How to play 1942: The Pacific Air War on Mac

Game summary

From December of 1941 through the end of the World War, the combined forces of Japan fought the armed forces of the United States of America over a broad stretch of ocean peppered with islands. This was the Pacific campaign, one of the bloodiest, toughest-fought campaigns in all of recorded history. Though all of the forces involved were essential parts of the eventual outcome, naval aviation played a special part. The carrier forces of both sides proved their worth time and again. The idea behind 1942: The Pacific Air War is to re-create some of the adventure of that time and place and give you a chance to take part in it. To succeed, you have to avoid that oil- and blood-soaked, fire-on-water grave long enough to be of service to your country or your Emperor. As a commanding admiral of the navy, a crack fighter pilot, or just an anonymous Joe tail gunner, you are going to fight for recognition and just plain survival. The Japanese are moving south and east like a steamroller, trying to take control of the Pacific. The Americans are fighting back, desperately hoping to drain the strength from the Japanese juggernaut.
First released: Dec 1994

Play 1942: The Pacific Air War on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play 1942: The Pacific Air War on a Mac is through Parallels, which allows you to virtualize a Windows machine on Macs. The setup is very easy and it works for Apple Silicon Macs as well as for older Intel-based Macs.

Parallels supports the latest version of DirectX and OpenGL, allowing you to play the latest PC games on any Mac. The latest version of DirectX is up to 20% faster.

Our favorite feature of Parallels Desktop is that when you turn off your virtual machine, all the unused disk space gets returned to your main OS, thus minimizing resource waste (which used to be a problem with virtualization).

1942: The Pacific Air War installation steps for Mac

Step 1
Go to Parallels.com and download the latest version of the software.
Step 2
Follow the installation process and make sure you allow Parallels in your Mac’s security preferences (it will prompt you to do so).
Step 3
When prompted, download and install Windows 10. The download is around 5.7GB. Make sure you give it all the permissions that it asks for.
Step 4
Once Windows is done installing, you are ready to go. All that’s left to do is install 1942: The Pacific Air War like you would on any PC.
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