Nearly 2,400 MS-DOS games are now available to play -- for free -- in almost any browser on the Internet Archive. Meaning: A lot of people of a certain generation (hi!) are once again able to play the games they played over and over and over again as kids. 
 
 The Internet Archive is arguably best-known for its Wayback Machine, the neat and useful repository of home pages past that lets you, say, see what the White House's Web site looked like 15 years ago. But it does a lot more than simply send surfers back in time. 
 
 Many video game enthusiasts learned that over a year ago with the launch of the console living room, a similar project that brought early games (like those on the old Atari consoles) into the browser as playable emulations. 
 
 Here's a sample of the playable games out there: 
 
 Master of Orion 
 
 A super popular turn-based galactic conquest game that might remind some players of the Civilization series. 
 
 The Oregon Trail 
 
 This game probably needs little introduction, but just in case: you travel from the east on the Oregon Trail like a pioneer -- and it's magical and addicting. 
 
 The Lion King. 
 
 ...What? I liked it when I was a kid. Deal. 
 
 There are a ton more, which you can explore here, or in a super fancy beta layout here. Some of the games are going to be buggy, but they're working on it. 
 
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 The MS-DOS project is likely to see similar popularity to the console experiment. Although this isn't the first time some of these games have made it into a playable browser format, the Internet Archive's undertaking is an unprecedented work of interactive preservation. In addition to simply posting a best-shot attempt at emulating the game experience in a browser, software curator Jason Scott is soliciting feedback on what does and doesn't work for users as more and more people explore the software archives. 
 
 In a Monday post announcing the new resource, Scott wrote: 
 
 I really worked hard to have only fully-functioning programs up, or at least, programs that gave viable, useful feedback. Some of them will still fall over and die, and many of them might be weird to play in a browser window, and of course you can’t really save things off for later, and that will limit things too. But on the whole, you will experience some analogue of the MS-DOS program, in your browser, instantly. 
 
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 Elon Musk, gaming supernerd 
 
 (h/t Anthony De Rosa) ||||| Daniel Terdiman/CNET 
 
 ALAMOGORDO, N.M. -- "We found something," said Zak Penn, and the crowd cheered. 
 
 Penn, the director of films like "X Men 2," is making a film about the hunt for thousands, or even millions, of Atari E.T. game cartridges that the company disappeared 31 years ago. No one has known for sure where they went. Until now. Now we know. 
 
 "For anybody who doubted," Penn continued, "there's a whole heck of a lot of games down there. We just saw them." 
 
 It was 12:45 p.m. local time today, and hundreds of people were gathered at the old landfill in Alamogordo. There'd been lots of clues that the games -- along with unknown other titles and hardware Atari didn't want anymore -- had been dumped here. And yesterday, the crew making the movie had done an initial dig. As a result, garbage buried here for decades had blown up against an orange trash fence: A 1979 IRS form 5695 ("Energy Credit") and an IRS Optional State Tax Table; A customer register from the Townsman Motel dated July 3, 1978. Even an old plastic Bounty paper towel package. 
 
 But the crowd was here for the games. And until they were actually spotted, no one was really sure they were here. 
 
 Holding up his prize find, Penn put those doubts to rest. The game cartridge was in nearly perfect shape, though its packaging was ripped almost to shreds. 
 
 In the background, a set of Atari 2600s with the E.T. game actually playing -- not cartridges from the dump -- were spitting out the distinctive 8-bit music from the game. It was perfect. 
 
 'Corporate shame' 
 
 The story of the financial and critical disaster of Atari's E.T. game is well known. Rushed to market in just six weeks to try to leverage the incredible success of Steven Spielberg's hit 1983 movie, the game was a monumental disaster. 
 
 Though it quickly sold more than a million copies on the strength of the E.T. tie-in, the game's sales stalled just as quickly as would-be players discovered it was paper thin, with terrible graphics and no depth. And no wonder: As Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, who had left the company by 1983, told CNET, a more reasonable amount of time for making a game would have been five months. 
 
 For years, Atari's " corporate shame" -- as Johnathan Chinn, the Lightbox co-president and producer of a documentary film being made about the legacy of the E.T. game put it -- remained a secret. Everyone knew the company had disappeared the millions of cartridges, but the very small number of people who knew their location kept their mouths shut. 
 
