Piepacker, a brand-new multiplayer social gaming platform that allows users to play fully-licensed retro games online and with friends, for free, is now available in open beta, following a $3 million seed funding round and $220,000 Kickstarter campaign.
With partnerships including Team 17 and Codemasters, Piepacker’s burgeoning library currently has over 60 retro games originally launched on the original PlayStation, Super Nintendo, GBA, SEGA Mega Drive and many other iconic consoles. Not only does this include Sensible Soccer, Worms World Party, Glover, and Earthworm Jim, but also new, retro-style indie games including Piepacker exclusives like Xeno Crisis by Bitmap Bureau and Spacegulls by Morphcat Games.
Every title supports cloud saves and the revolutionary service works directly from a Google Chrome browser and comes with built-in video chat including augmented reality 3D masks. The open beta is available in Europe, North America, Australia first and will be optimized later this summer for new territories such as Latin America, Japan, Singapore and the Middle East.
“Our goal with Piepacker has always been to build the platform fans of retro gaming have been dreaming of,” said Benjamin Devienne, co-founder and CEO of Piepacker. “This is a service like no other, which has been reflected in how significantly we’ve been backed during our latest funding round and by our fans on Kickstarter.”
The Kickstarter campaign for Piepacker met its $75,000 goal in just 20 hours, going on to secure $220,656 pledged by 1190 backers, including one backer who pledged $10,000. It is currently part of the top 1% most successful Kickstarter campaigns of all time.
Beyond the 60+ games included as part of the service at launch, additional upcoming features will include competitions and leaderboards, Twitch integration, as well as support for legally acquired ROMs, which are playable with friends in private rooms. Physical retro gaming cartridges also work through the PieReader – an official, one-time accessory that will be sent to Kickstarter backers in October.
Piepacker Studios will also be developing its own games exclusively for the service. The first of these titles, Arsène Lupin: Gentleman Bomber, was released on May 22nd, day when Kickstarter backers could redeem their early access to the platform. Watch the announcement trailer here.
Piepacker’s board of advisors includes former SEGA CEO Kenji Matsubara, Zynga co-founders Justin Waldron and Tom Bollich, Crunchyroll’s Kun Gao, and Humble Bundle’s Jeffrey Rosen.
The full list of 61 games available on Piepacker at launch is below:
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40 Winks
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Addiction Pinball
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Alligator Hunt
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Alter Ego
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Barkley Shut up and Jam 2
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Blender Bros
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Böbl
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Brave Battle Saga
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Brutal Sports Football (Beastball)
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Descent Maximum
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Dragon View
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Earthworm Jim
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Earthworm Jim 2
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Evolution Soccer
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Football Madness
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FoxKids.com Micro Maniacs Racing
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Gekido
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Glover
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Gluf
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Haunted Halloween 86
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Invasion from Beyond
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Iron Commando
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Legend
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Legend (Reboot)
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Loaded
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Maniac Square
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Micro Mages
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Misplaced
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Motor Mash
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Nebs n Debs
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Old Tower
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Power Football,
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O.D.T. – Escape or Die Trying.
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Psycho Pinball
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Radical Rex
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Rage of the Dragons
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Rageball
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Sensible Soccer ’98: European Club Edition
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Sensible Soccer: European Champions – 92/93 Edition
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Soccer Kid
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Spacegulls
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Star Versus
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Steel Force
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Street Racer
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Summer Challenge
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Super Bat Puncher
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Super Paw-N
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The Gadget Twins
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The Humans
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Thunder Hoop 2
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Top Racer
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Twin Dragons
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Ultimate Tennis
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Water Margin
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Winter Challenge
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Worms Blast
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Worms: World Party
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X2: No Relief
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Xeno Crisis
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Yazzie
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Zero Tolerance
About Piepacker:
Piepacker is a new free social gaming platform that allows users to play officially licensed retro games with friends online, from a web browser, without any download. Under development since March 2020, Piepacker opened a first private beta version in late December. Before the beta closed, 100,000 people had taken the opportunity to try out the platform and contribute to its development. After a Kickstarter campaign raising $220k, Piepacker’s beta is now available to the public.
Brad has been a die hard arcade fan ever since he can remember. From the first time he played Space Invaders, to the first time he played Pacman, Brad has always had a love for video games. Hanging out at either the Great American Fun Factory in the mall, or spending the night in front of the glowing games at the local roller rink, he was always thinking about when he can spend the next quarter. He also worked at Babbages, which is now GameStop, for over six years. Mostly because they had a really sweet checkout policy on new products and great discounts. But since he had the Atari 2600, he has never looked back and owned some of the greatest home machines, NES, SNES, GENESIS, Turbo Graphix 16, GameBoy, Game Gear, Lynx, Playsation 1,2,3,4 and Vita, XBOX, Gamecube, and N64...just to name a few. Brad is also a reviewer for Mobile Beat Magazine as well as a freelance videographer, part time disc jockey, performing artist and photographer. But has a true love is for video games and Star Wars, as he is a member of the 501st Central Garrison. His ultimate dream is to own a fully working pinball machine and arcade machine. Difficult to say which one, but a Star Wars one would be nice start.
