Angry Birds PC, Mac, & PSP Control Guide & More

Angry Birds on a touch screen is extremely intuitive. You can pick it up and learn how to play in a matter of seconds. The Windows, Mac, and PSP versions are not hard to learn either, but some of the controls are not as obvious. Hopefully this simple write-up can help alleviate some of this confusion:

First off, remember, you’re using a keyboard and mouse / trackpad, so don’t poke a whole in your monitor.

PC & Mac Controls

The Basics

  • Left-click to select (aka, tap)
  • Left-click & Hold to drag
  • Click the screen to trigger special abilities (blue bird split, yellow bird speed blast, etc.)
  • Move the cursor to the left and right of the screen to scroll the level from side to side.

The Not-So-Obvious

  • Scroll wheel or, if you’re using a trackpad, pinch gesture Zooms In & Out
  • Alt + Enter (Windows) or ⌘ – F (Command + F) on your keyboard enters windowed mode (i.e. exits fullscreen) — do it again to go back to fullscreen.
  • If using a trackpad a three finger swipe brings up the pause / restart menu (thanks, Richard)
  • F5 to restart a level (thanks, Alvin)
  • ESC while in a level brings up the menu, but while on the home screen it’ll prompt you exit the game.
  • ‘P’ pauses the level
  • ‘R’ restarts the level
  • For Golden Eggs that require a tap, just substitute a click instead.
  • Spoiler! to open the treasure chest and get the Golden Egg on level 1-8 type “Open” after clicking on the chest (some say you have to keep your mouse over the chest while typing)

PSP Controls (thanks, Pat!)

  • START -> Start game (at the opening screen) show level select/reset menu (in a level)
  • L1 -> Scroll to the left side of the playing field (in a level)
  • R1 -> Scroll to the right side of the playing field (in a level)
  • L1+R1 -> Zoom out to see entire level (in a level)
  • CIRCLE -> Cancel
  • X -> Choose highlighted menu/level-select/etc
  • Other buttons may be necessary, but are rarely used (One of the Golden Egg stars requires TRIANGLE and DOWN on the keypad, for instance.)

If you have any other tips leave a comment and I’ll try to add them to this guide. Thanks to everyone who has contributed thus far!

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Comments (181)

By Shawn

I just bought this game on the Mac App Store, and the golden egg for level 1-8, which is a tap on iPhone, will not open. Thoughts?

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Yeah, I can’t open that one either, so maybe they moved it or it’s a glitch.

By Shawn

On the Golden Egg page they still show the Golden eggs you don’t have with the hints. The Treasure Chest is still there.

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Yeah, I noticed that too…

By Johan

Just write “open” !

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

You rock! Any idea how to get egg #11?

By lynn

THANK YOU SO MUCH IV BEEN ON THAT FOREVER

THANKS

By Aleksi

me neither

By garavel

Same here!

By Jen

If anyone figures this out be sure to post it, it’s driving me crazy!

By perino

Same on pc

By Johan

Just a follow up… It’s figured out already ! ;)

Another tip is the synchronization between the iphone/ipad and the Mac/PC version…

Just use iPhone Backup extractor (the free one from “supercrazyawesome.com”).
All you have to do is put the “highscores.lua” and “settings.lua” from your recovered data in place of the Mac/PC’s ones…

(The path for the Mac version is : ~/Library/Application Support/Rovio/Angry Birds…)

By Johan

On a PC, use the free demo from “iphonebackupextractor.com”.

(The path for the PC version is : users/~/Application Data/Rovio/Angry Birds…)

By Patrick

You have to press cmd + f if the game is in fullscreen to get the window mode!!!!!!!!
Then you “grab” the treasure chest!!!!!!!!! (do not pause the game)
and without stopping to grab write “open” (without the “”)

do it a few times if it doesn’t work

By Courtney

On the iPhone version, there is a pause/restart button in the top left corner. Don’t see it on the Mac version I just downloaded. Is there one I’m missing and/or a control I need?

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

I see it on the Windows version, so it should be there on the Mac version as well. Could it be cutoff somehow? Do you see Highscore on the top right?

By Shawn

It’s there on my Mac version.

