Mac Train Simulator

[Darien Red Sox]

Dose anyone know of any Mac based train simulators out there?
Thanks

[lpetrich]

I don't know of any offhand, but I know of various strategies for running Windows-native games in Macintosh hardware.

You'll need an Intel Mac; it's possible to emulate an Intel-x86 chip on a PowerPC Mac, but it will be s---l---o---w.

And on an Intel Mac, there are several options:

• Windows in standalone fashion; boot into Windows to run your games:
  • Apple's Boot Camp
• Windows Inside of OSX: run virtual-machine software that acts as a "Matrix" for Windows:
  • VMWare Fusion (I use this one)
  • Parallels
  • VirtualBox (open source)
• Windows emulation: acts as a "Matrix" for Windows apps without requiring Windows itself:
  • WINE (available in Fink and MacPorts; runs off of the command line)
  • Darwine (unsure of its status)
  • Crossover by Codeweavers (supports several games)
  • Cedega by Transgaming (Linux version but no Mac version yet)

The first and second ones will require a version of Windows to install; I have an old version of Windows XP Home that runs about as well as one can expect Windows to run.

The second one requires a LOT of RAM, because one's computer will have two OSes running at the same time. I've found it almost unusable with 1 GB; you'll need 2GB or more for good performance. Also watch out for the level of DirectX support; VMWare and Parallels look reasonably up-to-date, while VirtualBox seems to lack it.

The third one is a bit risky, because the Windows emulation is unlikely to be 100.000% perfect.

So I recommend experimenting with some of these possibilities to see what happens.

Note: Linux users also have these gaming options; any Linux users out there?

[CircusFreakGRITZ]

You really CANNOT run games well using Parallels or Virtual Box, etc. It's only good for basics like MS Office and maybe some other data entry programs that only function on Windows.

Your best bet is to buy a license of Windows XP or 7 and use Boot Camp to run it on your Mac. You just restart the computer and hold the OPTION key and it will allow you to boot up in Windows just like a "real" PC. That's what I do and it works wonderfully to run games.