play any nes game for free in firefox with firenes

June 14th, 2008 post a comment (16) stumble it! by: karen

FireNes is a little Firefox widget that allows you to instantaneously play any NES game in your browser. It’s free and it’s incredibly easy to install and use and it’s probably going to ruin my life because I can’t stop playing with it. It requires only a one-time, 5-second download to have a sidebar chock full o’ NES goodness.

The FireNes site is in Spanish; here is a not-too-terrific English translation. All you need to know is this: go to FireNes, click on “Install” (”Instalar” if you’re on the Spanish page and are feeling fancy), then relaunch Firefox. Go to the Tools menu and click on FireNes. It will pull up a menu of any game. Right click on the game to edit options and learn which keys to use.

You’re lucky I even wrote this post considering I’ve spent the last 3 hours “researching” the subject matter. And by “researching” of course I mean re-mastering Q-Bert and amassing coins in Mario-land- because they have a bunch of retro games on there in addition to the NES favorites.

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June 14th, 2008 post a comment (16) stumble it! by: karen

16 comments post a comment

1. joseph rodriguez | June 23rd, 2008 at 1:38 am

i cant wait to play old skool mario
2. Tanya | July 7th, 2008 at 5:18 pm

I have a USB NES controller, and I’d like to use it so I can play these games without having to use the keyboard. Any ideas on how to make that work?
3. technabob | July 7th, 2008 at 8:44 pm

Do you have something like this?
http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Smartjoy-Controller-Adapter-Converter/dp/B0009VIZSY

I’m not sure that it’ll do what you need, but it might map a traditional NES controller to keys on the keyboard. (and it needs an original NES controller, not a USB one).
4. Tanya | July 8th, 2008 at 8:35 am

No the one I have is an actual NES controller with a USB port on it so it can plug right into the computer. Only problem is, I have no clue what it’s compatible with. Doesn’t seem to work with FireNES, as I can’t switch the options from keyboard to USB port.
5. technabob | July 8th, 2008 at 7:37 pm

Is it one of these controllers?
http://technabob.com/blog/2007/07/07/classic-nintendo-controllers-for-your-pc-or-mac/

If it is, you might want to reach out to the guys over at Phreque:
http://www.phreque.com/component/option,com_contact/task,view/contact_id,1/Itemid,6/

and they might have a suggestion.
6. sj | July 10th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

uh try to configure the settings on firenes to change keys, idk if you can remap keys for it but if you can it should work
7. Tanya | July 10th, 2008 at 7:07 pm

Yeah it’s the top one on the link you sent. I’ll try to see if anyone at Phreque can help. I hope so!!
8. josh | July 16th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

please let me know if you find out a way to use the controller with firefox nes!!!!
9. Tanya | July 16th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

I haven’t been able to yet. Phreque wasn’t able to help much.
10. Nothing | July 21st, 2008 at 7:23 pm

You can use a USB controller, you need a freeware program called JoyToKey, which is a keyboard emulator for controllers. Find and download JoyToKey, configure it with your controller for the keys on the keyboard FireNES needs, and enjoy!
11. LakotaJames | July 21st, 2008 at 10:47 pm

If you are on windows, use Joy2Key. I have yet to find a good one for linux… if anyone else does, tell me. here is my email: lakota [DOT] james [AT] gmail [DOT] com
12. I want to play finalfantasy | July 21st, 2008 at 11:36 pm

Downloaded firenes a couple weeks ago and I love it but unfortunatly the way its set up makes playing games like final fantasy all but impossible. Currently you can’t save your progress, has anyone heard of a possible update that might fix this problem?
13. Namagem | July 22nd, 2008 at 12:03 am

Unfortunately, the emulation is horribly lag infested. It’s nice to have an emulator built into firefox, but I’ll wait until they can do it full speed.
14. josh | July 22nd, 2008 at 8:38 am

im on a mac

i wish i could just plug in a usb controller and use it that simple!
15. brian | July 23rd, 2008 at 7:19 pm

Is there simply just a way to remap the controls, at least, for the keyboard? I’d love to have the D-pad on the left and the B,A buttons on the right.

My brain won’t let me play it reversed.
16. nathan kay | August 29th, 2008 at 12:27 am

My keyboard controls don’t work for the games. When I right click on the game title and then go to options, I can’t change the controls. What can I do??