How to play X-Out on Mac

Game summary

X-Out is a horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up with eight levels and an underwater setting. Between levels, the player visits a shop and use their game score to purchase new submarines and equipment. The submarines come in four different variants, and additional purchases act as additional "lives". Each can be equipped with a one-way, two-way or three-way fire weapon of increasing power (and thus cost). Secondary weapons include sonic waves, powershots and target-seeking missiles. The player can also purchase auxiliary satellites and specify their movement pattern, which can be circular orbits, vertical and horizontal movements, or an intercepting action. The ZX Spectrum version achieved good critical success. Your Sinclair awarded 84%, highlighting the comprehensive shop sequence and large, well-animated enemies. Criticisms included the monochrome graphics which were said to be a little confusing, and the lack of a sense of danger.[1] During the time of release, there was some debate as to whether the game was actually pronounced "cross out" or "X out" ("ex out").[1] However the cassette version of the Commodore 64 release displays "Loading Crossout" at the beginning of the loading process. Also, in the Amiga version (as well in the C64 version), the synthesized voice in the intro says "Get ready for Crossout". The sequel Z-Out abandons this pronunciation pattern.
First released: Dec 1990

Play X-Out on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play X-Out 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).

X-Out 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 X-Out like you would on any PC.
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