Vintage Video Games @ The Internet Archive

If posting in this forum isn't enough time wasting fun for you, here's something for the old school (and by "old school" I mean "jurassic") video game fans among us....

The Internet Archive, the library site which is known for its extensive collections of public-domain films, documents, web pages and other cool junk, has just added The Internet Arcade - a gallery of almost 900 (!!) playable and downloadable vintage video games from back in the day. Check out classics like DigDug, Defender, Berzerk, Commando and many others here:

https://archive.org/details/internetarcade

Have fun y'all. If you need me, I'll be on this site playing Galaga and Burger Time for ... well, probably for the rest of my life.

Zaxxon and Defenders Stargate! Many hours shall be wasted!

A co-worker just sent me this link yesterday. I haven't had a chance to explore it yet, but if I find 'Tapper' or 'Crazy Climber' on there, LOOK OUT!!

Tapper and Crazy Climber are **both** there, MG ... go nuts!

Uh oh, they have Xevious.  I'm in trouble.  Back in the day I could go for a couple hours on a single quarter.  Or maybe that one was a 50 center; I can't remember.  I just know I could play a long time on one pay.

yep, I will be wasting time on this

Dumb question, but I can't figure out how to fire on Galaga. I can move but can't shoot. And on Paperboy he instantly crashes into the sign. On Burger Time I could not use the pepper shaker. So where exactly is the "fire" key on my keyboard?

^^ I've found that the "CTRL" key works as the "fire" button in most of the games I've tried so far...

There have been a couple that I couldn't figure out how to work on a keyboard. There's an email address that you can send bugs/problem reports to, but if a game doesn't work for me I've just been saying "screw it" and trying another one. Shoot, there's 900 of 'em, by the time I'm done trying them all they should have all the bugs worked out.

Vintage gaming is making a comeback in a big way, but I'm not willing to date myself by saying that it's because the new ones all suck (mostly because there are a small handful that don't).

3dRealms just released a huge pack of all their old games going back to the Apogee days. Playing Mystic Towers and Commander Keen again makes me stupidly happy. Now, if only Epic Megagames' old stuff would see a reissue. You don't want to know what I'd do for a full copy of Jazz Jackrabbit.

Fat Freddy wrote:

^^ I've found that the "CTRL" key works as the "fire" button in most of the games I've tried so far...

There have been a couple that I couldn't figure out how to work on a keyboard. There's an email address that you can send bugs/problem reports to, but if a game doesn't work for me I've just been saying "screw it" and trying another one. Shoot, there's 900 of 'em, by the time I'm done trying them all they should have all the bugs worked out.

Thanks, I will give it a try. I too loved Crazy Climber but haven't tried it because I figured there was no way to even attempt it on a keyboard.

Headed over there now to try Burger Time again. I noticed Popeye is not on there. I loved that game too.

Runicen wrote:

3dRealms just released a huge pack of all their old games going back to the Apogee days.  Playing Mystic Towers and Commander Keen again makes me stupidly happy.

I'm very tempted to get that - the only thing that's holding me back is that my personal laptop was stolen recently, and I don't think they'd look to kindly to me installing games on my work machine.

mikeinfla wrote:

Thanks, I will give it a try. I too loved Crazy Climber but haven't tried it because I figured there was no way to even attempt it on a keyboard.

Headed over there now to try Burger Time again. I noticed Popeye is not on there. I loved that game too.

I've had no luck getting Crazy Climber to work thus far. If you figure it out let me know which buttons it uses!

I also couldn't figure out how to work Xenophobe, which pissed me off because I LOVED that game back in the day and I'd love to play it again... but that original arcade game used a joy stick controller which had several buttons AND a trigger on it, so Lord only knows how you'd translate that to a keyboard...

Love Galaga! Got it in a retro game package for xbox 360

Manic Miner is my favorite game of all time.

Citanul wrote:

Runicen wrote:

3dRealms just released a huge pack of all their old games going back to the Apogee days.  Playing Mystic Towers and Commander Keen again makes me stupidly happy.

I'm very tempted to get that - the only thing that's holding me back is that my personal laptop was stolen recently, and I don't think they'd look to kindly to me installing games on my work machine.

For me, it was a no-brainer. I caught it right after it was released when they were only charging $19.99 for the whole shebang. Passing on that would have been criminal!

Only sad omission I noticed was that Spear of Destiny wasn't included. Probably a different distributor, but with Wolfenstein 3d in the pack, I was hopeful.

Fat Freddy wrote:

mikeinfla wrote:

Thanks, I will give it a try. I too loved Crazy Climber but haven't tried it because I figured there was no way to even attempt it on a keyboard.

Headed over there now to try Burger Time again. I noticed Popeye is not on there. I loved that game too.

I've had no luck getting Crazy Climber to work thus far. If you figure it out let me know which buttons it uses!

I also couldn't figure out how to work Xenophobe, which pissed me off because I LOVED that game back in the day and I'd love to play it again... but that original arcade game used a joy stick controller which had several buttons AND a trigger on it, so Lord only knows how you'd translate that to a keyboard...

Cool!! I overlooked Xenophobe! Will have to check it out and then get pissed just like you since it won't work!

Fat Freddy wrote:

mikeinfla wrote:

Thanks, I will give it a try. I too loved Crazy Climber but haven't tried it because I figured there was no way to even attempt it on a keyboard.

Headed over there now to try Burger Time again. I noticed Popeye is not on there. I loved that game too.

I've had no luck getting Crazy Climber to work thus far. If you figure it out let me know which buttons it uses!

I also couldn't figure out how to work Xenophobe, which pissed me off because I LOVED that game back in the day and I'd love to play it again... but that original arcade game used a joy stick controller which had several buttons AND a trigger on it, so Lord only knows how you'd translate that to a keyboard...

I was playing Tron for a while before I finally figured out what keys work for that one! I think I need 3 hands for it!

After playing so much "Burger Time" yesterday, I was reminded of this classic TV commercial for the home-cartridge version from back in the day:



The way that evil hot dog snarled "WE'RE CLOSED NOW!" at the end would always crack my 12 year old self up.

I'm happy they put them up; I used to be into the whole MAME thing (which this essentially is via Java) but the whole issue I take is not having a dedicated control apparatus. Part of what made Centipede so awesome (and ultimately playable) was the trackball; with Tron you had that blue joystick and a track ball, some games had overly complex assemblies. It's a cool novelty here but nothing like when I get to revisit them in the flesh at my local nickle arcade.

They have Phoenix!  I haven't played that game since 1982 or thereabouts.

...and Zaxxon!

wow. Best thread ever!!!

On an somewhat related note, I have a fat Atari 2600 console/collection that's going up on ebay soon.

corplhicks wrote:

On an somewhat related note, I have a fat Atari 2600 console/collection that's going up on ebay soon.

w00t!!

Just push TAB to bring up the menu - Then INPUT[This System]. That will show you where the various fire buttons are located on each game.

Still having a ball with the games on this site. Unfortunately it looks like "Burger Time" has mysteriously disappeared from the line up (boooo!), but I've been kicking mucho ass on "DigDug" and "Galaga."

However, even three decades later, I still totally suck at Q*Bert.