How to play Computer War on Mac

Game summary

It's thermonuclear war! Break the computer code to launch your missiles, then guide your interceptors before enemy missiles converge with your cities. This is a game in two parts. The first part plays a lot like a sliding block puzzle. You are given a figure in a 3 x 3 grid to match. Using the joystick and fire button, you rotate pieces in a larger grid to try to match the smaller figure. If you do that, you can select a missile launch site. Eventually, the enemy will launch its own missiles. You position your crosshair at the radar dot for the enemy missile, and can then launch an intercepter. This part of the game is more action-oriented as you "fly" your intercepter to take down the enemy nuke.
First released: Feb 1983

Play Computer War on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Computer 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).

Computer 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 Computer War like you would on any PC.
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