ABOUT
A walkable 1980s arcade in your browser
Arcade 84 is a room, not a menu. You walk down the aisle past cabinets running their own attract screens, step up to one, and play it standing at the machine, or flat on the screen if you would rather. Ten original games, free, no download, no account, no ads.
Why the games are originals
The mechanics of the golden age are not anyone's property; the characters, names, sprites, mazes and sounds are. Two rulings drew that line in the years the room is set in: in 1981 a court let a game keep the rules of a famous space shooter, and in 1982 another stopped a game that took the look of a famous maze chase. Arcade 84 keeps the rules (the scatter and chase timing, the divers, the rally that speeds up, the chain that splits when it is hit) and draws everything else fresh: a neon spark in the maze, angular drones, its own names, its own sound. Every mechanic in the room existed by the end of 1984, the year on the door.
How it is built
The room is rendered in the browser with three.js: brick, carpet, pendant lamps, neon tubes, a prize counter, a jukebox, pinball machines, a crane. The games are plain 2D canvases, and the cabinet's monitor shows the very same running game the flat view shows, through a CRT shader with scanlines, an aperture grille and glass. The sound is synthesized when you arrive; the site ships no recordings and no images, so it loads fast and looks the same everywhere. It is served from the edge, close to wherever you are.
Scores
Each cabinet keeps a world board for today and for all time. At game over a score that stands asks for three initials, the way it was done, and goes on the board. Nothing about you is stored beyond those three letters, the score and the day.
Questions
Is Arcade 84 free?
Yes. There are no ads, no accounts and nothing to buy. A change machine in the room takes tips from anyone who wants to leave one.
Do I need to download anything?
No. It runs in a browser tab on a laptop, a phone or a tablet. Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari all work.
Are these the original arcade games?
No. They are originals built on the same mechanics. Copying how a game plays is allowed; copying its name, characters, sprites, mazes or sounds is not, so every one of those is new here.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. An on-screen pad walks the room and plays the games, and a credit opens the flat screen so the game fills the width.
Does it work with a controller?
Yes. Any arcade stick or gamepad the browser can see, over USB or Bluetooth. Press a button on it once the page is open.
Are my scores saved?
Your best scores stay in your browser, and a score entered with three initials goes on the cabinet's world board for today and for all time. No account is involved.
Support the arcade
The change machine by the door takes tips. If the room made you smile, drop something in the slot; it keeps the lights on and the next cabinets coming.