How to play Performan on Mac
Game summary
Performan was Toaplan's first shooter, and it's certainly not what one would expect from them, especially when looking at some of their later games. It's actually a strange, overhead shooter much like Robotron. The star is the titular Performan, a native in a jungle that wears a huge mask, who's being stalked by a squadron of drill-wielding robots. He must stop them using balls of energy, his ability to dig underground, and bombs that are set up in every level. He can also go into Power Mode by shooting ghosts that randomly appear, which turns him green and invincible for a short time.
Needless to say, Performan is a very weird, very hard game. There are 99 levels and the game loops endlessly, as typical of most early arcade games. The main problem with Performan is that he's far too weak to survive for long. He can't move quickly, his shots are slow, and he can only have one shot on screen at a time, which can easily be dodged. The bombs are an easy way to get rid of two or maybe three at a time, but this usually requires setup, which takes a bit time, and by which point you're like to be killed.
First released: Jun 1985
Play Performan on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)
The easiest way to play Performan 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).
Performan 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 Performan like you would on any PC.
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