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nightrnr
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What defunct sites do you guys miss?

by nightrnr Tue Nov 23, 2021 1:19 am

I have become reflective in recent months...
About a lot of things actually.
But this topic is about the gaming sites you used to love and are no longer on the web.

I can break these down to 4 categories for now (I'm sure there are more).

-Company sites (like Working Designs) that had a lot of bonus content. I loved their Rpg Critic section
https://web.archive.org/web/20060207094 ... signs.com/

-Fan sites and blogs that offered unique perspectives and reviews on various gaming.
An example would be Segagagadomain (I know of no other site that attempted to catalog and mini review all Saturn imports).
https://web.archive.org/web/20170519214 ... select.htm

-Warez sites, like the old Isozone that imploded without warning. Say what you will about the fate of piracy, but that site had an insane amount of resources for so many systems. I lament it's loss with much melancholy.
Also miss Snenorama, but that had a lot to do with the fall of megaupload, imho. Most of it's links were using it to host files at the time.
Luckily, there are often alternatives, but not quite the same.

-Instructional sites like the Llamma Xbox page:
https://web.archive.org/web/20051231033 ... m:80/xbox/
This site made it possible for me to build an eprom reader to save a few oxbox systems. Haven't found that info anywhere else.
There was a lot of useful info on those pages.

I guess a 5th category would be forums. But a lot of those sites had or were basically run on forums. So I'm not sure how to classify it perfectly.

At least we have archive.org to preserve some of our lost cyber spaces. But that only goes so far and really only useful if you already know the old web address; also doesn't help if the whole site is run on a forum.
Even so, I encourage posting a link if you still have it handy. Sometimes it's useful in tracking something down.
Last edited by nightrnr on Tue Nov 23, 2021 1:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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nightrnr
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Re: What defunct sites do you guys miss?

by nightrnr Tue Nov 23, 2021 1:33 am

**reserved**
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Gucci
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Re: What defunct sites do you guys miss?

by Gucci Tue Nov 23, 2021 2:28 am

Not sure what category this fits in but the old Game Rankings site. Quite a bit better in getting the information you need with out the useless fluff from Metacritic.

Someone made an archive here which you can download the Excel/Google docs for your records.
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o.pwuaioc
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Re: What defunct sites do you guys miss?

by o.pwuaioc Tue Nov 23, 2021 2:32 am

Racketboy was pretty cool.

I really miss the late old period of the internet. I miss internet forums, all the programming forums that existed in particular. Reddit and Facebook are the absolute worst means of genuine dialogue out there. Forums or bust for me, personally. But also IRC, though I guess Discord is a not so bad of a replacement for it (I think? I haven't really tried it out in depth). I was the mod of an old programming forum called Nerdbrains back in 03/04 or so. Fortunately, some of the biggest forums survived (LinuxQuestions, AtariAge), but so many are gone completely (IIDB, Nerdbrains, Codecall, a lot of the special C++ or language specific sites) or are shadows of the former selves (Unilang, PCEngineFX).

I also played a lot of of Legend of the Greek Dragon, and although it's back now it died a while back and things were lost. But on that note, pretty sure it's very hard to find the replacement for Underground Gamer. Demonoid isn't the same, but I like that they're keeping the flame alive.

I was surprised to learn that YTMND is still around! With videos from 04 to boot. 04-07 was prime meme era. Everything after Boxxy was bad, trite, and derivative. There was a golden age to the meme sites, which included ebaumsworld, youtube, and 4chan that made them feel like the wild wild web. Sure they're all still around, but ebaumsworld is nothing like its former self, Youtube is all corporate now, and 4chan...well, it hasn't been relevant in a decade. Speaking of which, Caturday.com was the first big jump from 4chan to a global, cultural phenomenon. It's been dead. But there's the cheezburger site? My memory is too hazy to know which came first, but I think it was Caturday. Also surprised to see Failblog still around - does anyone even check that anymore? Doesn't seem the same as before.

Kongregate and those things were cool. I guess they're still around, but without official Adobe they might as well be dead. I had to look, but apparently NationStates is alive and kicking. No idea if it's the same as it was 10+ years ago, though.

Babelfish died with Google Translate I think. A bunch of search sites died (or basically died) with Google Search.

