BLOG · RETRO
Nostalgic web games
Classics you can play by opening a tab. Nothing to install, no account, no download. This is a list of recommendations: we host none of these, and every link takes you to someone else's site.
What is on the list
2004 · Fan project
Need for Speed: Underground 2
Tuned-car racing through a city at night. The game that built the whole culture of collecting, painting and modifying cars.
Underground 2 Revived: the game's PC code recompiled for the browser (the open-source NFSU2Recomp). Up to 120 fps in widescreen, free roam, online races with friends, controller and wheel support, mods and cloud saves.
Open the site
2000 · Fan project
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
The real-time strategy classic: build a base, build tanks, break the other side.
Chrono Divide: a fan project that rewrote the engine with web technology. It is in beta, but multiplayer works and all the original maps are there, with replays, classic or modern controls and mod support. It opens in a phone browser too.
Open the site
1995 · Fan project
wipEout
The anti-gravity racer that became the first PlayStation's emblem - as much about its speed and its music as its tracks.
Dominic Szablewski rewrote the engine for the browser from scratch ("Rewriting wipEout"). The full version downloads about 144 MB on the first run; a minimal one, without the intro and the music, is 11 MB.
Open the site
1989 · Fan project
Prince of Persia
Escape a dungeon and reach the princess inside one hour. The game that set the measure for jumping and swordplay.
PrinceJS: the MS-DOS version reimplemented in HTML5 and JavaScript (Oliver Klemenz, from Jordan Mechner's own source). It plays on a phone in landscape with touch controls; the code is under the Unlicense.
Open the site
1981-2000 · Preservation library
Internet Archive - MS-DOS oyun kitaplığı
Thousands of DOS games, in the browser through DOSBox: Oregon Trail, Lemmings, SimCity, Prince of Persia and hundreds you have never heard of.
The Internet Archive's preservation library: the games are not downloaded, they run in an emulator inside the page. Opening one is a click.
Open the site
1999 · Open source
Warzone 2100
The strategy game where you design your own units - body, propulsion and weapon put together by you. Its publisher released it as open source.
The project's own official web edition (WebAssembly and WebGL 2). The first run downloads about 60 MiB and saves live in the browser - clear your browser data and the saves go with it. Entirely legal and free: the one on this list with no asterisk.
Open the site
1989 · Open source
SimCity Classic / Micropolis
The ancestor of city builders: roads, power, zoning, taxes - and then an earthquake. The first SimCity's engine was released as open source under the name Micropolis.
micropolisJS: Graeme McCutcheon's hand-written JavaScript port. It runs in the browser, but it was not built for touch - it wants a mouse and a keyboard.
Open the site
1998-2020 · Open source
Flash dönemi oyunları
The first games we ever played in a browser. Adobe Flash was switched off in 2020, and the games were going with it.
Ruffle is an open-source emulator that rewrites Flash in Rust; WebAssembly lets it run in every modern browser, and the Internet Archive uses it for its own Flash collection. Most older ActionScript content works; ActionScript 3 is still incomplete. For a larger archive see Flashpoint Archive, which runs through its own application.
Open the site
One note
Four of the entries are fan projects: the game itself still belongs to its publisher, and the projects say themselves that they have no connection with it. Underground 2 and Red Alert 2 are Electronic Arts', wipEout is Sony's, Prince of Persia is Ubisoft's. We host none of them and embed none of them; we only link.
Warzone 2100 and Micropolis are different: their publishers opened the source, so playing and distributing them is free. The Internet Archive is a preservation library.
These projects run on volunteers, so do not be surprised if a link stops working one day. Tell us if you find one and we will update the list.