How to play Stardust on Mac
Game summary
This is where it all began – way back in 1993 with the original Stardust, a legendary shoot-em-up for the Amiga 500 (an Atari STE version followed in ‘94) that wowed critics and gamers alike.
Stardust dazzled with its tight controls, solid gameplay and stunning technical achievements like ray-traced graphics, full-screen animations & 3D hyperspace tunnel sequences.
Players controlled an upgradeable starship equipped with various weapons, missiles and shields. The playfield “wrapped”, so if anything went off-screen it reappeared on the opposite side.
Stardust featured five different worlds (all connected by 3D hyperspace tunnels) and 30 action-packed levels full of asteroids, enemies, and bosses bent on destruction.
At game’s end, the evil mutant penguin Professor Schaumund made his first-ever appearance (and subsequent escape), meaning he could (and did) return to wreak cosmic havoc in future Stardust titles!
First released: Dec 1993
Play Stardust on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)
The easiest way to play Stardust 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).
Stardust 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 Stardust like you would on any PC.
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