{"id":139513,"date":"2022-11-26T02:56:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T02:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/the-internet-archive-just-put-565-palm-pilot-apps-in-your-web-browser\/"},"modified":"2022-11-26T02:56:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T02:56:00","slug":"the-internet-archive-just-put-565-palm-pilot-apps-in-your-web-browser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/the-internet-archive-just-put-565-palm-pilot-apps-in-your-web-browser\/","title":{"rendered":"The Internet Archive just put 565 Palm Pilot apps in your web browser"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Evet Ben am<\/em> playing Dope Wars<\/em> on a Palm Pilot inside my iPhone. It’s thanks to The Internet Archive, which is once again launching a giant collection of software you can instantly play on any web browser, up to and including your touchscreen-equipped phone. There are currently 565 classic Palm apps in all, including games, widgets, and even free trials from both the grayscale and color eras. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reach out and touch a 1996 pocket computer with your 2022 pocket computer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And it’s more than just the individual apps, too: the entire Palm OS is loaded with each launch, including its full selection of default apps (like the calculator and memo pad) and a working Graffiti touchscreen writing system. I cannot emphasize this enough: you can reach out and touch a 1996 pocket computer with your 2022 pocket computer and it works like a charm.<\/em> It’s a tiny interactive window into the pre-iPhone era, and what lived in the proto-App Store. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For me personally, it’s like taking a trip back in time to high school, when I read cached copies of slashdot, <\/em>played Space Trader<\/em> and Flappy Bird predecessor SFCave<\/em> During passing periods, showed off my tricorder to anyone who’d bite, and occasionally even took valuable class notes with a stylus. Other generations can now see what those were like with a single tap. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Archivist and historian Jason Scott tells The Verge<\/em> that it only took six months for the existing CloudPilot emulator to be ready to embed, and credits both its developer Christian Speckner and the POSE emulator that came before. (I’m reading that even POSE was based on an earlier project, Copilot, so quite a few people deserve thanks for the result.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Scott says his own favorite Palm software was a GPS app he used on his Palm III \u2014 but I don’t want to spoil why. You’ll understand immediately when you try it for yourself. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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