How to play Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness on Mac

Game summary

Pokemon XD is a sequel to the role-playing game Pokémon Coliseum. You'll play as Michael, a Pokémon trainer who is trying to thwart the evil Cipher. Cipher plans to control the world by using the powerful, but unpredictable, shadow Pokémon. Now you must fight back by collecting your own shadow Pokémon and beating Cipher's goons in battle. Pokémon XD also lets you import Pokémon from Game Boy Advance Pokémon games and participate in head-to-head battles with other players.
First released: Oct 2005

Play Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness 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 XD: Gale of Darkness 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 XD: Gale of Darkness like you would on any PC.
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