and finally something called the System Control Unit). Before the days of multi-core processors, parallelism meant having multiple chips. It was expensive, hard to program for, and its graphical abilities were best suited to 2D.
There were a string of Windows-only closed-source emulators, including SSF, Giri Giri, Satourne, etc. They have all been abandoned (or in the case of Giri Giri, sold to SEGA).
Sega Genesis Emulator Mac
The Yabause emulator carries the torch now. It’s open-source. It builds on Mac OS X and even ships an OS X binary, in an app bundle too! You won’t need much help getting it to work. With a game ISO (original disc in your system, or disc image – see my earlier post on imaging your original discs), and a Sega Saturn BIOS file, you are good to go.
Almost.
The first thing to do is to open Preferences, and point it to the location of your Sega Saturn BIOS file. Also uncheck the box for “Enable BIOS emulation” unless you were unable to find a copy of this BIOS file anywhere.
Next, go to the Audio/Video tab. Audio just works, and there’s nothing to change. Graphics are another story. With the current version (0.9.13) the OpenGL graphics renderer shows no graphics at all (just a black screen with audio). Then if you go to fullscreen, it crashes the emulator. The software graphics renderer is not fast enough to be playable; with frameskip turned on, the game is playable, but you wouldn’t want to. The third option is the “Grand Central Dispatch” graphics driver, and this actually works well. Not 100% speed but close. But the real fix is downloading Yabause version 0.9.12, which had a working OpenGL mode on OS X. They appear to be aware of this bug and it might get fixed in the next version. Also, if your system is fast enough, it will actually cause issues with emulation speed unless you check the option in the menu bar: Emulation -> Enable Frameskip. The emulation speed is not perfect all the time, but this keeps it on target as much as possible.
There is no support for controllers at the moment, so you have to play with the keyboard. That may be okay for some games, but I hope that controller support comes quickly in a future version. The work-around for now is to run a tool that maps keyboard keys to a controller’s inputs. On Mac OS X, your choices are ControllerMate ($25) or Enjoy2 (free, open source). Download and run Enjoy2.app, and then get your PS3 controller to Bluetooth pair with your Mac. Now it should automatically show up in Enjoy2. If you press a button on the controller, it will jump to a place in the list with an auto-generated button name (up on the d-pad will be “Button 5 (null)” but don’t worry about that). For each key you want to assign to a controller input, just set it to “Press a key” and then in the field next to it, hit a key on the keyboard. When done configuring, hit the “Start” in Enjoy2. You can test your mapping using a text editor; you should be able to type with the PS3 controller. Now, over in Yabause, configure the emulator with keyboard keys matching the ones you set in Enjoy2. This should work great unless you need analog, which few Saturn games supported anyway (and none required, to my knowledge). Also, at some future point it would be great if mouse input could emulate the light gun, or two sticks could be used for Virtual On. But now I’m just dreaming.
Sega Dreamcast Emulators For Mac
In order to save games (Yabause doesn’t support the emulator concept of “save states”) you have to go to Preferences, Memory, and then under “Internal Memory”, enter a pathname to somewhere on your system where you want the Saturn’s internal battery-backed RAM to be stored. It can be anywhere and named whatever, as long as you have write permissions to that location. You can do the same thing to create a file-backed emulation of a Saturn expansion cartridge. Yabause will write the files when it quits.
Getting in and out of full screen is janky; you can get into full screen mode using the menu bar, but to get out, the usual keys like ESC don’t work. You have to hit Cmd-F to toggle out of full screen. Or Cmd-Q to quit, that also works.
Lastly, if you are looking for where Yabause stores its program preferences:
~/Library/Preferences/org.yabause.yabause.cocoa
~/Library/Saved Application State/org.yabause.yabause.cocoa.savedState