How to play Citadel on Mac

Game summary

Citadel is a computer game developed for the BBC Micro and released by Superior Software in 1985. It was also ported to the Acorn Electron. A platform game with some puzzle solving elements. Michael Jakobsen’s puzzle-platformer, centred around a castle, requires players to find five hidden crystals and return them to their rightful place. Outside of the castle there are outside areas (including a wasteland, a pyramid, a sea and an island). Upon returning the crystals, the player must teleport to a separate set of locations to complete the game. Once the game is completed, the player is left free to roam the castle in order to achieve the maximum possible score if they have not done so already. The only way to see the final congratulatory message is to reach 99 points. Citadel was unusual at the time for playing synthesized speech before loading the main game (in part to advertise Superior Software's "Speech!" programme package), as well as having other special effects advanced for the time, such as splashing water sounds. Many BBC Micro gamers regard Citadel as a seminal game and it has spawned social media appreciation pages.
First released: Dec 1985

Play Citadel on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Citadel 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).

Citadel 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 Citadel like you would on any PC.
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