Most classic games cannot be bought today

A 2023 study by the Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network found that 87 percent of classic games released in the United States are not currently available to buy. Here is where the other thirteen percent live.

Why so much is missing

Games are software tied to hardware, licences and companies that no longer exist. Music rights expire, publishers fold, and nobody owns the paperwork to reissue a game even when everyone wants it.

Libraries cannot fill the gap the way they do for books and film: US copyright exemptions let preservationists archive games but not lend them remotely.

The legal ways to play online

• Internet Archive — browser-playable historic software, mostly early computer and arcade titles.
• Nintendo Switch Online — NES, SNES, Game Boy, N64 and more, on subscription.
• GOG — DOS and early Windows games, patched to run on modern systems, no DRM.
• Antstream Arcade — a streaming service built entirely on licensed retro games.

What you could build here

Three directions that would work on this name. None of them is the only answer — it is your name once it is yours.

1. A where-to-play index. Every classic game and every legal way to play it today. Nobody maintains this properly.
2. A browser arcade. Licensed and public-domain titles playable in a tab, with no download.
3. A preservation publication. News on re-releases, rights changes and archival finds for a passionate audience.

Play something now

• MyNESGamesPlay NES ROMs straight in the browser
• Video Game History FoundationThe people behind the 87 percent study
• Internet Archive Software LibraryLegally hosted, browser-playable historic software

What it could look like

A sample concept, built to show the name in use. It is a starting point, not a business that exists.