Play Historic Games in Your Browser From the Internet Archive

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Missing 80s video games like 'Pac-Man' or the adaptation of 'The Hobbit'? Archive.org will let you take them for a spin via your web browser.

The Internet Archive, the nonprofit best known for its “Wayback Machine” which allows people to browse old versions of websites from years or decades earlier, has launched a new section called the “Historical Software Collection.” 

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This collection of games is easily playable in web browsers via the MESS emulation software that mimics the programming of the original devices the games ran on.

According to the Collection’s site, “we've hand-selected a few dozen ground-breaking and historically important software products, many of whom started entire industries or pioneered new genres of programs.” 

Another notable entry is "Akalabeth" for the Apple IIc computer, the original roleplaying game from Richard Garriott, who later went on to create the venerable "Ultima" series. One infamous inclusion is the "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" game for Atari, considered one of the worst games ever made and one of the causes of the video game crash of the early ‘80s.

This isn’t the Internet Archive’s first foray into games. The site has hosted a “Classic PC Games” section for years, with over 5,000 pieces of software for computers specifically, including demos, shareware versions, and freeware versions of games. But with the Historical Software Collection, the nonprofit has begun to highlight complete games from other platforms. 

The Historical Software Collection currently only holds 28 titles, but if it follows the pattern of other collections at Archive.org, it may well grow far larger.

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Tom's Guide Staff
Tom's Guide Staff

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8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Teeroy32
    Cool very cool
    Reply
  • wmalinowski
    “We've hand-selected a few dozen ground-breaking and historically important software products, many of whom started entire industries or pioneered new genres of programs.”


    Yet, they have like game like E.T.

    Reply
  • g00fysmiley
    you have to have ET so people can see what the worst game of all time is like
    Reply
  • Afrospinach
    Clicked on link looking for ET - was not disappointed :)
    Reply
  • Cy-Kill
    I remember buying ET for the 2600, returned it about a day later!
    Reply
  • gm0n3y
    On of my friends owns that ET game. We play it every few years just to laugh at how bad it is. It usually takes less than a minute into playing before you get stuck or it just bugs out.
    Reply
  • Camikazi
    @wmalinowski E.T. was historically important since it is considered the worst game ever.
    Reply
  • Brian Cooper
    Sooo retro!! Will they work with any web browser? I have all my extensions hooked up to torch browser so I'd prefer to use that.
    Reply