11 Best Fan-Made Browser Ports of Classic Games

11 WipEout

WipEout is a fast-paced, futuristic racing game that places you in the driver’s seat of a high-speed hovercraft, blending elements of Mario Kart and F-Zero to form one of the best racing games on the PS1. Each of WipEout‘s seven unique tracks challenge you to tackle winding turns and precarious jumps while also battling opponents at breakneck speeds with a variety of weapon pickups. Although you won’t find much of a story in WipEout, the game makes up for the lack of narrative substance with its sleek visuals, electrifying techno soundtrack, and what is easily one of the fastest racing experiences in gaming.

Although the WipEout series was unfairly abandoned by Sony, the first game is now easier to access than ever before, thanks to a browser port created by Dominic Szablewski. This port was created with a recompiled version of the original game’s source code (which had been leaked back in 2022) and updates the original PS1 experience with a steady 60 FPS and an increased resolution. Everything from the original WipEout is here and—apart from a few minor bugs—it’s even better than any of the game’s official ports.

Wipeout

Released

November 21, 1995

ESRB

t

Developer(s)

Psygnosis

Publisher(s)

Psygnosis

Engine

Amiga

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10 Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2

The Command and Conquer series is one of the pillars of the real-time strategy (RTS) genre, having helped establish the modern RTS formula alongside Warcraft. Like most other RTS series, the Command and Conquer games revolve around a cycle of resource-gathering, base-building, and strategic battles as you gradually amass an unstoppable army to crush the opposing faction. The series also set itself apart with its storytelling, using full-motion video cutscenes to deliver thrilling plots about globe-spanning military conflicts unfolding across various alternate histories. These cutscenes range from chillingly bleak to hilariously hammy, but the Command and Conquer games never fail to engage you in their war-torn worlds.

Every Command and Conquer game has its own dedicated fanbase, but Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 is often considered to be the fan-favorite of the franchise. There are a few different fan projects designed to make the game playable on modern systems, including the fan-made browser version: Red Alert 2: Chrono Divide. While single-player fans may be disappointed to hear that Chrono Divide lacks the original game’s story campaigns, the port does offer cross-platform multiplayer, mod support, and every multiplayer map from the original Red Alert 2. At the time of writing, Chrono Divide is in active development, meaning the missing features will likely be restored in future updates. But even with these omissions, Chrono Divide is still an excellent way to return to Red Alert 2.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

Systems

Released

October 23, 2000

ESRB

t // Animated Violence

Developer(s)

Westwood Studios

Publisher(s)

EA Games

Engine

Tiberian Sun

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9 SimCity

The original SimCity paved the way for numerous sequels, spinoffs, and spiritual successors to build upon its addictive city-planning simulation. SimCity may seem bare-bones compared to most modern city-builder games, but its simpler visuals and straightforward challenge are still captivating enough to keep you hooked. Building your city, balancing its needs, and keeping up with natural disasters and other unpredictable challenges is still just as fun as it was back in 1989. While you probably won’t find yourself sinking hundreds of hours into SimCity, especially if you’ve played any of its vastly improved successors, it has surprisingly stood the test of time.

Back in 2008, programmer Don Hopkins released the source code for the original SimCity under the name “Micropolis.” Despite the different name—which was taken from the game’s early development build—Micropolis is still the original SimCity at its core. Since then, there have been multiple open-source browser ports of Micropolis, with micropolisJS still being the best of the bunch. This version runs in javascript and contains nearly all the core features of SimCity, apart from its scenario mode.

SimCity

Released

February, 1989

ESRB

e

Developer(s)

Maxis

Publisher(s)

Maxis

Engine

GlassBox engine.

8 Fate/Stay Night

Anyone with a passing interest in anime or visual novels has probably heard of Fate/Stay Night and its countless spinoffs. Originally released back in 2004, Fate/Stay Night centers around the “Holy Grail War,” a battle royale tournament wherein powerful mages summon famous historical warriors to fight to the death. Each of the game’s three major story routes chronicles the war from the perspective of Shirou Emiya, an inexperienced teenage mage who unwittingly becomes a participant in the fifth Holy Grail War, which leads him into a series of harrowing encounters and life-or-death decisions.

