Plex, well known as a streaming service for movies, music and TV shows from your own computer, is now adding something else that you can stream: video games (via Protocol) Plex announced the new service, called Plex Arcade, on its blog and also launched a website for it. The service will cost $ 3 a month if you subscribe to the Plex Pass and $ 5 a month if you don’t.
Instead of focusing on modern console or phone games like its competitors, Plex allows you to play Atari games. You’re taking the name of the arcade seriously, as you can play Atari classics, like Centipede, Super Breakoutand Missile Command, as well as Atari 2600 and 7800 games. In all, there are 27 games available on the service.
Unlike other game subscription services, where you can simply sign up on your console and start playing, Plex Arcade has some requirements. The first is a Plex media server running on a Windows or macOS computer. Linux is not supported because Plex is using Parsec to stream the game.
This means that you will have to sign up for a Parsec account, if you don’t already have one, and log in to Plex. There’s a little more freedom when it comes to where you can stream games, since Android devices and TVs are compatible, as well as Google Chrome and iOS and Apple’s tvOS. Plex says you can play with “just about any Bluetooth enabled controller”.
The service also supports the addition of its own emulators and ROMs, which is good, but overall it is a little difficult to sell. Even with the Plex Pass price of $ 3 a month, you’re paying a lot for games that, at the moment, can basically run in a microwave. To be fair, it allows you to run them on something like an iPhone or Apple TV, but games are available for Android and PC.
If you’re interested in playing them for nostalgic purposes, it might be worth a try, but you might want to take the time to do that – setting up was an exercise in frustration for me, and I’ve never really been able to play a game successfully. (IOS and tvOS clients crashed on a rotary loading button and the keyboard controls didn’t seem to do anything when trying to play on Chrome.)
If you want to try it for yourself, there is a free seven-day trial, but you will need to insert a credit card or link your PayPal. Plex says that this is mainly a skunk works project, saying in the blog post that “[i]If there is interest and we see some submarines, it will become the glorious pheasant that we know it can be. But if you drop the ball, it will die on the vine like a trampled donkey goomba. ”Harsh.