The Internet is a media in constant evolution, but not often in a good way. The rise of social media and big tech companies overshadowing smaller websites slowly turns the Internet into a predictable market, shaped to suit the needs of the peoples in charge. And they do very little to preserve the history of the Internet.
Sadly, browser games are often the first things to be lost. Sure many notable games are preserved and celebrated, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. There are literally thousands of games out there, made by amateurs, small teams or companies. Passion projects that peoples poured their hearts into, got a bit of recognition but were lost because of various reasons. Even worse, some games got incredibly famous outside of the creator’s intent because they were copied and pasted on other websites, without any credits.
We can see many projects of preservation nowadays, but browser games are unique in the matter, because they are the least tangibles ones. Even downloadable-only games can be archived, but often, browser games are just available as long as the server they are running on is still operational. And sure, Flash files can be downloaded and archived, but what about online game in PHP?
I didn’t wanted to make a large scale project of game preservation, but I wanted to create something that could be used as a reference of browser games history, by collecting as much information as possible about them. And ost of all, I wanted to give proper credits to all these forgotten creators.
The Mission of the Museum of Screens
Like a regular museum, the purpose of the Museum of Screens is to research, showcase and preserve history.
A game eligible for the museum of Screens has to be free to play, made at least ten years ago, and playable through browser. The date limit might seem arbitrary but I tend to focus on games that run the risk of being lost. A line had to be drawn to consider a game “too recent” to deserve a preservation effort.
A game can be featured on the Museum of Screens whether it is popular or not. The goal of this account is not to judge the quality of a game, providing the game and its creators respect a baseline of human decency. Hate speech, discrimination and harrassment will not be tolerated in any form.
Simply put, the goal of the Museum of Screen is to:
- Save a game in some form, with at least a screenshot and technical informations
- Credits the original authors, the original websites of upload and the year of creation
- Accept games regardless of their quality, as long as they respect a baseline of human decency
- Be an accepting place for everyone and not tolerate bigotry
Games with mature content are accepted with content warning: Blood, gore, mental health, addiction, etc… Providing these games does not violate the rules of Twitter.
I do my best to gather accurate information about the games featured, like the year of release or the link to the first upload still available. If the game is still playable I link the first official upload I can find, preferably on the creator’s personal website.
Sometimes the information available is ambiguous so interrogation points are added to show there is no certainty. If new information is found, an update is tweeted.
As a conclusion, I want to add that the Museum of Screens accept suggestions from anyone. You can always send me a DM to suggest a game. Self promotion is allowed if reasonable. Before sending me suggestions please make sure the game hasn’t been featured already, by searching on Twitter or reading the Museum of Screen stats spreadsheet.
Museum of Screens 