Stop hurling insults on Twitter and start throwing rocks in Dark Castle.
April 19, 2017 10:16 AM Subscribe
Wired: Want to leave the internet behind for a simpler time, one where computer frogs crossed rivers instead of spewing hate speech? The Macintosh Software Library from the Internet Archive lets you run old-school Macintosh games and applications in your browser, so stop hurling insults on Twitter and start throwing rocks in Dark Castle.
Collections include: Dark Castle! Rogue! Lemmings! Frogger! Space Invaders! Crystal Quest! and more!
Collections include: Dark Castle! Rogue! Lemmings! Frogger! Space Invaders! Crystal Quest! and more!
Ah, such good memories. An elegant computer for a more civilized age. I hope at some point Dungeons of Doom will appear. In the meantime, I have a few crows I need to hurl rocks at.
posted by Quaversalis at 10:21 AM on April 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Quaversalis at 10:21 AM on April 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yay! Shufflepuck! Boo, the trackpad is too laggy to play it!
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:24 AM on April 19, 2017
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:24 AM on April 19, 2017
I played with this yesterday - its amazing to me that a Javascript emulator can run these programs perfectly at full speed. The collection really needs Systems Twilight though.
posted by AndrewStephens at 10:27 AM on April 19, 2017
posted by AndrewStephens at 10:27 AM on April 19, 2017
Play Scarab of Ra here! Thank you again to the MeFite who posted that a few years back.
No offense, Pyramids of Peril, since it looks like you were there first, but Scarab of Ra has my heart.
posted by rewil at 10:41 AM on April 19, 2017 [3 favorites]
No offense, Pyramids of Peril, since it looks like you were there first, but Scarab of Ra has my heart.
posted by rewil at 10:41 AM on April 19, 2017 [3 favorites]
O.M.G. Just the title screen for Airborne! brought back a flood of memories of sitting in front of my roommate's Mac Plus back in the early '90s, for hours upon hours, night after night, until I finally kicked that game's ass.
Likewise, the Pyramid of Peril. Or how I spent my spare time (i.e., when I wasn't drinking) as a freshman in college in the mid-80s playing Lode Runner through all of its 150 levels.
It's amazing how incredibly engrossed I was in some of these games that had only black and white colors on a tiny, tiny screen.
Then I remember Bolo, and how I loved to spend afternoons playing it on the Apple II in monochromatic glory on the cheap high school computer lab monitors, back in the early-80s.
Then I remember the little red LED-lit, hand-held Electronic Quarterback football game (by Coleco!) that I used to play the heck out of in junior high in the late 70s, until I could literally play it with my eyes closed because I had developed the muscle memory to defeat the opposing team's primitive defensive patterns...
...and then I remember how old I am.
posted by darkstar at 10:42 AM on April 19, 2017 [4 favorites]
Likewise, the Pyramid of Peril. Or how I spent my spare time (i.e., when I wasn't drinking) as a freshman in college in the mid-80s playing Lode Runner through all of its 150 levels.
It's amazing how incredibly engrossed I was in some of these games that had only black and white colors on a tiny, tiny screen.
Then I remember Bolo, and how I loved to spend afternoons playing it on the Apple II in monochromatic glory on the cheap high school computer lab monitors, back in the early-80s.
Then I remember the little red LED-lit, hand-held Electronic Quarterback football game (by Coleco!) that I used to play the heck out of in junior high in the late 70s, until I could literally play it with my eyes closed because I had developed the muscle memory to defeat the opposing team's primitive defensive patterns...
...and then I remember how old I am.
posted by darkstar at 10:42 AM on April 19, 2017 [4 favorites]
Lemmings is really hard on that tiny screen!
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:53 AM on April 19, 2017
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:53 AM on April 19, 2017
Oh my dearest god - you can play Wizardy: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord in their online emulator.
posted by nubs at 10:54 AM on April 19, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by nubs at 10:54 AM on April 19, 2017 [5 favorites]
Oh shit, Shufflepuck! Oh boo, unplayable. :(
Oh shit, Crystal Quest! Oh boo, unplayable. :(
posted by Myca at 11:35 AM on April 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
Oh shit, Crystal Quest! Oh boo, unplayable. :(
posted by Myca at 11:35 AM on April 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
No Glider :(
posted by thelonius at 11:40 AM on April 19, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 11:40 AM on April 19, 2017 [4 favorites]
There's some really fun stuff there that I had nearly forgotten. Pyramid of Peril and that version of Frogger were favorites. MacLanding was fun too but it won't launch for me right now. I miss Glider too, but there's a quite good iPhone version. Dirtbike (before v3 when it got too fancy) also provided hours of entertainment. It'd be nice to see that one here. I've been looking for years for a way to play Lunatic Fringe again, but it's too new for this kind of emulator and too old for my oldest Mac (a G4 tower).
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 11:54 AM on April 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 11:54 AM on April 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
Then I remember Bolo
Man, Bolo would be a fun multiplayer browser game like agar.io and the ilk. I should write that someday. And now that I said that, I'll never get to it.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:09 PM on April 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
Man, Bolo would be a fun multiplayer browser game like agar.io and the ilk. I should write that someday. And now that I said that, I'll never get to it.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:09 PM on April 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
7th and 8th grade were fields of bullying terror that I tried to navigate with limited success. What ended up saving me were lunches with my science teacher where he let me play Dark Castle until the bell rang. That and great discussions about science and the world got me thru those tough years until high school, where I was finally able to make some new friends and (mostly) leave the land of bullying behind. Just seeing the emulator after so many years fills me with a feeling of safety.
posted by ikahime at 12:13 PM on April 19, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by ikahime at 12:13 PM on April 19, 2017 [4 favorites]
Nice! Now I really want to play Citadel, Vette! and Slick Willie again.
posted by Esteemed Offendi at 12:25 PM on April 19, 2017
posted by Esteemed Offendi at 12:25 PM on April 19, 2017
I have a small collection of 68k Macs I keep running purely for Crystal Quest. PCE is a neat emulator, way better than Mini vMac and Basilisk II.
