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where the road forks

This is where I link to other websites that I like and think are worth visiting. Non-English sites are listed in their own category for each language, as there's less of them than English sites.

Unless stated otherwise, the websites linked here should be usable without JavaScript.

| Anime/manga | Development resources | DIY | Frontends | Gaming | Graphics | Internet | Link directories | Music | Hosting | Occultism | Old computers | Operating systems | Personal sites | Photography | Physics | Search engines | Software | Videos/animations | Wikis | Polish websites | Archived websites |

Anime/manga

  • Animated Anime Gifs Paranoia - want to put a gif of your favourite anime on your site? You might find it here! There are even gifs from my favourite anime, Ghost in the Shell.
  • AniLinks - link directory of sites focused on anime and manga.
  • In the Shell - a Ghost in the Shell fansite from 2008, with a design staying true to its cyberpunk aesthetic. Won't render properly without JS, but only uses a bit of JS supported by old browsers, so your old toaster won't explode.
  • Electric Sheep - comprehensive Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex fansite with character descriptions, episode overviews and image galleries.
  • HARD SHELL - a fanlist dedicated to Motoko Kusanagi, the main character of Ghost in the Shell.
  • Otaku News - all sorts of manga and anime related news! Has some reviews too.

Development resources

At this point I might need to add subcategories O_O

  • John December's HTML Station - an HTML tutorial and reference straight out of the 2000s, covering from HTML 2.0 all the way up to 5.
  • Sizzling HTML Jalfrezi - another 90s HTML reference and tutorial. A lot of Netscape and IE-specific knowledge.
  • Lissa Explains it All - classic HTML/CSS/JS tutorial with a very cute and colorful design. Oddly enough, the ads on it still work, so use an adblocker or turn off JavaScript.
  • W3C HTML Validator - validate your HTML, CSS, Atom, RSS and so on.
  • Moving Forth - a series of articles about writing/porting Forth runtime environments in assembly.
  • TurboForth - a Forth dialect for the TI-99/4A. Has one of the best string libraries among the Forths I have seen.
  • Pan Docs - documents the hardware of the Game Boy and Game Boy Color.
  • Learn TI-83 Plus assembly in 28 days - a classic, easy to follow Z80 assembly tutorial focused on the architecture of TI-83+/84+ graphing calculators (not the basic TI-83, which has a different architecture).
  • Commodore 64 memory map - exhaustively documented!
  • Developer's Home - tutorials for making WAP sites. That's right, the sites for very old phones.
  • 6502.org - everything about the MOS 6502, one of the first affordable single-chip CPUs which was used in a lot of microcomputers and consoles in the 80s and is still manufactured to this day! This CPU powered the Commodore 64, NES/Famicom, Atari 2600, 8-bit Atari computers and many more devices. Indispensable site if you want to program a 6502 in assembly.
  • Malbolge - the programming language from HELL. The most readable programming language I have ever seen, certainly not write only ;p
  • Bit Twiddling Hacks - bitwise operations handy for programming embedded systems and vintage computers.
  • Motif Programing Manual - all the knowledge needed to write programs with Motif, a Unix GUI library from the 90s which is very lightweight for modern standards and has a chiseled 3D aeshetic typical of 90s GUIs. I wish more libraries had documentation this good.
  • theForger's Win32 API tutorial - an early 2000s basic-to-intermediate tutorial for writing GUI programs with the Win32 API.
  • AY-3-8910 homepage - everything about the AY-3-8910 sound chip used in many old computers like ZX Spectrum and Atari ST.
  • FlounderCraft - a site ran in the 90s and 2000s by a computer scientist who worked closely with Microsoft, has a lot of knowledge about Windows programming of that era. Check out the MVP tips section!
  • Web-safe color palette - a 216 color palette which should display in the same way on most 256 color displays. Almost everyone today has a true-color display, but this palette was a big part of the 90s web aesthetic.
  • Hare - a promising systems programming language, kind of like C but simpler and less aged, can interoperate with C. Has an independent standard library (no libc dependency) and an open-source compiler based on the lightweight QBE backend.
  • The HTML Sourcebook 3rd edition Web Site Contents - examples of HTML 3.2 and early CGI server side scripting.
  • VanillaJS - a very lightweight and capable JavaScript framework ^w^
  • Win32 Assembler FAQ - frequently asked questions about assembly programming for Windows.

DIY

Projects in the sites from this section may involve high voltages and hazardous chemicals. Follow at your own risk. I am not responsible for any injuries, property damage or other misfortunes from improperly using the knowledge on the sites in this section.

