How to play Sega-Galaga on Mac

Game summary

Sega-Galaga is the SG-1000 port of Galaga, and is strangely the only port to receive a name change. The player pilots a starship and must destroy all the on-screen enemies, similar to Space Invaders and Galaxian. However, the enemies in Galaga have the power to steal your ship to use as reinforcements (meaning the player loses a life). However, if you are able to destroy the enemy who has captured your ship, you are able to pilot both ships at once, doubling your firepower at the expense of being a bigger target. Though Sega-Galaga is essentially the same game as the arcade original, the limitations of the SG-1000 means the graphics and sound are not quite as advanced. Also the "challenging stages" have been omitted, meaning each stage is identical to the last.
First released: Dec 1983

Play Sega-Galaga on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Sega-Galaga 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).

Sega-Galaga 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 Sega-Galaga like you would on any PC.
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