I really also miss older portals and collections of internet 1.0 sites. Seems like everything is only on Facebook/Youtube/Twitter/some phone app these days. How boring.
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Re: What defunct sites do you guys miss?

by Raging Justice Tue Nov 23, 2021 11:48 pm

The internet in general just isn't as fun as it was many years ago. It was once a fun place with lots of interesting things to find, plenty of neat sites with interesting perspectives. It was also a bit like the Wild West, with piracy and warez sites everywhere.

Nowadays, everything just feels....controlled. Everywhere you go things are getting banned, censored, taken down, etc. There's little in the way of free speech anymore because everything now is "wrong think" or "hate speech". You can't share as much stuff now as in the past because you always have to worry about "copyright". Can't even use a song on a youtube video without worrying about people coming after you. A lot of the "piracy" scene has been taken down (though it's still possible if you know where to look). That sounds like it'd be a good thing, but given how little regard companies seem to have for preservation (games being de-listed all the time) these days, or authenticity (re-releasing games with "changes" and "Improvements"), or what fans want (modern consoles that don't even allow you to back up your own save data anymore), I kind of want the piracy/hacking scene to blow up again...just so people have options.

A lot of gaming sites and entertainment sites in general these days, all feel the same too. A lot of the uniqueness of websites, blogs, etc. seems gone now. Most of the more interesting places on the internet are either gone or have massively changed.

The internet was a cool, exciting place once. Now...not so much. The internet in 2021 has become this cold, sterile, bland, and highly controlled place.
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marurun
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Re: What defunct sites do you guys miss?

by marurun Wed Nov 24, 2021 12:14 am

Raging Justice wrote:Nowadays, everything just feels....controlled. Everywhere you go things are getting banned, censored, taken down, etc. There's little in the way of free speech anymore because everything now is "wrong think" or "hate speech".


You’re going to be disappointed here, too, then. This discourse is headed into territory we have placed off-limits due to the effect on the community years ago. Which is to say, this is getting into politics in a way that is not at all game-related.
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o.pwuaioc
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Re: What defunct sites do you guys miss?

by o.pwuaioc Wed Nov 24, 2021 12:23 am

marurun wrote:
Raging Justice wrote:Nowadays, everything just feels....controlled. Everywhere you go things are getting banned, censored, taken down, etc. There's little in the way of free speech anymore because everything now is "wrong think" or "hate speech".


You’re going to be disappointed here, too, then. This discourse is headed into territory we have placed off-limits due to the effect on the community years ago. Which is to say, this is getting into politics in a way that is not at all game-related.

Without wading into those thorny issues (for the better, I think), he is right on one point: the internet isn't as vibrant as before. Sure activity is there, but it all feels same-y to me. The niche places are losing out to Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Or holing themselves up in super exclusive (and super sketchy) WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord groups.

Genuine question: Does bash.org publish Discord chats, too, now? Or still only IRC? (Also, bash.org still exists! I put on my wizard hat and robe to read it...)
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marurun
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Re: What defunct sites do you guys miss?

by marurun Wed Nov 24, 2021 8:02 am

Well, the Wild West doesn’t stay wild forever. Once enough settlers move to the frontier stricter order comes with them. Once something becomes more ubiquitous and broadly useful people start expecting it to become more predictable and constrained.
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Anapan
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Re: What defunct sites do you guys miss?

by Anapan Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:04 am

I miss fan-sites. Someone would be so well-versed in a fandom that they'd just post everything they could - all the fanart and all the theories. Soon, other fans would just send their takes, their art and any other stuff - windows themes, wallapers etc. Every few days they'd post new content.

Some are left - Metroid has a loyal fanbase.

Eventually I ran a couple of fansites and used to collaborate with creators to make new content for games. It was a lot of fun, but since there was no competition, anything new was celebrated. Now everything's pretty cut and dry. You don't need to search for answers or figure out anything.

I miss Gamefaqs in the early 00's.

I can't really explain it well in words, but here's Justin Whang's Angelfire Adventures #2 - Saved by the bell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Kvg-VAg_o
Last edited by Anapan on Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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stickem
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Re: What defunct sites do you guys miss?

by stickem Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:11 am

since you mentioned warez sites, I believe it was Underground Gamer? the font was blue and grey on the home page i believe, but was invite only and had everything.
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