- How To Play Nintendo Games On Mac
- Nintendo Games To Play Online
- Free To Play Nintendo Games
- How To Play Old Nintendo Games On Mac
My newest adventure has me looking to progressively newer systems - this time the Nintendo GameCube. I owned the GameCube when I was younger and, though there were a shortage of decent games, I really enjoyed Mario Kart: Double Dash, so it was important I figured out how to play GameCube games on Mac. 64DD.org has some game dumps and information on how to play 64DD games in MAME or Project64. Is there any way to play 64DD dumps on a Mac using sixtyforce (my version is registered)? I was thinking about sending Gerrit Goossen an email about adding support as a feature request or asking to help with code the 64DD IPL support. Nintendo games are by far the easiest to emulate, thanks to their popularity and straightforward design. If you'd like to emulate the NES, you can do that in your browser, but for the best experience, we suggest traveling to the Mushroom Kingdom via higan, a multi-system emulator for Windows, OpenEmu, a gorgeous multi-system emulator for Mac, and NES.emu for Android.
For me, Nintendo has always been the gold standard in gaming. I've not been without a Nintendo console in decades now, and I'm an enormous fan of the Zelda, Mario and Metroid series (and F-Zero, and Animal Crossing, and Starfox, and so on).
Did you know you can play Sega Genesis games on your Mac? Bannister originally developed several Macintosh emulators for popular gaming systems including PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Gameboy, and many more. Today, as long as you have a decent Mac with an Intel Processor, all emulation programs will perform exceptionally well. Let's get started. If you're among the first to buy the new Nintendo Switch game console, there's an added benefit you can easily take advantage of: The system's wireless controllers are fully supported by Apple's.
With today's powerful Mac (and PC) hardware, we can rediscover all of our favourite vintage Nintendo games via emulation - and you can even use the original controllers, if you have them.
Notes on emulation
Emulation of videogames consoles is legally questionable at best. Second-hand consoles are readily available to buy, and you should seriously consider grabbing them for fun and nostalgia. If you're like me, you probably already have many or all of these systems in your basement or attic, waiting to be used again.
Downloading games that you don't own is definitely illegal, of course, and it hurts the content providers. The only reason that we have games to play is because people pay for them - so please don't download ROMs of games that you don't actually own. It's easy to buy huge packs of second-hand console games on ebay, often with the actual systems included, and it doesn't cost a lot of money.
Having said all that, most of us probably have several gadgets (including current-generation games consoles) hooked up to our televisions, and may not have suitable ports or connections to keep old systems plugged in too. It can be much more convenient to play those older games on the ultra-sharp, vivid screen of your Mac instead. Every previous Nintendo system has an emulator available for OS X, and they all run just fine on 10.8 Mountain Lion.
On joypads
All emulators can be played using the keyboard and/or mouse, or any generic USB gamepad. Here's my advice: choose your pad very carefully. Most older systems used a D-pad as the primary directional input device, and not all D-pads are created equal. RSI and wrist injury are a very real possibility, particularly if you're not ten years old anymore.
Nintendo spends a great deal of time designing and testing their input devices, and they build products to last. I've consistently found that the original official controllers are by far the most pleasant to play with. They can all be used with your Mac without modification, using cheap USB adapters which I'll talk about shortly. Precision is also important, and the original pads won't let you down. You'll find the NES controller's D-pad to be firm and quite springy, and the SNES to be softer and feel more settled. Both will give you many years of retro gaming pleasure.
If you do decide to use a third-party replica pad (or perhaps even a modern USB pad), exercise caution and see how your wrists are handling it. Cheap knock-offs don't go through anything like the Q&A of Nintendo's official pads, and you'll also almost certainly have to replace them much sooner.
(As an aside, if you have any spare official Nintendo controllers for any system that are in good condition and perfect working order, I'd be very interested in obtaining them. My email address is matt at this domain. I promise to cherish them, and to use them!)
