Play Contra, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and more in Google Chrome

Yes, Google, you can proudly herald this one as a major victory for your browser in my books. If other Javascript benchmarks haven't been anything you could get excited about, maybe this one will do it. Ben Firshman's Javascript NES emulator runs best in Google Chrome.

Just head on over to his site (which will likely start bogging down today as this little baby inevitably moves from Reddit to Digg), pick a game, and get ready for some early 90s video gaming excitement.

One downside: you'll have to be cool with a similarly early 90s style screen (think original Gameboy). You'll only get a viewable area of about 256x240. If size isn't a major concern for you, here's a list of the games you can play:

• Contra
• Donkey Kong
• Dr. Mario
• Golf
• Legend of Zelda
• Lemmings
• Mario Bros.
• Pac Man
• Super Mario Bros.
• Tennis
• Tetris
• Tetris 2
• Zelda II
• Super Mario Bros. 3 (partially working)

JSNES works in other browsers, of course, but not quite as well. Firefox frame rates are generally reported to be about 1/10th or less those from Chrome. Safari (and most other Webkit browsers) should be up to the task.

[via Reddit]