Xbox Game Pass Makes Classic Games From the '80s and '90s Available Now
Xbox Game Pass offers a catalog of modern games across consoles, PC and other devices. On Wednesday, Xbox announced a partnership with retro games library Antstream Arcade and launched Retro Classics, a collection of more than 50 classic Activision games from the '80s and '90s, that all subscribers can play now.
Available games include Commando, Mech Warrior 2: 31st Century Combat and Pitfall!
"This initiative honors our commitment to game preservation and backwards compatibility, allowing players to experience many timeless games on modern devices," Xbox posted online.
Xbox is also bringing a new feature to many of the games in the Retro Classics collection: saving. Many games included in the collection didn't have a save function at the time of their release, meaning you had to restart your progress each time you started the game. Now, you can save and reload these games so you don't have to fight your way back to a location every time.
Microsoft
According to Xbox, Game Pass subscribers need to search for Retro Classics on their console, PC or Game Pass app and download the feature to their device.
Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard in 2023, and the company has been adding games from the developer behemoth to Game Pass ever since. The Diablo and Call of Duty franchises are represented on the service, and Xbox added a collection of classic games from Blizzard in March, called Blizzard Arcade Collection. Those games include Lost Vikings and RPM racing.
Xbox said Wednesday that it plans to continue to add classic games from Activision and Blizzard to the Retro Classics collection.
Microsoft offers four tiers to Xbox Game Pass: Core, Standard, PC Game Pass and Ultimate. These tiers range in price from $10 to $20 a month, and each tier offers subscribers perks like deals on non-Game Pass games and online multiplayer. Retro Classics is available on all four Game Pass tiers in the US, but only Game Pass Standard, PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate in Japan.
For more Xbox news, here's what to know about Game Pass Ultimate and the latest games on Game Pass. You can also check out how your mobile device will likely be the only gaming console you'll need soon.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Valerie Mahaffey dead: Desperate Housewives star dies as tributes flood in
Valerie Mahaffey, best known for her roles in Desperate Housewives and Young Sheldon, has died at the age of 71, announced her publicist today. The Emmy-winning actress passed away in Los Angeles on Friday after being diagnosed with cancer previously, the Mirror reports. Her husband Joseph Kell has paid tribute to his wife saying he has "lost" the love of his life. Valerie rose to fame after playing quirky characters in works such as Northern Exposure, Desperate Housewives and Young Sheldon. As part of her career, she worked beside some the biggest names in the industry including Michelle Pfeiffer and Tom Hanks. Speaking to Variety, Valerie's husband said: "I have lost the love of my life, and America has lost one of its most endearing actresses. She will be missed." Recently, Valerie starred in Apple TV+ series Echo 3 which aired in 2022 and the movie The 8th Day which came out this year. Tributes for the actress have also flooded in across social media mourning Valerie's death. One fan wrote: "So Sad to hear she's passed and only 71. RIP."
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Valerie Mahaffey, of Northern Exposure and Young Sheldon, Dead at 71
Valerie Mahaffey, a veteran actress whose myriad TV roles included Northern Exposure (for which she won an Emmy, Desperate Housewives and Young Sheldon, died on Friday after a battle with cancer. She was 71. 'I have lost the love of my life, and America has lost one of its most endearing actresses,' her husband, actor Joseph Kell, told Variety. 'She will be missed.' More from TVLine M*A*S*H Star Loretta Swit Dead at 87: Alan Alda Pays Tribute to His 'Supremely Talented' Co-Star Phil Robertson, Duck Dynasty Star, Dead at 79 Uche Ojeh, Husband of Today Co-Host Sheinelle Jones, Dead at 45 - Watch On-Air Announcement Mahaffey's first ongoing TV role was as Ashley Bennett in the NBC soap The Doctors, for which she earned a Daytime Emmy nomination in 1980. She went on to appear in the comedy miniseries Fresno in 1986, had one-offs on series such as Newhart, Cheers and Quantum Leap, and then played Caitlyn Van Horne in the Washington, D.C.-set 1992 sitcom The Powers That Be. On Northern Exposure, she appeared in multiple episodes as hypochondriac Eve, earning her first Emmy win (in the Supporting Actress category). Mahaffey finished out the 1990s with roles on Wings, The Client and ER, kept busy in the aughts with appearances on The West Wing, Frasier, CSI and Private Practice and many other shows, and then had an arc on United States of Tara. In Season 3 of Desperate Housewives she played Orson Hodge's first wife Alma, after which she played Emma's mom on Glee, guested on Hart of Dixie, and had a run on Devious Maids. Mahaffey's more recent TV roles includes The Man in the High Castle, Young Sheldon (as English teacher Victoria MacElroy), Big Sky, Dead to Me and Echo 3. TV Stars We Lost in 2025 View Gallery31 Images Best of TVLine 'Missing' Shows, Found! Get the Latest on Ahsoka, Monarch, P-Valley, Sugar, Anansi Boys and 25+ Others Yellowjackets Mysteries: An Up-to-Date List of the Series' Biggest Questions (and Answers?) The Emmys' Most Memorable Moments: Laughter, Tears, Historical Wins, 'The Big One' and More
Forbes
16 minutes ago
- Forbes
Why You Should Stop Texting On Your iPhone Or Android Phone
It's time to stop texting This is the biggest shake-up to texting and messaging in years. And for Apple and Google, it risks undermining any security and privacy assurances made around RCS. Make no mistake — this could be the best reason yet to stop texting on your phone. We have known for some time that WhatsApp is working on a username alternative to phone numbers. This is already live on Telegram and Signal and it's a game-changer. It means you can give contacts a username that's unique to the messaging platform without giving away your phone number. It also means you can stop people finding you by your phone number, preventing spam and scam messages. WhatsApp is going even further — and it's a brilliant move. As reported by the beta insiders at WABetaInfo, 'WhatsApp plans to introduce an optional PIN code feature linked to usernames, which will be required for others to initiate a new conversation with the user. This PIN will immediately 'reduce unwanted messages.' Set against the backdrop of surging smashing attacks across the U.S., which has prompted further FBI warnings this weekend, creating a protected messaging enclave in which you control access is exactly what's needed. PINs and usernames coming to WhatsApp And while there may be verified business contacts operating in a controlled manner, that's very different from the current free-for-all with Chinese OCGs running riot across SMS and RCS. Yes, advances are being made in filtering spam and scams on-device, but it's proving too easy for attackers to bombard SMS and RCS networks. Texting will always have this phone number vulnerability, and RCS which has promised so much is being let down with the increase in spam and marketing. As such, it's likely that texting will gradually be relegated on phones to an also-ran, as more protected, opt-in messaging platforms filter out all the noise. And no platform has more chance of making this work than WhatsApp, with its 3 billion users. The big hope for texting has been fully encrypting RCS, which is expected this year. There has been speculation that Apple will provide new news at WWDC. But I would be very surprised to see Apple headline anything on RCS, given that it's not a core Apple capability on iPhone and runs in parallel to iMessage. Google would have been much more likely to announce updates and changes at I/O. Make no mistake — 2025 is a huge year for messaging. Scams are spiraling out of control even as Google peddles the growth and benefits of RCS. WhatsApp is running its biggest ever marketing campaign on its privacy merits and has just released an iPad app after a decade of promises. Usernames and PINs dropping soon would be seismic for the sector, giving you the best reason yet to move wholesale from texting.
