I’ll let you in on a little-known fact about me.
I was a good Tetris player. No, I was actually a VERY GOOD Tetris player. I played that game through Windows 95, Windows 98, and eventually, Windows XP. I racked up scores in the hundreds of thousands. Sadly, the original Tetris is one of those games now classified as abandonware (software no longer sold or supported by its creator).
At the office, my colleagues and I spent our breaks and free time playing these games. Those were the days when a PC’s RAM was only 256KB to 512KB so most of our games were stored in floppy diskettes that you had to feed into a diskette drive to upload. Our monitors were cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors, the music was electronically produced, and while the games had color, the variety of colors reminded me of Crayola crayons in 8 colors. By today’s standards of orchestra-level music, 3D animation, and millions of colors, it was pretty boring.
There were a few more games from the 1980s that I remember playing — Pinball, Lemmings (those cute little creatures that you have to lead to exits in every round), and the all-time classic, Solitaire.
Tetris actually got ported into different gaming platforms, including the PS4. I saw my kids playing a modernized version of Tetris on the PS4 called Puyo Puyo Tetris. It was a 2-player game. Every 30 seconds, the Tetris screen would shift from the original Tetris blocks to a modernized version (see screenshot below). I watched them for several minutes but figured it was too complicated for me. There was still nothing like the ol’ original classic version.
Well, guess what! I just recently discovered plays.org, a browser-based site that contains some of the classic arcade games I used to play, much improved in terms of music, sound, color, and speed, and a whole lot more too. Plus, they have newer and more modern games that would appeal to the generation of my kids.
Plays.org has only been around for a few months. The site contains literally hundreds of free HTML games which can be played directly on any browser without any need for downloading an app. I’ve only been playing for a few weeks but I’m thoroughly enjoying the experience. Here’s why:
- No account needed. The system remembers my scores so the next time I play the game, I can try to beat my score or take up where I left off, as long as I play on the same device each time.
- Space saver. The games do not take up space on my phone or laptop. I don’t need to download any apps. I just need a browser on my phone or laptop.
- Games for all ages. Preschoolers will love the Cartoon Network-inspired games while seniors, who want to keep their minds active without much of the stress of arcade games, will love mahjong, word search, and sudoku games. Teens and adults alike can try most of the categories, depending on their appetite for excitement and stress, haha!
- Quick and fun! These games do not follow storylines that make you play the game for months on end. I like this because sometimes I just want a mental break so I pop into the site and play a few games. Just a few minutes allows me to play a few levels of a game.
- Good for the brain! As long as we keep our brains active, there is a good chance we can keep it from mental disorders such as Alzheimer’s as we age. For seniors, strategy and math games are among the types of games that really work the brain.
- No in-app purchases! No explanation needed!
Here are screenshots of some of the fave games I’ve played. For those where I completed all levels, the challenge now is to go back and get them all to the max number of stars!
I also tried a new game (there is a “New Games” section) on the topmost part of their homepage. Grizzy & the Lemmings Launch game is similar to the Angry Birds game except that this one uses Lemmings. You launch the lemmings from a slingshot to hit targets at different levels. I got so engrossed in the game that I finished all 20 levels in one go. My goal now is to play some levels again to get the maximum 3 stars.
There is one thing still missing that I hope plays.org will be able to include in their game collection and that is Lemmings. I just discovered that Lemmings is an app now but it is over 300MB in size. Hope I get to play this on plays.org soon.
So there! Just wanted to share this new find of mine with you as I am sure that most, if not all of you, are gamers like me, even if we are just doing this to destress and rest our brains from work during this pandemic. Let me know in the comments if you have tried the site and which games you loved.