About FredyGames

FredyGames is a collection of games you can play in your web browser, with nothing to install and nothing to pay. It brings together DOS games, homebrew for consoles such as the NES, Game Boy, Mega Drive and Game Boy Advance, text adventures, fantasy consoles and open-source games built for the web. Each one has its own page with a description, controls, tips and the licence it is shared under, and starts only when you press the play button.

One rule above all others

A game is only published here if the people who hold its rights have said, in writing, that it may be redistributed. In practice that means one of two things: the game is released under a free licence (GPL, BSD, MIT, Apache, Creative Commons Attribution or Attribution-ShareAlike, CC0 and similar), or it is official freeware whose terms explicitly allow copying and sharing it.

That rule leaves a lot out, on purpose:

• No abandonware. A game that is no longer sold is still owned by someone. Being old, out of print or easy to find elsewhere is not permission.
• No commercial ROMs. Console games on this site are homebrew, written by independent developers who chose a free licence for their own work. We do not host cartridge dumps of commercial games, not even "for preservation".
• No "free to download" without terms. Many games were given away for free but with a licence that allows playing, not redistributing. Those stay out, however well known they are.
• No non-commercial or no-derivatives licences. The site is supported by advertising, so a licence that forbids commercial use does not cover us.

When in doubt, a game is left out.

How each game is checked

Before a game goes online, we go through the same steps:

1. We read the original licence text, as published by the author or the rights holder, not a summary on a download portal. The licence has to allow redistribution, including on a site with ads.
2. We record where the permission comes from. Every game page links to the place where the rights holder published the game or its terms, and has a short line quoting what authorises the redistribution.
3. We publish the licence itself. The full licence or readme text that came with the game is linked from its page, unchanged.
4. We host the source code when the licence requires it. Copyleft licences such as the GPL ask that whoever distributes the program also offers its source. For those games, the exact source used to build the files we serve is available for download next to the game, not just a link to somewhere else. Some games are compiled by us from their source so that the result can be reproduced.
5. We check what else is inside. Games often bundle music, fonts, graphics or libraries made by other people. Those parts need their own permission. When something is included under terms that do not extend to us, it is removed or the game is not published.
6. We choose emulators that allow it. The programs that run the games in the browser have licences too. We only use emulators and engines whose licences allow commercial use, compile them ourselves where needed and host their source code as their licences ask. Some popular emulators are left out for that reason alone.

Only then does the game get its page. If a rights holder ever tells us that something here should not be, it comes down while we look into it.

Free to play

Playing on FredyGames is free, and there is no account to create. Saved games are kept in your own browser. To pay for hosting and the time spent checking and preparing each game, the site may show advertising. Ads are placed around the content of a page, never over a game or next to its controls, and the game always starts only when you choose to play.

Privacy

FredyGames is a static site with no accounts or forms; the privacy policy explains what is stored in your browser and which third-party services are involved.

Contact

Questions, corrections, game suggestions and rights notices are welcome. The contact page has the address and explains what to include in a copyright notice.

Credits

Every game on this site belongs to its authors: the developers, artists and musicians named on each page, who chose to share their work with everyone. FredyGames only hosts it under the terms they set.

The games would not run in a browser without the work of the projects behind the emulators and engines we use, among them DOSBox and js-dos, ScummVM, Parchment, jsnes, binjgb, mGBA, ClownMDEmu, Gearsystem, Ardens, Stellerator, blueMSX, CUzeBox, Octo, TIC-80, WASM-4 and Chocolate Doom. Their licences, versions and source code are listed on the licences page.

Last updated: October 11, 2026