Emulation Program For Mac

Emulator is the software that helps us to run multiple OS on a single hardware. It typically helps one OS to behave as another for as much amount of time as we want and then switch back to our original OS. This in turn helps people to run different apllications exclusively for various OS on a single platform. Like if you have an Windows PC emulator, or the iOS one, you can run Windows or iOS appliactions on your Mac computer, especially good for app developers.

Mac PC is now common around the world, and it’s not surprising that some people would want to play game with it. But there are some games that only built for Windows, Nintendo or other devices, and hence you may need the game emulator for these games to run on Mac OS. So, here in this article, we will show you some of the best Game Console Emulators for macOS.

Tips: If you ever lost important notes or messages on iPhone, you can also use Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery for Mac to get them back easily even without backup.

Also read: 6 Best iOS Emulator For Windows To Build & Run iOS Apps

While Google Play Store does not support the Flash Player anymore, it is still possible to install the software on Android devices, manually. Adobe flash player for firefox mac. Adobe Flash Player can be downloaded on different platforms, including Linux, Windows, Mac and Android OS.

15 best Android emulators for PC and Mac of 2020. Joe Hindy / @ThatJoeHindy. There are a lot of valid reasons why someone would want to run Android emulators on their PC. App developers may. Once you’re done, drag your emulator file into the Application folder. Right-click on the emulator and choose the “Open” option. Most emulators (RetroArch in particular) that can work on Mac cannot be opened by standard double-clicking on them. Therefore, make sure to perform the above operations to fire up the program.

Top 15 Gaming Emulators for Mac Computers

1. Virtual PC for Mac

This emulator by Microsoft aims to emulate Windows OS on your Mac giveing you the freedom to run those programs specifical for Windows OS that you can not use on your Mac OS.
This game emulator will successfully take out your worry about the fact that you cannot run your Windows games on Mac. This Windows emulator will work as Windows 7 version, which may be a bit outdated but still it can do your job perfectly.

Download: Virtual PC for Mac

2. XBOX 360 Emulator for Mac

As the name suggests this is an XBOX oriented emulator completely made for Mac OS. For playing XBOX games, XeMu360 emulator is the most widely used emulator. This is comparatively a new software and it does support almost all XBOX games.
This is a very powerful emulator so that Mac OS users can enjoy playing XBOX games on it flawlessly.

Download: XBOX 360 Emulator for Mac

3. Playstation Emulators for Mac

PCSX-Reloaded is one of the the best emulator that can be installed on your Mac OS ideal for playing Playstation games. As an open source software, this emulator gives you the freedom to install it on all versions of Mac OS. Things become much simpler and easier after its installation process has been modified recently.
It would be better to keep all your playstation games inside one folder on Mac. Then after installing PCSX-Reloaded all you have to do is to drop the game you want to play in it. The emulator also has a built-in BIOS and the ability to edit memory cards as well.

Download: Playstation Emulators for Mac

4. Nintendo 64 Emulator for Mac

Mupen64 is one of the well-known emulator for Nintendo 64 to use on Mac OS. This emulator is very stable and compatible with all types of Mac OS.

However, you will require to install the GTK+ for this Nitendo 64 emulator to work smoothly. GTK+ is a graphical toolkit that needs to be installed on the Mac to process graphics. GTK+ will remains in the background and rightly handles the graphics of the N64 ROMS on Mac.

Download: Nintendo 64 Emulator for Mac

5. GameCube and Wii Games Emulator for Mac

Dolphin is one of the best game emulator for macOS to run GameCube, Wii and Triforce games. This emulator is very much compatible with multiple platforms including the macOS. It is also free to use as an open source project. The emulator works well with macOS 10.6 to 10.8 and is very user friendly as well.

The only thing the user needs to do is to specifiy the BIOS file which comes always with the ROM. When you start playing the game, Dolphin emulator automatically senses the game file and starts playing it on Mac.

Download: GameCube and Wii Games Emulator for Mac

6. OpenEmu

OpenEmu emulator is one of the most reliable emulators in the market, compatible with Mac OS 10.7 and higher. Being very user friendly, it also has an iTunes type menu. This is the ultimate gaming emulator that detects the game Roms according to their requirement.

OpenEmu – How To Run Emulators on a Mac N64 PSP SNES NES And More!

