How to play Video Life on Mac
Game summary
Video Life is a rare video game for the Atari 2600. It is a version of the zero-player cellular automaton known as Conway's Game of Life. Video Life was only available through a special mail order offer to owners of CommaVid's Magicard, which itself is considered to be one of the rarest Atari 2600 cartridges ever released. According to original CommaVid co-owner Irwin Gaines, only 20 cartridges or less of Video Life were ever made. Editors of AtariAge estimate approximately 500 cartridges were produced. A report in the Chicago Reader by Jeffrey Felshman estimates that cartridges would sell for as much $3000 at the time.
First released: Jun 1981
Play Video Life on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)
The easiest way to play Video Life 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).
Video Life 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 Video Life like you would on any PC.
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