LINKS

Websites and software I personally recommend, and find useful.

99.99% Free Software

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.

Arty Resources

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.

Websites and Docs

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.

Archives

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.

Free Games

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 began 4th December, 2022. last updated 5th December, 2024.