Fate/Stay Night is known for being an absurdly long game, clocking in at almost 100 hours if you pursue all endings, but don’t let the lengthy runtime scare you away. After its slow opening, Fate/Stay Night delivers a fantastic story brimming with compelling characters, shocking plot twists, and plenty of fantasy action. There are a few different methods of playing Fate/Stay Night, including the free browser port developed by Kent Hagerman.

This version of the game includes all three major story routes and a flowchart that allows you to jump to any point in the story. Although it’s not the best version of Fate/Stay Night—lacking save-states and requiring you to scroll through the text instead of progressing through separate screens—the browser port is still a great way to begin the Fate series.

7 Tsukihime

A few years before creating Fate/Stay Night, developer Type Moon made its debut with Tsukihime. This cult-classic visual novel follows Shiki Tohno, a seemingly ordinary high-schooler with an extraordinary power that enables him to see “lines of death” on living beings, allowing him to end their lives by severing these lines. Despite his attempts to live a normal life, a series of bizarre events and violent impulses lead Shiki to an ancient vampire named Arcueid.

After a blood-splattered introduction, the two form an uneasy alliance to track down a mysterious serial killer who’s turned their quiet neighborhood into his personal hunting ground. What begins as a straightforward supernatural mystery (with hints of romance) gradually unravels into a gruesome psychological thriller as Shiki learns more about Arcueid, a mysterious new classmate named Ciel, and his own secretive family history. While it takes some time for Tsukihime to reveal its true colors, the story’s shocking twists and gripping drama are well worth the wait.

Surprisingly, the browser port of Tsukihime is one of the best ways to experience the game. This port features a variety of quality-of-life features absent from most official releases, including a detailed story flowchart, an image gallery, and optional content warnings for certain scenes. However, it’s also worth noting that the browser port is based on the original, uncensored release of Tsukihime, which features graphic adult content in both its visuals and text. Multiple scenes throughout the game explore sensitive topics and contain graphic depictions of horrific acts, so play this version at your own discretion.

6 Pac-Man

Whether you grew up playing in arcades, on consoles, or don’t have much experience with gaming in general, you probably don’t need any introduction to Pac-Man. Even after 45 years, Pac-Man remains one of the most iconic games of all time. Whereas most other arcade games have faded into obscurity over the decades, Pac-Man has continually proven itself to be a timeless classic. Of course, that also means it’s been preserved on most platforms, including browsers.

Back in 2010, Google celebrated the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man by replacing the logo on its homepage with Doodle Pac-Man, a fully playable browser version of the 1980 arcade classic with a Google-themed stage. Apart from the remixed level layout, this version plays exactly like the original game, even featuring the familiar “kill-screen” if you somehow manage to reach level 256. While Doodle Pac-Man only appeared on the Google home screen for one day, you can still play it here.

Pac-Man

Released

July, 1980

ESRB

e

Developer(s)

Namco

Publisher(s)

Namco, Midway Games

Engine

Unreal Engine

Franchise

Pac-Man

5 Diablo

The original Diablo was a revolutionary RPG for its time, trading the genre’s usual focus on party-management and long-winded storytelling for an addictive emphasis on real-time action and solo dungeon-crawling. Your journey through Diablo will have you exploring 16 randomized floors of a massive dungeon leading into hell, battling monsters and gradually strengthening your character with better armor, stronger attacks, and experience points to level up.

Although Diablo follows the standard ARPG formula, the game still delivers a uniquely atmospheric experience that not even its own sequels have replicated. The original Diablo is a slow, brutally punishing test of skill and persistence, with each successive level proving tougher than the last. Your foes are more fearsome than fodder, the music more tense than triumphant, and the world more grim than grandiose. Diablo‘s hopeless descent into hell is a stark contrast to the loot-filled power-fantasies of later entries, making it a game worth revisiting for even the most experienced ARPG players.