NES
How To Play Nintendo Games On Mac
Prepare for a blast of nostalgia. The classic NES controller:
This is a beautiful joypad. It's chunky but extremely light, with a positive D-pad and concave, clicky buttons. It will also likely survive the apocalypse, and indeed did do so in living-rooms around the world.
You can connect yours to a Mac using a RetroBit Retro Adapter, which provides one NES port (so you might want to buy two adapters for two-player games).
NES USB controller adapter
To run the games, you have a few options. I use Nestopia, which you can also use via the excellent OpenEmu.
It's dangerous to go alone!
Super Nintendo (SNES)
The SNES was the primary system of my early teenage years. I first saw one in an electrical appliance store whilst I was waiting for my mother to buy a new vacuum cleaner. It was in a pod running Super Mario World, and Christmas was only a couple of months away. The rest is history.
It also had what is in my opinion the single best joypad ever made.
SNES controller
(The European and Japanese Super Nintendo/Famicom pads had these colourful buttons, rather than the US version's purple-grey two-tone ones. I much prefer the colours.)
You can connect two How to install os x yosemite on an unsupported mac. of these beauties to your Mac via the Dual SNES Adapter, which provides two SNES ports.
To play the games, you'll want SNES9X, which again can be used either on its own, or as part of OpenEmu.
SNES9X SNES emulator for OS X
Pay no attention to the average middle-aged man standing by this sign!
N64
I didn't get an N64 immediately, because I was spending most of my time flying around the world and working. When I did get some time at home, I was window-shopping and decided to just buy one on a whim. I got the Super Mario 64 pack, and also picked up Ocarina of Time. Playing Ocarina over the next week is one of my most cherished gaming memories. (Did you know that they remastered it for the 3DS? It's an excellent version of the game.)
The N64 controller looked a lot like a spaceship, and you almost always held it with your right hand on the rightmost prong, and your left hand on the middle prong, to use the analog joystick. The stick sometimes felt a little bit high, but it was precise, pleasantly springy, and a bit of a revelation at the time.
You can connect this gargantuan joypad to your Mac using the N64 Controller Adapter, which gives you two N64 ports.
N64 USB controller adapter
To play the games, you can use OpenEmu, but for certain games you might also want to have the rather fantastic Sixtyforce on hand.
Take it respectfully!
Gamecube
I did get a Gamecube on launch day, and thankfully it was purple (my favourite colour) by default. I think I lost about three weeks of my life playing Rogue Leader over and over.
The ‘cube controllers eschewed the N64's C-buttons for a second analog C-stick (handily named, since it's almost always used to control the in-game camera), which is of course now a standard feature across most consoles. It's a very solid joypad with perfectly-placed controls, and a satisfyingly huge A button. I can testify that it readily survives repeated collisions with walls, but is susceptible to teeth-marks when chewed with rage.
Gamecube controller
To connect your ‘cube pads, you can use the 3-in-1 Magic Joy Box, which provides one Gamecube port, one Xbox (original) port, and one PlayStation or PlayStation 2 port. It is also not a sex toy, despite the awful name.
To play Gamecube games, you can use Dolphin, which is also a Wii emulator (with which you can use your original Wii remotes via Bluetooth too).
Dolpin Gamecube emulator for OS X
Hoy, small fry!
No drivers required
All of the USB adapters mentioned above are plug-and-play, requiring no drivers whatsoever. Connect the pad to the adapter, then the adapter to the computer. Use the ‘Preferences' (or similar) in each emulator to configure the buttons appropriately; OpenEmu has a particularly nice interface for doing this, showing the actual original pads.
What about handhelds?
The best way to experience handheld games is on the original systems, all of which are readily available to buy second-hand. My advice would be to get:
- A Nintendo 3DS (which also plays DS games),
- A Game Boy Micro (which plays Game Boy Advance games), and:
- A Game Boy Color (which also plays original Game Boy games).
