Editorial & Technical Wiki

About PortedToBrowser.com

Preserving gaming history through modern WebAssembly, open-source decompilation, and browser performance benchmarking.

1. Our Mission

PortedToBrowser.com is a curated technical directory and editorial knowledgebase dedicated to video games that have been engineered to run directly inside modern web browsers. Leveraging cutting-edge web technologies (including WebAssembly (WASM), WebGL 2.0, WebGPU, and the Web Gamepad API), the open-source community has made it possible to experience legendary console and PC classics without standalone emulator installs, plugins, or software downloads.

Our mission is two-fold:

  • Digital Preservation: Indexing and documenting the groundbreaking reverse-engineering research and source-port projects that keep classic interactive art playable on modern hardware.
  • Technical Benchmarking: Providing gamers and developers with diagnostic blueprints detailing engine architectures, asset requirements, save-state persistence layers, and browser hardware compatibility.

2. How Our Directory Works

PortedToBrowser.com operates strictly as an editorial index and technical documentation platform. We currently maintain 288 verified records across platforms such as the Nintendo 64, MS-DOS, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, and PC classics.

Important Technical Distinction

PortedToBrowser.com does NOT host copyrighted game ROMs, proprietary game assets, or commercial binaries.

When a user clicks "Play in Browser", our directory initiates a direct connection to verified community hosts (such as the Internet Archive, creator GitHub Pages, Itch.io, or JS-DOS). We champion Bring-Your-Own-Assets (BYOA) ports like DevilutionX (Diablo 1), which require players to provide their own legally owned original game archives.

3. Open-Source Attribution & Decompilation Ethics

We hold the highest respect for both original copyright holders and the dedicated open-source engineers who build browser ports. Every entry in our database prominently attributes:

  • Original Developers & Publishers: Recognizing the historic studios who crafted the original masterpieces.
  • Porting Engineers & Communities: Highlighting the decompilation teams (e.g., Harbour Masters, DevilutionX, Chocolate Doom, Xash3D FWGS) and linking to their official GitHub source repositories.
  • Engine Classification: Categorizing builds by Native WASM Decompilations, Source Engine Ports, PICO-8 Web Natives, and Emulator Sandboxes.

4. Community Submissions & Verification

Our catalog is continually expanding. Independent developers and researchers who have compiled or ported open-source engines to the web are invited to submit their projects via our tool. Submissions undergo manual verification for security, HTTPS enforcement, and cross-origin sandboxing.

5. Contact & Editorial Inquiries

For corrections, technical benchmarking submissions, or press inquiries, reach our editorial staff at:

Email: [email protected]