Christmas has come and gone but the gifts just keep coming. My family and friends plundered my Amazon wish list on my behalf, handing me a healthy stack of the DVD’s and books that I look forward to at this time of year. I love films and reading so I didn’t think I could be happier with my haul.
However, another, unexpected gift arrived this week which reminds me of Christmases long-past when the only thing I wanted was the newest game for my Atari 2600. Well, arriving with the promptness of a flying reindeer, it was announced this week that the Internet Archive was making a place for playable, online games originally from classic home consoles like the Atari 2600 and the Odyssey 2.
Here’s the scoop from PC MAG.
Feeling nostalgic? We’ll let archivist Jason Scott explain:
“For a generation of children, the most exciting part of a Christmas morning was discovering a large box under the tree, ripping it apart, and looking at an exciting, colorful box promising endless video games. At home! Right in your living room,” he writes.
To help you relive those childhood joys, the Internet Archive has gone ahead and posted a smorgasbord of browser-based games for five consoles released in the 1970s and 1980s: The Atari 2600, the Atari 7800 ProSystem, the ColecoVision, the Magnavox Odyssey², and the Astrocade.
All this lineup really needs is a few games for the ol’ Commodore 64 to really take the vintage appeal to a new level.
“Like the Historical Software collection, the Console Living Room is in beta – the ability to interact with software in near-instantaneous real-time comes with the occasional bumps and bruises. An army of volunteer elves are updating information about each of the hundreds of game cartridges now available, and will be improving them across the next few days. Sound is still not enabled, but is coming soon…
We had an Atari 2600 when I was a kid. I remember wanting to upgrade to a 7800, but I lost interest in video games before I could get Santa’s attention about it. Oh well. Looks like all wishes eventually come true?
Check out the Console Living Room’s game offerings right here.
Here’s a vintage ad for the Atari 7800 system
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