Can you install and play Windows games directly in MacOS X without installing Windows?

For maximum performance, the best way to play Windows games on an Intel-based Mac is to install Apple Boot Camp, install Windows, and then boot into Windows to play Windows games. However, Parallels Desktop for Mac 3.0 (and higher) supports DirectX and OpenGL and a number of games have been tested and found to work, VMWare Fusion 1.1 (and higher) supports "select games" and CodeWeavers Crossover Mac supports some games as well.

There also is the long gone TransGaming's Cider which the company refered to as a "Mac portability engine" that made it possible for game developers to "encapsulate the original source code" of a Windows game. In turn, a Mac user would then be able to install and run the "encapsulated" game within MacOS X.

TransGaming further explains that:

Cider is a sophisticated portability engine that allows Windows games to be run on Intel Macs without any modifications to the original game source code. Cider works by directly loading a Windows program into memory on an Intel-Mac and linking it to an optimized version of the Win32 APIs. Games are simply wrapped up in the Cider engine and they work on the Mac. This means developers only have one code base to maintain while keeping the ability to target multiple platforms. Cider powered games use the same copy protection, lobbies, game matching and connectivity as the original.

Cider is based on WINE like CrossOver Mac although Cider is specifically "targeted at game developers and publishers" rather than end users.

In 2006, MacWorld published an interview with Vikas Gupta, the CEO of TransGaming, who made a number of bold promises about Cider's abilities. The full piece is well worth reading, but in particular Gupta claimed that "Cider games [would] run as if they were made for Mac OS X" and "the average user won’t be able to discern any difference". On the other hand, the interviewer was able to extract that "users are bound to see 10 to 15 percent lower frame rates than they would in a truly native game."

Cider sounds great, but so does Cedega, TransGaming's Windows "portability engine" for Linux that the company claims "delivers an amazing gaming experience that matches the Windows experience". However, from reading through a couple of Slashdot postings about Cider and Cedega, it is safe to say that opinion is decidedly mixed.

An article on Linux.com provides more insight into the performance of Cedega, which the author refers to as a "melding of Wine and DirectX". The complete article should be read for the full perspective provided by the author, but in particular, referring to Civilization 4 (an "officially supported" game), the author reports that:

I haven't been able to play Civ4 under Cedega; the menus worked great, the intro movie as well, but as soon as it is finished loading a scenario or a quick game -- crash, boom, bang.

The author also says:

For older games, sometimes Wine alone is a better option. . . Generally speaking, games do work with Cedega, but most of the time (even for officially supported games) you should stay away from "high" details, and expect crashes.

He ultimately concludes:

Cedega may not be the answer to games under Linux, but it's better than not being able to play at all, until gaming companies notice Linux users as a market and release games for Linux. The sad part is that even as an intermediate solution, Cedega is still more like "plug and pray" than "plug and play."

Since August 3, 2006, when Cider was introduced, a number of games have been ported to the Mac via Cider and review and commentary has been somewhat divided.

Generally, Mac users using Intel-based Macs have been pleased to have more games available and find the performance acceptable, but as performance running any Windows game "inside" MacOS X -- regardless of method -- will always be at least modestly inferior to that of the native Windows experience, many comment that -- at least for "serious" gaming -- they prefer to use the Windows version of the game via Boot Camp.

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