The time of arcades was in many ways a golden age for gaming. Innovative and new ideas were commonplace and many of the games that came out, set standards and conventions that still impact the industry, even today. Well, for those who thirst with nostalgia for those days, I have good news for you: the Internet Archive, which bills itself as “a non-profit digital library offering free universal access to books, movies & music, as well as 435 billion archived web pages” has recently added a massive collection of over 900 old coin-op arcade games to their software archive, with titles ranging from the classic to the obscure.
The games date from the mid 1970s to the early 1990s and are emulated in-browser using the JSMAME emulator, which is part of the JSMESS software package. Several of these titles would eventually be ported to early Nintendo systems, such as the NES and Game Boy. Classics like Ghouls N’ Ghosts, Lode Runner, Millipede, and Dig Dug.
Of course, emulation is a finicky thing and not all of the games play perfectly. There are some glitches and some of the games don’t have sound. The arcade’s operator, Jason Scott was sure to say that:
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.
Despite this, I’d still say the arcade is worth giving a look through, since most of the games work perfectly, and they’re such an important part of gaming history.
While many curious gamers will see this as a simple way to kill time, Scott hopes that some gamers can get more out of it, saying:
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. Time will tell.
This isn’t the first time the Internet Archive has done something like this either, as they also have what they call the “Console Living Room.” A collection of games and consoles from the late 1970s and mid 1990s, ranging from the Atari 2600 to the Sega Genisis, all the way up to the obscure Super A’Can, released in 1995. Although, for obvious reasons, no Nintendo consoles are included in their archive.
Even if there’s nothing specifically Nintendo related in either of these archives, I’d still recommend you give them a try. These games are classics and they helped to define the medium as we know it today. But let us know what you guys think, are there any games you’re particularly excited to experience, or that you’d recommend to our other readers?
[Source: CNET]
