How to play Shadow of the Beast on Mac

Game summary

A game that takes your computer into a totally new dimension. Shadow of the Beast is the most stunning 16-bit game you've ever played- a game that pushes your computer's features further than you ever thought they could go. Shadow of the Beast boasts the most incredible high-speed parallax scrolling ever seen. It will confront you with 132 different and vicious monsters, all as arcade quality fully animated sprites. You will be dazzled by the 128 colors appearing simultaneously on screen and rocked by the 900K of atmospheric soundtrack. And you'll be completely hooked by Shadow of the Beast's 350 screens of fast and furious action. So prepare for an experience you will never forget. Kidnapped as a child by the evil Beast Mages, you have been transformed into a creature of fearsome power, agility and strength. In this guise you faithfully serve the Beast and its cohorts for many years as their warrior-messenger. Until one day you discover an awful secret- the truth about your past... a truth that drives you wild with anger and leads you on a trail of bloody revenge against your masters. Now the time has come to enter the Shadow of the Beast! Your task is to fight your way through hostile country to the heart of the enemy's stronghold, where you will face your ultimate adversary. Along the way you will encounter an awesome array of monsters and traps. Be ruthless, be quick... for only the strongest and toughest can hope to survive. Prepare to live by your wits, relying on split-second reactions and ingenuity. Combat the diabolical creatures. Dodge the deadly plant life. Overcome the devious traps. Find and use the long-lost artifacts. Feel the adrenalin pumping through your joystick hand as the blood pounds in your heart and the tension becomes almost unbearable... Prepare to enter Shadow of the Beast.
First released: Dec 1989

Play Shadow of the Beast on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Shadow of the Beast 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).

Shadow of the Beast 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 Shadow of the Beast like you would on any PC.
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