How to play Top Gunner on Mac

Game summary

Top Gunner, released in 1986, is said to be the last vector graphic game produced for the arcades. Designed to run on Fifty 50’s XCD-1 Simulator System(TM) hardware, Top Gunner was played sitting down in a full cockpit-style motion cabinet. The motion of the player’s seat followed the action of the flight simulator-style gameplay, providing the player a unique, immersive arcade experience. The player interacted with the machine via a dual-axis flight yoke, a throttle lever, and the standard coin slot, start, and fire buttons. Vic Tolomei was the primary software developer for Vertigo and Top Gunner, Howell Ivy was responsible for the hardware, and Pete Kaufmann and Ken Nicholson designed the graphics and audio respectively. The game Vertigo, produced roughly two years before prior to Top Gunner, is thought to be its prototype. Vertigo was shopped around but never picked up due to poor location test results and excessive hardware costs.

Play Top Gunner on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Top Gunner 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).

Top Gunner 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 Top Gunner like you would on any PC.
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