Play Any Apple II or Apple IIgs Game in Your Browser
If you’ve been using computers for a long time, you might recall the Apple II and Apple IIgs, two of Apple’s early computers that were before they had fully committed to the Macintosh platform. While there were plenty of productivity apps and programming tools for Apple II and Apple IIgs, there were also a whole bunch of classic games which made the platform so much fun.
If you’re up for some nostalgic gaming, a fun site called VirtualApple offers “almost every Apple ][ and Apple IIgs game ever made” which translates to hundreds and hundreds of titles, including classics like Dark Castle, ShadowKeep, Kings Quest I, Kings Quest II, Kings Quest III, Oregon Trail, Mummy’s Curse, Police Quest, Tetris, and so much more. The games play right in your web browser, making perusing and retro gaming easy and available on just about any device.
If you’re into retro gaming from the Apple II and Apple IIgs era, check them out:
- Play any Apple II or Apple IIgs game in your web browser at VirtualApple.org
- Play Kings Quest III in a browser
- Play Shadows Keep
- Play Dark Castle
- Play Tetris
- Play Oregon Trail on an Apple II emulator
Here are some fun screenshots that make spark some memories if you played any of these games way back when:
Kings Quest!
Tetris!
Having Tetris and King’s Quest in the same browser collection highlights an interesting control difference: a falling-block game mainly needs directional input, while an adventure may also depend on text commands. Browser access removes the installation barrier, but it does not automatically remove those keyboard assumptions. A small note beside each recommendation saying whether a physical keyboard is useful would help phone and tablet readers choose a first game, especially before opening an emulator in a small touch viewport.
This is such a cool way to revisit classic Apple II games. Being able to play them directly in a browser makes retro gaming so accessible.