Internet Archive Launches Arcade of Classic Games In the Browser

SternisheFan tips news that the Internet Archive has launched the "Internet Arcade," a collection of over 900 arcade games from the '70s, '80s, and '90s that are free to play in an emulated, browser-based environment. The Arcade makes use of JavaScript Mess, which the crew at the Archive has been working on for several years. Obviously, a lot of people are going to migrate to games they recognize and ones that they may not have played in years. They’ll do a few rounds, probably get their @$%^& kicked, smile, and go back to their news sites. A few more, I hope, will go towards games they've never heard of, with rules they have to suss out, and maybe more people will play some of these arcades in the coming months than the games ever saw in their "real" lifetimes. And my hope is that a handful, a probably tiny percentage, will begin plotting out ways to use this stuff in research, in writing, and remixing these old games into understanding their contexts.

Comments

Re:Wasn't this already available someplace else?

[glenebob]

Back in 97, javascript was little more than a toy language for making animations in websites

Some things never change :p

Re:Sweet!!

[Jason Levine]

I felt the same way when I re-watched some episodes of Voltron on Netflix. I remembered an exciting, top notch animated show. I saw cheesy dialogue and plot holes that you could pilot a giant space robot through. There are somethings that you can relive the glory of - that stand the test of time - and other things that just are better left in your memory.

Re:Sweet!!

[oldmac31310]

I watched it and other things like every Transformers episode EVAR with my son. Never saw this stuff growing up so it was all new to me. Really enjoyed watching it with my son though. See it from a five year old's perspective and it helps lower to bar - in a good way.