How to play Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s on Mac

Game summary

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (titled Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s in Europe) is a music rhythm game and the third installment in the popular Guitar Hero series. It was released in July 2007 in North America and Europe, and in August 2007 in Australia. Players use a guitar-shaped controller (purchased separately) to simulate playing rock music by hitting notes as they scroll towards the player. Rocks the 80s is an incremental title in the Guitar Hero series, rather than a full sequel. No changes in gameplay from Guitar Hero II have been introduced to this game. As implied by the game's title, the game features a 1980s theme, consisting of songs from the decade and playable characters, fashions, and artwork that reflect the time period. The game was not as well-received as the prior two Guitar Hero games, due to the lack of new gameplay features and reduced soundtrack. Rocks the 80s is the third and final title in the Guitar Hero series to be developed by Harmonix before they moved on to create Rock Band.[5] The next major installment of the series, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, was developed by Activision's Neversoft division.[6]
First released: Jul 2007

Play Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s 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).

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s 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 Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s like you would on any PC.
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