There goes the week...

November 6, 2007 10:33 AM

Play 666 Nintendo games in your browser with Virtual NES. (some suggestions of the best games) It joins the extensive EveryVideoGame , the slow GameBoy Online, and the beloved Virtual Apple. [prev. and prev.]
posted by blahblahblah (37 comments total)

Does anyone else think it's hilarious that Virtual Apple doesn't run on OS X?
posted by mike_bling at 10:42 AM on November 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

666? The devil you say!
posted by malaprohibita at 10:42 AM on November 6, 2007

No list of worst games? I nominate Star Voyager.
posted by SBMike at 10:46 AM on November 6, 2007

mike_bling... I was about to note that... how sad...

But, on the other hand, all those pc/windows types have been dying to play the apple ][ verison of oregon trail, like, forever! I guess it's only fair...
posted by HuronBob at 10:46 AM on November 6, 2007

Indeed, mike_bling. Also, love all of the videogame content around these parts as of late. Must be something in the air.
posted by turing_test at 10:48 AM on November 6, 2007

I can run virtual apple on my mac by running XP via parallels. It's simple really.

By simple I mean convoluted and insane.
posted by Mister_A at 10:48 AM on November 6, 2007 [2 favorites]

The 20 worst NES games.
posted by blahblahblah at 10:48 AM on November 6, 2007

Star Voyager you say... You sir have never played the Wayne's world game before.
posted by Mastercheddaar at 11:01 AM on November 6, 2007

I must be retarded because I can't see anywhere on that first site to actually play the games..
posted by autodidact at 11:18 AM on November 6, 2007

Second on the I must be retarded.
posted by stbalbach at 11:19 AM on November 6, 2007

Okay I found it. I suck.
posted by autodidact at 11:20 AM on November 6, 2007

NO MAC? WAAAUGH!
posted by klangklangston at 11:22 AM on November 6, 2007

Well, you've shot my entire afternoon to hell. Thanks a lot.
posted by ColdChef at 11:22 AM on November 6, 2007

That's ok, I didn't need to get any work done this month anyway.
posted by blue_beetle at 11:24 AM on November 6, 2007

Evil indeed.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:28 AM on November 6, 2007

Here in BSD land, I like zsnes. It will also run on Linux, Windows and DOS. I imagine someone could make the BSD version work on OS X, but I haven't tried it.
posted by krinklyfig at 11:35 AM on November 6, 2007

I use Zsnes to play through Contra III every few years. Best shooter ever, IMHO.
posted by autodidact at 11:37 AM on November 6, 2007

Snes9X works on Mac OS X. And for NES there’s Nestopia.
posted by tepidmonkey at 11:40 AM on November 6, 2007

Featuring MeFi's favorite NES game: Cabal.
posted by SassHat at 11:41 AM on November 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

1) Someone has really got to figure out a way to connect joysticks to the web. I can connect a joystick to my computer, and I can connect a computer to th web. why oh why can't I play web games with a joystick/gamepad?.

Personally, playing platform games on the keyboard is just not even worth doing.

2) This will get shut down, especially now that Nintendo is now selling these games for the Wii online.
posted by delmoi at 11:55 AM on November 6, 2007

Damn you. Damn you and Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf.
posted by Sailormom at 12:00 PM on November 6, 2007

Back To The Future was the worst NES game.

Unless you consider it's control issues a harbinger of Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's.
posted by sourwookie at 12:12 PM on November 6, 2007

<sub>vNES is a Nintendo Entertainment System simulator with the specific purpose of allowing users to enjoy classic games, doing so without allowing those users to actually download any files. The trading of videogames via the Internet is a grey area at best, in terms of legality, and is one of the reasons vNES was designed to not allow the download of any sensitive files, but instead load them dynamically and on the fly. The inner workings of this technology only allow the files to be loaded into temporary RAM of a computer while playing. When the browser is closed, the resource is no longer available.

