WineBottler

Winebottler allows you to safely and stably run Windows software on a Mac operating system. While software isn't proprietary as it once was, there's still a big gap between what will run on a Mac and what will run on a Windows machine. This is especially true in the world of gaming. While most AAA releases are built with all three main operating systems in mind, that's not always the case with smaller budget and indie releases, but Winebottler allows you to circumvent those issues by providing a virtual environment to run Windows apps.

Winebottler essentially creates a virtual machine. For more casual users, that means that it takes all of the Windows specific computer code and translates it into a language that Mac understands. This means that not only can you run Windows exclusive software on a Mac machine natively and without the need for complex emulation, but you can also access data directly from your Mac operating system. That means any images, music, or videos that you manipulate stays on your machine and accessible even when you aren't running Winebottler.

While Winebottler isn't the only Windows virtual machine service running on Macs, it is one of the few free ones, and it's relatively simple for amateurs to use. Getting it up and running is a pretty painless affair, and it more or less works the way you want it to regardless of the complexity of the software that you're trying to run. There's a bit of a learning curve, but it's still pretty easy to pick up on.