How to play Pokémon Sapphire on Mac

Game summary

Sequel to Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions (1999), Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire Versions offer 135 new Pokémon, more complex battling and training systems, new crime organizations, a longer and more story-focused campaign and upgraded graphics to create a new and technically improved Pokémon experience.
First released: Nov 2002

Play Pokémon Sapphire on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Pokémon Sapphire 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).

Pokémon Sapphire 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 Pokémon Sapphire like you would on any PC.
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