Turn your Mac into a retro games machine
Time As long you like! (but at least 10 minutes) You’ll need A Mac, OpenEmu
Once, if we wanted to play retro games, we’d have to enter the attic, discover the long-lost and beloved console of our childhoods, pray that it still worked and start untangling the cables. The rise of emulators has given fans of old consoles a different option, though, and with OpenEmu (released late 2013), it’s become even easier for your Mac.
It’s like iTunes for your nostalgic gaming needs. Yeah, it’s possible to download games from certain websites, but this is often illegal for commercially released games. The safer (though still grey area) option is to buy a device called ‘Retro 2’, which transfers games cartridges that you already own to the ‘ROM’ file needed to play in OpenEmu – much like ripping a CD you already own. By dragging and dropping the ROMs into OpenEmu, the game shows up in its respective console section with its correct title and box art to boot. The emulator is able to play a variety of consoles from the 90s and even further back, with more recent consoles in development for a future release. Right now, you can choose from a range including the NES, SNES, Sega Mega Drive, the Neo Geo, the Game Boy and lots more. You can choose which consoles you want to have available by going to ‘Preferences’ and choosing which ‘Cores’ you’d like to play from.
OpenEmu recognises any controllers you have connected to your Mac. If you normally use, say, a PlayStation 4 controller for newer games, that’s fine – OpenEmu will not only recognise the controller but the console joypad buttons will automatically assign, ready to play.
OpenEmu even expands on the old consoles’ functionality by adding ‘savestates’. This feature enables you to save your progress at any point in a game regardless of whether the game originally supported saving during its time or not – just press ‘Save’ in the ‘Controls’ section, or hit ç+S.
If you want to take that nostalgic step even further, you can connect your Mac to a TV by HDMI or AirPlay with an Apple TV, and start Playing Sonic 2 in upscaled Full HD glory.
There are alternatives to playing older games on your Mac, such as buying them from gog.com or Steam where available – there are often remastered classics and games in their original form. Sega offers many compilations, as well as Sonic 1 and 2 for iOS, remastered in widescreen, even with a level scrapped from the original fully restored.
Now that you’re ready to play, wrap a nostalgic blanket around yourself and enjoy the games you loved once more, all from the comfort of your Mac. DB