Internet Archive's 900 Classic Arcade Games – 30 years of Free Arcade Game with retro CTRL-ALT-SPACE and Arrow Keys Button Masher Action

“Of the roughly 900 arcade games (yes, nine hundred arcade games) up there, some are in pretty weird shape – vector games are an issue, scaling is broken for some, and some have control mechanisms that are just not going to translate to a keyboard or even a joypad. But damn if so many are good enough. More than good enough. In the right browser, on a speedy machine, it almost feels perfect. The usual debates about the 'realness' of emulation come into play, but it works”

Programmer Jason Scott of the Internet Archive commenting on the 900+ Internet Arcade made playable in a browser thanks to the JavaScript program called JSMESS

Are you a fan of the Arcade Games of the 80’s and 90’s like Galaga, Pac Man and even the great Donkey Kong? In my book, to be a real fan, you have to be like the guys in Big Bang Theory who got locked up in a Doctor’s Den of pleasure filled with vintage Arcade Games and not really mind!

Well if you DON’T mind that, they you really will not mind that fact that San Francisco-based nonprofit Internet Archive has made their massive collection of 900 Arcade Games free to play via your web browser as reported in the article “Play Over 900 Classic Arcade Games in Your Browser for Free”, published November 2, 2014 by Emanuel Maiberg, Gamespot. 

That Archive, called the Internet Arcade, which includes such classics as Dig Dug and Golden Axe, is made playable thanks to a JavaScript program called JSMESS that emulates old computer platforms like the Commodore 64, Atari 2600.

Internet Arcade’s 900+ Games – 30 years worth of Arcade Game playable for free

The work that started back in October 2013 to get these Classic Arcade Games on the Internet as reported in “The Internet Archive puts Atari Games and obsolete software directly in your browser”, published October 25, 2013 04:11 pm By Adi Robertson, The Verge had been completed by programmer Jason Scott to makes these 900+ Games playable on the Web.

The Internet Arcade dates back over thirty (30) years and can be sorted in alphabetical order, the number of downloads and date added. Here’s a Video explaining the work of the Internet Archive, which mainly focuses on archiving all the websites and their content on the Internet.

This development is somewhat similar to Google’s plan back in December 2011 to do Cloud Console Gaming with Steam and OnLive via their Google Chrome browser as reported in my Geezam blog article entitled “Google Chrome to do Console Gaming – OnLive and Steam in the Cloudy Post-Console Era”.

Only these are Arcade Games, pixilated Games from an era when you actually had to go to a fixed location to play a Video game based on the titles listed in the article “Over 900 Retro Arcade Games Are Free To Play On Internet Archive Now”, published 11/04/2014 @ 6:20PM by Amit Chowdhry, Forbes:

1.      Berzerk

2.      Centipede

3.      Contra

4.      Dig Dug

5.      Donkey Kong

6.      Double Dragon

7.      Frogger

8.      Galaga

9.      Golden Axe

10.  Marble Madness

11.  Pac-Man

12.  Paperboy,

13.  Q*Bert

14.  Street Fighter II

15.  Tetris

16.  Tron

Somewhat analogous to today’s Game shops and CyberCafes like R Carby's Internet Cafe in at Shop 21 Clock Tower Plaza, Half Way Tree, Kingston where sweaty teens can be seen playing Video Games. However, a few caveats; no need to download an emulator and mostly without support for a mouse as these are button-masher folks, strictly Arrow Keys and ALT Button!

Internet Arcade Classic Arcade Games – CTRL-ALT-SPACE with Arrow Keys Button Mashers

Folks, this is nirvana for me, as most of these hard-to-beat arcade Games wasted hundred of dollars of my lunch money back in 1995 when I was a 5^th Form student of the Glenmuir High School in May Pen Clarendon.

I used to sneak away a lot and play these Games during Lunch time and then later after school before heading down to Guinep Tree Plaza to use the computers to do my BlueFox computer project as I’d mentioned in my Geezam blog article entitled “IBM and the Watson”.

If you're a newbie to Arcade Games, I’ll be the first to tell you there are no instruction manuals to playing these classic button masher Games as noted in the article “The Internet Arcade puts 900 classic Games right in your web browser”, published November 2, 2014 05:48 pm By Dante D'Orazio, The Verge.

Then again, they're entirely intuitive as they can be searched in alphabetic order or date uploaded. No manuals are needed as these coin and token eating Games I used to play still work the same way as note in “The Internet Archive Now Lets You Play 900+ Classic Arcade Games In Your Browser”, published Nov 1, 2014 by Greg Kumparak, TechCrunch:

1.      Press 5 to Insert a coin

2.      Press 1 for single Player

3.      Arrow Keys move you around

4.      ALT/CTRL/SPACE is the action button, usually a laser or weapon of some sort

Do you like Arcade Games? Then try out these 900 Classic Arcade Games at the Internet Arcade on the coolest library on the planet, the Internet Archive.

Here’s the link:

Internet Arcade

Internet Archive