What you get: A curated list of websites to run classic retro games and vintage operating systems directly in your browser without installation.
Start here:
Also useful:
Watch out:Ranked by what people actually want to play — the classics you grew up with first, the museum pieces last. 
| # | door | what you get |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | gta.rabisco.net | Vice City, the whole 2002 game, 60 fps in Chrome |
| 2 | dos.zone | the classics wing, one click each: Half-Life, Quake III, Counter-Strike 1.6, Heroes III, Unreal Tournament, Need for Speed |
| 3 | classicreload.com | Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Prince of Persia — running in seconds |
| 4 | dosgamezone.com | when the one you want is not above: 7,151 titles, 1980 onward |
| 5 | portedgames.com/browser | the live tracker of rebuilt classics — 62 tracked, 51 playable, updated 25 Oct |
| 6 | archive.org DOS library | the legal permanent copy, no ads, no pop-ups |
| 7 | retroplayland.com | consoles: 14 platforms — N64, PSX, Amiga, C64, ZX |
| 8 | webrcade.com | a slick console front-end; drop in your own ROMs |
| 9 | infinitemac.org | the curiosity tier: every classic Mac, NeXT and BeOS, 1984 to 2001 |
| 10 | 98.js.org | Windows 98, wallpapers included — no games, pure nostalgia |
Rows 1 to 6 are games you will actually play tonight. Rows 7 and 8 are consoles. Rows 9 and 10 are the museum — worth a visit, not a weekend.
The rest of the museum, for a slow evening
dustinbrett.com — daedalOS, a working macOS desktop with windows and all.
win11.blueedge.me — Windows 11 rebuilt in React, and usable.
emuos.emupedia.net — one desktop that boots dozens of emulated systems.
www.pcjs.org — machine by machine, original manuals attached.
copy.sh/v86 — boot real Linux, Windows 95 or DOS. A genuine virtual machine.
dos.games — preservation archive, Playable badge per title.
virtualapple.org — Apple II in a tab.
Build one instead of playing one
js13kgames.com — a whole game, built to fit in 13 kilobytes; a new crop every year.
tic80.com · 
wasm4.org — tiny consoles you code and publish in the browser.
The mainstream shelf — huge, but you already know them
Poki — 122.5M visits a month of instant casual games.
CrazyGames — 104M a month, bigger 3D titles.
itch.io HTML5 — 16.6M a month, tens of thousands of indie games.
Why these and not pirate sites: the vaults carry shareware, freeware and public-domain titles, and the machine doors emulate hardware instead of distributing games.
Tonight: row 1, Vice City, ten minutes. It costs nothing and you already know the radio stations.
!