UPDATED: April 13, 2020
We have kept this page active for those who still want it, but nearly everyone will want to go to Commodore.ca/arcade
The games below run in Adobe Flash which has been discontinued so we now have a new Commodore Arcade that uses HTML5 and JavaScript which should be in vogue into the 2030’s.
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These games are not the Commodore versions, rather they are the real arcade versions which have been recoded in Adobe Flash, and should play in your browser. On the off chance you do not have Flash, you can get it for free HERE. After many discussions about getting a Commodore emulator to work in a web page (i.e. Java VICE), and finding no such tool, we have given up and this is the best we can provide. Unfortunately these games require a modern browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox.
In April 2013, I validated that all of these had core functionality using Internet Explorer 10.
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ASTEROIDS – Click Here to Play
In the years after Star Wars, anything involving outer space, speedy interstellar craft and dangerous battles was considered golden. Into this arena of sci-fi fantasy came Atari’s Asteroids, one of the most enduring hits in video game history. Atari’s recipe for addiction consisted of the following: one screen, five buttons, one ship, a few UFO’s, and several ship-smashing asteroids. Smack dab in the center of the action was your triangle-shaped spacecraft, adrift in a sea of space rocks. The Blasting large, slow-moving asteroids turned them into two medium-sized, speedier asteroids. Another blast at the medium asteroids split them into small, fast-moving asteroids, which could be vaporized with one more shot. For a generation of video game addicts, Asteroids will always mean simple graphics, stressful and addictive game play, and dreams of high-scoring glory. Now Featuring High Scores! Instructions : Use your mouse to click start, Space bar = Fire , Up arrow key to thrust, Left/Right arrow keys to move left/right
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PACMAN – Click Here to Play
If you haven’t played this all time classic game it must be because you’ve been hiding out in a shack on top of a mountain in Montana for the last 20+ years. The object of the game is to move around the small yellow blob (PAC MAN) and chomp up the white dots. Oh, and watch out for Blinky, Pinky, Inkey, and Clyde (the spooky ghosts). Now Featuring High Scores! Instructions : Use mouse to click ‘Start’ , Use your arrow keys to move Up/Down Left an Right. Press “M” to Mute/Unmute sound, and “P” to Pause/Unpause the game.
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SPACE INVADERS – Click Here to Play
You can’t get anymore retro than this classic shoot’em up game. Yes, the graphics are chunky – a far cry from X-Box or PS2 standards – but at the time it seemed like ‘space-age’ technology 🙂 . Now Featuring High Scores! Instructions : Space Bar = Fire, Move Left / Right using your arrow keys.
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FROGER – Click Here to Play
Strangely addictive game that I remember playing on my old Amstrad PC back in the day when Windows and MS-DOS was still in its embryonic stages. You are the frog and your task is to make it across the road without being hit by traffic, and finally make it across the river by skillfully hitching a ride on the floating logs. Sounds simple enough, but it’s the end pockets which are the hardest – and watch out for those pesky crocodiles! Instructions : Left/Right : User your left/right arrows. To move up/forward – use Up arrow
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DONKEY KONG – Click Here to Play
Note: This “pops up” in another window to resolve size issues.
This classic game first appeared at the arcades in 1981, and was the first to introduce such characters as Mario, Donkey Kong and Peach. Donkey Kong was the product of a Nintendo artist named Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto did the entire game himself (even the music), the only help he got was with the name. He and a manager decided they’d call it “Donkey Kong” because “Kong” would imply a gorilla was involved, and “donkey” was used because their Japanese-to-English dictionary said it meant “stubborn, wily, and goofy.” The story : Donkey Kong has stolen Mario’s girlfriend and taken her to the top of a steel structure. You move Mario over girders and up ladders, leap over tumbling barrels, dodge lethal fireballs and jump onto fast-moving elevators, trying to rescue Mario’s girlfriend from Donkey Kong Instructions : Space Bar to jump; Use your left/right arrow keys ON YOUR NUMBER PAD to move from left to right, etc. To climb ladders use your Up arrow ON YOUR NUMBER PAD
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MOON PATROL – Click Here to Play
Classic ‘left-to-right’ shoot’em up game that I remember playing vividly on my old Atari 2600. An impressive yet quite challenging action/shooter game with its unique 3D graphics, funky techno background music – and its revolutionary game play, that’s still good even by today’s standards – Ok, maybe not – but Moon Patrol excels in so many areas that it’s sure to please diehard Atari 2600 fans 🙂 Instructions : Move left/right : use your Left/Right arrow keys, Jump : Up arrow , Fire : Space Bar
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TERIS – Click Here to Play
Note: This “pops up” in another window to resolve size issues.
Tetris is life. Think about it : As time passes, life’s little problems incessantly pour down in chunks. Somehow, someway, you must conquer these hurdles, fitting them together so you can move on. Ok, maybe I’m taking the metaphor too far. In any case, this is one of the all time classic games and it was Alexey Pajitnov who created Tetris on an Electronica 60 while working for the Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Tetris was released in the United States in 1986. The game’s popularity was tremendous, and many were instantly hooked – it was a software blockbuster. Now Featuring High Scores! Instructions : Use your mouse to click ‘Play’, then choose a level to start at. Up arrow to rotate shapes, Down/Left/Right arrow keys to move shapes, press P to pause
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SIMON – Click Here to Play
This game will test your memory, and, ultimately, your sanity. The object of the game is to memorize Simon’s sequence of lights. On that note, does anyone remember those Simon commercials in the ’80s? How could you forget! 🙂 Instructions : Use your mouse to click start and click the color bars.
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DUCK HUNT – Click Here to Play
Released in 1984 by Nintendo, Duck Hunt was one of the first games on the NES platform to use the ‘light gun’. The basic idea of this game is pretty simple – you’re a duck hunter armed with a pistol and your trusty dog. You have three shots to shoot one or two ducks each round. After ten rounds of duck hunting (you’ll probably be rather bored of shooting duck at this point), you go to the shooting range and shoot at clay pigeons for another ten rounds – although the dog is absent. The game is rather fun and satisfying initially but gets old quickly. The sound effects are pretty much what you’d expect for a game from the early 1980s – that is, awful by today’s standards – game play and graphics are simple – but it remains a classic and is fun to play every once in a while. Instructions : Be patient for this game to load. To fire your pistol click your mouse button.
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PONG – Click Here to Play
Pong, while not the first videogame, was the first coin-op arcade game and the first mainstream videogame that was available to almost everyone. The origins of Pong lie with an abstract tennis game created with an old oscilloscope and some vacuum tubes by Willy Higinbotham way back in 1958. What eventually became “Pong” was a pretty simple game with simple rules – hit the ball across the playing field and try your best to hit it past your opponents paddle on the other side. Instructions : Use your mouse to guide your paddle up and down.
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STAR CASTLE – Click Here to Play
You may not remember Star Castle – actually, I didn’t either – but visually this game (released in 1980) uses the same ‘vector graphics’ that are seen in games such as Asteroids and Battlezone. Vector graphics are, as seen in the screen shot to the right, simple lines to create objects – and while it may seem cheesy compared to present day graphics, they were considered cutting edge stuff back in the ’70s and early ’80s. This was also one of the first games to use an experimental artificial intelligence to harass the game player’s ship. A barely noticeable feature of the game from our perspective, but a fundamental element of all video games today. Your task in Star Castle is to break through the three layers of walls and destroy the central behemoth. Success in this game is primarily determined by how well you can control your ship. Instructions : Use the space bar to fire, move around using your arrows keys.
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These games are old but still enjoyable.
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