Wolfenstein 3D (Photo : www.8bitcity.blogspot.com)
The Internet Archive is turning itself into one big arcade station after it releases a massive repertoire of classic PC games. The best part of this is it is completely for free and since it uses the technological advantage of JSMESS and DOSBox no installation is needed to done, all the player need is connection to the internet and a browser.
The Internet Archive has brought joy to the hearts of many nerds when it decided to host 2,386 of DOS games on its archive and offer it completely for free for people to use.
The Internet Archives' list of games includes classic titles like "Duke Nukem 3D" and "Wolfenstein 3D", both of these games has been massive critical and commercial success in the 90's and has earned the reputation as one of the games that revolutionized the first-person-shooter type of video games. The list also included genre defining games like "Ultima series", "Sid Meier's Civilization", "Command and Conquer: Red Alert" and "SimCity".
While most of the games included in the archive are considered "abandonware" which means it has been completely ignored and abandoned by its owner and manufacturer, some of the games included were still being actively sold by its owner, the "Duke Nukem 3D" is one prime example.
What this predicament presents is that the rightful owner of the game can order Internet Archive to remove a specific game from their list if they deemed that it is in violation of some intellectual property regulation. The idea seems to be far-fetched but it is still a possibility and fans of the Internet Archive will definitely frown upon the notion of suing the digital library for some games release 20 to 30 years ago.
