You are on the beta version of My Abandonware. The live site is still myabandonware.com. Your favorites and ratings here are copied to the live site. Comments and other changes are not — we delete them every morning at 08:00 Paris time, when this site goes down for about an hour. Leave feedback through this link to Pastel (email required).

Search more than 30000 retro games

How to play Apple II games

/ How to play / Apple II games

The Apple II (sometimes written Apple ][) was a very popular machine in the 80s and the early 90s, especially in American schools. Thus, many emulators have been created and maintained over the years.

We have about 1,300 Apple II games on My Abandonware, a good part of the 3,000 or so listed by MobyGames.

Apple II emulators

AppleWin is the best choice on Windows, and it also runs on Linux. Mac users can pick Virtual ][ or Ample. AppleWin needs no ROM file; the others may ask for one.

  • AppleWin (Windows): open source, easy to use, and still updated. It emulates the original Apple II, the II Plus, the IIe and some clones. No ROM is required to run the emulator. Recommended.
  • AppleWin for Linux: an unofficial port that follows the Windows version. LinApple, an older AppleWin port, is also being brought up to date.
  • [Virtual ] (Mac): the most complete Apple II emulator on the Mac, including the IIc. It runs natively on Apple Silicon. You can try it for free, then pay for a license. It doesn't include the Apple ROM files: its help explains where to get them.
  • Ample (Mac, also for Windows and Linux): a free and friendly window on MAME's Apple II emulation, with MAME included. Pick a model and a disk in lists, no command line needed. Like MAME, it needs the ROM files of the Apple II.

You may also use an Apple IIGS emulator to run Apple II games: the Apple IIGS could run most of the software of its 8-bit predecessors.

Running Apple II games with AppleWin

Unzip the game, put the first disk in drive 1, and reboot the emulator. AppleWin is very easy to use.

The following video shows how to run The Oregon Trail, which comes with 2 disks. General procedure should be:

  • Unzip the game archive. The archive may contain several versions of the game, each of them with one or more disk images.
  • Launch AppleWin, then click the disk 1 icon on the right, and select the first disk image.
  • If the game has other disks, click on the disk 2 icon, and select the second disk image.
  • Click on the Apple icon on the right to reboot the emulator.
  • Play!

Running The Oregon Trail in AppleWin.

Which disk image should I pick?

Apple II games come in several disk image formats. Most games work from a .dsk or .do file; take the .woz file when a game refuses to start.

  • .dsk, .do, .po: the most common formats. They hold the data of the disk, but not its copy protection, so they are usually cracked versions.
  • .nib: a lower-level copy of the disk, which keeps some copy protections.
  • .woz: an exact copy of the original disk, copy protection included, made by preservation groups since 2018. It's the format to use when the other versions fail. AppleWin, Virtual ][ and MAME all read it.
  • .2mg: disk images mostly used by Apple IIGS software.

I need help!

We do not provide support for running abandonware games. The Apple II community is friendly and active.

Ask on the comp.emulators.apple2 group or on Applefritter. The AppleWin documentation answers most setup questions.

First written by hand, and brought up to date in October 2026 against each program's own documentation and, where it exists, its source code. Game counts and file sizes come from our own catalogue. The update was drafted with the help of an AI assistant and checked by hand before publishing. If something here is out of date, tell us.