By Richard Klein

It’s there on my Mac version when using a mouse, but it isn’t there when using the touchpad. Instead a three finger swipe will bring it up.

By Aleksi

you have to go out of fullscreen mode (cmd+f). Then you can see the things on the upper left hand corner, you still can’t click on the chest though.

What size computer’s are you using? What desktop size/resolution? maybe it only works on some?

I use a 13″ macbook pro with 1280 X 800 resolution and I can only see the upper left hand things when i’m out of fullscreen.

By Seeing Red

On Mac:

⌘-F to toggle between window and full screen mode.

By citrusheightskid

So, I have it on Mac, but trying to click the golden eggs is nearly impossible. I’ve tried taking it out of full screen and get the “hand” and it won’t let me click the golden eggs or tap the treasure chest. It’s frustrating. I’ve gotten three of em… the one from the Credits, the Sun and the Beach ball one but other than that, no other ones.

By Andy

where do you download it for mac?

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

You need the 10.6.6 update for Snow Leopard and then you can get it through the Mac App Store application See our post.

By yoshi story

where can you get it for windows??

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Check out our post on thisl.

By rennspot

well if you notice that the mac angry birds only has 7 golden egg spots, so I think they took the chest one out.

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

The Windows version Golden Egg screen still shows the chest though. Does the Mac one not?

By Shawn

Yes it is on the Golden Egg page.

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Right, so unless they moved it to another chest it looks like a glitch.

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

See #6 above for your answer!

By alvin

You can restart a level by pressing F5. :)

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Great tip! I will add it to the guide.

By alvin

Alternatively, there’s “P” for pause and “R” for restart
You can also scroll from left to right by pointing the mouse to the edge of the screen (instead of dragging the screen by left clicking) and also by pressing the arrow keys on the keyboard.

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Thanks for the additional tips. Will add those.

By Edge

On the Android & iPhone version, after launching a bird, if you tap the screen, it explodes the bird making the bird far more effective at taking down fortifications. Is there a similar way to do that on the Mac? If so, I haven’t found it yet.

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Just click the screen.

By Edge

Doesn’t seem to work, at least with the Magic Trackpad. I’ve tried tapping and double-tapping. I’ll try again.

By Aleksi

each bird has a special power, the red ones are the only ones that don’t

By Marcello

There’s a way to substitute the “2 fingers tap” on the Mac version? Is useful to get the star on the Radio Egg…

By Ian

AGHHH i have the same question!!! how do you possibly get golden egg star # 7?!?! Anybody figure out how to click to stations at the same time??? helllpppppp haha

cheers,
ian

By Mathelas

On the Mac version, it seems impossible to get the golden egg star from the radio “minigame” by taping to buttons at the same time, as in the iphone version. Same thing about the chest which gives us a golden egg.
Anybody knows the solution or it’s a bug due to the mac version?

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

I’ve updated the Star Walkthrough with your answer (scroll down until you see the Radio). Only peak if you’re really stumped. :)

By Mathelas

Thank you very much. I got the star by clicking randomly on the screen, I hadn’t the actual explanation.

By Kick

How can I download angry bird game into my Toshiba notebook(Satellite Pro)

Thank you.

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

If you meet the minimum requirements you can get it via AppUp. Here’s how »

By Luca

For the golden egg in level 1-8: just write “open” :)

By citrusheightskid

When I went for this egg, simply typing “open” didn’t work. By pushing the P key, it paused the game. What I did that worked was I went out of full screen, and clicked and held onto the chest and typed “open” and it worked. I’m on a late 2009 Macbook. Hope this works for other users having trouble.

By Av

Whenever I try to type pause to get the golden egg for 1-8 by typing open, all it does it pause the game, it doesn’t work…It doesn’t do that for anyone else?

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Don’t hit pause first. It worked for me.

By Av

I didn’t hit pause first, when I started to type the game paused itself.

By MS-666

Click and hold it, then type “open” while you hold the click (on magic mouse or trackpad) :) took me a few minutes to figure that out aswell :)

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Thanks for the suggestion, though I don’ t think I had to click and hold the treasure chest while typing OPEN, but now I can’t remember for sure. Argh! I don’t want to update the guide until this is confirmed.

By Shawn

I had to click on it to get it in focus and then type open, if I remember correctly. I believe you have to have the chest in focus and the “hand” over it.

