How to play 3D Thunder Ceptor II on Mac

Game summary

A sequel to Thunder Ceptor. The game is very much like the original; the player controls the Thunder Ceptor (now colored light blue), and must shoot the incoming crafts (now colored from gray to green) as normal. There are now multiple obstacles, including large rods, and flying panels (like the Bacura from Xevious), and the obstacles can now be destroyed with the bombs, now no longer having to avoid them. As the name suggests, the game is playable in 3D, and is the only Namco arcade game to do so. The player would put their head up to the attached goggles on the machine for the 3D effect.
First released: Dec 1986

Play 3D Thunder Ceptor II on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play 3D Thunder Ceptor II 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).

3D Thunder Ceptor II 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 3D Thunder Ceptor II like you would on any PC.
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