OpenEmu supports a great number of consoles like:

Game Boy
NeoGeo Pocket
Game Gear
Sega Genesis and lot more

Download: OpenEmu

7. RetroArch

RetroArch seems to be an all-in-one emulator for macOS that helps the users to play any kind of retro games. The emulator even can be used to play PlayStation 1 games and older ones as well. In the handheld game console RetroArch even supports Game Boy Advance games. It is totally based on the number of cores with each of the core emulating a console.

Download: RetroArch

8. PPSSPP

The name PPSSPP stands for Playstation Portable Simulator Suitable for Playing Portably, which is an emulator for playing PSP games. The emulator was originally created by Dolphin developers and is widely used across the globe. PPSSPP is very easy to install and to use on Mac, and also it supports a wide number of PSP games.

Download: PPSSPP

9. ScummVM

This emulator is speifically designed for those people who like to play point-and-click games. SucmmVM is supported by macOS and uses the Scumm scripting language shown as its name. The emulator also supports many of the adventure games like the Monkey Island 1-3, Sam & Max and much more.

Download: ScummVM

10. DeSmuME

DeSmuMe is another emulator for macOS that helps users to play with the dual screens of Nintendo, i.e. by simulating dual screens on the monitor itself. The emulator also supports games that we want play on the devices sideways.

The best part of this emulator is that its constantly being modified by developers and new features are getting added to it on a regular basis. And now over the years this has become one of the best game emulators for Mac in the market.

Download: DeSmuME

11. DosBox

As the name suggests this emulator is purposefuly made for DOS based programs. Many DOS based games are still played by users; so to make those games available even on macOS this emulator has been created.

Download: DosBox

12. Xamarian Android Player for Mac

This is an Android emulator that can be run on macOS so that you can play the millions of Android games onto your Mac. Xamarain Android player also supports OpenGL and actually virtualizes the device instead of simply emulating it.

This also helps to enhance the performance of your Mac. The emulator has a great integration with both the Visual Studio and the Xamarin Studio, and this one has a native user interface. Final cut pro for mac.

Download: Xamarian Android Player for Mac

13. PS3 Emulator for Mac

PS3 emulator typically supports macOS and allows users to play PlayStation 3 games on Mac. It is completely free and only need you to have any PS3 supported game. This gives complete freedom for users to choose whatever PS3 game they want to play on their Mac.

Download: PS3 Emulator for Mac

14. iOS Emulator iPadian for Mac

As its name suggests, this is an emulator that helps you run iOS applications on your Mac. By downloading this simulator, users can use iPad applications on a Mac as well. The best iOS emulator currently available is the iPadian.

This emulator is based on Adobe AIR and readily creates an interface similar to iPad on your Mac. iPadian is a very good emulator if you are just looking to run iOS appliactios and games on your Mac flawlessly.

Download: iOS Emulator iPadian for Mac

15. Visual Boy Advance

The Visual Boy Advance, also known to be the Mac Boy advance, can play almost all games of the Nintendo consoles on Mac. This GBA is written and developed specifically for the OS X and is compatibile with almost all kinds of macOS.

Download: Visual Boy Advance

So, here are our top 15 picks of game consloe emulators that you can readily download onto your Mac and seamlessly enjoy Android, DOS, Windows, iOS and much more experiences. By this way, you do not have to buy other kinds of OS, but just an emulator that will help you to run other applications on the single macOS.

Each of these emulators for Mac has its own advantage, and gaming on them is another treat to be honest. With such wide variety of support for games, you can download each of them and find out your favorite one and play all along. If you have any other good suggestion or question, welcome to comment down.

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Arnold 1.7.9
Amstrad CPC/CPC+ Emulator
Arnold is an extremely precise Amstrad CPC/CPC+ emulator, which can runjust about all software available for what was without question the besthome computer available in Europe in the 1980s.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Ported by Richard Bannister
Modification Date: March 10, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 726 Kb

Atari800MacX 5.0.1
This is the the Macintosh OSX Port of David Firth'sFantastic Atari 800 Emulator. Ported is the SDL version of theAtrari800 emulator to Mac OSX, and added a full native Cocoa interface,including Preferences, Menus, File Associations, Help and more.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Mark Grebe
Modification Date: January 19, 2019
Requirements: macOS 10.12 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 21.8 MB

Basilisk II 1.0 (2019-09-08)
Basilisk II is an open source emulator of 68xxx-based Macintoshcomputers for Windows, OS X and Linux. With Basilisk II, one can bootMac OS versions 7.x through 8.1. Ports of Basilisk II are available forMac OS X, Windows, Linux and a number of lesser known systems. Usersrequire a Macintosh ROM image and a copy of Mac OS to use with theemulator.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Ported by Christian Bauer et al
Modification Date: May 4, 2019
Requirements: macOS 10.14 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 1.4 MB

