Websites and software I personally recommend, and find useful.
These applications support all major operating systems, unless stated otherwise.
| Krita | Free + open source photo manipulation and painting software |
|---|---|
| GIMP | Another free + open source photo software |
| FireAlpaca | Free painting software, specialised for comics. |
| MediBang | No Linux version available. Free painting software, specialised for illustration. |
| Vectorian Giotto | Windows only. Free alternative to classic Adobe Flash, supports ActionScript 2. |
| Pivot Animator | Windows only. Free stick-figure based animation software. |
| Clipnote Studio | Windows only. PC spiritual successor to Flipnote Studio by Nintendo. |
| Blender | Free + open source creation suite, well known for 3D modelling |
| KDenlive | Free + open source video editor. My favourite, easy to learn, runs well on lower-end hardware and has lots of FX. |
| Shotcut | Free + open source video editor |
| Openshot | Free + open source video editor |
| DaVinci Resolve | Video editor with free version, studio version is paid. I like this one too |
| AviUtl | Windows only. Free video editor from the 90s. Can be upgraded and improved with plugins. |
| Natron | Free + open source video compositing software |
| Godot | Free + open source video game engine |
| Audacity | Free + open source audio recorder and editor |
| VLC Media Player | Free + open source media player, takes literally any video, audio and image files |
| OpenMPT | Free + open source Music tracker (a type of music production software - watch this video!). |
| ProTracker 2 Clone | Clone of ProTracker for the Amiga, Music production software. |
| uBlock Origin | Best ad-blocker out there - can't browse without one in 2024 xD works with most browsers but I'll plug Firefox |
| JDownloader2 | Free + open source web download manager. Works with YouTube and many more sites. |
| yt-dlp | Command-line audio/video downloader. Works with YouTube and many more sites. |
Free-to-use tools and downloads for all sorts of digital art creation. Includes websites, drawing, music and editing, literally anything.
| Heckscaper | MSX's home page, which has links to samples and applications for music, and some drawing stuff like brushes and templates (i Love their CD template) |
|---|---|
| Oldschool PC Font pack | System and BIOS fonts from pre-GUI computers. |
| MySmiley | Oldschool smiley faces. |
| Wigglypaint | Drawing toy on itch.io. |
| Shake Art Deluxe | Drawing toy on itch.io. |
| Amiga Soundtracker Samples | A mass of free samples - perfect for use with music trackers. |
Any useful or interesting websites I know of.
| W3Schools | Learn about development, code, machine learning, cybersecurity and even Excel. |
|---|---|
| Stack Overflow | Developer forum, good place to find help with code. |
| MDN Docs | Documented information on CSS, HTML and JS by Mozilla. |
| hacks.guide | Docs on homebrew for a handful of consoles: PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, Wii U and Switch. |
| cfw.guide | Docs on homebrew for a few different devices. Some links go to same as hacks.guide, unique links include Apple iOS, Nintendo DSi and using Cemu emulator. |
| 8mb.video | Compresses videos. Popular for squeezing videos into Discord's file size limits. |
| Ezgif | Free GIF tools including compression, cropping, Video conversion and more. |
| Dirpy | Can download most online content. I like it cus you can add tags to music before downloading~ |
| Frogfind | Search engine for vintage computers. Converts results to basic HTML. |
| Wiby | A search engine of retro minimal HTML hobbyist websites. The "surprise me" button is fun. |
wow much stuff
| Archive.org | Everyone should know this one by now. Also home of the Wayback Machine. |
|---|---|
| Flashpoint Archive | Lots of Flash, HTML5, Shockwave etc. games and media, archived and downloadable. |
| Flipnote Archive | Flipnotes from Hatena backed up before it's closure. |
| Myrient | Video game and ROM preservation site. |
| The Mod Archive | Archive of Music modules. Listen to lots of retro music composed on trackers. |
| Archive Of Our Own | Archive for Transformative works. View some fanfiction and other works. |
Some are downloads, others run in browser.
| Cookie Clicker | If you start this you will NOT be able to stop trust me |
|---|---|
| Osu! | the rhythm game of all time |
| Tetr.io | "Stacker game in the same genre as Tetris" |
| List of HTML5 games on itch.io | Games from indie devs that will work in just your browser! |
| Classic Minecraft | Minecraft in your browserrr |
site started 4th December, 2022