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How to embed playable MS-DOS games in your tweets

Twitter is putting the "platformer" in "social media platform" with a cool feature that allows you to play classic games like Prince of Persia and Oregon Trail in your tweets.

Claire Reilly Former Principal Video Producer
Claire Reilly was a video host, journalist and producer covering all things space, futurism, science and culture. Whether she's covering breaking news, explaining complex science topics or exploring the weirder sides of tech culture, Claire gets to the heart of why technology matters to everyone. She's been a regular commentator on broadcast news, and in her spare time, she's a cabaret enthusiast, Simpsons aficionado and closet country music lover. She originally hails from Sydney but now calls San Francisco home.
Expertise Space, Futurism, Science and Sci-Tech, Robotics, Tech Culture Credentials
  • Webby Award Winner (Best Video Host, 2021), Webby Nominee (Podcasts, 2021), Gold Telly (Documentary Series, 2021), Silver Telly (Video Writing, 2021), W3 Award (Best Host, 2020), Australian IT Journalism Awards (Best Journalist, Best News Journalist 2017)
Claire Reilly
2 min read

internet-archive-prince-of-persia.jpg
Screenshot by Claire Reilly/CNET

Update, Monday at 7:05 p.m. PT:Twitter declined to comment on the removal of the playable MS-DOS games feature in its feeds.

However, the company's developer guidelines indicate that gaming within the Twitter platform is outside what it calls its Rules for the Road.

Twitter warns users on its dev platform, "Do not build end-to-end interactive experiences inside the video or audio player," specifically naming "gaming" as part of that list of interactive elements.

Update, Monday at 11:30 a.m. PT: Twitter has removed this function.

Twitter has a neat little trick that lets you embed playable versions of classic MS-DOS video games in your tweets, allowing you to play classic platforms directly from your feed.

The social media platform's new feature piggybacks off the massive collection of MS-DOS games put online by the Internet Archive -- joining its Console Living Room and Internet Arcade collections of console and arcade games.

Twitter has proven itself as a go-to platform for modern communication -- viral videos, real-time citizen journalism and hyper-local hashtags are its bread and butter.

But if you're tired of flame wars with strangers or you want some time out from the puppy vines in your ever-updating feed, then you'll be delighted to know that you can now dabble in a little Tetris between tweets.

All you need to do is head to the Internet Archive's MS-DOS library, click on your favourite title and copy the URL from that page directly into your tweet, and soon you'll be playing through classics like Prince of Persia, Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Spotted by the folks over at Wired, you need to be viewing the tweet from a browser to play. But if you're after a little playtime, you really do need a bigger screen to do justice to all those pixels anyway.