If you want a bigger screen for your Game Boy Advance games, the SP series is fantastic, with plenty of options for the colour of the device. Additionally, if your eyesight isn't what it was and you're worried about peering at small screens, note that there are larger versions of both the 3DS and the DSi available too.
Nintendo 3DS and Gameboy Micro
If you want to emulate, I believe that all of the Nintendo portable platforms are supported on the Mac (with the exception of 3DS at the moment, as far as I know). I'm not sure how viable it is to play DS or 3DS games without a touch-screen, and certain games presumably won't be playable at all due to their advanced use of the microphone, the screen-hinge switch and so on (the fabulous Hotel Dusk and Another Code series would be prime examples).
Buy the actual systems!
Simultaneous gaming
It's possible to connect all of the aforementioned joypads to a single Mac simultaneously, but you'll likely need a USB hub. I can highly recommend the Trust 10-port USB 2.0 Power Hub for the job; I have four joypads, three iOS devices and a Wacom Intuos 5 graphics tablet all connected to it without issues.
For those with a powerful machine and a crippling case of Attention Deficit Disorder, it's even possible to actually run all the emulators simultaneously too. Presumably, you'll want to invite some friends over for that.
The Legend of Zelda, from NES to Gamecube
I'm @mattgemmell on Twitter, and also mattgemmell on App.Net. If you enjoyed this post and want to feed my gaming habit (or something else), I have an Amazon UK wishlist.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a hookshot to find.
I will begin this guide by asking you to check your internet law degree at the door. Yes, emulation software is entirely legal. Yes, 'backing up' games is entirely legal and downloading other people's backups of games you already own might be legal (but nobody has tested it in court). No, downloading other people's copies of games you don't own is definitely not legal. Are we all clear on that? Great.
If you are a scared baby and cannot handle some gray market hi-jinx, I will direct you towards your local smile.amazon.com where you can purchase a variety of Classic or Mini consoles and game compilations. If you'd like to live your life within the confines of the PlayStation Store, Nintendo Switch Online, or the Google Play or Apple App Store, I cannot stop you. Go forth, rich person, and pay for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the twelfth time in your life. You are morally superior to us all and can close this tab.
Okay, now that the narcs are gone, let's play some damn video games.
To start off, let's assume you don't know anything about emulation. An emulator is a piece of software that mimics the console hardware of game systems past, allowing other hardware to run games that were specifically built for another machine. The files of these games are pulled off of retail release copies and are mostly called ROMs or ISOs depending on the console's software medium. TL;DR: The emulator is a copy of the console and the ROM is a copy of the game.
I cannot legally tell you where to find ROMs or ISOs for games you do not own. Perhaps you should Google '[Game Title] + ROM + download' and see what you find. Perhaps you should ask our friends over at Archive.org for some help. Perhaps there are subreddits dedicated to this. Legally, I cannot say.
The emulator is a copy of the console and the ROM is a copy of the game
Now once you have a copy of a game, there are different places one can run an emulator, such as an Android device, PC, or Mac. At the moment Apple does not allow emulation on its iOS platform but if you're interested I shall direct you to the geniuses behind AltStore.io.
When you've decided which platform you prefer, each OS will have a variety of apps one can run for each console—but the universal solution for nearly every legacy console on nearly every piece of hardware is an open-source app called RetroArch. RetroArch is very powerful and versatile, but confusing enough that we shall set it aside for today. (I can hear the hardcore emulation enthusiasts groaning in the back but, I'm sorry, if you can work RetroArch, you do not need this guide. Please go argue with the aforementioned narcs.)
Below I will break down the piece of dedicated software I recommend that you use for each major retro console, depending on whether you use a Mac, PC, or Android device. Because each app has a specific interface and its own approach to controllers, graphics, and audio settings, we suggest you use YouTube to find a tutorial on each app.