Boycott Advance 0.4.1
Boycott Advance can run the majority of existing Gameboy Advancesoftware to some degree. High quality sound emulation is supported, withmany games sounding as good, if not better, than they do on the realhardware. Having said that, Boycott Advance is not a substitute for thereal hardware. If you want to play Gameboy Advance games, then buy areal Gameboy Advance. A number of hardware devices exist for backing uporiginal Gameboy Advance titles for use on Boycott Advance. Theseinclude the Flash Advance Linker and the XGFlash.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Ported by Richard Bannister
Modification Date: March 10, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 465 Kb

BSNES 0.6.9
BSNES has a somewhat different purpose to most emulators; it focuses onaccuracy over performance. To that end, it does not include any gamespecific hacks, or idle-loop skipping optimizations commonly found inother emulators. To add to the fun, it uses a cycle accurate hardwareemulation. The net result of all this is the highest system requirementsof any software I've released to date; those without a G5 class machineneed not apply. If you meet the requirements, however, this is the mostaccurate SNES emulation available on the Macintosh platform.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Ported by Richard Bannister
Modification Date: March 9, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 1.6 MB

DeSmuME 0.9.11
Nintendo DS Emulator.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: DeSmuME Team
Modification Date: April 7, 2015
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.5 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 1.5 MB

Dolphin 5.0
Dolphin is an emulator for two recent Nintendo video game consoles: theGameCube and the Wii. It allows PC gamers to enjoy games for these twoconsoles in full HD (1080p) with several enhancements: compatibilitywith all PC controllers, turbo speed, networked multiplayer, and evenmore!

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Dolphin Team
Modification Date: Current
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.10 or higher - 64-bit - The Development versions are the better choice with macOS 10.13 and higher

Download File Size: ~17 MB - Development versions are released every time a developer makes a change to Dolphin, several times every day!

DOSBox 0.74-3
A port of DOSBox, an engine for playing classic and forgotten games for DOS on modern systems.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: DOSBox Team
Modification Date: June 27, 2019
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 4.2 MB

Emulator Enhancer 3.0.1
The Emulator Enhancer plugin adds a number of additional features tomany of the emulators available from this site (bannister.org). Theseinclude:
USB Gamepad and Joystick support
Aspect ratio correction
Bilinear Filtering

Full screen mode
Network game play (preliminary)
Screen Curvature
VBL Synchronised Video
Full instructions on how to use the library can be found in the download package.

License: Shareware, $30
Developer/Publisher: Richard Bannister
Modification Date: March 30, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 589 Kb

Erockus Arcade 6.8
Erockus ARCADE is an interface app for SDLMAME.
Erockus ARCADE does not actually play games.
Erockus Arcade is designed to simplify the use of SDLMAME.
Erockus ARCADE is not supported nor endorsed by the people behind SDLMAME.
Erockus ARCADE may not work with all versions of SDLMAME.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Eric Richards
Modification Date: September 25, 2019
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.10 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 7.9 MB

Frodo 4.4.1
Frodo is a robust Commodore 64 Emulator for the Macintosh.
Frodo was developed to reproduce the graphics of games and demos withhigher precision than the existing C64 emulators. To that end, Frodo candisplay raster effects correctly that only result in a flickering messwith other emulators. In addition to the precise VIC emulation, Frodofeatures a processor-level 1541 emulation that is able to handle about50% of all fast loaders. There is also a faster 1541 emulation for fourdrives containing .D64, .X64, .T64, or .LYNX files. Sound (SID)emulation is also provided.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Ported by Richard Bannister
Modification Date: March 10, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 1.4 MB

Genesis Plus 1.3.2
Genesis Plus is a Sega Genesis/Megadrive emulator for Mac OS X.
Genesis Plus features very accurate emulation of the original SegaGenesis, even to the point that some software which has problems on thereal hardware exhibits the same behaviour under emulation. Thisemulation comes with accurate sound support, saved states, and savedgame support.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Ported by Richard Bannister
Modification Date: March 10, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 517 Kb

Jum52 1.1.1
Atari 5200 Emulator
Jum52 supports reasonable compatibility with Atari 5200 titles. At thepresent collision detection is a bit hit and miss (no pun intended) butotherwise the emulator is solid enough. High quality sound emulation isprovided.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Ported by Richard Bannister
Modification Date: March 10, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 391 Kb

