How to play Willow on Mac

Game summary

The arcade version of the game belongs to the platform genre. It has six stages, some where Willow plays his part, others where Madmartigan plays his and one of the stages where either character is selectable. Move the joystick left or right to move in that direction. Press the A button to use a weapon. Hold down the A button and let go to fire stronger shots indicated on the magic power gauge. Press the B button to jump. While jumping press the B button and move the joystick up to haul up ledges. Press the B button and moving the joystick down the player can descend ledges or slide on other surfaces. Chests can be smashed open to reveal useful items. Collect gold for purchasing items at shops from the Owl Mage. Purchasable items include weapons, healing potions, defensive jewellery, a life pack, a 1-up and some information. Depending on whether the player is playing as Willow or Madmartigan determines if either the magic weapon or the blade weapon can be purchased. There are also sub-bosses in some stages. At the end of each stage, stage boss must be defeated to proceed. The version of Willow released for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Famicom is an adventure game in the vein of The Legend of Zelda. The game has the player taking on the role of Willow. Unlike the film and arcade game, Willow generally travels alone, only briefly meeting other characters. In the tradition of The Legend of Zelda, Willow wields a sword and shield and many supplementary items along with a wide variety of magic spells. As the game progresses and Willow defeats enemies, he gains experience points and levels as in a role-playing video game.
First released: Jul 1989

Play Willow on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Willow 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).

Willow 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 Willow like you would on any PC.
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