Without further ado, here are the emulators you will need to play the vast majority of retro games:
Nintendo
Nintendo games are by far the easiest to emulate, thanks to their popularity and straightforward design. If you'd like to emulate the NES, you can do that in your browser, but for the best experience, we suggest traveling to the Mushroom Kingdom via higan, a multi-system emulator for Windows, OpenEmu, a gorgeous multi-system emulator for Mac, and NES.emu for Android.
To step things up to the 16-bit SNES, you can use the same Mac and PC apps, but we'd recommend Snes9x EX+ for Android. For N64, there's Project64 for Windows, trusty old OpenEmu for Mac, and Mupen64Plus FZ on Android.
By the time you get to the GameCube or Wii, your main option is Dolphin for all platforms. It's very good! For the entire Game Boy and Game Boy Advance libraries, we'd use mGBA on Windows, OpenEmu again on the Mac, and GBA.emu on Android. For Wii U, use Cemu.
DS emulation has come a long way recently and you can use DeSmuME on Windows, our old pal OpenEmu on Mac, and DraStic DS on Android. If you're really ambitious, you can get into 3DS emulation with Citra for Windows and Mac and its unofficial port for Android. Phew!
Sega
Sega does what Nintendon't! Sega systems are a bit harder to emulate than Nintendo systems, largely thanks to their architecture. When systems are harder to emulate, you're going to see scattered differences between what plays on the emulator and what you'd get from an official console experience. For Sega systems, these are most often sound problems. However, if you'd like to emulate the Sega Master System or Game Gear you can once again use higan for Windows, OpenEmu for Mac, and MD.emu or Nostalgia.GG for Android.
For the giant library of Sega Genesis/Mega Drive/CD/32x (never change, Sega) games, we'd use Kega Fusion on the Mac and PC and MD.emu on Android. Sega Saturn is a bit harder to emulate than other consoles, both due to a lack of public interest in the library and its overly complex architecture. However, if you need some Panzer Dragoon, we'd use Yabause on Windows and Mac and Yaba Sanshiro on Android.
Nintendo Games To Play Online
Finally, to play Dreamcast's phenomenal library of classics, download the excellent Redream which is compatible with all three platforms. SEGA!
Sony
Sony's PlayStation consoles each have enormous libraries, but after the PSX it gets a bit harder to run each of them. To play Crash Team Racing on PSX, use ePSXe for Windows and Android or OpenEmu for Mac.
For PS2, you can use PCSX2 on Windows with mixed results, or DamonPS2 on Android for very, very bad results. Mac users are left out in the cold here. Similarly, the PS3 can only be emulated on Windows with RPCS3. You won't be running PS3 games on your MacBook. (Sorry, babe, but why did you think that would be possible?) Finally, for all your PSP needs, there is PPSSPP available for all platforms.
Free To Play Nintendo Games
SNK
Neo Geo and Neo Geo Pocket Color games like the King of Fighters series can be played using Mednafen on Windows, OpenEmu on Mac (you'll need to enable 'experimental' cores in the settings menu and then download the MAME core), or either NEO.emu or NGP.emu on Android.
NEC
Though it goes by many names, the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine/CoreGrafx platform is home to some spectacular titles (like Ys I & II) you might have missed out on in your youth. To play these games, use Mednafen on your PC, OpenEmu once again on the Mac, and PCE.emu on Android.
Arcade
Save your quarters and get your old school arcade fix using Mednafen on Windows, OpenEmu on Mac (you'll need to enable 'experimental' cores in the settings menu and then download the MAME core), or the appropriately titled Mame4droid on Android.
Microsoft
And not to end on a sour note but, for a variety of reasons, there are no good options for emulating Xbox or Xbox 360 games. The good news is that many Xbox exclusives are also available for Windows because.. ya know… Microsoft. All hail Master Chief (at least for the first two games.)
How To Play Old Nintendo Games On Mac
And with that, we leave you to go get your feet wet with emulation. There are so many games scattered throughout the history of this glorious industry that you will likely never run out of retro titles to explore. But, once more for legal reasons: Don't pirate games. 😉