KiGB 2.0.6
KiGB is a Nintendo Gameboy emulator for Mac OS X.
KiGB features detailed and accurate emulation, which brings with itexcellent compatibility. Support for both Game Genie and Game Sharkcodes is included, as well as extremely high fidelity sound support.KiGB can even emulate the Super Gameboy.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Ported by Richard Bannister
Modification Date: March 10, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 668 Kb

Mini vMac 36.04
Mini vMac is an open source emulator of 68000 based Macintosh computers.The project's main goal being an accurate emulation of the MacintoshPlus computer. In addition to the Macintosh Plus, variations of MinivMac can emulation the Macintosh 128K, 512K, 512Ke, SE and Classicmodels.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Paul C. Pratt
Modification Date: October 7, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.7 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 59emu Kb

Mugrat 0.4.5
For many years now I have been porting emulators by others to MacOS. Mugrat marks my first attempt at writing one of my own, in this caseto emulate the Colecovision.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Richard Bannister
Modification Date: March 30, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 409 Kb

Mupen64Plus 2.5.9
Mupen64Plus is a cross-platform plugin-based N64 emulator which iscapable of accurately playing many games. N64 emulator and plugins forLinux, Mac OSX, FreeBSD, and Windows

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Mupen64Plus Team
Modification Date: February 10, 2019
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.8 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 2.7 MB

Nestopia 1.4.2
Nestopia is a Nintendo NES emulator for Mac OS X.
Nestopia is by far the most compatible of any NES emulator for Mac OS X.Using cycle-exact emulation, it is able to run titles that rely onprecise timing, and which therefore break under other emulators. Itsupports five extra sound chips and an astonishing 143 mappers. Thisaccurate emulation comes at a cost; Nestopia requires an 800MHz machinefor full speed; but if you have one, this is the best available NESemulation for Mac.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Ported by Richard Bannister
Modification Date: March 10, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 1.1 MB

OpenEmu 2.2.1
Retro video game emulation for macOS.
For the first time, the 'It just works' philosophy now extends to opensource video game emulation on the Mac. With OpenEmu, it is extremelyeasy to add, browse, organize and with a compatible gamepad, play thosefavorite games (ROMs) you already own.
This one does it all and in a well done interface. Nintendo, SuperNintendo, Nintendo 64, PlayStaion, Sega Genesis, Atari 2600, Game Boy, PSP etc.and more.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: OpenEmu Team
Modification Date: January 25, 2020
Requirements: macOS 10.14 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 43 MB - The experimental version supports MAME

Rainbow 1.5.8
Atari 800 Series Emulator
Rainbow was one of the first emulators available for Macintosh. Despitethis, it has fairly good compatibility with original software. The MacOS X version adds an improved GUI and significantly improved sound tothe original version.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Ported by Richard Bannister
Modification Date: March 10, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 469 Kb

ScummVM 2.1
ScummVM is not an emulator.
ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphicalpoint-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their datafiles. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executablesshipped with the game, allowing you to play them on systems for whichthey were never designed!
ScummVM lets you run these adventures: Adventure Soft's Simon theSorcerer 1 and 2; Revolution's Beneath A Steel Sky, Broken Sword 1 andBroken Sword 2; Flight of the Amazon Queen; Wyrmkeep's Inherit theEarth; Coktel Vision's Gobliiins and games based on LucasArts' SCUMM(Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) system. SCUMM is used formany games, including Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Maxand more. Compatibility with supported games is continually improving,so check back often.
Among the systems on which you can play those games are Windows, Linux,Mac OS X, Dreamcast, PocketPC, PalmOS, AmigaOS, BeOS, OS/2, PSP, PS2,SymbianOS/EPOC and many more..

