When the news spread on Wednesday that it was now possible to play Internet Archive’s catalogue of over 2600 nostalgia-inducing MS-DOS games within Twitter posts, office slackers around the world rejoiced.
However today it appears that the exciting – and productivity-obliterating – new functionality has been hastily withdrawn.
Game developer and archivist Frank Cifaldi appeared to be one of the first to announce the development on Wednesday in rather low-key fashion in this tweet:
Testing – I think you can embed Internet Archive games in tweets now? https://t.co/8ZD1xSNN8y
— Frank Cifaldi (@frankcifaldi) April 29, 2015
Twitter-using gamers were still celebrating the new development yesterday, but today it seems it’s no longer possible to embed an MS-DOS game from Internet Archive’s catalogue into a tweet.
The Internet Archive is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 1996 that is dedicated to documenting and preserving the Internet’s treasures, offering permanent access to digital assets that would otherwise be lost. This includes a healthy collection of out-of-production games, including its collection of over 2600 MS-DOS games ranging from Prince of Persia to Castle Wolfenstein and beyond which are thankfully all still playable online.
Related: Best PSN Games 2015: Top Indie Games for PS4, PS3 and PS Vita
It’s unclear whether the new functionality was revoked due to a complication with copyright issues when played directly on social media or whether it was another reason. We’ve tried to contact Internet Archive to find out, but at the time of writing have had no response.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