 Recently, though, Lightbox and Fuel Entertainment, with the financial support of Microsoft's Xbox division, figured out where the games had been buried, and set out to recover them. And after months of preparing, and tons of publicity about their hunt, the wait is over: The games, still playable despite their ignominious fate, are hidden no more. 
 
 Not everyone doubted 
 
 While there was no certainty that the games were here, not everyone was unsure. In fact, three men in their 40s were telling anyone who would listen that they had actually salvaged hundreds of the Atari titles from the dump back in 1983, when they were kids. 
 
 "We all heard what was going on," said Armando Ortega, 43. "We came out one night in the complete darkness. They had just put a complete layer of concrete on it. It was still fresh....You could tell people had already been scavenging." 
 
 Ortega said that many of the games' cases had been crushed by bulldozers that had run over them. But the game chips were in fine shape, and he and his friends were able to play E.T., Atari Baseball, Pac-Man, and other titles on the Atari 2600 console they had. "Of course," he said, "that E.T. game sucked. We gave them away, because you couldn't finish it." 
 
 Ortega and his friends, brothers Fabian Esquero and Mark Esquero, recalled going out as a group of six that night in 1983. "Our plan [to grab the games] worked perfect," Ortega said, "except for Fabian getting sprayed" by a skunk. 
 
 Now, he laughed, "We're going to be known for our garbage." 
 
 Old dump 
 
 Alamogordo closed this landfill in 1986. And now the city is happy that the film crew has come along, because someone else is paying to excavate the dump, at least this area of it, and rebury it elsewhere according to code. 
 
 Regardless, the landfill, which is found on the west side of town, not far from a McDonald's that's a good marker for trying to find it, is basically a large, flat area covered in dirt. Now that a bunch of it has been dug up, the smell of garbage left underground for nearly 30 years is palpable. 
 
 Daniel Terdiman/CNET 
 
 The pit the crew dug looks, though, like you'd expect a dump to look. Large piles of garbage, and holes that disappear below the surface. 
 
 But today there's something notable in the midst of all those old sacks of kitchen trash and paper towel packaging: An as yet unknown number of video games that have been lost for so long. 
 
 Does that kill the mystique which has brought so many people here to the Alamogordo dump to witness the dig? It's hard to say. Some think so. 
 
 "This is one of those stories I've been told since I was 5 years old," said Elan Lee, head of Microsoft's Xbox Entertainment Studios. "Everybody's heard the rumors. All my geek friends and gamer friends have been raised on this story. [And it's] 50/50 between people who really want to find something and people who don't. It's almost cooler if the legend took us here and we tried as hard as we could and were still unable to unearth E.T." ||||| Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Space Invaders, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Gauntlet, Tron — the names of coin-operated arcade games that have swallowed countless quarters are enshrined in legend. 
 
 Except in the small town of Marshfield, Massachusetts, that is, where coin-op games were banned under a local ordinance in 1982. 
 
 The controversial prohibition was voted in that year by residents who were sick and tired of the noisome bleeping and blooping of arcade videogames, and felt their influence was corrupting the minds of America's youth. The town became briefly famous, or infamous, depending on how many quarters you spent on the machines or, generally, how young you were. Then in 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to the ban, and the controversy died down. The ban was upheld by town votes in 1994 and 2011. 
 
 Now, finally, by a vote of 203-175, Marshfield residents have re-entered the Space Invaders era. 
 
 "I was sitting thinking, ‘why is this illegal in my town, to have fun with my friends?'", Marshfield resident Craig Rondeau, who brought the proposal that ended the ban, explained to the local newspaper The Patriot Ledger. Rondeau managed to scrape together six business owners who said they'd like to have the freedom to install arcade games if they wanted, and apparently that was all the majority of the town needed to be convinced. 
 
 As you can see from those numbers, however, the return of arcade games was hardly a sure thing. By the sound of quotes from the crucial meeting, Marshfield is the global capital of killjoys. "There is gaming all over the place, and there’s nothing fun about it," warned Marshfield resident Sue Walker, who apparently fears that her children are going to be accosted by Pac Men — or the boxes that contain him — the next time she steps into one of the town's eateries. 
 
 We'd love it if that were true; if Marshfield suddenly went hog wild and became a town filled with retro gaming device. (After all, it's got 32 years of videogames to catch up on.) Because of course the truth is that the world has moved on, and the kind of console and smartphone gaming we're enjoying these days is, well, far less active. Arcade games? They're the stand-up desks of gaming, and provide further exercise when you slam the console in frustration after losing your last life. 
 
