Tons of Classic Arcade Games
I still remember my first arcade video game, it was Xevious, a vertical scrolling shoot em up game with great graphics and playability. I spend most of my money on that game and had some trouble with my parents because of it.
Now, I found a site that has heaps of classic arcade games for your playing pleasure. Games include all time classics like Pacman, Bomberman, Donkey Kong, 1942, Yie Ar Kung Fu and lots more.
The games require java to play so make sure you have java installed, if not head over to java.com and download the latest JRE and make sure you update it regularly. Enjoy these fine games, head over to 1980-games.com
Classic Arcade Games
Update: The website is still up and operational, and there have not been many changes to it since our first review. The front page of the service lists several of the most popular games right away on screen. You can launch them directly with a single click, and all should work just fine provided that you have the Java Runtime Environment installed on your computer as a plugin, and that your web browser still supports plugins (note Google Chrome does not, and most browsers will abandon support for classic NPAPI plugins in 2016 which means that you won't be able to play these games anymore unless the developers change dependencies or by using a browser that still supports these types of plugins).
Game windows are kinda small at the beginning, but you can click on the big Screen link below the embedded game which increases the size of the game window which makes games more enjoyable.
Controls are usually displayed on the right of the game window. You need to insert coins into many games first before you can start playing them just like you had to do in arcades.
This is done with a tap on the 5 key on the keyboard. You start most games with a tap on 1. Controls use the cursor keys for movement, and ctrl, alt and space for actions. Not all keys may be usable though depending on the game.
Games are furthermore sorted into categories on the left, e.g. Sport or Shooter, and larger groups at the top. Here you can access logic games, remakes or Nintendo games for instance.
The layout is not optimal though, but you can use the left sidebar as it lists all the games available in the category you are browsing. Note that may find NSFW games listed here as well, so make sure you play this in a safe environment only as you may get in trouble otherwise.
Alternatives
While Java is still supported right now, even Oracle has announced the deprecation of the Java plugin which means that the site will stop working eventually.
Alternatives are available though which you may want to check out instead. One of the best arcade repositories available online currently is powered by Archive.org.
The site offers direct access to arcade and console games, and requires no plugins to play those games online.
Here are a couple of entry points to the site's game archive to get you started:
- Internet Arcade, more than 600 classic arcade games to play directly in modern browsers.
- Console Living Room, more than 2900 classic console games.
- MS-DOS Games, more than 2600 classic MS-DOS games playable in the browser.
- Classic PC Games, more than 8200 PC games that you can play in the browser or download to the local system.
Even if the classic arcade games site goes down, there are plenty of alternatives that you can visit instead. The content on archive.org is updated regularly, which means that missing games may be added to the repository eventually so that you can play them online.
