How To Play Xbox 360 Games On A Mac

How to get Xbox Live on Mac: Get Xbox Live and play Xbox games on Mac. Once you've setup Windows 10 on your Mac, head into the Windows Store App, which can be found by searching for 'App' in the. OneCast brings Xbox One games to Mac. OneCast is a new Mac app that lets you stream your Xbox One games directly to Mac. By using the same protocol Microsoft uses for Windows, it.

Whether you’re trying to no-scope that enemy on COD or score a last-minute slam-dunk on NBA, the touchpad just doesn’t do it.

So, we thought we’d share the best tips on how to connect an Xbox 360 controller to your Mac, to make them tense gaming moments a little easier.

Before you do: Clean up your Mac

BUT, before we get into all the juicy techy stuff, let’s remind you of how beneficial cleaning up your Mac can be.

Before installing any new hardware, it’s important to have an un-cluttered file space so the new software can run efficiently, and you can keep an eye on what’s where.

With CleanMyMac X, it’s easy. It’s one-click cleaning approach and powerful scanning means you can swiftly dispose of useless documents and apps which may be slowing your Mac down.

So, to get optimal controller connectivity, you should download CleanMyMac and tidy up your digital space – prior to any installations. Now, onto how to use an Xbox 360 controller on a Mac.

How

How to use the Xbox 360 controller on Mac

Not many of us know it, but there could be a handy use for all those old Xbox 360 or Xbox One controllers lying around. But, before you get set up, you need to have the correct hardware installed on your Mac to enable connectivity.

Here’s how.

First of all, you will need either a wired or wireless Xbox controller. Both work fine, but for all those passionate gamers with a tendency to erupt, a wireless device would be best to save any damages to wires (or opponents). These wireless receivers can be bought for around $20 on Amazon, and can handle up to 4 Xbox 360 controllers.

Free Drivers

Obviously, Macs don’t have an in-built driver for Xbox controllers as Apple are in no way affiliated with Microsoft. Similarly, Microsoft doesn’t supply drivers for Mac users for their hardware, which leaves us wanting users having to find our own way.

So back in 2006, it was music to gamer’s ears to hear that Tattie Bogle had developed their own driver free of charge to users across the gaming globe. However, this driver hasn’t been updated since 2012, and is therefore sticky when it comes to compatibility with MacOS X.

How To Play Xbox 360 Games On A Mac

For a more streamlined approach to this conundrum, download GitHub’s free driver – it’s maintained and updated frequently and is free to all Mac users.

1. Install the driver

After opening the GitHub link, double click on the DMG file visible under ‘Assets’. This will start the installing process, where you will have to follow the appropriate instructions.

Remember though, as with any new program installation, it will reboot your Mac, so don’t panic. After the restart, you should be able to find ‘Xbox 360 Controllers’ in the system preferences.

2. Connect the Xbox 360 Controller to your Mac

Now you’ve installed the driver, the next step is to connect the controller, which is simple and only needs to be done once.

  • Firstly, you need to plug the USB receiver into a free USB port on your Mac. Once plugged in, the USB receiver’s light should start blinking

  • Press the big Xbox logo button on the controller so it lights up green

  • Press the button on the USB receiver

  • Press the connect button on the controller, which can be found at the top - in-between the left and right toggles

  • The top left quarter of the circle around the Xbox button should now light up, indicating you are the first controller connected

Now the controller and Mac are linked - so in the future if you want to connect again, all you need do is press the big Xbox logo button to get going. Told you it was simple!

3. Test the Controller

As with all things techy, there’s always loopholes. So, it’s important to test the connections to ensure the controller works before we embark upon a mobile-gaming-gallivant.

Go to ‘System Preferences’, ‘Xbox 360 Controllers’ and you’ll see a screen like below.

How To Play Xbox 360 Games On A Pc

This is a control pad, which indicates whether all the buttons on the controller are working properly. That’s about all you can do on this, as well as shutting the controller down by clicking ‘power off’.

4. Configuring for multiple games on your Mac

We all have different tastes in games - some of us like sports and some of us like military, there’s no right or wrong (asides from Half-Life, that’s just awesome and it’s not up for debate).

With these different games come different control configurations, which can get tedious when you only have one type of controller.

For full flexibility of use, there are many tools and apps available which allow you to play any game with any Mac compatible joystick or controller – even the ones that are not compatible with joysticks.

5. Use Joystick Mapper

Out of the many apps to choose from, Joystick Mapper is our pick. And at only $4.99 from the App Store, it’s real value for money – especially when considering the amount of effort it takes to develop such a complex tool.

