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Internet Archive Launches Arcade of Classic Games In the Browser

Posted by Soulskill on from the doing-good-work dept.

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.

30 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet!! by rodrigoandrade · · Score: 5, Funny

    Goodbye productivity!!

    1. Re:Sweet!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Goodbye productivity!!

      You can really say this with a straight face while surfing slashdot?

    2. Re:Sweet!! by zAPPzAPP · · Score: 5, Funny

      But he produced a first post!

    3. Re:Sweet!! by greenfruitsalad · · Score: 2

      i've made the mistake of playing Street Fighter 2. i had such fond memories of the game from childhood. some things are just better left as memories.

      i wonder how i'm going to perceive today's "realistic" 3d games in 10 years.

    4. Re:Sweet!! by Tyr07 · · Score: 2

      i wonder how i'm going to perceive today's "realistic" 3d games in 10 years.

      Realistically!

    5. Re:Sweet!! by Tyr07 · · Score: 4, Informative

      This has been done and around for a long time.

      http://www.virtualsupernes.com...

    6. Re:Sweet!! by mccalli · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Although I agree the sentiment, I disagree specifically on Street Fighter 2 (well...on the Hyperfighting/Turbo edition anyway). Always found that one holds up because the characters are well balanced, the moves are easy'ish to remember so when playing people who are good it's less about remembering the framerate for the super-ultra-mega-30-button-combo-string and more about actual weighted tactics.

      I find it interesting that my kids, who are used to playing the newest and prettiest editions of the Tekken series, still go back to Street Fighter 2 Hyperfighting. They weren't even alive when it came out and have no nostalgic feelings towards it, so clearly the game has got something to it which stands the test of time.

    7. Re:Sweet!! by Tyr07 · · Score: 2

      Two things.

      A) I did not make a statement to if it was java, javascript, flash, or html 5. It has been done in a browser before.

      B) My comment was clearly directed at the comment regarding NES and SNES games, not the validity of the service.

    8. Re:Sweet!! by Jason+Levine · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    9. Re:Sweet!! by CastrTroy · · Score: 2

      Go try Alone in the Dark, or even worse, Hugo's House or Horrors. I remember spending countless hours playing those two games. Went back and played them a little while ago and they just don't hold up.Granted I never really thought of them as "realistic", but I remember them being a lot more fun than they are.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    10. Re:Sweet!! by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

      The 3D games become worst with age because of advances in technology.

      The 2D games, on the other hand, age much more gracefully since there's a limit to what you can do in 2D, apart from adding lighting and glowing effects. I can still look at Super Metroid and think it's fine, but Zelda on the Nintendo 64 looks like crap by comparison. And Zelda is newer than Super Metroid.

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    11. Re:Sweet!! by ArcadeMan · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...clearly the game has got something to it which stands the test of time.

      Of course it does. Her name is Chun-Li.

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    12. Re:Sweet!! by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

      Leonardo DiCaprio, is that you?

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    13. Re:Sweet!! by oldmac31310 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    14. Re:Sweet!! by Quirkz · · Score: 3, Funny

      Five manned aircraft inexplicably in the shape of cats that can unite into one giant sword-weilding robot somehow synchronously controlled by five people? I don't possibly see how you could be disillusioned by watching that show as an adult.

      --
      The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
  2. How long will it last... by MindPrison · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...before the copyright holders come to collect?

    Roms are being deleted all the time on the internet, I know...because I've constantly tried to find the original Arcade Pac Man roms, but the copyrights are still in effect as various companies sell retrogames themselves, which they hold the license to.

    --
    What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
    1. Re: How long will it last... by frikken+lazerz · · Score: 4, Informative

      Wrong. Sadly, just because the company doesn't exist doesn't mean it's public domain. The copyrights don't expire upon a company going out of business.

    2. Re: How long will it last... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Informative

      Which is one big reason why I advocate for shorter copyright terms. Let's say you remembered a great, somewhat obscure game from the 80's and wanted to remake it. You wanted to do it properly, however, and get permission from the copyright owners. The company that owned the copyright is likely long since bankrupt and following the ownership of the copyright can be murky at times. You might even locate one company, get permission, and find yourself sued afterwards by a second company who claims ownership. Often, two companies will claim copyright and it will be up to the courts to untangle the mess. If the courts have trouble with this, what hope does your average producer of content have to find the right company.

      Now, if copyright expired 14 years after registration (with a one-time 14 year renewal), like it originally was set, you could be sure that any game from 1986 or before was public domain. As for games after 1986, you would know who renewed the copyright under 14 years ago so you would only need to sift through 13 years or less of copyright transferals - instead of 30+ years now.

      A 14+14 copyright system would drastically reduce the number of orphan works out there.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    3. Re: How long will it last... by mrchaotica · · Score: 2

      Think about how this would work with books, movies, and music though.

      Hmm... let's see: the way it would work is that only the original creator could live off the royalties, but his heirs would have to actually do something productive. Sounds good to me!