  • Simplifier - technologies like vacuum tubes, telephones, paint, glue, conductive glass, (very weak) solar cells made from raw materials and chemicals.
  • Spark Bang Buzz - DIY electronic components. Pyrite diodes, galvanized steel tunnel diodes, magnetic amplifiers and even CRTs and (ultraviolet) lasers!! This site even shows how a simple flame can be used as a triode.
  • danyk.cz - lots of DIY electronic circuits, mostly analog. The site has both a Czech and an English version.

Frontends

  • Wayback Classic - lightweight Wayback Machine frontend, designed to work on old computers.
  • The Old Net - another Wayback Machine frontend for old computers.
  • BreezeWiki - ad-free, user-friendly frontend for Fandom wikis. Requires modern JavaScript support.

Gaming

  • The Cave of Dragonflies - one of the best sites for Pokemon knowledge, also has a blog and webmaster guides!
  • idgames - repository of community levels for classic id Software games (mainly 1993 Doom/Doom 2).
  • PSXDatacenter - exhaustive database of PlayStation 1, 2 and Portable games.
  • Betacraft - a launcher for very old Minecraft versions, including Indev and Infdev. Written in Java, resembles the classic official launcher.
  • MCArchive - an archive of old Minecraft mods.
  • Kelesis Home Page - a site focused on STGs by a company called Compile.
  • VGG - fun early 2000s site about game consoles! Can you believe there was a time when the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation 2 were "fancy newer systems"?
  • Toaplan Museum - the history of Toaplan (the studio which made Zero Wing), information about their games and soundtrack releases.

Graphics

  • 2bit - a site dedicated to Game Boy-style 4-level grayscale (white, light gray, dark gray, black).
  • my buttons world - a collection of 88x31 gif buttons.

Internet

Link directories

  • Coyote's Link Hub - a big directory with a lot of categories and some articles about the Internet. More focused on software and information sites than personal sites.
  • RSS List - a directory of websites hosted on Neocities with an RSS/Atom feed.
  • Peelopaalu - a directory of random websites, not updated anymore.

Music

  • KHInsider Video Game Music - this site has easily downloadable soundtracks of almost all video games, even the most obscure ones.
  • OPL3 Emulator - a Java applet which emulates the OPL3 sound chip used for music in most DOS games.
  • Mirsoft - a site dedicated to hosting MIDI and MOD video game soundtracks. Those music formats take a lot less processing power to play than formats which store a recording like MP3, and MIDIs let you change their sound with soundfonts!
  • Andrelouis - huge collection of 2000s phone ringtones!

Hosting

  • Revontulet - very simple free image hosting designed to work on old computers. Up to 4 MB.

Occultism

  • Archive of the Sealed Gods - a very detailed site about the spirituality of Touhou, its mythological inspirations and similarities to esoteric practices. This site is also an excellent introduction to Eastern esotericism even if one does not play Touhou.
  • Learning the Tarot - a straightforward introduction to divination from Tarot cards and a reference of those cards. Also has a directory of decks and even more Tarot knowledge.
  • Internet Sacred Text Archive - online archive of sacred texts from all sorts of religions, mythologies and occult practices.

Old computers

Operating systems

  • NetBSD - open-source Unix system, actively developed, ported to a lot of architectures. Will run on almost anything that has a CPU, even a 68k Amiga or Macintosh.
  • OpenBSD - open-source Unix system with a focus on security, derived from the same BSD codebase as NetBSD.
  • ReactOS - open-source Windows recreation effort, aiming for full software and even driver compatibility. Unstable, but it's steadily improving. Has a Windows 2000 like UI, focuses on the classic Windows API.
  • Haiku - actively developed open-source BeOS continuation, inheriting its unique features like the very uniform and lightweight GUI. Surprisingly usable, with a lot of modern software being ported to it. The 32-bit version is binary compatible with BeOS.
  • FreeDOS - open-source DOS, pretty much fully compatible with MS-DOS. The CD comes with a lot of open source software for DOS too.
  • ELKS - open-source Unix system designed to run on an 8088 IBM PC with 640 KB of RAM (with all the usual Unix features like multitasking and multi-user operation). The kernel is based on Linux, but is heavily stripped down. Doesn't have much software for it, but IT'S UNIX ON AN 8088. Hosted on github, which doesn't work too well in the browser without JavaScript, but can be cloned with git clone.
  • OSdata - an old site with a ton of articles about operating systems and computers in general. Most articles were last updated about 2004, but I'm still linking this site as old knowledge is worth preserving.