This situation is analogous to visiting a friend and playing NES games with them, which, naturally is legal under the DMCA. If anything, vNES actually deters the trading of ROM files on the Internet by removing the reason for such behavior to occur in the first place. If a user can simply play the game online, there is no reason for ROM trading. After large amounts of legal research, we have found that it breaks no laws, but acts as a legal deterrent against illegal ROM trading.</sub>

LOL. First of all Nintendo actually considers all emulation to be copyright infringement (which is insane), secondly the Napster case has shown that people can be held responsible for linking too and indexing copyrighted works that other people are hosting (the torrent tracker ISOHunt just got shut down as well.)

Now, maybe if they are hosted in Sweden (home of the pirate bay) they might stand a chance. As it is, I doubt this will stay up very long, unless Nintendo just doesn't notice or care.

I do not think that there is any exposure in actually playing the games, based on my understanding of copyright right law, and IANAL, of course.
posted by delmoi at 12:16 PM on November 6, 2007

Delmoi, you should check out JoyToKey.
posted by Dr-Baa at 12:22 PM on November 6, 2007 [2 favorites]

Of the horrible games mentioned thus far into the thread, I own Back to the Future and Wayne's World. They both still work, but my Mario 3 and Tetris cartridges are shot.

Also, this emulator is just slow enough to throw off my mario reflexes. Which is just slow enough to get me to shut this window and go fire up my NES.
posted by tylermoody at 12:25 PM on November 6, 2007

Anyone have one of those top loading NES models? I always wanted one of those, just not enough to buy one now.
posted by puke & cry at 12:37 PM on November 6, 2007

delmoi writes "I do not think that there is any exposure in actually playing the games, based on my understanding of copyright right law, and IANAL, of course."

Well, Nintendo has actively been pursuing the shutting down of particular emulator ROMs being distributed (though not all of them, and the emulators themselves do not infringe copyright). They're doing it through the ESA which is sort of like the RIAA to the gaming industry.
posted by krinklyfig at 12:57 PM on November 6, 2007

I had one of the top-loading nes's. It was nice, but unfortunately it's RF-output only, probably for cost-cutting measures.
posted by Dr-Baa at 1:32 PM on November 6, 2007

I fired up Ghosts 'n' Goblins to see if it would still be as frustrating after all these years..

And it is. FUCK that game.
posted by Ljubljana at 1:48 PM on November 6, 2007

Bible Adventures really is as bad as the Angry Video Game Nerd said.
posted by cj_ at 2:06 PM on November 6, 2007

To my fellow, worried OS X users, I present Richard Bannister and his software.
posted by blacklite at 4:08 PM on November 6, 2007

I'm running Firefox on OS X 10.4 and had no problem playing Mario 3. It doesn't work?
posted by shakespeherian at 5:47 PM on November 6, 2007

Uhh… it's just an emulator implemented as a Java Applet. These have existed for years. They've been linked on MetaFilter at least once before.

Richard Bannister is kind of a douchebag — he takes open source emulator software, and makes closed source OS X ports of them (with permission, but still).

He cripples his closed source versions so that very simple functionality like full screen mode and joystick support are only available by paying him for "Emulator Enhancer". I don't know if he gives any kickbacks to the original authors.
posted by blasdelf at 7:47 PM on November 6, 2007

I really wish I could figure out the name of this old arcade game that I'm pretty sure got ported over to the NES. It was basically a side scrolling shoot em up kinda game where most of the enemies wore these masks that looked like executioner hoods. The hoods were different colors as well (like red and yellow I think). I recall elevators being involved somehow.

I already looked at www.reallyvaguevideogamedescription.com but, alas, couldn't find what I was looking for.
posted by Sandor Clegane at 11:23 PM on November 6, 2007

blasdelf: You don't have to pay for the enhancer framework, it's uncrippled shareware.

He may still be a douchebag; having no evidence to contrary, people usually are. However, he makes OS X ports of emulators and for that I am happy.
posted by blacklite at 12:02 AM on November 7, 2007

Sandor, it was probably Rolling Thunder.

And yeah, I can't believe the patience I must have had for many of these games when I was younger.
posted by Durhey at 3:07 PM on November 7, 2007

Street Fighter 2010. I bought it out of the bargain bin at Pharmor. One of the worst, worst, worst games I've ever played. Unplayable, basically.
posted by Deathalicious at 7:36 PM on November 11, 2007