The PS4 emulator, shadPS4, has been making amazing progress. Bloodborne is almost playable now. I've seen many people on X asking how to set everything up, so I decided to write down the steps.

Get the Latest shadPS4

The safest way to get the latest shadPS4 is from their GitHub:

https://github.com/shadps4-emu/shadPS4/actions

Select the latest build with a green checkmark, scroll down the page and find shadps4-win64-qt:

Don't download from any other sites, as they may contain malware.

Get the Game

The game is around 29GB, you can find it with Google.

If you need to find the 1.09 update, you must match it with your game's serial number. The game serial is shown in the shadPS4 game list. For example, CUSA03173.

Get the Patches

After completing the above steps, right-click the game, select Patches, download all the patches, and activate the ones you need. For example, you can apply patches to skip the intro, enable 60 FPS, or enable 4K resolution, etc.

• OLED panel
• 5120x1440 resolution
• 240Hz refresh rate (G-Sync Compatible)
• DisplayHDR True Black 400

The only issue I encountered was that the highest HiDPI resolution available on macOS is 2560x720, as macOS seems to only provide 2x integer scaling for third-party monitors. However, after some trial and error, I figured out a way to enable more scaled resolutions. All you need to do is download SwitchResX and set its scaled resolution base to 5120x1440.

After a reboot, you should see several new scaled resolutions, which could provide more vertical space.

For example, when you are using a 3840x1080 HiDPI scaled mode, macOS would render at 7680x2160, then scale it down to display on the monitor's physical resolution of 5120x1440.

Finding the Config File

To locate the config file, use the keyboard shortcut WIN+R and open the following location:

%appdata%\Ubisoft\ANNO 2070\Config\Engine.ini

Changing UI Scaling

Change the UI scale percentage to 200 or 250 for 4K monitors:

<UIScaleMode>2</UIScaleMode>
<UIScalePercentage>200</UIScalePercentage>

Other Useful Options

To skip the intro animation, use:

<SkipIntro>1</SkipIntro>

For more camera positions:

<LockCamera>0</LockCamera>
<EnableFourthCamPosition>1</EnableFourthCamPosition>

For a wider FOV when zoomed out:

<EnableLargeFOV>1</EnableLargeFOV>

Consider disabling the Bloom effect for sharper graphics:

<RE_Bloom>0</RE_Bloom>

I've always felt that the most interesting part of the Civilization game series is the beginning. Choices in tech research and building order massively influence the game's direction. As it progresses, each turn takes longer—managing troops, settlers—it feels more like work than play. In multiplayer, you could make coffee while waiting for a late-game turn.

The current versions of Quake III Arena on Steam and GoG do not include macOS binaries. To play the game on macOS, you need to install a macOS port and a few additional mods. These mods will enable higher resolution, correct the aspect ratio, and add HD textures. Here is the complete list:

Higher Resolution

You can get the latest build of ioquake3 from Mac Source Ports, a website that provides modern macOS builds for classic games.

https://macsourceports.com/game/quake3arena

And use these commands to set the native resolution for your device:

r_customwidth 3456
r_customheight 2234
r_mode -1
vid_restart

Change r_customwidth and r_customheight to match the exact resolution of your own device.

If you want the game to show its FPS, you can use the following console command:

cg_drawfps 1

If you cannot get 120 fps on your M1/M2 device, it may be limited by a setting. Open autoexec.cfg in the baseq3 folder and find this line to set it to 120:

seta com_maxfps "120"

Flexible HUD

This mod can fix the HUD aspect ratio:

https://clover.moe/flexible-hud-for-ioq3/

HD Textures

The following two mods offer improved textures:

• High Quality Quake - https://www.moddb.com/mods/high-quality-quake/downloads/hqq-v37

• High-Resolution Textures - https://ioquake3.org/extras/replacement_content/

After extraction, simply put the *.pk3 files into the baseq3 folder.

This will also enhance the resolution of all menu elements.

Here are a few screenshots from this config. These are the uncompressed screenshots from 16" MacBook Pro native resolution 3456x2234, so they may take a while to load.

