Most text adventure games are easily accessible on modern computers because of the small number of standard virtual machines (such as the Z engine) used to control these games in their original version. which have been recreated in more portable versions. A popular text adventure interpreter is Frotz, which can play all the old Infocom text adventures. Some modern text adventure games can be played even on very old computer systems. Text adventure games are also suitable for personal digital assistants because they have very small system requirements. Other text adventure games can be played entirely through web browsers.

On the other hand, many graphical adventure games cannot run on modern operating systems. Early adventure games were designed for home computers that are not in use today. Emulators and virtual machines are available for modern computers that allow these older games to be played on the latest operating systems, although players must have access to game resources to play them legally. One open-source software project called ScummVM provides the free LucasArts adventure game engine, the SCUMM-based Humongous Entertainment adventure game engine, early Sierra games, Revolution Software 2D adventure games, Coktel Vision adventure games, and a few other assorted 2D adventure games. ResidualVM is an offshoot of ScummVM, which aims to emulate 3D adventure games such as Grim Fandango and Myst III: Exile. Another, called VDMSound, can emulate older sound cards, which are required for many games.

One of the most popular emulators, DOSBox, is designed to emulate an IBM PC-compatible computer running DOS, the native operating system of most old adventure games. Many companies, such as Sierra Entertainment, have included DOSBox in their re-releases of older games.