How to play Ridge Racer on Mac

Game summary

Ridge Racer (リッジレーサー Rijji Rēsā) is a 1993 racing video game developed and published by Namco. It was initially released on the Namco System 22 arcade system board, and was later ported to the PlayStation console in 1994. It is the first title in the long-running Ridge Racer series of games released for arcades and home consoles. The game's objective is to finish in first place in a series of races. Ridge Racer was among the first racing games to utilise polygon graphics to its full potential. The PlayStation version supports the use of Namco's NeGcon controller. The first home version of Ridge Racer was released in Japan in 1994 as a launch title for the PlayStation; the versions for North America and Europe were released in 1995. The game was re-released in Japan for the PlayStation The Best range on 12 July 1997, and for the Greatest Hits and Platinum ranges in North America and PAL regions respectively the same year. The game played a major role in establishing the new system and in giving it an early edge over its nearest competitor, the Sega Saturn, and was considered a rival to Sega's Daytona USA. After release, Ridge Racer received a highly positive reception. Reviewers praised the graphics, audio, drifting mechanics, and arcade-like gameplay, although some reviewers were critical of the lack of strong artificial intelligence and multiplayer mode. The arcade version was followed by a sequel, Ridge Racer 2, in 1994, whereas the PlayStation sequel, Ridge Racer Revolution, was released on 3 December 1995 in Japan, and in 1996 in North America and PAL regions. The game's soundtrack was remixed and released on the Namco Game Sound Express Vol. 11 album.
First released: Nov 1993

Play Ridge Racer on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Ridge Racer 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).

Ridge Racer 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 Ridge Racer like you would on any PC.
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