Bring Your Childhood Games to Life With This Free CD Archive

The digital revolution should have made it easier to preserve the past, but instead it seems to me that we have only lost access. The games and programs we grew up with didn’t grow with our computers, and now most of them live only in our memories. Well, unless you know where to find them.

While there may be many sources on the Internet to find old software, there may not be a collection as complete as the Internet Archive: The non-profit organization has a collection of CD-ROM files that spans decades . At the time of this writing, there are just under 46,000 entries in the archive, from games to software you might use in school. Most likely, if you remember him, he is here:

This is a large and varied collection of CD-ROM software, that is, software that comes on a CD-ROM for installation on computers or played on consoles. From apps and games to collections of public domain software or pictures, the CD-ROM’s heyday was around 1989-2001. In all cases, CD-ROM capacity has remained stable at 640–700 MB per side, some have used gimmicks to claim they have more (due to shrinking or folding both sides of double sided CDs).

For some reason, the first name that comes to mind when we think of elementary school games was the JumpStart series, and a simple search for “JumpStart” returned 95 results. I then tried Backyard, hoping to find the Backyard Sports games I obsessively played as a non-sports-minded kid. Of course, there are 29 results , including two of my favorites: Backyard Baseball 2003 and Backyard Soccer MLS Edition .

There are even CD files from console games. For example, if you search for ” Harry Potter ” you will find games not only for PC, but also for PS2 and Xbox. It’s certainly tough on PC CD-ROMs compared to consoles, but it’s still worth looking into console games if you have something in mind.

It doesn’t have everything , so don’t be discouraged if your search turns up nothing, but it might be worth checking out the Internet Archive ‘s wider CD collection of software , which includes both software and “shareware” from companies. in the old days. This collection contains over 71,000 entries conveniently sorted into dozens of categories. If you really want to take a trip down memory lane, check out the AOL CD Collection .

How to run old CDs on your computer

As far as running these programs on Windows, it might be easier than you might think thanks to the so-called Compatibility Mode , which mimics the previous Windows OS to run software that is not compatible with Windows 10 or 11. As PCMag explains , not all games and programs will run in compatibility mode, but if they do, it’s an easy way to test them without having to jump through any hoops.

All you have to do to run one of these CD files in Compatibility Mode is locate and right-click its .exe file, click Properties, and then go to the Compatibility tab. The quickest way to get started is to click “Run the Compatibility Troubleshooter” or “Try Recommended Settings” to launch the CD with the correct settings.

The Internet Archive contains a huge collection of old arcade games.

The Internet Archive also has more historical programs for you to check out. My personal favorite is their ” Internet Arcades “, a collection of over 2600 arcade games that you can play in your web browser. When I say arcade, I mean arcade: these games were meant to be played in a slot machine, down to the coin needed to get started. However, pressing the 5 key will make the game think you have entered a coin.

To find even more software, go to the main Internet Archive website and click the Software tab.