Fighting Games For PC Archives

Gamers have had the pleasure of jumping, racing, puzzling, and fighting their way through some amazing titles over the years. But so often the technology that brought us those early favorites isn’t able to keep pace with better processors and graphics cards. As that happens, the games we played on old hardware also fell by the wayside in favor.

Fortunately, advances in both online curation have created an easy path for revisiting old games that you might have thought were too old.

Welcome to the Archive

When you’re looking to dive into gaming’s yesteryear, your first stop should be the Internet Archive. This non-profit is a library of free culture, including everything from books to software. For the games, the site uses emulators to run old software directly in your browser.

It’s not a totally flawless system. There are occasional bugs. The emulators tend to work best on the latest versions of Firefox and Chrome, but can be hit and miss with other browsers. Some control schemes are a little wonky since the games are running on hardware that they weren’t meant for. But for a completely free and legal stroll down memory lane, some relearning is a small price to pay. Here are some of the biggest collections of video game software in the library and what it’s like to play them.

PC Games

Most of the PC titles in the collection were for MS-DOS operating systems. The Internet Archive has dedicated a large part of its software collection to titles from this hardware. They all run on an in-browser emulator called EM-DOSBOX. It’s still in beta, so there many occasionally be issues when you play.

The collection of MS-DOS games features several early 90s favorites such as Prince of Persia and Jazz Jackrabbit. With more than 2,000 games in this group, the odds are pretty good that you’ll find something here from your childhood. You can search if there’s a particular title that you’re hankering to play.

If you’re curious about the old times but aren’t actually trading in on nostalgia, then start your experience with the specially curated set of titles chosen by the project’s software librarian. Those titles represent the best and most fun highlights from the MS-DOS era. But if you were a regular gamer in those days, then the most popular game in the collection is probably a well-loved title: The Oregon Trail.

Playing this feels just like it did to be in the school library or on the clunky PC in the basement. The pixel lines look crisper on modern hardware, but otherwise the experience of the game feels the same. All of the controls are obvious; the game works smoothly with any computer’s keyboard. You’ll inevitably run out of money and lose a party member to dysentery.

Another famous title from this era is Wolfenstein 3D, which spawned the shooter genre and was a revolutionary development in game graphics when it launched in 1992. If you played it back in the day, muscle memory can come in handy: the controls are the same as they were back then. Use the arrow keys to move around. Control will fire, and hold Alt to strafe while you shoot. Space bar will open doors. For anyone who considers themselves an expert with Call of Duty, Halo or Battlefield, it’s worth taking a look at where it all began.

As with playing The Oregon Trail, this set of PC games should be pretty intuitive to pick back up. You’ll be playing on the same essential hardware, so the key configurations are logical for anyone who has even dabbled with gaming on a computer.

Of course, PC gaming evolved since MS-DOS, and the archive reflects that, too. The set of classic PC games includes plenty of full games to choose from, as well as demos for beloved games including Baldur’s Gate, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Halo: Combat Evolved. The first Halo may seem so modern next to games like Oregon Trail, but you have to remember it came out almost 14 years ago.

Consoles

Console fans have their section too, and it won’t require you to blow in the cartridge. These use the JSMESS emulator system to run. This collection is a little hit and miss with the sound in its games, but the Archive says it plans to enable audio down the line.

Depending on how hardcore a gamer you were in the 80s and 90s, some of the available hardware won’t sound too familiar (Bandai Super Vision 8000 anyone?). But there are a few consoles that even occasional players will recognize. There are two Atari builds, plus the Magnavox Odyssey and several systems by Sega.

Mortal Kombat, in its original 1992 glory, is one of the most-viewed choices in this collection. Since this version of the game was for the Sega Genesis, and not a contemporary laptop, the command controls took more trial and error to figure out. After pressing every key in each row of the keyboard during tests, it turned out that the Start function was the number 1. The space bar and keys to the left of it (Alt and Control for PCs or Control and Option for Macs) supply the punches and kicks.

Several of the other games in the collection, such as the Sonic the Hedgehog titles, use the same controls. If they aren't set in conventient locations, you can actually remap them by pressing Tab after the game starts. That will bring up a menu where you can change the key selections. For a game like Street Fighter II, which has light, medium and strong versions of punches and kicks, this is pretty essential.

Some games also support controllers, like a wired Xbox 360 controller, but may take a couple of browser refreshes to make the game see your accessory. Once you start the game and see the MAME logo, start hitting buttons to get a "joypad detected" message. Then refresh the browser to make it stick.

Arcade

If you want to go even more old school, check out the arcade section for classics such as Street Fighter 2. The Internet Arcade version isn’t nearly as intuitive as the combat is on a regular arcade machine equipped with a joystick and clearly marked buttons. The emulator has thankfully offered a clickable interface for the Insert Coin button and for selecting the number of players. Also, if you’ve already spent some time experimenting with the console emulator fighting games, the controls will be a little more familiar.

Just as you would in an arcade, you’ll have to finesse the combinations with practice. No quarters needed.

Other Archive tips

First, for those of you that want to do a deep dive into these games and get as close to the original experience as possible, keep an eye on any updates from Jason Scott. He will sometimes post updates on the latest Internet Archive happenings on his blog. For instance, he offered some browser compatibility and keypad tips back in November.

Second is a piece of advice for people exploring the Archive on a Mac. Since many of the default keys are ones that are automatically mapped as hotkeys, you may have unexpected actions take place during the game, like flipping between Spaces or showing the desktop. You can toggle your computer’s settings to turn those off.

Finally, if you do run into difficulties, just bear in mind that this is a labor of love done by a small group of people. It’s also a dynamic resource, one that gets updated and improved and added to over time. Check out the site’s FAQ if a big problem arises, but otherwise be patient. Even if the game you wanted to play isn’t working, there’s probably something else just as fun to check out.

Anna Washenko

Anna Washenko is a freelance writer covering digital entertainment, social media, science, and tech. Her work has appeared on USA Today, Mashable, Yahoo and Digital Trends. Follow her @Ann...More

Kiss your productivity goodbye, and kiss your sense of nostalgia hello with these classics of the video arcade, thanks to the Internet Archive.

Copyright © 2020 IDG Communications, Inc.