Free / original writing, no screenshots
The Era Museum
Thirty-eight years of games in six rooms: the glass they were drawn on, the controls under the thumb, the places people played. Wander, or follow the tour from the beginning.
Floor plan
Six halls in order, oldest first. Each has about twenty minutes of reading, a few games to try, and a stamp for your Passport.
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The Vector Hall
Glowing phosphor lines on black glass: wireframes, starfields and one bright dot doing something impossible.
Stamped
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The Golden Arcade
Neon on black, chunky sprites and a pocket full of coins: short runs, high scores, one more go.
Stamped
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The 16-Bit Hall
Dithered sunsets, parallax hills and more colours than anyone knew what to do with.
Stamped
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The Early Web Hall
Beige towers, bevelled buttons and games that loaded one modem squeal at a time.
Stamped
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The Flash Hall
Glossy buttons, physics toys and a loading bar that was always worth the wait.
Stamped
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The One-Tap Hall
One thumb, big flat colours and endless runs built for the bus stop.
Stamped
The exhibits
Four small toys. Each one starts with a plain-text explanation, works with a keyboard, and keeps still until you ask it to move.
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CRT simulator
Scanlines, phosphor glow, curvature and masks, with sliders.
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Palette toy
How 1983 pixels worked: fewer colours, dithering and attribute clash.
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Dial-up sound room
A synthesised modem handshake, explained phase by phase.
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Loading-bar wing
Eight original preloader styles and a build-your-own panel.
What this place is
The museum is the quiet room of an arcade. The games out front are all original and made in-house, built in the spirit of their years. The halls explain the spirit: what the screens could do, why the controls were shaped the way they were, and what the rooms felt like. When a game on this site borrows an idea, the hall that explains the idea links to it.
Everything is written for people, not for search engines, and none of it is copied. It does not use screenshots, sprites, logos or box art from real games. Where a fact is worth checking, we send you to a public source. Where we are wrong, we would like to know: hello@eracade.com. See the colophon for how it was made.