 If Marshfield becomes the arcade town that time forgot, well, praise the Pac Man and pass the quarters. ||||| Our Kickstarter campaign is over, but you can still get an OUYA. Head over to www.ouya.tv for more info and to place an order. 
 
 We just added game streaming through OnLive! Final Fantasy will be on OUYA...and we have an exclusive game! And VEVO has agreed to put their music videos on OUYA, XBMC adds a streaming media app, with TuneIn and iHeartRadio adding music! 
 
 We're honored by all of you who are backing us -- THANK YOU. We are focused on delivering for you, first come first served. We can only promise OUYA by March to our Kickstarter backers. 
 
 Engadget! PC World! Kotaku! The Guardian! Joystiq! Forbes! GameSpot! BusinessWeek! The Verge! Wired! IGN! The New York Times! Time! 
 
 We love console games. 
 
 There's something about a big HD TV and digital surround sound that fills up a living room. Shooters, platformers, sports games, arcade classics and experimental indie games just feel bigger on a TV screen. It's how most of us grew up gaming. 
 
 But maybe people are missing out. 
 
 We get it – smartphones and tablets are getting all the new titles – they're "what's hot.” The console market is pushing developers away. We’ve seen a brain drain: some of the best, most creative gamemakers are focused on mobile and social games because those platforms are more developer-friendly. And the ones who remain focused on console games can’t be as creative as they’d like. 
 
 Deep down, you know your best gaming memories happened in the living room. 
 
 You busted your ass just to find out the princess was "in another castle." You fought bosses that told you repeatedly how much "you suck." You taped a blanket to half of your screen so your friend couldn't see where you were. You traded the best players onto your team just so you could have the perfect season. And you did it all on the TV. 
 
 It's time to upend console gaming. 
 
 Let’s open this sucker up! It's time we brought back innovation, experimentation, and creativity to the big screen. Let’s make the games less expensive to make, and less expensive to buy. With all our technological advancements, shouldn't costs be going down? Gaming could be cheaper! 
 
 We're handing the reins over to the developer with only one condition: at least some gameplay has to be free. We borrowed the free-to-play model from games like League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, Triple Town, and many others. Developers can offer a free demo with a full-game upgrade, in-game items or powers, or ask you to subscribe. 
 
 OUYA: The revolution will be televised 
 
 OUYA is a new game console for the TV, powered by Android. 
 
 We've packed this little box full of power. Developers will have access to OUYA's open design so they can produce their games for the living room, taking advantage of everything the TV has to offer. 
 
 Best of all, OUYA's world-class controller, console, and interface come in one beautiful, inexpensive package. All the games on it will be free, at least to try. 
 
 Great games come from great developers. 
 
 Developers can wave farewell to the roadblocks of bringing a console game to market. Anyone can make a game: every OUYA console is a dev kit. No need to purchase a license or an expensive SDK. It's built on Android, so developers already know how it works. 
 
 That doesn't mean OUYA is an Android port. You can create the next big title in your bedroom – just like the good old days! Who needs pants!? 
 
 OUYA could change AAA game development, too. Forget about licensing fees, retail fees, and publishing fees. 
 
 And developers agree: 
 
 "This has the potential to be the game developer’s console. It's about time!" -- Brian Fargo (founder of inXile) 
 
 “Who wouldn't want a beautiful piece of industrial design that sells for $99, plugs straight into your TV, and gives you access to a huge library of games?" – Jordan Mechner (creator of Prince of Persia, Karateka) 
 
 “If OUYA delivers on the promise of being the first true open gaming platform that gives indie developers access to the living room gaming market, yes that is a great idea. We will follow the development of OUYA and see how it resonates with gamers. I could see all current Mojang games go on the platform if there's a demand for it.” – Mojang (developer of Minecraft) 
 
 "I'm excited for OUYA! I am a firm believer that there is always room to challenge the status quo." -- Jenova Chen (thatgamecompany, creator of flOw, Cloud, and Flower) 
 
 “The prospect of an affordable, open console -- that's an idea I find really exciting.” -- Adam Saltsman (Semi Secret, creator of Canabalt) 
 
 
 
 "Our games will work so well on a TV, we just need an easy way to get them there. OUYA could be it." -- Marek Rabas (Madfinger Games) 
 
 
 
 "An open game console that gives independent game developers the flexibility to experiment with their games and business models on the TV, is something that's long overdue." – David Edery (Spry Fox, creator of Triple Town) 
 
 Design matters. 
 