And one more thing

Quake3e is another improved port that can run on macOS. However, the project currently does not offer a macOS bundle, so you will need to build it yourself and run it from the command line.

https://github.com/ec-/Quake3e

Quake3e provides several excellent additions:

• Vulkan rendering engine
• con_scale command to adjust font scaling. Setting it to 2 or 3 works great for 4K screens.

Performance Test

On my M1 Max MacBook Pro, the classic demo four achieves an impressive 500+ fps at native resolution. If you want to try it on your own device, use the following console commands to run a performance test.

timedemo 1
demo four

SimCity Classic (1989)

macos9.app website, which lets you try the classic version of Mac OS 9, includes a fully playable version you can play in the browser.

They also provide SimCity 2000 1.2.

SimCity 2000 (1995)

You can get the game from EA or GOG.

Both versions are emulated with DOSBox. So if you want to try the Windows version, you must use a virtual machine. The good news is that there are free options on both Windows and macOS.

On Windows, PCem lets you simulate an old PC. You can build your own configuration by selecting CPU, video, sound, and other peripherals.

On macOS, UTM is a free and open-source virtual machine that can emulate most architectures. They even have a gallery for you to download and configure a virtual machine quickly.

Here is SimCity 2000 running on emulated Mac OS 9:

VirtualBox is also a great and free option. But if you are using an M1/M2 Mac, UTM is currently the only usable option for you to emulate x86 on M1/M2.

SimCity 3000 (2000)

You can get the game from GOG.

GOG even provides a patch for the game to run under higher resolutions.

I recently got a refurbished ThinkPad for running some old Windows games. SimCity 3000 is running beautifully 1080P on this T460 with this HD patch.

Once you have a virtual machine running Windows, SimCity 3000 will run perfectly in a virtual machine.

SimCity 4 (2003)

SimCity 4 is available on both Steam and Mac App Store.

The Mac App Store version is an Apple Silicon native app! But if you run it on a Mac with a notch, you may find it only provides 4:3 resolutions and has some click issues.

So it's best to run the Mac version on a Mac without a notch. The M1 MacBook Air is perfect for this game. Seeing such a complex game can run perfectly on such thin hardware is fantastic.

On Windows, you can pass these arguments to run SimCity 4 at a higher resolution:

-CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -intro:off -CPUcount:1

There is also a 4GB patch to make it possible for the game to use more memory.

SimCity 4 has a very active mod community, you can find many amazing creations on these community sites:

• Simtropolis
• SC4D - SC4 Mapper

The SC4 Mapper tool linked above can turn a real-world map into a SimCity region!

SimCity (2013)

You can get SimCity (2013) from EA or Mac App Store.

On macOS, if you encounter an issue that the game is only showing partially on the screen, pressing CTRL+F to switch between fullscreen/window can resolve it.

The macOS version provides an option to set the UI scale. While on Windows, if you want to adjust the UI scale, you will need to edit this file:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\SimCity\Preferences\Preferences.prop

Find this line:

OptionUIZoomLevel 1

And change it to:

OptionUIZoomLevel 2

I will update this document if I find other tips to run SimCity on modern hardware.

Crocotile 3D allows you to create 3D models and environments with tiles. It is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Crocotile 3D

Here are some screenshots of the application.

https://github.com/MyOwnClone/quake_watch

So I have tried it, and it is fantastic. I attached a video to this post showing it running on my Apple Watch Ultra.

Mac Source Ports is a wonderful website started by @TomKidd and @Schnapple.

It is a collection of open-source ports to let you play classic games with modern Macs. A few great examples are:

• Fallout 2
• Diablo
• Theme Hospital
• Quake and other id tech games

And you will find many more on the website.

To run those classic games, you will need to have their original data files. You can get them from your old CDs if you still have them, or buy them digitally from GOG.

It is one of two launch games of Super Famicom. It uses a special rendering technic known as Mode 7 to achieve the 3D perspective of tracks.

The video demonstrated the first track in F-Zero.