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[Southern Sailor]

Good day all you clever people.  I am thinking of moving over to an Apple computer from my present Microsoft-based PC.  I have a number of simulators that I would need to move over but I do not know whether they will work on an Apple machine. They are: Flight sim X with accelerator; Ship Sim 2008 upgraded; Silent Hunter 4; Combat Flight Sim 2; Can anyone advise me?  Thanks and happy sailing. Brian. 

[McGherkin]

You can get programs that 'simulate' a windows machine inside of the Mac OS, allowing you to run most windows programs.

Try Wine-
http://www.winehq.org/

Oh, and Flight Simulator X and Ship Sim 08 are great sims

[w3bby]

No answer from experience on those programs but have successfully run other programs on the Mac. Macs come with "Boot Camp" to set up and run Windows, no additional emulators required.

[Southern Sailor]

Thanks for the advice w3bby and McGherkin.  Seems there is no problems with switching over.  I could also be rid of the problems associated with anti spyware and anti virus software by changing to a Mac machine.  Brian

[bikerdude999]

You can run some windows programs on Mac OSX, but personally I think the best way, especially if you've a few you want to use, and the way I will be going, is to partition the hard drive. Have most of it running OSX, and use that for everything, except the games you want to use. On the other partition, install windows, then during startup you can select which partition to boot from. Your mac will then run exactly the same as a windows PC, and will run any windows program you want.
 This works on all Macs from around 2007.

[NFMike]

But it will then still have all the 'problems' that come with Windows, as well as the Mac ones. Worst of both worlds :)

[bikerdude999]

Not if you don't use the windows partition on the net....

[essex2visuvesi]

there are a few options you can use to run windows games on a mac


Bootcamp.
Bootcamp creates what is essentially a dual boot machine with a windows 7/8 machine and your normal mac
performance wise this is the best way to go (I use this on my macbook pro) BUT it does mean a reboot everytime you want to switch Systems which can be annoying


Parallels
This creates what is essentially a windows computer inside the mac operating system not as fast but switching between systems is easier


Virtual box
As above but a slightly cheaper option


Finding "ported" versions of your games
These are games that have modified (ported) to run on the MAC operating system.  These tend not to be as stable as the original and are normally only found on more ethically questionable websites


Also something to remember is that the current crop of apple computers do not ship with a DVD drive.  it has to be purchased seperately as an external device


All of your games listed will run on MAC computers through bootcamp
Flight sim X and SH4 I can personally vouch for as I have them both running on my Macbook

[w3bby]

Thanks for the advice w3bby and McGherkin.  Seems there is no problems with switching over.  I could also be rid of the problems associated with anti spyware and anti virus software by changing to a Mac machine.  Brian

Still run anti-virus and anti-spyware, not as prevalent but out there...

[essex2visuvesi]

Still run anti-virus and anti-spyware, not as prevalent but out there...

There are some out there yes, but I have yet to see an infected machine and I have been doing MAC support on and off for several years.

[Southern Sailor]

As usual the members of the forum have stepped up to the mark.  Thanks all.  By the way, I am not a computer expert ("geek" I think is the common term), and will have to rely on my offspring to help with all this technical stuff - maybe my grandsons!!! Cheers for now.  Brian