It is a must to download the best Gamecube emulator for Mac if you are a huge fan of Nintendo GameCube games and you own a Mac. With any of the below GameCube emulator software installed to your Mac, you can enjoy free games of GameCube console in full HD mode. Be it a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, or Mac Pro, you can play all kinds of commercial games on them with controller as long as you download the right Nintendo GameCube emulator and the ROM (Read-only memory) file. So, what is the best GameCube emulator for Mac and where to download it for free?
Andy Android Emulator for Mac. Andy is a high-end Android Emulator. It’s a powerful as well as a heavy Android Emulator designed for Mac and PC. Andy Emulator comes as a package installer with many apps. It works on a separate Virtual Machine, so the installer file will be much high compared to other Android Emulators.
Dolphin Emulator for Mac
Dolphin is presently the best GameCube emulator for all Mac OS X version include the latest v10.10 (Yosemite) and v10.9 (Mavericks). It also works on earlier Mac version such as the Mac OS X 10.5.8 and 10.6.8. Dolphin is often recognized as the best emulator for Mac users to play GameCube and Wii games because it enhances the original games and allow gamers to play it in 1080p HD mode. This feature is even not available on the original Nintendo GameCube gaming console.
This open-source software are developed and contributed by all the programmers around the world. Bugs are fixed almost everyday and new features are added from time to time. One of Dolphin special features include saving a running games while you want to reload state. In addition, Dolphin also allows you to connect a PS 3 Controller, Wiimote, or Nunchuck to your Mac for a better gaming experience.
See also: GameCube Emulator for Android
Currently, the latest Dolphin version is 4.0.2 and you can download it for your Mac from its official website at dolphin-emu.org. We do not host the software because it is updated from time to time and the latest version always available for free at its official website. You can try to play Super Mario Galaxy 2 on your Mac right away after you download and install it. If you preference is not Dolphin emulator, you might want to try some of these alternatives to play GameCube games on Mac: Dolwin, WhineCube, SuperGCube, or Ninphin.
All the above GameCube emulators have been tested on the following Mac version:
Please leave a comment or share your experience after you download Dolphin and play Gamecube games on your Mac. Tell everyone if it is fun to play Super Smash Bros Brawl with PS 3 controller. Instead, you may also leave a question here if you face any problem during the installation of GameCube emulator on your Mac. For Mac users who have just bought the latest iPhone 6 Plus or iPhone 6, you might want to try the best emulator for iPhone to play games on it. You can download all the emulators without jailbreak.
Apple’s Mac lineup of products are great productivity tools. Mac and the macOS work so well together that users never want to go back to a Windows laptop. If you’re a music producer, video editor, or work with creative things, then you probably own a MacBook, iMac or Mac Pro.
Although these devices are quite expensive to buy, they serve the purpose well and do last a long time. Apple also uses high-quality materials and hardware in its products. Mac devices are usually very capable devices and perform well in several use cases. There are plenty of tools and software available for macOS. However, not everything is available on a Mac.
Back in the day, before Mac’s hardware was using Intel processors, running the Windows OS was a challenge compared to what it is now. In order to run Windows on Mac, the software on your Mac would have to emulate the Intel hardware in a Windows PC just to install it. And since Mac wasn’t using Intell processors, this was complicated.
Times have changed and now that Mac uses Intell processors, it’s no longer a challenge to run Windows on a Mac PC. There are tons of software on the market that allows you to install the Windows OS more accurately on your Mac and this is known as virtualization software or a virtual machine.
There are plenty of things that aren’t compatible with macOS and require Windows OS. Sometimes, the app may be compatible, but you could have better options on Windows. Or you may want to test out a Windows app.
In this case, don’t get mad, because you can easily run Windows on your Macbook and use the app that you wanted to. You can either have a dual-booting Mac device, which runs both macOS and Windows. Or your can install a Windows emulator for Mac. The latter is the easier and faster approach.
Therefore, if you are stuck with the problem of wanting to use a Windows app on Mac, then read on to know the best way to do it. Apple laptops and computers already come with something known as Boot Camp, which allows you to run Windows on your Mac.
We will get to that later, but for now, let’s look at the top 5 Windows emulator for Mac that are available for download. Some of these are paid tools, while a few are free. If you want a good software with all the required features, then you will have to pay some money for it. Anyway, let’s get started.
If you’re looking for one of the best Windows emulators for Mac, then you can have a look at the Parallels Desktop app. This tool is right now at version 14 and is priced at $79 for the standard edition. You can also get the Pro or Business Edition for $99 per year. Before you try out this app, you can try it for free to see if it works for you.
The Parallels Desktop app lets you run Windows 10 on your Mac without having to reboot. You can simply launch the app and load Windows to use any Windows app. The software also supports other OS’s such as Android, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Chromium, and CentOS.
The app lets you clone an existing Windows PC or install a fresh copy directly from Microsoft. You can download the official Windows 10 ISO file right into Parallels and install it with ease.
It also has a feature that allows you to run Windows apps natively on your Mac. It’s as though the app was made for macOS. The Windows app can be placed on the Dock and you switch between Windows apps and Mac apps without launching a separate desktop. You can also play Windows games using the Parallels app. Of course, you can’t play graphic intensive games since this is still a virtual machine.
VMWare and Parallels are competitors, but offer similar functionality. The VMWare Fusion works better in graphics related tasks and is good if you’re testing a game, video or such. For CPU related functions, Parallels would be a better choice as it offers more performance.
VMWare Fusion allows you to do all the things that Parallels does. You can launch Windows apps directly from the dock and it doesn’t require a reboot. It also allows you to run several different OSs and the latest Windows 10 OS.
The Fusion 11 software for macOS will cost you $79 per user and it can be used on multiple Mac devices.
Here come the free stuff! VirtualBox is a free Windows emulator for Mac. It works similar to the previous two services, but doesn’t cost you any money. However, because it is freely available, the installation of VirtualBox is a little more complicated than the others. You will need play with some settings before you can get this running.
You will also need to install disc, ISO file or an USB flash drive to install the OS. It doesn’t perform as well as the paid tools, but you can still use the latest Windows 10 OS and test out apps.
You cannot, however, run a Windows app directly from the dock. VirtualBox can also run several other OS such as Linux, and older versions of Windows. If you need to use some basic Windows apps and don’t want to spend money, then this is a good tool to have.
This is yet another free option if you want to run Windows apps on macOS. However, unlike the others in this list, WineBottler isn’t really a virtual machine tool. If you want to test a particular Windows app, but don’t want to install the full OS, then this is a great option.
All you have to do, is download WineBottler and select the program that you want to try out. It will download the app and set up everything for you. In case the list doesn’t have the app that you need, then you can download the .exe file for that software and run it on WineBottler.
Of course, since this is a free app, don’t expect everything to go smoothly. Some apps may not be supported and you may experience crashes.
Boot Camp is also a free tool to run Windows OS on your Mac device. The tool is already built into your Mac and the installation process is quite simple. You will need to download a legal copy of Windows 10 first. Once you have the file, you can head over to Applications > Utilities > Boot camp and then follow the instructions. When asked for the ISO image, select the downloaded Windows installation file.
The tool creates a separate partition for Windows. Follow the on-screen instructions and wait for the installation to begin. Once Boot Camp is done installing, you can install Windows.
You can choose to boot into Windows or Mac during system startup by pressing the Option key. Head over here to find out which Mac models support Windows 10 installation.