Hi Phil, I'm glad that you like MoI! I think it's a great idea to use it as an introduction.

re: Parallels - Unfortunately one big area which Parallels doesn't provide for is access to the video card through the Windows Direct3D interface, which MoI uses for its display. You'd see the same problem with a lot of 3D video games as well. So unfortunately that's not going to work.

Parallels works great for more general-purpose software that doesn't need to access any special hardware capabilities. I guess it probably also works (although at greatly reduced speed) for OpenGL-based programs since OpenGL can function just with a software renderer instead of absolutely requiring hardware acceleration. Direct3D is not like that, it doesn't have an alternative software-only renderer built into it.

So to run MoI on your Mac you will have to boot to Windows using Boot Camp.

I'd be very interested to know how MoI works for you in your class!

- Michael