Archive.org Expands Adds 2,400 MS-DOS Games To Free Online Collection


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In addition to the over 900 classic arcade games, The Internet Arcade has posted playable version of 2,400 old-school MS-DOS games.

 

Archive.org has been doing some great work in preserving video game's early history (something I touch on in this feature), and has now expanded with a staggering selection of 2,400 old-school PC games. These include the original Sim City, Prince of Persia, Maniac Mansion, and the original Castle Wolfenstein.

 

It's all free, although some games cannot be downloaded, only streamed.

[source: Verge]

 

Our Take

With more of our digital history disappearing, work like this is very important if we hope to keep a document of the game industry. I hope bigger institutions like the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian start similar efforts.

 

 

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/01/08/archive-org-expands-adds-2-400-ms-dos-games-to-free-online-collection.aspx

 

Check it out. You might find an old favourite you can spend some time with :)

 

Link to Library: https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games/v2

Edited by xendrome
Added link directly to library
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How are these games being played in the browser?

Is there a Flash-based x86 emulator?

The archive.org uses DosBox port for Emscripten.

Which somewhat convert the dosbox source code into javascripts.

This approach are totally sub-optimal mainly due various low-level x86 thingy that can not be easily implemented in javascripts.

 

As emulation concerned, Its better to obtain the game binary images and use the real DosBox for better classic gaming experiences.

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GODS. Great graphics for the period. What ever happened to Bitmap Brothers?

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Nice, I knew they did the Speedball series, but didn't know about the others. A truly next-gen Speedball for PC would be fantastic! So would GODS HD with gamepad support!

 

While graphics are light years ahead of the past, old games are just more fun often times. I guess without the ability to wow with graphics devs focused more on gameplay.

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Nice, I knew they did the Speedball series, but didn't know about the others. A truly next-gen Speedball for PC would be fantastic!

 

The one that's available on Steam is ok, but not really next-gen. It doesn't even have online multiplayer. :(

 

Chaos Engine is also available.

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Nice, I knew they did the Speedball series, but didn't know about the others. A truly next-gen Speedball for PC would be fantastic! So would GODS HD with gamepad support!

 

While graphics are light years ahead of the past, old games are just more fun often times. I guess without the ability to wow with graphics devs focused more on gameplay.

 

That's because old games took more time to develop then the modern ones and that brings a couple of benefits; also the graphics were suberb by that time standards as long the gameplay, replay value and entertainment were also very considerate back then.

 

And it's the nostalgia factor that makes those games shine: i do remember just watching for the first time Sonic 1 in a 24 TV array setup (just to make a large big ass screen), it was pure mind blowing: the sounds, the graphics, the speed..just awesome. And if i play the same game today i would still enjoy it alot because it brings good memories, but if i present the same game to a person that never play it before it he or she wouldn't have the same enjoyment but it would be more critical towards the flaws the game has, according to modern standards.

 

Just imagine in 20 years what kind of games people would be playing and today's CoD, WoW or Crysis would have "terrible graphics" and "how could people play THAT back then?".

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  • 2 weeks later...

of course the effort put in to making the graphics was comparable to a carpenter making a chair from a tree log, the music made during this era was amazing



my era started with the zx spectrum and then onto the amiga 500, where i started to game seriously with floppy disks :) shame this ms dos collections doesn't have smash tv or the double dragon classics, but i managed to find them at http://www.playretrogames.com
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