Personal sites

  • cidoku.net - sinister themed site with flash animations, thoughts about technology and many other topics, original characters and a lot more cool things.
  • Toasty Technology - rants about Internet Explorer and a showcase of 90s GUIs.
  • Frutiger Aero Archive - a site dedicated to Frutiger Aero and other 2000's tech aesthetics. Has a lot of resources from that era - wallpapers, icons, flash animations and software!
  • Metal Machines - the raw metal of machines, sounds of initrd, computer/electronic projects and some good music on top of that.
  • Hutch3G - a fun website about 2000s mobile phones and more!
  • VHS Overdrive - a site about the internet, technology, games and more with an aesthetic inspired by amber monochrome CRTs.
  • A. N. Lucas's Web Lounge - has an art gallery, a big collection of 88x31 buttons, some old Windows 9x games, a small HTML tutorial and more.
  • Xisuma's Musical Journey - xisumavoid's reviews of music albums, including extreme metal. You likely know him more for his YouTube videos.
  • ReduxFlakes - a site mainly about software, also has a great essay about the dangers of LLMs.
  • i love isopods so much - a lot of information about a type of crustaceans called isopods, and a quiz that shows which isopod are you like :3
  • Netscape Blog - a blog mostly about old computers and software with a theme based on the Netscape logo.
  • The Cyber Vanguard - oldschool programming, links to cool articles, an 88x31 GIF collection, mirrors of bygone websites and more!

Photography

  • butkus.org - a big collection of film camera manuals, maintained since 1997!

Physics

  • Cyberphysics - comprehensive site for school-level physics studying with a fun teaching style and a sick Y2K theme. Designed with the British school system in mind. This site makes me think of studying physics again!!

Search engines

  • Marginalia - small but surprisingly useful search engine with its own index, prioritizes independent websites. My favorite search engine right now, great for finding cool websites and it's not even too bad for looking up programming problems.
  • Wiby - another small search engine for independent sites, has a smaller index than Marginalia. Not the engine to use if you need an answer to a specific question, but handy for finding fun websites loosely related to a search.
  • Old'aVista - search engine to find historic websites preserved by the Internet Archive. Designed to recreate the look and feel of AltaVista (a search engine popular in the 90s), has a directory of old sites too.
  • Mojeek - independent keyword-based search engine with its own index, based in the UK. I really liked it until they introduced an annoying CAPTCHA which makes it basically unusable on old computers. I'm still linking to it, as alternative search engines are always nice to have.

Software

  • ticalc.org - games and other software for your Texas Instruments graphing calculator!
  • Macintosh Garden - huge software archive for old Macs (68k, PowerPC, early Intel).
  • Skipster1337's site - a lot of software for Windows XP.
  • Mermaid Elizabeth - a site dedicated to Microsoft Comic Chat, an IRC client which renders conversations as comic strips. Has some other cool programs too!
  • Delorie Software - the DJGPP C compiler for DOS, some webmastering tools and electronic design software.
  • RichFiles TI-Calculator Software - some programs for TI-82 calculators.
  • IETester - a program to test your site in all versions of Internet Explorer. Works from at least Windows XP to 8.1, doesn't work on 10 and 11.
  • xwindows.in.th - some cool open-source software and a link directory focused on articles.
  • skarnet.org - simple and reliable system management software for Linux, including the s6 init system.
  • Windows 3.x Resources - a software archive for Windows 3.x.

Videos/animations

  • Dagobah - Flash animations, mainly Touhou.
  • Cornica - QuickTime videos to watch on your old Mac (or PC).
  • Flashpoint Archive - THE archive of Flash animations and games, over 2 terabytes.
  • Cybercomputing Flash MX tutorials - tutorials for making animations in Macromedia Flash MX and more, including making Y2K-style buttons!
  • KamTape - Flash-based video sharing website similar to 2000s YouTube, old computer friendly!

