5 Sites To Play Old Computer Games Once Again

I don’t know about you but I’m not much into fancy-pants 3D first person shooters. I can’t be bothered to build a massive gaming rig, blow $500 on a video card, and figure out what custom weights give me the best mouse response.

I’ve got a WII, and I love it, and one of the big reasons I do is for the emulation. Sadly however, I can’t bring my WII to work or to the coffee shop down the street - but I can bring my laptop, jump on their WiFi and fire up these four awesome sites for a quick old school gaming fix!

VirtualApple (Apple II and Apple IIGS)

VirtualApple (Apple II and Apple IIGS)

I don’t know about you but every now and then I get a craving to hunt square rabbits, hire unfit workers, make them walk too far and then lose three days because I’ve got scurvy. Virtual Apple always satisfies my Oregon Trail fix; but don’t other classics like John Elway’s Quarterback, Crystal Castles, and Max Headroom (don’t lie, you remember Max Headroom).

c64s.com (Commodore 64)

c64s.com (Commodore 64)

My family’s first computer was the UPS-brown Commodore 64, so this one really takes me back. I even remember “modding” the case to the newer, more angular style when it came out. Yikes. Thrill to such Commodore favorites as Zork, Wizard’s Lair and Pakacuda. The site has all the titles categorized by genre and features screenshots - further underscoring the real graphical prowess of the C64!

Virtualnes.com (Nintendo Entertainment System)

Virtualnes.com (Nintendo Entertainment System)

vNes has a huge catalog of NES cartridge titles available for play on their site via a Java-based emulator - 765 of them to be exact. I’ve noticed a few problems with slowness on a few titles, but all in all it’s an excellent place to play old games online and satisfy your urge to jam on Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, or one of my favorites: Ivan Stewart’s Super Off Road.

Playnes.net (Nintendo Entertainment System)

Playnes.net (Nintendo Entertainment System)

Another big catalog of NES titles, but you’re able to register which gives you the ability to save states in the games you’re playing. You can even open other people’s states - meaning that when your buddy gets stuck trying to battle through the ninjas, you can swoop in, rescue the President, and prove just how bad a dude you really are.

GetBack.Com Arcade

Unlike the rest of the sites I listed, GetBack isn’t strictly a gaming site. It’s kind of a “throwback culture” site. The upside is that they do have several games in their arcade that you can play, like Intellivision Backgammon and River Raid.

What about you? Where do you go to satisfy your vintage gaming urges? Let us know!

(By) Lee Mathews is a blogger who writes to share downloads, links, and tech advice with other slightly frustrated users at Unsightful.com.

Subscribe to MakeUseOf

Filed Under: Cool Websites ¦ Games ¦ Latest in 'Geeky Fun' ¦ Lists of tools
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Latest from Lee Mathews:

Blog Posts from Lee Mathews:
Most Popular:
  • 100 Portable Apps for your USB Stick (both for Mac and Win)
  • 1 Awesome Gmail tip You Don’t Know about. Seriously.
  • 40 Unusual Websites you should Bookmark
  • The Best, Free Alternatives to Nero CD/DVD Burner
  • 5 Packs to Transform Windows to other OS
  • 13 Bargain Websites That are Cheaper than eBay
  • 7 Excellent destinations to watch TV Shows for FREE
  • 5 Tools to Make Windows XP Look Like Vista
  • 18 Free Ways To Download Any Video off the Internet
  • Watch Popular TV Shows,Cartoons,Movies,Anime for free
  • How To: Move Music from iPod to PC in 5 Easy Steps
  • Collection of Rapidshare Tools and Tricks
  • 5 “DISPOSABLE” Web Accounts to Keep Your Identity Safe
  • Gmail Craze: 40 + Tools and Hacks for Gmail
  • Ultimate GMail Collection: over 80 Tools and Tips
  • 33 Comments » Leave One...

    Comment by Mark O'Neill
    2008-06-24 11:16:06

    Oh man, this REALLY takes me back! Our first family computer was also a brown Commodore 64! My favourite game was a strategy game where we were in command of a old fashioned sailing ship and we had to fight enemy ships and take promotion tests to get to the next rank. I loved that game but I can’t remember the title of it. Maybe if I visit that Commodore 64 site, it might be there….

    Comment by Watch Television
    2008-06-25 02:53:51

    Excellent Oregon Trail online, let’s see how fast it takes for the entire team to get dysentery.

     
    Comment by Friendly C64
    2008-06-25 17:25:13

    That games was “Ship of the Line” I believe.

     
     
    Comment by Lee Mathews
    2008-06-24 11:28:09

    I would’ve finished this post a lot sooner, but I caught scurvy and lost three days. Now if he would just get his hands on “Car Builder” I’d be all set!

     
    Comment by Travis Quinnelly
    2008-06-24 12:09:46

    You’re taking us way back here Lee!

    Comment by Mark O'Neill
    2008-06-24 12:24:31

    yeah and he’s totally wrecking my productivity! I am totally stuck on playing “Commando” on the Commodore site and I can’t stop! Thanks a bunch Mr Mathews! :-)

     
     
    Comment by Lee Mathews
    2008-06-24 12:44:59

    We can’t be all business all the time, can we? I mean, half the fun of being a tech is being able to multitask something pointless like old Konami games while you polish off your code!

     
    Comment by tyler
    2008-06-25 02:29:30

    nice reference to Bad Dudes… which I owned in arcade form for a short, sweet time.

