How to play Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 on Mac

Game summary

This 32X-exclusive sci-fi shooter is similar gameplay-wise to Sega's arcade game Zaxxon. The graphics consist of a diagonally scrolling playfield which creates a pseudo 3D environment. The backgrounds are drawn using 2D scrolling planes, but the enemy and ship objects are drawn using 3D flat-shaded polygons. Although the basic goal of each of the 9 levels is to shoot everything without getting shot, the game has a strategic element. Your basic spacecraft has very little firepower, and can only sustain one hit. To make matters worse, there are very few power-ups. In order to survive, you have to jump on top of enemies and take control of their weapons systems. This system allows for a large variety of player-controllable ships.
First released: Jul 1995

Play Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 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).

Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 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 Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 like you would on any PC.
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