Microsoft have teamed up with Atari to launch a series of re-imagined Atari Arcade classic games for free play in any modern web browser. Atari are celebrating their 40th anniversary and Microsoft are pushing the upcoming launch of IE10 (included with Windows 8 due out October 26).
However, the games play in any HTML5 enabled web browser e.g. Chrome, Firefox, IE9/10 (not IE8) and Safari – including the iPad. Games include:
- Asteroids
- Missile Command
- Lunar Lander
- Pong
- Centipede
- Combat
- Super Breakout
- Yars’ Revenge
You can play on your own or head-to-head with friends online, compare high scores and post them on Facebook or Twitter. The games also include touch screen features on supported platforms.
The technology used is HTML5 and Javascript – specifically the CreateJS library developed specifically for HTML5 games. As Flash Player is not required, iPad users can join in the fun too. Whilst the games benefit from new sound and graphics (not faithful MAME-type copies) they do stay fairly true to the originals – simple but highly addictive ‘pick up and play’ fun.
The only difference between supported browsers is that IE (due to Microsoft’s partnership with Atari) does not display any advertising whereas other browsers show adverts before a game is launched. There are no in-game ads though so this isn’t a big deal.
Play the games by visiting the Atari Arcade website with any supported browser. Game on 