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Retro
Operating systems, arcade cabinets and dead software booted inside a browser tab. Nostalgia with a working keyboard.
12 sites
Apple II software preserved and emulated, including the educational titles that an entire generation met at school.
Several thousand DOS, Amiga and console titles catalogued with screenshots, each playable without leaving the page.
Home consoles from the Atari era onward, running in the browser. Mostly worse than you remember, which is part of the appeal.
A curated DOS library with working touch controls, which makes it the rare emulator front end that is usable on a phone.
A simulated 1990s desktop with a working browser, games and applications, assembled as a preservation project rather than a joke.
Classic Mac OS booting instantly in a browser, with the software of the period already installed and ready to open.
A giant shelf of old programs and games that boot right in the browser through emulation, from early home computers to forgotten utilities.
The DOSBox emulator compiled for the browser, and the machinery most of the other DOS-in-a-tab projects are built on.
Thousands of DOS games, each booting in the browser on click. No download, no configuration, no floppy disk swapping.
Historically accurate emulations of early PCs, down to the timing, with the original manuals and ROM listings alongside.
Eight and sixteen-bit console libraries running in the browser, organised by system, with save states that actually work.
Coin-operated arcade cabinets from the seventies onward, emulated in a tab, attract mode and all.
Every entry in Detour is hand-sorted rather than scraped: filed under one category, given one to three moods, and placed in a time band for how quickly it pays off. The practical facts — cost, sign-up, sound, device and whether it is safe at a desk — are recorded per site and shown on every card, so you can rule things out before you click.
12 sites, each hand-sorted by category, mood and how long it takes to pay off.
12 of the 12 are free and need no account. None of them are paid.
1 of 12 work on a phone; the rest are desktop only. 12 are safe for work and 4 work with the sound off.
One button, one detour. Press it as often as you like.