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Play classic games from your browser

Haven't got a brand new Xbox One or PS4 yet? Never fear. Here's how you can play classic games from five vintage consoles straight from your browser.

Lexy Savvides Principal Video Producer
Lexy is an on-air presenter and award-winning producer who covers consumer tech, including the latest smartphones, wearables and emerging trends like assistive robotics. She's won two Gold Telly Awards for her video series Beta Test. Prior to her career at CNET, she was a magazine editor, radio announcer and DJ. Lexy is based in San Francisco.
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Lexy Savvides

Haven't got a brand new Xbox One or PS4 yet? Never fear. Here's how you can play classic games from five vintage consoles straight from your browser.

The 1983 classic Mario Bros. (Credit: Internet Archive)

The Internet Archive has launched a console living room to help preserve the memories of consoles from the 1970s and '80s, including the Atari 2600, ColecoVision and Magnavox Odyssey.

Thanks to a Javascript version of the MESS emulator, old favourites like Frogger, Pac-Man and Space Invaders are available to play for free right now within any modern web browser. No extra peripherals are required either: the emulator maps controls automatically to your keyboard. There's currently no sound, but audio playback is coming soon.

"Access drives preservation," wrote curator Jason Scott on the Internet Archive blog. "Making these vintage games available to the world, instantly, allows for commentary, education, enjoyment and memory for the history they are a part of."

Speaking to The Verge, Scott said that the library does not include homebrew or titles for peripherals such as the Atari Mindlink, but instead preserves almost every game that was available for the five consoles.

If you're not into gaming, you can still get your vintage kicks as the emulator also helps power a range of vintage software from word-processing program WordStar to spreadsheet tool Visicalc.