One of the things about the video game industry is that it doesn't seem to stop growing. It may slacken off now and then but it would always seem to move on as new games get made and released from year to year. But then, it would be a shame and a waste if all those games which have become old and somewhat technologically obsolete be thrown away and forgotten. Aside from this, with the emergence of freeware, shareware, testware, and abandonware, the need for places to store all these games has been continually on the rise. Luckily and even providentially, the Internet and cloud storage has been perceived and realized so that storing and accessing all these games have been made conveniently possible.

This particular online sites with their corresponding computer networks do fall under the category of software repositories open to the public for both upload and download to keep these games continually alive and running. The ability for game code to be copied and distributed online has made these games continually available, otherwise, extinction of the game would have happened a long time ago. All that would be needed would be a software emulator for today's current computing machines or the appropriate platform the code was written for.

Game repositories however currently have a double-edged meaning. In general terms, the term Repository denotes a place where things are either deposited, stored, or offered for sales like a warehouse, a bank a cabinet, or a container all the way to a cemetery where they store one when one is no longer breathing. In terms of software or specifically games, the repository may either be an idle one for storage or a dynamic one for storage and development. For those who are familiar with Git and Github and other sites and services like it, they also fall under the term repository.

These services and online platforms are also known as Distributed Management Systems which are in essence dynamic and active repositories. Whether it be data, code, or any other form of multi-media stored in them, work being done with and on them is currently ongoing. This includes free-to-play games with open source codes. Anyone interested in them either to play or continually build on them can obtain permission and access to these free open source game sites. Distributed Management however ensures that the codes and data present in the repository can be collaborated on without the danger of accidentally overwriting over the original content. With Github, one can access the completed or incomplete (still under development) free-to-play games like those written in HTML which can simply be run on one's Internet browser.

The other form of the game repository is the prevalent game sites that store old abandoned games as well as newer free-to-play games available to the online public for download to either try-out or own. Not all of these games are open source but it wouldn't matter as the purpose is to simply store the games for people to have access to them. A common example would be Steam that besides being a software content online retail store acts as a free and try-out game repository as well. A visit to the site will present one with a huge list of available free-to-play titles available for download at any given time of the day. Some of the games are still in development (as for test-play) but that's the developer's business. No one aside from them or those authorized can distributed management system that game as Steam is not that sort of platform, to begin with. The game is there, as is, finished or unfinished and the repository simply stores it for its customer's download.

Free game (as well as paid) repositories are one of if not the most prolific kinds of online repositories today. From copies of simple arcade games which came out during the '70s to the current selection of advanced ultra-awesome audio-graphic experiences, game repositories are everywhere online all over the globe in different locations, languages, device platforms, and the type of games that they have. For micro-desktop-laptop computers (although a micro-computer today would be the basic equivalent of a mini-computer or even mainframe of the past), free games for multiple operating systems (Win, Mac, Lin) can be downloaded from popular sites like allgamesatoz.com, megagames.com, reloaded.org (which specializes in re-makes of old retro games), bestoldgames.net (the repository site for old DOS abandonware games of the '80s and '90s. Includes DosBox for download to be able to play the games) and the many game retail sites like EA's origin.com (which acts very much like Steam) and gog.com (which doesn't act at all like steam). There are special sites for indie developers as well (both paid and free games) of which itch.io (the main repository for the .io games) is probably the most popular today.

Also, the PC/Mac/Lin platforms are not the only devices where games are played. With the continued growth of the mobile game industry, free-to-play games on mobile no doubt hold the biggest majority of games being played in that industry. Just like the online-computer arena, repository sites have sprouted globally all over giving access to both old and new available games for portable gaming. Of these sites, Google Play for Android devices and the Apple App Store for IOS are the most popular and visited ones.

Lastly, a discussion on games would not be complete if console gaming is not included. Not everyone still has their old Family Computer, Super NES, SEGA MegaDrive, or even their PlayStation One still running in good order. There are still game stores (which can take orders online) that probably carry some of the more popular and memorable game cartridges and discs for these machines, but most of these games have been copied and stored on many online game repositories as well. As mentioned, emulators for current-day devices are usually also available on the sites that store these old venerable titles. So, if one is still interested in playing the original Legend of Zelda for the Famicom, one could probably still find a copy of it online.

With the current situation today in the gaming industry, one can surely surmise that free game online repositories will continue to be here to stay.