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Must we not possess strong hearts?
The web's changed a lot over the course of me using it — I always think of is how commercialization has completely shifted its environment. Large websites such as those used for social networking have dwarfed and absorbed many former places of interest, making it harder to find or host something cool without working through those aforementioned channels that seem to hold a total monopoly on parts of the web. This is where I put anything I know of interest— places and environments you may or may not have heard of before, detached from the larger climates. If you have any suggestions too, feel free to contact me!
ToolsPhotopea — DO NOT PAY FOR PHOTOSHOP DO NOT PAY FOR PHOTOSHOP DO NOT PAY FOR PHOTOSHOP. This does a lot of things that Photoshop already does: it supports PSD files, layer styles, there's just so much you can do here for it being online and free! If you need a strong image editor for casual use, check it out.
Slick Write — Great little app I use alongside other tools to help refine my writing! Just like any program, treat it as a companion, rather than gospel; it helps give insight into things like your sentence flow, word choice, and any bad habits you may be lapsing into.
Aeon Timeline — My weapon of choice when it comes to planning out my larger narrative projects! It's a paid software, but it's relatively inexpensive for how remarkable it is. You can plot out entire timelines, from characters and locations to events and relationships. If you're a writer like I am, you may benefit from the use of such a powerful tool for pre-planning.
GamesFlashpoint Archive — A truly commendable project that takes various Flash games and animations of the old web (though there's Shockwave and Java titles in there aswell!) and seals them all up in a launcher that handles all the things that don't work anymore. If you have ANY nostalgia for that age, I urge you to check it out. There's a lot here and no doubt you'll spot some favorites.
The Mega Man Home Page — This is one of the most comprehensive fansites I've ever seen, and to my great delight it's still updated! The layout was always really lovely looking with the art on the front page. It covers just about everything, from fan theories to merchandise... Some info is a little weird or inaccurate today, but it's got excellent coverage and the webmaster clearly still has a lot of love for the franchise.
Mega Man RPG Prototype — Despite the slightly misleading title, this is a full-fledged Pokemon-inspired RPG that can be played in your browser! It's been in development since 2006, and as of the year 2023, the game is officially considered complete! I quite like this one - you can collect almost all the Robot Masters throughout the OG Mega Man universe, outfit them with various abilities, and take your powered-up team against all kinds of challenges. There's even an asynchronous multiplayer element - playing the game gives you points that let you climb a leaderboard, and you can fight CPU ghosts of other players' teams aswell.
Caiman — This was one of my favorite websites to check out freeware games... The original owner passed away in 2010, and it no longer gets updated, but surprisingly it's still up thanks to the work of their colleague. I used to browse this place all the time for Sonic and MUGEN fangames... it's how I discovered the fairly well-known Sonic Robo Blast 2 back in the day. Quality is a mixed bag as you'd expect, but if you're looking for a time capsule of old stuff or just something new to try, check it out!
Bootfighter Windom XP — One of my favorite freeware games of all time, it's something of a Gundam VS styled game, or maybe Virtual-On, but with mecha based on and inspired by operating systems! There's been a few newer releases since then (most of them either paid or untranslated to my knowledge), but this is the freeware original, which is still plenty fun. My favorite part is the "pilot editor", which lets you create "pilots" in the form of images that pop up with voicelines and taunts while you're playing. It also has an excellent multiplayer implementation! Me and my friends used to really have a blast doing free-for-alls in the Skype days.
Advance Wars by Web — An awesome little site that lets you play full games of Advance Wars with other players in an asynchronus "mail chess"-like format, containing content from 1, 2, and DS! Extremely well-polished with a ton of options for customizing games and making your own maps. I love going through long matches of this with my brother.
Tetr.io — Probably the most popular free method of playing Tetris these days! Polished interface, good amount of customization, storng online features like a ranked ladder, a battle royale-like mode and replays. If you download the client and use the Tetr.io Plus toolkit, you can customize it even more!
Miscellaneous Websites