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Today’s video games sure are impressive, but every now and then I get nostalgic for the games of yore--with simple graphics, annoying bleeps and blips and nothing to do but blast aliens until you ran out of quarters. With the Internet we can recreate those first-generation video games, and we won’t need to keep pumping change into a machine to do it--just a browser that supports Java.

First, check out The Applet Arcade, where you’ll find dozens of games ranging from arcade shoot-em-ups to strategy games. The ‘80s Server--Games and Trivia features

online versions of games like Centipede, Galaxian, Pac Man and Missile Command. You also can find online versions of BreakOut and Frogger. There’s even an online version of Pong, the first video game ever made, and still one of the most fun.

There also are a number of original Java games online. Perhaps the two best are Star Wars With the Gipper (where you get to blast Russian satellites with beams from Ronald Reagan’s eyes) and the British space war game Alien Invasion.