How to play Tempest on Mac

Game summary

This update to Atari's Tempest offers players an emulated version of the original arcade graphics, as well as "Evolved" graphics with particle effects, lighting, and shading. Both games feature a classic mode, and a speed-increased "Throttle Monkey" mode. Players must guide their horseshoe-shaped craft around the edges of 3-D geometric shapes. Enemies at the far end of the playing field move toward the player, and must be shot before they reach the edge. Players can also deploy their "Super-Zapper" once per level to clear the screen of enemies. Each level is a different shape, and progressive levels add new enemy types and more of them, requiring ever-faster reflexes. The game only offers online play, but two players can control two separate craft and play cooperatively. Players try for their highest score, which is then uploaded and tracked on the game's online leaderboards.
First released: Dec 2007

Play Tempest on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Tempest 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).

Tempest 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 Tempest like you would on any PC.
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