Here’s how it works –

Once you download the Joystick Mapper app, you need to create a pre-set for your game preferences. To do this, open the app and click ‘Add new pre-set’.

How To Play Xbox 360 Games On A Mac Desktop

Enter a name for future reference such as ‘My Game’, and for each joystick, click ‘Add a new joystick’.

Now that you’ve identified the joystick, you need to ‘bind’ joystick inputs to keyboard or mouse movements - which is easier than it sounds.

Click on ‘Add new bind’, and then ‘Scan’, and press the button of your game controller that you’d like to use. Next select a mouse or keyboard action, and that will ‘bind’ the chosen inputs.

Simply repeat this process until you’ve bound all the buttons you’d like to use.

If by chance you’re using a controller other than an Xbox 360 or Xbox One, you can replicate these actions and apply them to different controllers. To do this, simply click the ‘Clone’ icon in the top right corner. To put the pre-set into action, set a checkmark before the preferred pre-set/profile you’ve created for the game you’re about to play. Now, you’re good to go!

BUT – don’t close the Joystick Mapper app before starting the game, it needs to keep running to work. Simply select ‘cmd + H’ to hide the window.

Declutter your Mac to make more room for games

Remember, all of these processes won’t work as effectively if you have a messy Mac.

On average, there is a whopping 62GB of junk found on Macs, with jam-packed caches and folders full of useless documents cluttering the hard drive.

This considerably slows down the performance of your Mac, preventing quick and easy installations, and can even hinder the controller connectivity.

CleanMyMac X is an app dedicated to cleaning your Mac head-to-toe. It scans everything on the computer - even old folders that have been evading your wrath for years - identifying what needs to be removed.

The Mac is inspected rigorously, and with its smart one-click clean-up, CleanMyMac sweeps away the unwanted rubbish to organize folders and speed up performance.

Furthermore, CleanMyMac X is free to download. So, what are you waiting for? Download it for free here.

These might also interest you:

This is an update concerning our tutorial we wrote almost 2 years ago : read here

Since March 2009, new “Wave 3” games appeared, and since August 2009, new “Wave 4” games. With the iXtreme firmware we installed, we could not boot those 2 types of games anymore. We need to update the iXtreme firmware of our XBOX 360 DVD drive!

But what exactly does “Wave” stand for?

Wave refers to a known data size contained in the video partition of XBOX 360 disks. Before March 2009, this partition simply contained a video that would play if you inserted the disk into a regular DVD player. Now, since the new Dashboard updates (NXE), those larger files are also placed in this video partition, which means that the data contained in this partition is set to change more often.

Why is this a problem? How do I know which wave my backup belongs to?

One of the security features in all iXtreme firmware (except 1.51) is a check on the size of the video partition to make sure it matches one of the known waves. The firmware will not boot any game that does not match a known wave, this is done to prevent booting bad backups and getting banned on XBOX Live. iXtreme 1.51 firmware was a quick fix release to play Wave 3 games, but we do not recommend it since it does not all the checks to prevent you from being banned from XBOX live. Instead use iXtreme 1.6, which supports Wave 3 games.

You can check the wave number of each game on this website

What about Wave 4 games backups? Can I play those?

iXtreme 1.6 brought the checks back for better security, but there is a workaround into iXtreme 1.6 that allows “one shot” booting of non-stealth or unknown sized discs (new waves). To do this you use the 0800 disc (activate.iso) that is included with the iXtreme 1.6 firmware. Obviously this method may not be safe for Xbox Live and should be used offline only and at your own risk.

Download iXtreme 1.6 Firmware

How to flash your XBOX 360 DVD drive?

Follow this guide from JungleFlasher : download

JungleFlasher is developed in conjunction with Team Jungle in an effort to bring all 360 DVD‐Drive flashing functions together in one easy to use Win32 Application. JungleFlasher provides several functions that up until now were carried by several different app’s in both Dos and Win32.

Get JungleFlasher software : download

If you are running Windows 7 64-bits, JungleFlasher won’t work, we recommend you use “360 Modification USB Drive v1.6 Revision 4” instead. It’s a nice solution to flash your drive from a bootable USB pendrive with FreeDOS. It’s pretty much straightforward, you just need to follow instructions on screen. Just grab the port number of your VIA card before you start.

How to burn XBOX 360 backup games on mac?

Get ISOx360 for mac : download
Use DVD+R dual layer disks.


Xbox

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