Best Ways to Play Classic Games On Your PC

Gamers in 2023 have never had it so good. The variety of titles they have available to them is bigger than it has ever been and continues to grow. Smartphones, tablets, portable consoles, streaming services, and even VR headsets have also given players more choice when it comes to how, where, and when gamers can enjoy their favourite titles.

Yet, gaming on PC remains as popular today as it has ever been. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that computer gaming offers more customisation, better control, and the ability to upgrade hardware at any time. But playing on a computer also gives you access to more classic titles that may not be available on other platforms.

From retro arcade titles to centuries-old card games, your PC will handle just about anything you could ever want to play. Here's how you can enjoy all these classics on your computer.

Browser Games

With perhaps the exception of Microsoft Office (unless you've made the jump to Google's ecosystem), web browsers are where we spend most of our computer time today. This is because more and more of the applications and services we use on a daily basis are being stored in the cloud, ready for us to access from any device at any time of the day.

To support this, browser technologies have come a long way in the last decade or so. Gone are the buggy plugins like Flash, replaced with native HTML5 applications. Along with browser-based word processors and image editors, this technology has made it much easier to play PC games.

You'll find browser-based versions of many of the oldest games, from chess to solitaire. Almost all online casinos also offer huge catalogues of online slots, which are digital versions of the classic one-armed bandits that use animations instead of the traditional mechanical reels.

Even the first-ever video game, Spacewar! is available to play through your web browser, though its physics and mechanics may take a little while to get the hang of.

Emulators

While the number of classic games that can be played through web browsers is growing, there are many more that aren't yet available. If you want to enjoy some of the retro titles you enjoyed yesteryear, then an emulator might be the solution.

In computing, emulators are tools that trick old software into thinking that they are running on an old machine by creating a virtual computer inside your real one. With hundreds of thousands of retro PC titles released for MS-DOS that no longer run under modern versions of Windows, DOSBox is one of the most popular emulators for gamers that want to get their retro titles running again.

Today, the latest version of DOSBox supports 1,132 games with a further 46 being classed as "playable".

There are also emulators available for many retro games consoles, though you should be sure you own original copies of any titles you run digitally through these tools. You'll find tools that can run games from the PlayStation 2 and earlier, with support for the PS3 slowly being built. Emulators for consoles from the 1980s and earlier have near-perfect support for the vast majority of games.

Remasters

Getting emulators to work can be a little tricky, especially if you've never done it before. Thankfully, there are easier ways to play some classic games on your PC if you don't fancy giving emulation a try.

Many publishers are remastering and releasing their classic titles to make them playable on modern PCs, this includes Doom, Grand Theft Auto, Wolfenstein, and Crash Bandicoot.

Some older games that have retained an incredibly loyal fanbase have been adopted by the community to create entirely open-source remasters. Two of the best examples of this are OpenRCT2 and OpenTTD that have made RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 and Transport Tycoon Deluxe compatible with modern hardware and introduced new features.

In most cases, remasters can be downloaded from marketplaces like Steam, though some may have to be retrieved from the developer's own website.