How to play Tanktics on Mac
Platforms | Computer |
Game summary
Tanktics was a game developed by DMA Design in 1999 for the PC. It was published by Interplay.
The objective of the game is to progress through four time periods, building and controlling tanks from that period to fight the "evil black tanks" from a more advanced period. Notably, tanks are constructed by hand out of parts, which are randomly constructed by a factory (the "Part-o-Matic") in the player's base when it is provided with resources. Different parts may offer the ability to cross different terrain, offensive capabilities more suitable to current tactics, and so forth. The player's primary control is "the crane", a flying magnet (held by, for example, a pterodactyl in the first, ancient time period) which can pick up and drop single parts. A suitable pile of parts becomes a tank, which can be selected and ordered to move by the magnet.
The game also has a strong puzzle bias. The magnet can also pick up boulders (e.g. for blocking off enemy routes) and sheep (which can be used to increase the factory's production rate, amongst other things), and there are various terrain types with lasting effects. For example, driving a tank through mud will make it dirty, causing them to move more slowly until you wash them. Some maps have buttons on them which can only be activated by tanks with sufficient combat experience, and it can take considerable foresight to ensure that a tank will be able to survive to that level and be able to reach the button. Dissassembling a tank will make it lose all experience.
The game is very micromanagement heavy, requiring the player to spread one's attention thinly over maintaining the continually tiring sheep at the factory, tank battles, negotiation of terrain hazards such as quicksand, and tank construction. The metaphor of the 'cursor' being a flying magnet with a physical presence in the world can make moving the viewpoint between all these tasks troublesome.
GAMEPLAY:
-Basics
There are four worlds in campaign mode: Stone Age
First released: Aug 1999
Play Tanktics on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)
The easiest way to play Tanktics 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).
Tanktics 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 Tanktics like you would on any PC.
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