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: The ScummVM Team
Modification Date: January 15, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.7 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 24.5 MB

SDLMAME 0.214
Command line Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: @roni
Modification Date: September 25, 2019
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.9 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 101.1 MB - SDL Mame 0.214

Download File Size: 5.6 Kb - SDL Runtime Library 2.0.10

Download File Size: 542 Kb - M64 - Application to run SDL MAME without launching the terminal

SheepShaver 2.5 (2019-09-08)

SheepShaver is an Open Source PowerPC MacOS run-time environment. Thatis, it enables you to run PowerPC Classic MacOS software on yourcomputer, even if you are using a different operating system. However,you still need a copy of MacOS and a PowerMacintosh ROM image to usethis program. SheepShaver is distributed under the terms of the GNUGeneral Public License (GPL). If you are using a PowerPC-based system,applications will run at native speeds (i.e. without any emulationinvolved). On other systems, SheepShaver provides the first PowerPC G4emulator, though without MMU, to enable the execution of MacOS Classic.Performance with the current CPU emulator using basic just-in-time (JIT)translation techniques is roughly 1/8-th of native speeds.
Features
- SheepShaver runs MacOS 7.5.2 thru MacOS 9.0.4
- PowerPC G4 emulation on non-PowerPC platforms, direct execution otherwise
- Basic but portable JIT engine (x86, x86_64, mips)
- Copy and paste of text between MacOS and the host OS
- File exchange with the host OS via a Unix icon on the Mac desktop
- Color video display with support for run-time resolution switching
- Run-time depth switching from 1 bpp to current host depth settings
- Native QuickDraw 2D acceleration for BitBlt and FillRect operations
- CD-quality stereo sound output
- Networking: SheepShaver supports Internet and LAN networking via Ethernet and PPP with all Open Transport compatible MacOS applications

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Gwenole Beauchesne
Modification Date: September 8, 2019
Requirements: macOS 10.14 or higher - 64-bit - If you have an existing SheepShaver setup, you can simply replace the application with the new application

Download File Size: 1.4 MB

SMS Plus 1.3.4
SMS Plus is a Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear emulator for Mac OSX.
The hardware for the Sega Master System and Game Gear consoles is almostidentical from a technical standpoint, which means that when you emulateone, it is trivial to emulate the other. SMS Plus features accurateemulation of both systems, with full sound support. Just like most ofthe other emulators on this site, it can use GZ compressed ROMstransparently.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Ported by Richard Bannister
Modification Date: March 10, 2018
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 551 Kb

sixtyforce 2.0b1
sixtyforce is an emulator that runs Nintendo 64 games. It does this bydynamically translating the code that a Nintendo 64 uses into somethingyour Mac understands. Nearly every part of a Nintendo 64 has beenpainstakingly recreated entirely out of software to pull off such anamazing feat. Download sixtyforce and try it yourself!

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Gerrit Goossen
Modification Date: October 10, 2019
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.9 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 8 MB

Stella 6.0.2
The Atari 2600 Video Computer System (VCS), introduced in 1977, was themost popular home video game system of the early 1980's. Now you canenjoy all of your favorite Atari 2600 games on your PC thanks to Stella!
Stella is a multi-platform Atari 2600 VCS emulator released under theGNU General Public License (GPL). Stella was originally developed forLinux by Bradford W. Mott, however, since its original release severalpeople have joined the development team to port Stella to otheroperating systems such as AcornOS, AmigaOS, DOS, FreeBSD, IRIX, Linux,OS/2, MacOS, Unix, and Windows. The development team is working hard toperfect the emulator and we hope you enjoy our effort.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Stella Team
Modification Date: October 11, 2019
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.7 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 3.6 MB

VICE 3.1
VICE is a program that runs on a Unix, MS-DOS, Win32, OS/2, BeOS, QNX4.x, QNX 6.x, Amiga, Syllable or Mac OS X machine and executes programsintended for the old 8-bit computers. The current version emulates theC64, the C64DTV, the C128, the VIC20, practically all PET models, thePLUS4 and the CBM-II (aka C610/C510). An extra emulator is provided forC64 expanded with the CMD SuperCPU.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: The VICE Team
Modification Date: March 30, 2017
Requirements: macOS 10.12 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 86.5 MB

VirtualC64 3.3.2
VirtualC64 emulates a Commodore 64 personal computer on your Macintosh.I started the project in 2006 to create a virtual CPU environment thatcan be used as a demonstrator program in a first or second year ofcomputer technology. Over the years I have added more and more featuresand the accuracy of the emulation has steadily increased. Despite one ortwo compatibility gaps, VirtualC64 is now able to run a large number ofC64 programs without errors.

License: Freeware
Developer/Publisher: Dirk Hoffmann
Modification Date: May 25, 2019
Requirements: macOS 10.13 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 12.5

Virtual ][ 9.2
Virtual ][ is a program that emulates the vintage Apple ][ computer onyour Macintosh.
Key features:
Emulates the Apple ][, ][+ and //e

Terminal Emulation Program For Mac

Supports USB game pad or joystick

Save a machine and resume later on