If you already own a copy of Diablo—whether it’s on-disc or the digital GoG re-release—you can run the game from your browser by uploading the DIABDAT.MPQ file to its fan-made browser port. Even if you don’t own the game, the website already includes the shareware version, which limits you to the warrior class and only includes the first two levels. However, this makes it easy to try out the game or play on mobile devices.

Diablo

Released

January 3, 1997

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ // Animated Blood and Gore, Animated Violence

Publisher(s)

Blizzard Entertainment, Ubisoft

Engine

unity

Multiplayer

Local Multiplayer

4 Serial Experiments Lain

Based on the anime of the same name, Serial Experiments Lain is a 1998 Japan-exclusive PS1 game with an unusual approach to storytelling. If you haven’t seen the original series—which you really should—all you need to know about the show is that it tells the story of Lain Iwakura, a teenage girl who finds herself becoming increasingly obsessed with a global network known as “the Wired”—which essentially acts as an analogue for the early internet.

What follows is a surreal, scarily prophetic story about the internet’s rapid encroachment on our daily lives, its growing influence on social interaction, and its unsettling ability to reshape a person’s self-identity. The game explores these same concepts in a different context, having you scroll through a web-like interface to view audio logs, diary entries, and animated cutscenes. As you find more information, you’ll unlock new data logs needed to piece together the full story, though some parts of this narrative puzzle will ultimately be left up to your interpretation.

While you don’t need to watch Serial Experiments Lain to understand the game, there’s not much here for anyone who isn’t already a die-hard fan of the anime. The entire game consists of listening to audio logs and viewing brief cutscenes, with no traditional gameplay to speak of between the hours of nonstop exposition. If you don’t already have an attachment to this series and its characters, you might not have the patience to sit through its cryptic story. But for longtime fans of Serial Experiments Lain who have been waiting to play the game, an English version is finally available thanks to lainTSX, a browser-based recreation and translation of the original PS1 version. Just be aware that the game can be very confusing, so you may want to have a guide on hand before you start playing.

3 Commander Keen

Before iD Software popularized first-person shooters with Wolfenstein 3D and later perfected the genre with Doom, the studio made its debut with the family-friendly Commander Keen in “Invasion of the Vortigons”. This 2D platformer sees you take on the role of the eponymous Commander Keen, an eight-year-old who travels across different planets in a quest to rebuild his spaceship and stop an alien attack on Earth.

Each level has you running, jumping, and shooting your way through foes, while also—and stop me if you’ve heard this one before, iD fans—hunting down colored keycards and uncovering hidden entrances to secret levels. Although it lacks the super shotguns and visible viscera of its FPS successors, Commander Keen still deserves some credit for laying out the blueprint that defined iD’s massively influential shooters and the countless games they inspired.

Like many PC games of its time, Commander Keen in “Invasion of the Vortigons” originally received an episodic release, but you can play the game from your browser through its reverse-engineered web port: Chocolate Keen. This version plays exactly like the original MS-DOS release and is easily the best way of experiencing the original trilogy.

Commander Keen

2 Doom

Speaking of iD Software, we obviously have to mention Doom. The 1994 shooter about blasting through otherworldly invaders on Mars—which could also be an apt description for Commander Keen—is playable on nearly any device. Calculators, cash registers, cameras, bacteria cells; you name it, someone has probably run Doom on it. So it should come as no surprise that Doom is also playable on web browsers.

WAD Commander is a browser tool that allows you to run WAD files for Doom and Doom II. Along with being able to play the vanilla games and their expansions, WAD Commander is also compatible with PWAD files for the majority of custom maps. However, WADS for separate games built on the Doom engine—such as Hexen and Heretic—aren’t fully supported, yet.

Doom (1993)

Released

December 10, 1993

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language

Developer(s)

id Software

Publisher(s)

id Software