How to play Star Control on Mac

Game summary

Star Control is a science-fiction wargame which pits the forces of The Alliance of Free Stars against those of the predatory Ur-Quan Hierarchy. The game is designed so that you can ease into play, familiarizing yourself with menus, options, and player controls. The Alliance and Hierarchy each possess seven different types of warships. Each vessel has its own maneuvering and firing characteristics, plus a unique special power that you can employ when circumstances dictate. Mankind is about to be wiped off the face of the galactic map. A savage clutch of alien races called the Ur-Quan Hierachy has become the “evil empire” of the 27th century- ruthlessly invading interstellar neighbors. Humanity is next on their list. Your job is to make sure that they don’t succeed. The entire Alliance of Free Stars battlefleet awaits your orders.
First released: Dec 1990

Play Star Control on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Star Control 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).

Star Control 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 Star Control like you would on any PC.
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