How to play 3 In Three on Mac

Game summary

In this metapuzzle game, created by puzzle designer Cliff Johnson, the player is the letter 3, which, during a power surge, has been zapped from a spreadsheet report into the bowels of the computer. 3 needs to repair the system, avoiding a virus detector and outwitting the taunting pi symbol, and ultimately get back home. There's over 80 puzzles including: Geometric lift puzzles – 3 needs get from one side to the other by walking on lifts moving up and down in certain patterns. Mesh puzzles – a mesh (of 3x3 to 9x9 sizes) must be changed to match the pattern shown. Missing vowels – missing vowels must be added to common proverbs or homophones. Trapdoor puzzles – 3 must open or close doors, which will in turn trigger other doors, in order to get the whole set of doors in the same state. Reordered word puzzles – 3 rearranges a word by clicking three letters which will each time switch two letters and form another word. Logic puzzles – a grid of items needs to be rearranged in a specific order to match a certain rule. As puzzles are solved, letters are filled in the master word until all are in place. Then a logic puzzle must be solved to properly order them. Finally, in the end game, hints found in previous puzzles must be used to finish the metapuzzle and complete the game.
First released: Dec 1989

Play 3 In Three on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play 3 In Three 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).

3 In Three 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 3 In Three like you would on any PC.
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