Wikis

  • Wikipedia - huge collaborately created online encyclopedia. Everyone knows this one, but I'm still linking it because why not?
  • Touhou Wiki - wiki full of information about Touhou games, mangas, characters and so on.
  • Legacy Portable Computing Wiki - a wiki documenting old phones and PDAs.
  • Tekkit Classic Wiki - knowledge and tutorials for Tekkit Classic, a tech modpack for Minecraft 1.2.5 which is still very fun and is much lighter than most modern modpacks.
  • Technic Pack WIki - the wiki for Technic SSP (originally just Technic Pack), Tekkit Classic's bigger, single-player only brother.
  • DoomWiki - everything about Doom, the Doom engine's inner workings and its source ports.
  • Permacomputing - a site about computing in more sustainable ways, including using and maintaining old and/or weak computers.
  • z80 Heaven - all about Zilog Z80 assembly, focuses on TI-83+/84+ calcs but handy for programming all Z80 machines. The instruction set reference is top notch, with cycle and byte counts for every instruction, and on top of that the wiki has a Frutiger Aero-like theme.

Polish websites

There aren't many independent Polish websites these days - most shut down with the growth of corporate social media.

  • Bogdan Drozdowski's assembly tutorial - a Polish x86 assembly tutorial almost as old as the internet, but still a great resource to learn the basics of assembly. Covers assembly programming for DOS and Linux. Has tutorials for tricky things in assembly, such as input/output, multiplication and file handling, and a list of BIOS/DOS interrupts and Linux system calls. Includes a library to make assembly more convenient. This site gets updated to this day! A very easy to read, distraction free design.
  • Piteusz's website - the personal website of Piteusz, a Polish YouTuber who makes videos about old computers. He isn't very active these days, but his old videos are still very much worth watching. His site has a blog and tutorials for old computers and has been an inspiration for my site.
  • Atariki - THE Polish 8-bit Atari encyclopedia. Memory maps, graphics modes and a lot more 6502, ANTIC and GTIA knowledge. I wish the Polish internet had a Commodore 64 wiki this good T_T
  • Tajemnice Atari - a free online archive of "Tajemnice Atari" (The Secrets of Atari), an early 90s Polish magazine about 8-bit Atari computers. A lot of fun code examples there, both BASIC and assembly.
  • tanuki.pl - Polish anime/manga review site with a really cool design.
  • kursjs.pl - Polish JavaScript tutorial focusing on vanilla JavaScript.
  • Weird Science - a huge list of scientific experiments. Chemistry, biology, astronomy, electronics and more. Some experiments may involve hazardous chemicals and I'm not responsible for any injuries, property damage or other misfortune from improperly following them.
  • Test 4free - Polish quiz site from the 2000s that's still up somehow, with a lot of fun user-made quizzes from that era. A good window into the Polish internet culture of those days!

Archived websites

Those sites are no longer hosted, but their valuable knowledge and history has been preserved by Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

  • Tenouk - HUGE site with a ton of C and C++ programming articles/tutorials from the 90s and 00s. Includes obscure knowledge related to old Windows versions. This was still up in May 2026 :c If you see abandoned websites like these still up, please archive them!
  • MANGA: Ghost in the Shell - the official promotion site of the 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie. Hard to get more cyberpunk than this ^^
  • 「東洋の魔窟」九龍城砦探検記 (Japanese) - photos of the Kowloon Walled City, the most densely populated human settlement in history, taken in the 1980s before it was demolished.
  • Tengwar Feanora (Polish) - a website about tengwar, the alphabet used by elves in Lord of the Rings, and how to write Polish in it!
  • Windows Online (Polish) - 90s/00s resource about Windows 98, 2000 and XP. Customization tutorials, fun software and so on, even some web design tips. A great example of early 2000s Polish web design.
  • Windows XP Knowledge Base Archive - Microsoft Knowledge Base articles for Windows XP, which were on Microsoft's site a long time ago.
  • How to make a good ID in Atom - an article thet explains the "id" element in Atom (the news feed format).
  • WirusPC.pl (Polish) - early 00s Polish web magazine about malware.
  • kursjs.pl (2014 version, Polish) - this one is still up and updated, but the 2014 version of this site has some knowledge about making scripts compatible with old browsers like IE5 and 6 that's no longer in the modern version of this JS tutorial. The older design is also something to behold.
  • M.H. and Black Seventeen's Anime Reviews! - alphabetically indxed reviews of 90s and 2000s anime.
  • Pokemon Elite 2000 - early 2000s website dedicated to Pokemon games.
  • TrueType Q&A (1999) - a Q&A page for TrueType frozen in time in 1999. This one is still online, but I couldn't find a better category for it ~_~
  • Virusfighters Nerds - 90s website about viruses of those times, mostly Microsoft Office macro viruses.
  • xion.log (Polish) - Polish software/computer blog from 2008, featuring a big Windows API tutorial called "Od zera do gier kodera" (from zero to coder's games, hard to translate the rhyme). It was one of the first programming tutorials I have ever read!

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