The Internet Archive has added a section of classic consoles to its archive section, along with a selection of classic games playable in your browser.
This isn’t the first time that you’ve been able to play classic games thanks to the Internet Archive, but the focus on consoles is interesting, especially given the IP involved.
I do wonder how they’ve got around, for example, offering the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man when Namco’s quite protective of its rights in this regard.
In the meantime, the Internet Archive Console Living Room awaits, with games playable in-browser through the JMESS emulator.
As a big retro gaming fan, I’m quite happy about all of this, although I’m rather surprised to note that they haven’t chosen to archive Combat for the 2600. Perhaps there are already enough copies out there.
Welcome to The Console Living Room [Internet Archive]
Comments
8 responses to “Internet Archive Now Emulates Classic Consoles”
Really confused how they aren’t violating copyright, but yeah, great news!
After getting into retro gaming I say screw them
bring in the PAL region makes certain games cost way more second hand…if for whatever reason I wanted to play the slightly obscure classic deamons crest I’d be looking at 300$…and Nintendo wouldn’t make any money off that anyway .
Nor would Capcom.
$100 for super metriod…
That’s why it’s in everyone’s best interest for things like virtual console
Virtual console is gereat, but it would be better if they made it a shared account (i.e. if I buy something on 3DS I can play it on another console) and if they released it for mobile devices. I’m not saying they should release games on the app store, but if I could play games on my iPad, that I’ve payed Nintendo for, that would be awesome.
Looks like archive.org may have a copyright (or at least DMCA) exemption to “obsolete formats” for preservation purposes
http://www.out-law.com/page-7535
The ruling grants exemption to “computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive”.
Man… I can’t believe they don’t have the damn-near-perfect Colecovision version of Donkey Kong, but they DO have the absolutely shitful Atari 2600 version 🙁
They also have the Atari 7800 version, which looks significantly better.
Also Atari 7800 Ms. Pac-Man and Coleco Pac-man, both of which are much closer to the original arcade machines than the Atari 2600 version.
Sadly, I think you’ll find that Australian copyright law doesn’t have the copyright exemption that grim-one mentions and so accessing the archive from Australia may be technically illegal. Not that anybody cares; I doubt that the AFP will be issuing any subpoenas to the Internet Archive anytime soon.