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Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition cover art
CrossOver

How to play Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition on Mac

Adventure · 2018

Plays smoothly through CrossOver on Apple Silicon.

Overall rating: Runs great on Mac · 100% of 1 players say it runs well

Your setup
Detect your Mac to see whether Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition will run.

Plays smoothly through CrossOver on Apple Silicon.

How to run Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition on your Mac in 2026

Best path: CrossOver

CrossOver runs Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition natively on Apple Silicon by translating DirectX to Metal. One-click install, no Windows VM, full local performance.

MethodQualityDifficultyCost
CrossOverPickGoodMedium$74 / $39/yrGet it ↗
ParallelsEstimateMedium$99/yrGet it ↗
Get CrossOver Try Parallels Buy on AllKeyShop See all methods & install guide ↓

Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition

There are some things that kids just shouldn't have to put up with. Being transported to some weird dimension full of goblins, dwarves, swamplings, stupid wizards and sleeping giants is definitely one of them. Join Simon's quest to rescue the wizard Calypso from the evil sorcerer Sordid.

Flawless performance via CrossOver or Whisky; the game runs like a native app with very low resource consumption on Apple Silicon.

Buy on AllKeyShopSee how to play it on your Mac
Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition screenshot 1Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition screenshot 2Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition screenshot 3Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition screenshot 4Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition screenshot 5

What the world thinks

  1. Create Bottle: In CrossOver, create a new bottle. Name it 'Simon the Sorcerer' and select Windows 10 64-bit as the bottle type.
  2. Install Steam/GOG: Install your preferred launcher into this bottle. If using GOG, you can also use the standalone offline installer.
  3. Bottle Settings: Ensure that D3D11 (DXVK) is enabled in the right-hand sidebar. While the game does not utilize heavy 3D features, DXVK ensures the UI overlays and high-res sprites render correctly without flickering.
  4. Launch: Run the game. If the screen appears off-center, go to the game's in-game options and toggle between 'Full Screen' and 'Windowed' mode to reset the resolution anchor.
  • Whisky: As a free alternative to CrossOver, Whisky (built on Game Porting Toolkit) handles this game easily. Use a Windows 10 bottle and no special flags are required. Performance is identical to CrossOver for this specific title.
  • ScummVM: Note that while the original 1993 version runs perfectly in the native macOS ScummVM app, the 25th Anniversary Edition (2018) uses a different engine wrapper that is not natively compatible with ScummVM. You must use the Windows compatibility layers mentioned above for this specific version.

Performance

How Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition runs on your Mac, from our performance model and player reports.

See exactly how Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition will run on your Mac

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Best way to play it on Mac

Flawless performance via CrossOver or Whisky; the game runs like a native app with very low resource consumption on Apple Silicon.

Buy on AllKeyShopSee how to play it on your Mac
See if this is the right method for your setup

Ways to play Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition on Mac

Here are all the options available, ranked by what we recommend first.

Compare methods at a glance

Lower = better

How each supported method stacks up on setup effort, time and runtime overhead.

  • CrossOverTranslationTop pick
    Setup
    Moderate
    Time
    15 min
    Overhead
    Medium
  • ParallelsVM
    Setup
    Moderate
    Time
    30 min
    Overhead
    High

Where to buy Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition

Live prices compared across trusted PC key sellers — updates every few hours.

Platform-by-platform reliability

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Step-by-step setup guides

Idiot-proof walkthroughs for every method.

How to run Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition on Mac with CrossOver

Good· Compatibility

Running Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition through CrossOver translates its Windows DirectX calls into Metal on Apple Silicon — no reboot, no Windows license, no virtual machine. Most setup time is spent on first-time bottle configuration and installing the game launcher (Steam, Epic, etc.) inside CrossOver. Once that's done, launching feels close to native. Expect 15–30 minutes of setup on the first run.

Step-by-step

Step 1 — Create a bottle

  1. Open CrossOver → click New Bottle
  2. Name it after the game (e.g. Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition) and choose Windows 10 64-bit
  3. Open the bottle's Settings and set:

- Graphics: D3DMetal (not DXVK)

- Synchronization: ESync

- High Resolution Mode: Off

Step 2 — Install the game launcher

  1. Inside CrossOver, click Install Application → search for Steam (or Epic Games Launcher if you own it there)
  2. Install it into the same bottle you just created
  3. Launch Steam, log in, and let it fully update before proceeding

Step 3 — Install and launch Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition

  1. Open Steam (or your launcher) inside CrossOver
  2. Install Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition through the launcher as normal
  3. Launch the game — use the launcher's Play button, not CrossOver directly
  4. First launch may take 30–90 seconds to show a window. Don't force-quit unless it hangs for several minutes.

Step 4 — If you hit issues

  • Black screen / stuck in small window: go to Settings → Graphics in-game, set Screen Type to Fullscreen, then restart
  • Resolution resets on every launch: find the game's config/settings file and set the resolution values manually, then mark the file Read-Only to prevent the game overwriting it
  • Crashes on startup: try switching the bottle's Synchronization from ESync to MSync, or vice versa

Video proof

Try CrossOver free for 14 days ↗Affiliate link — supports the site at no extra cost.

How to run Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition on Mac with Parallels

Estimate· Compatibility

Using Parallels to play Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition means running a full copy of Windows 11 ARM inside macOS. This is the most "it just works" approach for games that don't behave under CrossOver, and DirectX 11 is hardware-accelerated. You'll need a Windows license and roughly 80 GB of disk space.

Step-by-step

  1. Buy / start a trial of Parallels Desktop.
  2. Install Windows 11 ARM via the one-click wizard.
  3. Inside Windows, install Steam / Xbox app and Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition.
  4. Enable DirectX 11 in Parallels settings for best 3D performance.

Video proof

Try Parallels Desktop free ↗Affiliate link — supports the site at no extra cost.

Our recommendation

For most Mac players we recommend CrossOver as the fastest, smoothest way to play Simon the Sorcerer: 25th Anniversary Edition. One-click local install, official support.

MethodQualityDifficultyCost
CrossOverPickGoodMedium$74 one-time / $39/year
ParallelsEstimateMedium$99/year + Windows licence
Try CrossOver free for 14 days

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