How to play Dragster on Mac

Game summary

You have in your hand one of the most exciting video games ever designed. One word of caution: this game takes a little time to learn because it's so challenging. It's very tricky. So, please read these directions and give yourself some practice time. Then you can aim for the World Record. Game 1: Straight-ahead Dragster, one or two players. Game 2: Steerable Dragster, one or two players. Your Joystick Controller is both the clutch and gear shift for your Dragster; the red button is your gas pedal. Use left Joystick for the top car; right one for bottom car. Hold Joystick with button at the upper left. To shift gears, clutch by pushing Joystick to the left and shift by letting the Joystick spring back to the center. Your car starts each race in neutral (N). There are four gear positions--1, 2, 3, 4--and you must clutch and shift between each gear. You cannot downshift. When the countdown reaches 0, you can start. If you drop into gear too soon, before the end of the countdown, EARLY will appear on the screen and you have to wait for the next race. You can clutch during the countdown, but you cannot drop into 1st until the countdown reaches 0. The object of Dragster is to beat your opponent across the screen, or to race against the clock for best time.
First released: Feb 1980

Play Dragster on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Dragster 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).

Dragster 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 Dragster like you would on any PC.
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