🎮 Play Pirates Online (Arcade)

Pirates is a 1994 arcade action game from NIX, built in the mold of Cabal and Blood Bros. — a fixed, third-person shooting gallery rather than a side-scroller. Two pirates set out on their captain’s orders to recover three pieces of a treasure map scattered across the islands of Shetland, La Isabela and Papeete, before hunting down the hidden treasure buried on the remote island of Tiuanapa.

How to Play

Your character stays anchored near the bottom of the screen while you aim and move through each stage, shooting the pirates and scenery in your path, tossing bombs for wider damage, and sliding to dodge incoming attacks. The game supports 2 players.

Default Browser Controls:

• Insert Coin: Shift (or 5)
• Start: Enter (or 1)
• Move / Aim: Arrow Keys
• Fire / Bomb / Slide: Z, X, C

Tips

• Shoot the scenery, not just the pirates: the game hides bonus points in destructible buildings like the shattered houses along each stage, so keep firing at the background as you move through.
• Save bombs for crowds: your bomb throw covers a wider area than your gun, so hold it for moments when several pirates close in at once rather than burning it on single targets.