How to play Sid Meier's Pirates! on Mac

Game summary

You'll criss-cross your way along the 17th century Spanish Main in search of all-new adventures. You'll lead a crew of hot-blooded buccaneers into rollicking harbour towns. And risk your booty and your life plundering enemy ships! Hunt for magnificent treasures! Unravel the mysteries and clues of your adventure! Even battle your way through enemy waters on grueling rescue missions! Will you win your rightful place in history? Or will you end up shipwrecked on a distant island? The answer can only be found in the swashbuckling Pirates! Gold.
First released: Dec 1987

Play Sid Meier's Pirates! on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Sid Meier's Pirates! 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).

Sid Meier's Pirates! 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 Sid Meier's Pirates! like you would on any PC.
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