     
    Trackback by meneame.net
    2008-06-25 02:32:52

    5 webs para jugar juegos antiguos de nuevo [ING]…

    5 webs que te haran revivir aquellos primeros años de los videojuegos, cuando un mando simplemente constaba de un joystick y 2 botones. Via Digg…

     
    Comment by colton
    2008-06-25 03:15:02

    nintendo8.com > playnes.net & virtualnes.com imo

     
    Trackback by ludiko.com
    2008-06-25 03:31:50

    5 webs para jugar juegos antiguos de nuevo [ING]…

    Vota este post en ludiko.com…

     
    Comment by d3wd
    2008-06-25 03:48:40

    This one took a lot of my time; a browser version of Lemmings:

    http://www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/

     
    Comment by Gunnar andreassen
    2008-06-25 03:50:23

    Wow, just the joystick on top of this was a flashback for me. Fun stuff! :-)

     
    Comment by kiran
    2008-06-25 04:07:22

    Playing old games again….Its a very fun.

    Thanks
    http://www.dotndot.com

     
    2008-06-25 05:32:45

    [...] Check out this site and get 5 links to great old game sites. Posted in Freeware Pick | Leave a Comment [...]

     
    Comment by John thomas
    2008-06-25 06:00:54

    Wow, its cool to see old games becoming popular again but I have used emulators and ROMs for years to keep the old games alive.

    JT
    Ultimate Anonymity

     
    2008-06-25 07:21:19

    What a small world! I found and posted this yesterday as well: http://www.asktheadmin.com/2008/06/play-nes-games-in-firefox-tuesdays-time.html

    I have been hooked playing all the Super Mario Brothers Since!!

    The destination site is in Spanish but the post describes how to get your game on!

     
    Comment by Michael
    2008-06-25 07:26:06

    thanks for sharing those links. i learned about firenes some days ago. it’s a free firefox plug-in you can download here: http://firenes.en.softonic.com/
    play over 2500 nes games in your browser. a java vm needs to be installed tho.

     
    2008-06-25 09:26:56

    [...] Sites To Play Old Computer Games Written by Revital on June 25, 2008 – 5:26 pm - [5 Sites To Play Old Computer Games] Tags: apple ][e, games, old computers, old games, retroPosted in Cool, Gaming, Internet and [...]

     
    2008-06-25 09:54:30

    [...] can read my article here…If you think it’s full of win, digg it! Share or Bookmark: These icons link to [...]

     
    2008-06-25 16:30:16

    [...] 5 Sites To Play Old Computer Games Once Again | MakeUseOf.comcontains a link to a site with Commodore 64 games (tags: online retro old games computer) [...]

     
    2008-06-25 17:32:34

    [...] Play old nes games on line thanks for sharing those links. i learned about firenes some days ago. it’s a free firefox plug-in you can download here: http://firenes.en.softonic.com/ play over 2500 nes games in your browser. a java vm needs to be installed tho. (tags: todo gaming nintendo retro fun) [...]

     
    2008-06-25 18:33:50

    [...] Play old nes games on line thanks for sharing those links. i learned about firenes some days ago. it’s a free firefox plug-in you can download here: http://firenes.en.softonic.com/ play over 2500 nes games in your browser. a java vm needs to be installed tho. (tags: todo gaming nintendo retro fun) [...]

     
    2008-06-25 19:36:02

    [...] 5 Sites To Play Old Computer Games Once Again | MakeUseOf.com (tags: games retro gaming online computer nintendo old) [...]

     
     
    2008-06-26 05:19:50

    [...] Sites To Play Old Computer Games Once Again. oh yeah!!! 5 Sites To Play Old Computer Games Once Again. __________________ {OF}MethanePub Intel Q6600, Vista64, 8gb Pc2-6400, 8800GTS(G92)@670, X-Fi [...]

     
    Comment by 800HighTech
    2008-06-26 05:50:09

    Great post, I’m sure many people who read this article clicked straight on over to one of numerous sites to start playing old school games!

    I know I did!

     
    Comment by Erika
    2008-07-01 22:48:20

    Cool post.

    I’m looking for a game that was on the old Macs around 1988 or so. Can’t remember the name! You started out with one open square and a field of black, and you are a tank. You used the arrow keys to move in any direction. You gained territory, found more tanks, I think you traded tanks in for planes, ships, etc. It was kind of a world conquest theme, but very simple. It was so fun!

    If anyone knows how I could find a PC version of this game, I’d be grateful forever!

     
    2008-08-02 03:01:50

    [...] zijn heel wat sites waar je oude games weer kan herbeleven. Op deze site krijg je er vijf en ze verzamelen een schitterende reeks antieke games. Voor de meer ouderen onder [...]

     
    Comment by cody
    2008-08-20 17:56:45

    hey what is that old game where u start off with two balls bouncing around in a square box and then you use your mouse and click and it sends a red line up and a blue like down and splits the room in half. and you keep doing it until the balls are in seperate boxes and there small. and each level has another ball…? anyone??

     
    2008-08-21 03:15:16

    [...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]

     
    Comment by ltronic
    2008-08-25 14:59:29

    Give Classix Games a shot too :

    Play Sega Genesis/Master System/Game Gear, Nintendo NES/GameBoy/GameBoy Color, TurboGrafx 16 games online.

    http://www.classixgames.com/

    SNES going to be added in October, polishing the emulator :)

     
    Comment by ltronic
    2008-08-25 15:00:41

    Try Classix Games for genesis games

     
    Name (required)
    E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
    URI
    Subscribe to comments via email
    Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
    You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment. All comments are moderated. If your comment does not show up immediately, be patient. It will show up momentarily.


    © 2007-2008 MakeUseOf.com. All rights reserved. Design by Unique Blog Designs.