It's always funny to get new one and find it's harbouring nVIR, and has for over 25 years …
posted by scruss at 12:27 PM on April 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
It's always funny to get new one and find it's harbouring nVIR, and has for over 25 years …
posted by scruss at 12:27 PM on April 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
Metafilter: Lemmings, the text adventure
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:42 PM on April 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:42 PM on April 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
Oh shit, I remember sleepovers where we all gathered around to take turns playing Dark Castle. Pretty stoked to see if it holds up.
posted by klangklangston at 2:08 PM on April 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by klangklangston at 2:08 PM on April 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
Wizardry!
oh god no i just realized the MS-DOS section has Dungeon Master II and I just got sucked into reading the Prima Strategy Guide
posted by dismas at 3:54 PM on April 19, 2017
oh god no i just realized the MS-DOS section has Dungeon Master II and I just got sucked into reading the Prima Strategy Guide
posted by dismas at 3:54 PM on April 19, 2017
Oh, man. Anxiously awaiting PT-109, The Colony, and The Ancient Art of War.
posted by hanov3r at 3:59 PM on April 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by hanov3r at 3:59 PM on April 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
For me, the emulator mouse does not work correctly in Safari, and is nearly impossible to control. It does, however, work perfectly in Firefox.
posted by jabah at 4:39 PM on April 19, 2017
posted by jabah at 4:39 PM on April 19, 2017
Hell yeah, The Ancient Art of War!!!
Just look at the individual-level combat interface (a few minutes into the video)! It was a real pioneer for real-time strategy games and definitely one of my faves at the time (mid-80s).
My pulse still quickens at those little "blips" and "thuds" of launched arrows that finally connect with a closing enemy troop.
posted by darkstar at 4:48 PM on April 19, 2017
Just look at the individual-level combat interface (a few minutes into the video)! It was a real pioneer for real-time strategy games and definitely one of my faves at the time (mid-80s).
My pulse still quickens at those little "blips" and "thuds" of launched arrows that finally connect with a closing enemy troop.
posted by darkstar at 4:48 PM on April 19, 2017
Heh. Aldus Pagemaker.
I still have my SE, which was an old work computer, so it has BbEdit and Pagemaker and Word. But it also has the original Sim City, and every three or four years I power it up and the city is still active, somehow finding a rhythm all these years and puttering along. I don't change anything, I just let it run for a while. I haven't checked it in a few years because I lost the power cord, but I love that machine. I'll tell you one thing, it never, ever crashed on me.
This is really fun, thanks for posting. I'm thrilled it works on my iPad!
posted by Room 641-A at 5:31 PM on April 19, 2017 [3 favorites]
I still have my SE, which was an old work computer, so it has BbEdit and Pagemaker and Word. But it also has the original Sim City, and every three or four years I power it up and the city is still active, somehow finding a rhythm all these years and puttering along. I don't change anything, I just let it run for a while. I haven't checked it in a few years because I lost the power cord, but I love that machine. I'll tell you one thing, it never, ever crashed on me.
This is really fun, thanks for posting. I'm thrilled it works on my iPad!
posted by Room 641-A at 5:31 PM on April 19, 2017 [3 favorites]
Look.
You are in a dark room with a computer. The screen shows a webpage with a blue background listing compelling headlines linked to engaging articles.
Comment.
You haven't read the article yet.
Read article.
The article conjures memories of the dawn of computer gaming.
Comment.
You didn't understand the article.
I miss AdventureLurk.
posted by Flippervault at 6:41 AM on April 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
You are in a dark room with a computer. The screen shows a webpage with a blue background listing compelling headlines linked to engaging articles.
Comment.
You haven't read the article yet.
Read article.
The article conjures memories of the dawn of computer gaming.
Comment.
You didn't understand the article.
I miss AdventureLurk.
posted by Flippervault at 6:41 AM on April 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
This is great! I have a small collection of old macs - an SE, two SE/30s, and a Classic II. I keep an SE/30 set up on my workbench just to play games . . . Shufflepuck cafe, Crystal Quest, Moria, Tetris, Scarab of Ra, Glider . . . sometimes I set up an appletalk network to play Bolo with my kids. I think I will have to fire the machine up tonight.
posted by fimbulvetr at 6:49 AM on April 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by fimbulvetr at 6:49 AM on April 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
sydnius, Cliff Johnson's made Fool's Errand, At the Circus, and 3 in Three all available for free from his website.
Although, i haven't tried playing them through the emulator he provides in a while, so I have no idea how well they run now
posted by hanov3r at 11:32 AM on April 20, 2017
Although, i haven't tried playing them through the emulator he provides in a while, so I have no idea how well they run now
posted by hanov3r at 11:32 AM on April 20, 2017
So . . . does anyone have or know where to find a copy of the original monochrome SimCity for macs? I would love to have that for my SE/30 and unlike the colour version it is impossible to find.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:54 AM on April 21, 2017
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:54 AM on April 21, 2017
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posted by Existential Dread at 10:19 AM on April 19, 2017 [2 favorites]