What Is the Virtual Consoles Preservation Project?

The Virtual Consoles Preservation Project is an effort started by the retro-gaming site Virtual Consoles at the end of 2019 to archive old computer and console games so they can still be played in a browser. It covers software that is no longer sold or supported by its copyright holder, and it relies on a 2006 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemption approved by the Library of Congress. Preserved games are playable online but are not offered as direct downloads.

What the project does

Virtual Consoles describes the project as a way to save "as much of childhood memories as we can." In practice, that means:

• Selecting games that are no longer commercially available. The stated criterion is software that its copyright holder no longer sells or supports.
• Archiving the software. Virtual Consoles stores the games as part of its preservation collection.
• Making them playable in the browser. The games run through the site's online emulators rather than being distributed as files.

The site frames this as a preservation activity rather than a distribution service: the collection exists so the games remain accessible, not so copies can be passed around.

The legal basis it cites

Virtual Consoles points to the DMCA exemption approved by the Library of Congress in 2006. As the site describes it, that exemption allows software no longer being sold or supported by its copyright holder to be archived and preserved "without fear of retribution."

Two limits follow from how the site presents this:

• The exemption is tied to preservation and archiving, which is why the games are kept playable online rather than offered for download.
• The criterion is abandonment by the rights holder — the project's scope is old software that is no longer commercially maintained, not current titles.

This is the site's own account of its legal footing. Whether a given game qualifies is a legal question the site does not break down game by game, so treat the description as the project's stated rationale rather than a case-by-case legal analysis.

How it fits into the rest of the site

The preservation project is one part of Virtual Consoles, which launched in 2017 as a free, non-commercial service offering online emulators for platforms including the Commodore 64, NES, Super Nintendo, ZX Spectrum, Apple II, Atari 2600, and even the PDP-1. The site says it is "constantly evolving," and its emulator log shows new additions over time — for example, Stunts and Jones in the Fast Lane in March 2024, and a dedicated site for Atari fans in November 2021.

So the project supplies the archived games, and the emulators supply the way to play them: you open a game in the browser, and the emulation happens on the site's side. No installation is described as necessary for playing.

What it means if you want to use it

• You play in the browser. The preserved games are accessed through the site's online emulators; there is no download step in the project's description.
• The library is the project's, not yours. Because games are not directly downloadable, you cannot build a local copy of the collection from the site.
• Availability depends on the archive. The project adds titles over time rather than offering a fixed catalog, so what is playable reflects what has been preserved so far.

If your goal is simply to play an old game, the practical route is to open the relevant emulator on Virtual Consoles and look for the title there. If your goal is to obtain game files, the project is explicitly not set up for that.