Classic Gaming for free! Sounds sketchy, but is legit.

"Conquests of the Longbow:  The Legend of Robin Hood"

As someone who tries to avoid the variety of viruses, trojans, phishing attempts, and other Internet tricks I was very skeptical when I read about the release of thousands of classic MS-DOS games for free.  I had heard about an effort to add these thousands of now completely outdated video games to the free Internet Archive but hadn't checked it out until yesterday.  It appears that my caution is unwarranted.  There is nothing to download--it's run on an emulator (DOSBox) in your browser and seems to work pretty well.  I only messed around with it for a few minutes so I have no idea how save files work or anything like that.  The games listed include some great classics from my childhood.  It may be daunting to navigate the 2,296 games that they currently have listed on the site. Here are my recommendations for what to check out from this amazing gaming database.

1.) The Oregon Trail (or the "deluxe" version which is much more challenging )

The Oregon Trail is a semi-educational game that allows you to learn some facts about pioneers who traveled on the actual trail.  It also acts as a sort of strategy/simulation where you have to plan out and make decisions to keep your party alive.  Didn't take enough wagon axles?  Guess you didn't make it to Oregon and died a horrible death from your poor planning.  From what I remember in elementary school, the highlight was always hunting.  You have to option of hunting for food in areas with plentiful game and can bring back a certain amount of meat for your group.  You can only carry so much weight, but we all know you try to shoot everything on the screen.

2.) Wolfenstein 3D

This is the granddaddy of modern shooters and was a pretty advanced and controversial title in it's day.  My brother and I played it with reckless abandon and have both turned out fine despite the violence.  There are so many mechanics in this game that have remained in modern games that you can't help but feel like you're playing a part of gaming history.  Just looking at it makes me feel like mowing down some pixellated Nazi's.

3.) SimFarm

If you've ever felt the urge to drop everything, buy a farm in the middle of nowhere, and raise pigs for the rest of your life, SimFarm is perfect for you.  As the title implies this is one of the many "Sim" games that was released during the post-SimCity craze.  In it you will be tasked with running your own farm and making it profitable.  It's harder than it sounds.  Plant strawberries.  That's my advice.

4.) Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Another educational game with a focus on geography.  The story was that you were working for a detective agency and had to use geographic clues to try to locate the mysterious Carmen Sandiego.  In the process you learned some fun facts about different locations around the world.  It spawned a spin-off TV show that as a child I used to watch religiously.  Brush up on your geography facts!

5.) Conquests of the Longbow--The Legend of Robin Hood

This game was one of my favorites as a kid.  It is an action RPG game where you play as Robin Hood.  It is one of the first games that I can remember where you were given choices about how you wanted the story to play out.  It has a great story that's very exciting and will keep you busy for hours.  I remember the manual as being somewhat important in this game (your pre-digital DRM) and hope that it's available on the archive or somewhere.

6.) Lemmings 2 or any of the  Lemmings games on the database

Lemmings was an early puzzle game that required you to use different objects to navigate a danger filled landscape in order to get a group of suicidal "lemmings" to their final destination.  It requires some problem-solving skills and some creative thinking in order to accomplish your goal.  For some reason the music from this series really sticks in my mind.  It may be from the original Lemmings game which is, unfortunately, not currently listed on the database.

Those are some of my top picks.  I am hoping to spend some time taking a more thorough look through the list to see what's really available.  Get your classic game on!