Classic PC games · rebuilt for the browser

The games you loved
don't run anymore.
So press START again.

Half the PC games from the 90s won't install on a modern machine. Wrong Windows version, 16-bit installers, dead copy protection, video modes that no longer exist. The disc still spins — the game just won't start.

PressStartAgain.com is where those abandonware classics come back. Each one is rebuilt from scratch as a web port — no emulator, no install, no launcher. Open a tab and play. They won't be 1:1 with the originals, but I get as close as I possibly can, and I'm honest about what's different.

One rule: you must own an original copy of the game to play its port here. These rebuilds are for people who already bought the thing and can't run it anymore — not a way around buying it.

0
Playable now
0
Nearly done
0
Studios archived
12/yr
The goal
$0
To play, always

The library

Every game, newest first

Each one rebuilt from the original data files. Filter by the studio that made it or the kind of game it is, and sort however you like.

⚠ Ownership required — you'll be asked to confirm you own an original copy before any port opens.

Got a game you gave up on running? Send it over — odds are good I gave up on it too.

How this works

Rebuilt, not emulated

An emulator fakes an old computer and hopes the game cooperates. I take a different route: read the original game's data files, figure out how its systems actually worked, and write the whole thing again in code the browser speaks natively.

01 / DIG

Crack open the archives

Sprites, tilesets, maps, sound and story text all live in proprietary archive formats. First job is always learning to read them — then pulling out the original art and data intact.

02 / REBUILD

Write the game again

Rendering, movement, economy, AI, UI — rewritten in JavaScript against the real assets. This is the long part, and it's where the 1:1 gap comes from. Some systems I can match exactly. Some I get to 95%.

03 / SHIP

One tab, no install

The finished port is just a web page. Works on any machine with a browser, nothing to download, nothing to configure, no compatibility mode. Same game, new decade.

About me

Why I started doing this

I miss these games. Not in a vague nostalgic way — I mean I went looking for them, found the discs, and couldn't get a single one to run.

That's the part that got me. These aren't lost media sitting in some archive. They're right there on the shelf. The files are fine. It's the world around them that moved on: 16-bit installers modern Windows refuses to touch, copy protection checking for hardware nobody sells, display code written for a machine that stopped existing twenty years ago.

So I started rebuilding them. One at a time, from the original data, into something a browser can run. It's slower than emulation and a lot more work, but the result is a game that just opens — on a laptop, on a work machine, on a phone — with nothing to install and nothing to configure.

I only touch abandonware — games that are out of print, unsupported, and not being sold by anyone anymore. And I ask that you own an original copy before you play the port. This is meant to give people back something they already paid for, not hand out games nobody bought.

Outpost 2 was first because it's the one I wanted back most. There'll be more — I'm aiming for roughly one a month. If there's a game you gave up on getting to run, send it my way. Odds are good I gave up on it too.

C:\GAMES
C:\> cd OUTPOST2
C:\OUTPOST2> setup.exe
This app can't run on your PC.
 
C:\OUTPOST2> outpost2.exe
Unsupported 16-bit application.
 
C:\OUTPOST2> rebuild --from-scratch --target web
reading maps.vol .................. ok
reading sheets.vol ............... ok
extracting sprites ............... ok
rewriting game systems ........... ok
build complete — open in browser
C:\OUTPOST2>

Get in touch

Suggest a game, or just say hi

Got an old game you gave up on getting to run? Found a bug in one of the ports? Want to tell me I got something wrong about the original? This is the place.

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