Microsoft Arcade

Microsoft Arcade is a series of classic arcade game compilations released by Microsoft between 1993 and 2000.

Although the games included in these compilations were very similar to the original arcade games in both appearance and gameplay, they were newly written versions, not ports of the original arcade game code; these versions of the games were programmed specifically for Windows, with each game running in a small window (or in a large window with a border). Each game allowed certain customizations not available in the original arcade game, i.e. the number of lives and bonus levels. The Microsoft Help files included with the games contained history of the development of the original arcade versions of the games.

Microsoft Arcade

The first compilation was released in August 1993 on a single 1.44MB floppy for both Microsoft Windows 3.1 and the Apple Macintosh. It contained versions of the following arcade games by Atari:

Asteroids (1979)

Battlezone (1980)

Centipede (1981)

Missile Command (1980)

Tempest (1981)

Microsoft Return of Arcade

Two follow-up versions were released, including the arcade games from Namco. The first was Microsoft Return of Arcade, released in April 1996. The compilation sold 335,176 copies in 1996 making it the 8th best-selling PC game that year.

This compilation contains:

Dig Dug (1982)

Galaxian (1979)

Pac-Man (1980)

Pole Position (1982)

In 2000, to celebrate Pac-Man's 20th anniversary, Microsoft re-released Return of Arcade and added Ms.