      I agree that copyright needs to be shorter, but it also blows my mind to think of the amount of content that would be available as public domain if copyright only lasted 28 years.

      Indeed! The cost to society of all that content not being available like it should have been is mind-blowing!

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    4. Re: How long will it last... by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 2

      You're thinking of the people who might be getting royalties...

      Top Gun is likely still owned by Paramount and they are earning the lions share of money from it...

      Now, the question becomes... A VHS copy from 1989 might well become public domain, but what about a 2009 Blu-Ray copy?

      Real work and real money goes into taking older films and making nice pretty high def versions of them.

      Is the old copy public domain but the new copy protected?

      If so, I don't know how much is gained, but fair enough. If not, you won't get any updated or refreshed versions of anything if you can just copy them right away.

    5. Re: How long will it last... by SternisheFan · · Score: 2
      Archive.org prides itself on preserving media that falls under the public domain, but none of the listed games are in the public domain. There's not even any ambiguity about it.

      It's possible that the people in charge of this service assume that the project fulfils some fair use criteria for being about historical preservation, but I doubt any judge would agree with them. It's also possible that the site owners know that they don't have the rights to host these games, and are hoping to slip under the publishers' radars. Either way, they can probably expect a few cease and desist letters in the near future, so enjoy the service while you can.

    6. Re: How long will it last... by mrchaotica · · Score: 2

      Now, the question becomes... A VHS copy from 1989 might well become public domain, but what about a 2009 Blu-Ray copy?

      Real work and real money goes into taking older films and making nice pretty high def versions of them.

      First of all, who cares? Even leaving aside the fact that somebody would inevitably put a laserdisc rip up on Bittorrent, Blu-Ray does not make Top Gun a better movie any more than colorizing Casablanca or "special editioning" Star Wars would.

      Second, and more importantly, think of the opportunity cost! Is having Top Gun on blu-ray really worth stifling all the potential Top-Gun-derivative works that could have been?

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    7. Re: How long will it last... by arth1 · · Score: 2

      When a company goes out of business, it is because it owes more than it has. Those debts are (partially) paid off by selling the company's assets, which includes copyrights. This is the job of the receivers.

      Bankruptcy is only one of the ways a company can go out of business. A company can also be dissolved while solvent, where surplus assets are terminated without transfer of ownership. This is not uncommon for assets that carry a risk or a future liability.
      I have gone through one company dissolution myself.

    8. Re: How long will it last... by steveha · · Score: 2

      Politics is the art of the possible. There are big-money companies that really, really don't want some properties to go into the public domain... and I don't think it will be possible to make a simple scheme like 14+14 in the face of their opposition.

      I think the best we can hope for, the best we can realistically obtain in the current political environment, is to allow copyright holders to renew forever, but absolutely require that renewal (nothing automatic).

      So Disney will pay people to meticulously track every old Disney cartoon, will pay the copyright renewal fee on each one every 5 years or whatever, and won't oppose letting other stuff fall into the public domain. Meanwhile, wacky old video games where nobody is even sure who controls the copyright would fall into the public domain, as nobody would pay the fee.

      I don't even care how much the fee is. Make it $1. What I want is for the default case be that things fall into the public domain.

      I don't view the above solution as perfect, but I do think it is the best that we can hope for in the current environment.

      --
      lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  3. Re:Wasn't this already available someplace else? by bspus · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm pretty sure I've played MAME emulated games online in the past ....

    Of course. MAME started out as MS-DOS FOSS back in 1997 The interesting part in this web arcade is that the emulation is done in javascript. Back in 97, javascript was little more than a toy language for making animations in websites.

    Oh, and its obviously legal to play them now.
    MAME requires dumps of the original arcade roms which can generally not be aquired legally.

    But sure, otherwise, anyone who wants old arcades has already known how to get them. Almost everything that matters has been pefectly emulated for about a decade

  4. Re:Get your naming right, Soulskill by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 4, Funny

    Besides, "JavaScript Mess" is redundant.

  5. Re:Wasn't this already available someplace else? by glenebob · · Score: 2, Insightful

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

    Some things never change :p

  6. Planet of Zoom.... by TapeCutter · · Score: 2

    First game I ever hacked, the question "Could Buck Rogers reach the domed city?" drove me nuts for weeks but it also taught me a fair bit about disassembly.

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  7. "vector games are an issue"... by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 2

    ...so no Battlezone. :( There was ONE GAME that I played obsessively and mastered, and it's not there.

    No, wait, there was one raster game I liked, but it didn't make much of a splash in the real world -- Reactor. It's not there, either.

    900 games, 850 of which I've never heard of, and the two that I look for aren't there. I want a refund.

    1. Re:"vector games are an issue"... by Cola+Junkee · · Score: 2

      OK. :) Here's your $0 back.

      --

      f u cn rd ths, u r prbbly a lsy spllr.