Every port on Is It Ported? is played by a person on real devices before we publish anything about it. We record what we measured, on which device and on which date, and we show that information on the page.
Which devices do we test on?
We test on a Windows PC. That’s where most people play browser ports and where almost every recompilation, decompilation and fan PC port runs.
| Setup | Why |
|---|---|
| Windows PC with Chrome | The most common setup for browser games |
| Windows PC with Firefox | Firefox handles some web ports differently, so we check both |
| Windows PC, native install | Recompilations, decompilations and source ports run as normal Windows programs |
We publish a browser port only after playing it in both Chrome and Firefox on Windows. For native PC ports we install the port on Windows and play it from the first menu to real gameplay.
We don’t test on phones, Macs, Chromebooks or a Steam Deck yet, and each page says which setups we used. Results for other devices come from player reports, which we show separately from our own tests. When we add a device, it appears on this page and on the tester’s author page.
What do we measure?
- Time to play: seconds from opening the page to controlling the game.
- Download size: how much the page downloads before you can play.
- Smoothness: smooth, playable, choppy or unplayable, with notes on what we saw.
- Controls: keyboard, controller and touch, mapped key by key.
- Audio, saving and full screen: whether they work.
- Multiplayer: if a port offers it, we try to join a session from a second browser.
- Problems: errors, crashes or black screens, and whether a simple fix helps.
We also note the device model, the operating system, the browser version, our connection speed and the version of the port we tested.
How do we check that a site is safe?
Before we play anything on a new site we check it: when the domain was registered, whether its certificate is valid, whether Google Safe Browsing or VirusTotal flag it, and whether it shows pop-ups, forced redirects, fake download buttons or notification prompts. Each port page shows the verdict and the date of the check.
How do we keep results current?
Ports change quickly. Ports that work are re-tested at least every 30 days, projects younger than two months every 14 days, and ports that need your own files or only partly work at least every 45 days. When a port goes down, a person confirms it before we change the page. Every status change is dated in the page’s history.
What we never do
- We never host game files and never link to game files, ROMs, ISOs or BIOS files.
- We never publish test results we didn’t measure ourselves.
- We never let a project’s authors, a publisher or an advertiser change our results.
Player reports
Players can add their own results for devices we didn’t test. Reports are read by a person before they appear, and we show them separately from our own tests.