Can one use boot camp to play computer games normally only found for PCs?

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Level 1

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Can one use boot camp to play computer games normally only found for PCs?

I have some older computer games, specifically Warhammer 40k rts games, that I woud still like to play and was curious if boot camp would allow me to play those on my mac? Also, if it is possible am I putting my computer at risk in any way? I'd like to play them but not so badly that I would be damaging my mac pro or shortening its lifespan. There dont appear to be any emulators out there currently so I'm checking here to see if anyone knows anything.

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Mar 15, 2014 11:42 AM

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Answer 1

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Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 15, 2014 11:44 AM in response to Whittaculus

Yes. There are several ways to run Windows on the Mac:

Windows on Intel Macs

There are presently several alternatives for running Windows on Intel Macs.

1. Install the Apple Boot Camp software. Purchase Windows

XP w/Service Pak2, Vista, or Windows 7. For Boot Camp

4.0 and above you can only use Windows 7 or later. Follow

instructions in the Boot Camp documentation on

installation of Boot Camp, creating Driver CD, and

installing Windows. Boot Camp enables you to boot the

computer into OS X or Windows.

2. Parallels Desktop for Mac and Windows XP, Vista Business,

Vista Ultimate, or Windows 7. Parallels is software

virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently

with OS X.

3. VM Fusionand Windows XP, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate,

or Windows 7. VM Fusion is software virtualization that

enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.

4. CrossOver which enables running many Windows

applications without having to install Windows. The

Windows applications can run concurrently with OS X.

5. VirtualBox is an Open Source freeware virtual machine such

as VM Fusion and Parallels that was developed by Solaris.

It is not as fully developed for the Mac as Parallels and VM

Fusion.

Note that VirtualBox, Parallels, and VM Fusion can also run other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, OS/2, Solaris, etc. There are performance differences between dual-boot systems and virtualization. The latter tend to be a little slower (not much) and do not provide the video performance of the dual-boot system. See MacTech Labs- Virtualization Benchmarks, January 2013 | MacTechfor comparisons of Boot Camp, Parallels, and VM Fusion. Benchmarks of all of the above except Crossover can be found in Benchmarking Parallels, Fusion, and VirtualBox Against Boot Camp - The Mac Observer. Boot Camp is only available with Leopard or later. Except for Crossover and a couple of similar alternatives like DarWine you must have a valid installer disc for Windows.

You must also have an internal optical drive for installing Windows. Windows cannot be installed from an external optical drive.

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