By Av

Thanks, clicking on the chest while typing worked!

By macnomad

The Click the screen to split the birds doesn’t work, nothing happens. Using mac snow leopard. Any ideas ?

By M

To get the egg from the chest, type the word ‘open’

By Marcello

Mac version – To get the star on the “Radio game” just select the 3rd button, rotate the frequency command (holding the click) in the middle area between the 3rd and the 4th frequency and then release… :)

By Marcello

…the method works in the iDevices too

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Thanks, Marcello! I’ve updated the Star Walkthrough to include this method.

By Ready_23

Where do you put the highscores file to transfer the data, i know where to do it does it have to go into a particular file?

By Johan

The path for the Mac version is : ~/Library/Application Support/Rovio/Angry Birds
The path for the PC version is : users/~/Application Data/Rovio/Angry Birds

~ is your user name…

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Just a reminder that “View Hidden Files” needs to be enabled.

By Alex Gil

ESC key on Windows brings up the Pause/Restart Menu.

By Mathelas

I’ve got 17 golden eggs in the Mac version. Is there anymore egg left ? The 18th is not available yet, right ?

By Allen

Same here. I do not have a 12-12 or for that matter any theme 12.

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

It’s not out yet for anything other than the iPhone and iPad.

By Allen

On the PC, how do you get golden egg #11? I cannot move the screen on the PC.

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Right, but you can click+hold within the level selection portion and then drag left and right.

By Allen

Thanks, I was trying to drag the wrong portion of the screen. What you suggest works if you drag inside the rectangle. How stupid of me!

By Loupar

how can I open the chest for the golden egg in 1-8 level in the PSP version?

By Loupar

Can’t open the chest in 1-8 level on PSP.
Does Anyone know how to do it?

By Bejan

How to open treasure chest level 1-8 on psp

By Daker

How do I reset the game to the beginning on a PC?

By Johan

To reset your saved data, remove the folder “Rovio” in this directory : users/~/Application Data/

~ is your user name…

By mosrite

Using Windows 7 64 bit and there is no Rovio folder in any of the application data folders I looked for in and I checked all user accounts including Administrator

By mosrite

Found it!
I had to open folder, hold down ALT and just select Tools > Folder Options and view hidden folders and files.
Thanks!

By mosrite

Yes can you tell me how to reset the game to beginning? It seems to run from the folder and is does not show in my Windows installed programs.
Thank you

By Kevin OConnell

Using a PC / Win 7, Laptop.. no track ball.. just the touch pad… how to you emulate the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and / or out on the screen… ? cant figure it out on a laptop w/ no mouse…

Thanks!

By christian

its coming an error message thats it not correct installed on windows home edition , i got all recuirements i need but it would not start anyway ? any tip ? i got i start on my windows 7 ..

By Worms947

is there an mighty eagle in the pc version? if yes how to use him?

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Not yet, though Rovio has said they want to bring it to “all” platforms.

By cropduster

I don’t know about anyone else but whenever I try to type “open” on level 1-8 it pauses the game, I don’t know if this is a glitch or not but I still can’t open the chest

By Heather

How do you reset the game on an iMac? I deleted from the Applications folder and reinstalled it from the app store, but it brings up my old scores.

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By Scarbzscope (@scarbzscope)

On angry birds Mac press “S” to complete the level automatically and advance to the next level.

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Seriously? I have to try that.

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By Scarbzscope (@scarbzscope)

yeah its quite cool :)

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By Eddie (@angrybirdiscool)

Does it work on PC?

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Doesn’t seem too. This may have been fixed on the Mac too, though I have to confirm. This comment thread is quite old.

By seven up

thank you bro!

but how to get the egg from level 1-8 , and the egg on sun?

for PSP version please!

By Loupar

I made the same question but no answer…

By seven up

lats hope to find answer ^_^

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By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

I wish I could help you guys with this one. If and when you find the answer please let us know, as I’m sure it would help a lot of people.

By J

You have to click pause so you can see the mouse first, and then put your mouse over the chest and click once. Then type open. That’s how it worked for me :)

By Jcw

For the 1-8 egg: Just beat the level
For the sun egg: Start the game
That’s it

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