 We believe a great console requires a great user experience. We are working with the award-winning designer, Yves Behar, and his firm fuseproject (designer of the Jambox). 
 
 We are designing the controller to be a love letter to console gaming. It will have everything you've learned to love: fast buttons, triggers, laser-precise analog sticks, a D-Pad – and it will have a touchpad for any games making the trek from mobile or tablet to the TV. It'll be just the right weight. We are working with select developers to play-test the controller through development. We call it 'the Stradivarius of controllers,' and we hope developers will be inspired to take gameplay to a new level with it. 
 
 Hackers welcome. 
 
 Have at it: It's easy to root (and rooting won't void your warranty). Everything opens with standard screws. Hardware hackers can create their own peripherals, and connect via USB or Bluetooth. You want our hardware design? Let us know. We might just give it to you. Surprise us! 
 
 Specifications: 
 
 Tegra3 quad-core processor 
 
 1GB RAM 
 
 8GB of internal flash storage 
 
 HDMI connection to the TV, with support for up to 1080p HD 
 
 WiFi 802.11 b/g/n 
 
 Bluetooth LE 4.0 
 
 USB 2.0 (one) 
 
 Wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button), a touchpad 
 
 Android 4.0 
 
 ETHERNET! (Announced by Muffi 7/18) 
 
 Standard OUYA Console 
 
 Limited-Edition Kickstarter Console 
 
 It's entertainment beyond gaming. 
 
 Because OUYA is based on Android, any app developer could publish their Android app to OUYA. The possibilities are limitless, and conversations with potential partners are already underway. Here’s our first: do you like watching StarCraft, or League of Legends? Watch Twitch.TV on your OUYA. 
 
 We've come a long way already. The user interface and industrial designs are far along. Our prototype is up and running. What we have left to do is simple, but it's expensive. (We’re looking at you Mark Cuban! Woz! Help us out.) 
 
 All we need is you. 
 
 With your help, we need to: 
 
 Convert our prototype to production-ready models and get all the regulatory approvals (yeah, we need these to sell them) 
 
 Deliver developer kits (for early developers so we can have games on day one, though every console will include an SDK once we launch) 
 
 Place our first production orders (we are working with a manufacturing firm with lots of game hardware experience, but we need to know how many to make!) 
 
 Ideally, fund some initial game development (i.e., 1st-party games) 
 
 And if you’re international, we want your help too…gaming is global, and we will get you OUYA. We still have a lot to figure out in regards to rights and countries, but it can be done. Look what we've accomplished already! 
 
 Show the world, through your numbers, that you're out there. 
 
 Show them you're ready to level the playing field. Enlist others. The more we raise, the more we can do. 
 
 OUYA: THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED
– "Prince of Persia," "Oregon Trail," and "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?" are once again ours for the playing—but this time, they're on the Web. The Internet Archive, purveyor of "universal access to all knowledge" through portals such as the Wayback Machine, has announced a new addition to its software collection: about 2,400 MS-DOS video games that can be played, for free, on most browsers, the Washington Post reports. The update is similar to the digital library's Console Living Room, launched last year to "[harken] back to the revolution of the change in the hearth of the home, when the fireplace and later television were transformed by gaming consoles into a center of videogame entertainment." "Considering the Internet Arcade has dragged in over 5 million people, this new collection will probably bring in a flood of its own. Welcome," Internet Archive curator Jason Scott wrote Monday on his blog. Not that these are obstacle-free emulators. There are "some awful sound emulation quirks," writes Sam Machkovech for Ars Technica, also pointing out that he's not sure how long popular titles such as "Donkey Kong" and "Street Fighter II" will remain available (there are specific copyright rules for archiving vintage software). Even Scott acknowledges some of the library's drawbacks, noting that "some of [the games] will still fall over and die, and many of them might be weird to play in a browser window, and of course you can't really save things off for later, and that will limit things too." But he's also encouraging users to jump right into the beta Version 2 of the Internet Archive's interface and to send him feedback so that he can successfully steer future offerings and updates. (Keep playing games all day and you might start earning millions.)