Internet Archive makes classic handheld games playable via site

The Internet Archive has added a series of handheld games from the 1970s to the 1990s to its archive. The games of the plastic LCD handhelds and tabletops can be played in the browser via emulation.

The collection includes numerous handheld games from Konami and Bandai, among others. There are several Pac-Man variants and also classics such as Double Dragon, Golden Ax, Garfield and Q*Bert. It’s not just about portable LCD and VFD computer games, but also about puzzle systems with buttons like the Merlin: Electronic Wizard and Simon, and Texas Instruments’ speech synthesizer Speak & Spell.

The Internet Archive thanks the volunteers of the MAME project for the work they put into preserving the classic games. In order to faithfully reproduce the games, they have to be taken apart and the background scanned, as well as all variants of the objects of the LCD layer. Next, the circuit board must be dissected to find out which control produces which action.

The Internet Archive has made many retro games playable in the browser in recent years, such as games for the Commodore Amiga, DOS and Arcade cabinets.