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Collecting old game consoles and vintage computers is a fun hobby, but keeping all the hardware running can quickly become an expensive and exhausting task—not to mention the space you need just to store the equipment. Instead, you can (sensibly) choose to emulate your favorite games and software on Macwhich you already own.

In today's article, we'll briefly introduce the best apps you can use for the most common scenarios: playing old video games and trying out classic Mac OS on a modern Macu, and emulation of other operating systems. All methods are open-source and completely free.

OpenEmu

If you love old console games, you can try an emulator called OpenEmu. OpenEmu is a great way to play old video games on Macu. When you first launch the application, it will ask you which consoles you want to enable. There are dozens of options available in terms of time period and console brand. With OpenEmu, you can download ROM files online, copy ROM files from game consoles, car3ds you already own and simply drag them into the app to add them to your library. Then, just double-click the game to launch it. You can customize the controls to your computer keyboard Mac or use a connected controller. And you can easily create save states so you can pick up where you left off. Games are automatically categorized by console; you can also create your own collections.

You can download OpenEmu for free here.

Old Macy in a web browser

Not all emulators are necessarily downloadable – Infinite Mac for example, it works online in your web browser interface. Infinite Mac presents a simple way to work with earlier versions of the operating system Mac OS, because there's nothing to install. Thanks to the magic of WebAssembly, these virtual machines run directly in any modern web browser. You can set up all sorts of combinations of system software Apple with classic Macem of your choice. Plus, all installations include some of the most popular apps and games from when it was first released. Mac OS released: MacWrite a MacPaint, Photoshop, Microsoft Word, KPT Bryce, Marathon, Another World, SimCity, Lemmings, Civilization and more. You can also add your own software with a simple drag and drop. Infinite Mac it will treat it as if you were inserting a floppy disk. To save your work, put files in the Outside World folder, which will immediately download to your Macu.

Infinite website Mac can be found here.

Virtualization of operating systems

UTM represents the easiest way to emulate or virtualize modern operating systems on Macu. It's night and day easier to set up than VirtualBox, which cost me many frustrating hours of my life that I'll never get back. Using UTM is as simple as clicking a few buttons. After downloading the free software, just press the + button and click the option to download pre-built files from the gallery. You can download any of the pre-built machines and run them straight away. Maybe you want to play a classic PC game, like Quake III, Rollercoaster Tycoon, or SimTower, in the operating system interface Windows XP. Or you can have the system installed Mac OS 9 that runs locally on your computer. UTM is more reliable than Infinite Mac, which runs in a web browser. UTM can also virtualize modern operating systems such as Windows 11, for the few programs you might need to run on your PC. If Mac If you use it for software development, you can also run various Linux distributions on it – Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and others. For those who enjoy classic free games online, Arkadium provides a hassle-free way to play timeless games directly in your browser.

You can download UTM for free here.

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