Older games that we all loved and played relentlessly as kids tend to disappear as the old operating systems that we played them on are sent out to pasture.
The Internet Archive, a free library of millions of free books, movies, websites, and other media, has also archived thousands of older MS_DOS games, like Maniac Mansion, Prince of Persia, and–yes–Oregon Trail, and has given us all access to them for free.
Turns out, you can still get dysentery while traveling to Oregon, even if you haven’t kept your old PC or Mac to play the seminal educational game on.
“The collection includes action, strategy, adventure and other unique genres of game and entertainment software,” writes Jason Scott, the Software Librarian for the Internet Archive. “Through the use of the EM-DOSBOX in-browser emulator, these programs are bootable and playable.”
That online emulation software letting you run these games in your browser is still in beta, but what an amazing collection of games from days past.
With 2,306 games at this point, there’s something for everyone, including favorites like Wolfenstein 3D, SimCity, Bust-A-Move, and Leisure Suit Larry.
The Internet Archive may be most well-known for running the Wayback Machine, where you can peruse the Web from it’s infancy onward, but it also collects old software, books, imgaes, movies, and TV shows that otherwise might be lost to the sands of time and makes them available for free.
When you click through to the individual games, the DOS Box emulator software launches and you’ll be playing your childhood favorites in no time. Each game has a full history attached, as well, with a load of info on each title, like which platforms it ran on, a summary of the game, and other important archival info. It’s really a joy to browse through.
If you have some time, head on over to the project to see what they’ve got that you might remember, and try not to eat too many squirrels.
Source: Internet Archive
Via: Time
