Play Paratrooper online — the original 1982 DOS game Works — the full original game runs via DOSBox in your browser
Guide updated October 2026 · Runs via DOSBox + WebAssembly
Paratrooper — Greg Kuperberg's 1982 shooting game for the IBM PC. Your gun sits at the bottom of the screen; helicopters cross overhead and drop paratroopers, and jets drop bombs. If four soldiers land on one side of the gun they climb over and take it. Press Space on the title screen for keyboard play.
D-pad: fly · FIRE: ctrl · ALT: secondary · ESC: menu
⌨ Keyboard — for menus & name entry
Controls — what does what
| Action | Keyboard |
|---|---|
| Turn the gun | Left / right arrows |
| Fire | Up arrow |
| Start (keyboard play) | Space |
| Instructions | I |
Runs in your browser tab with DOSBox + WebAssembly — nothing is uploaded. Click the screen to capture input; press Ctrl+F10 to release mouse.
Paratrooper is no longer sold anywhere, and its publisher is gone or has left it unsold for decades. It is hosted here on the same footing as the Internet Archive's software collections. That is a practical position, not a legal claim. This page carries no advertising. Provenance: /apps/paratrooper/NOTICE.md. Rights holders: it comes down within 48 hours on request.
About Paratrooper
Paratrooper is one of the first widely-copied PC games. It runs in CGA's cyan-and-magenta palette and plays in short, increasingly frantic rounds. Shooting a helicopter scores more than shooting a falling soldier; hitting a soldier's parachute sends him straight down, and he can crush the men already on the ground.
How it runs here
This is the original DOS release of Paratrooper, unmodified, running in DOSBox compiled to WebAssembly. The whole game is about 1 MB, so it starts within seconds on a normal connection. Sound and music play once you click into the game.
Frequently asked questions
Can I play Paratrooper online for free?
Yes. Click Play and the original 1982 DOS version starts in your browser, running in a WebAssembly build of DOSBox. Nothing to install and no account.
Why is Paratrooper hosted here?
Paratrooper is not sold anywhere today; we checked the stores listed in its provenance note. It is preserved here the way the Internet Archive preserves old software. That is a practical position, not a legal claim. If the rights holder (Greg Kuperberg (Orion Software)) asks, it comes down within 48 hours.
Does my progress save?
Saved games persist in this browser between visits, best-effort. Clearing site data removes them.
Can I play on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Touch buttons for the keys Paratrooper uses appear under the game on touch devices.
More you can play in your browser
Related guides
Want a game like this on your own site?
Paratrooper isn't ours to give away — we host it, we didn't write it. But eleven of the games here we did write from scratch, and those are free for anyone to put on their own page: one line of HTML, no account, no permission, no attribution beyond a credit line.