🏛️ All-time classics

The canon. These are the games that had a cabinet, a cartridge or a slot in the Windows Start menu, remade for a modern browser without the coins, the floppy or the install. If a game has been played in more offices than any productivity tool, it is probably on this shelf.

Each one keeps the rules you remember and adds the things you would expect now: touch controls, best scores per mode, a par and a house target to chase, and a stamp when you beat either. The “since” year on the card is when the original came out — a few of these predate email.

• Tetris ~5 min · Takes practice· since 1984 The purest five-minute reset there is: one more line, then back to work.
• Snake ~3 min · Easy to learn· since 1976 Two minutes from “just one game” to a new personal best. Or a wall.
• Minesweeper ~4 min · Takes practice· since 1990 The game that shipped with every office PC for a reason. Beginner to Expert.
• Breakout ~4 min · Easy to learn· since 1976 Satisfying, loud in spirit, silent in practice. Ideal for open-plan offices.
• Solitaire ~8 min · Takes practice· since 1990 Draw 1 for a gentle break, Draw 3 with no redeal when you want a real fight.
• Asteroids ~4 min · Takes practice· since 1979 Vector-era space combat with momentum you will absolutely misjudge.
• Boulder Dash ~5 min · Takes practice· since 1984 Eight caves of gravity, greed and very heavy rocks. Dig out from under one and it falls.
• Xonix ~4 min · Takes practice· since 1984 Claim territory one careful cut at a time. Greed is punished instantly.
• Color Lines ~8 min · Easy to learn· since 1992 Turn-based and unhurried. Your game saves itself when the meeting starts.
• Digger ~5 min · Takes practice· since 1983 The 1983 CGA classic: dig, grab, and never stand under a wobbling bag of gold.
• Pac-Man ~4 min · Takes practice· since 1980 Four ghosts, four corners, one power pellet away from glory.