9 Retro Games to Play Online Free, With Optional Cheats

Nine classic games from 1982 to 1996 run free in your browser on Yes This Game: River Raid, Battle City, Contra, Street Fighter II, Snow Bros, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Sonic & Knuckles, Street Hoop and Metal Slug. Every one of them also has optional cheats, behind the magic wand button next to full screen. They come from five different machines, and the original game data ranges from 4 KB to about 26 MB. Here is what makes each one worth playing, how to start, and what its cheats do.

The nine games at a glance

The games

River Raid (Activision, 1982)

Carol Shaw’s river never ends: fly your jet upstream, shoot ships, helicopters, jets and bridges, and fly over fuel depots before the tank runs dry. The whole game fits in 4 KB. Read our River Raid tips to see why flying fast saves fuel.

Battle City (Namco, 1985)

Drive a small tank through 35 brick and steel mazes, destroy 20 enemy tanks per stage and protect the eagle at the bottom of the screen. It also has a construction mode for your own maps. Our Battle City power-ups guide explains every bonus.

Contra (Konami, 1988)

Two commandos run, jump and shoot through eight stages, from the jungle to the alien lair. The spread gun and the Konami Code for 30 lives are part of gaming history. See our Contra cheats and tips.

Street Fighter II (Capcom, 1991)

The fighting game that started the arcade boom of the nineties: eight fighters, special moves and one-on-one rounds. Our Street Fighter II moves list has the inputs on a keyboard.

Snow Bros (Toaplan, 1993 home version)

Throw snow at monsters until they freeze, then roll the snowballs to knock out the whole floor. Simple, colourful and great with two players.

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Capcom, 1993)

A side-scrolling brawler with four heroes, dinosaurs, guns and a Cadillac to drive. Read our guide to Mustapha, the favourite character of many players.

Sonic & Knuckles (Sega, 1994)

Sonic or Knuckles race through the zones of the final part of the Sonic 3 story. Wondering how it relates to Sonic 3? Our Sonic 3 vs Sonic & Knuckles article explains it.

Street Hoop (Data East, 1994)

Three-on-three street basketball with fast dunks and super shots, on the Neo Geo arcade board.

Metal Slug (SNK, 1996)

One soldier against an army: six missions of explosive, hand-drawn action, prisoners to rescue and the little Metal Slug tank to drive. Our Metal Slug tips cover the weapons and the timer.

From 4 KB to 26 MB

The size of the original game data shows how fast games grew in those fourteen years. River Raid’s whole river, enemies and sound fit in 4 KB. Metal Slug, with its hand-drawn animation, needs about 26 MB of chips on its arcade board, more than six thousand times as much.

On top of the game file, your browser downloads the emulator for that machine once. When you play the same game again, almost nothing is downloaded. Our article on playing arcade games in your browser has the measured download sizes.

How to start each kind of game

• Atari 2600 (River Raid): press Reset (Enter), then push the stick or fire to take off.
• NES (Battle City, Contra): press Start (Enter) on the title screen.
• Mega Drive (Snow Bros, Sonic & Knuckles): press Start (Enter).
• Arcade and Neo Geo (Street Fighter II, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Street Hoop, Metal Slug): insert a coin with V (Coin on a phone), then press Start. On the Neo Geo games, wait until the machine has finished starting up.

On a phone, an on-screen pad appears under each game. A USB or Bluetooth gamepad also works.

The cheats

Every game above starts exactly as it was released. If you want a hand, press the magic wand button next to the full screen button: a small panel opens over the game, the game waits, and you switch on what you like. The cheats work for player 1, and reloading the page turns them off. Our article on how cheat codes work explains what each switch changes inside the game.