Thread: 18 Undiscovered Websites Every Gamer Should Know

The gaming niche is characterized by its haves and have-nots. You’ve seen Kotaku, IGN, GameSpot, Joystiq, 1UP and the others, but what about the great, lesser-known gaming sites?

This post introduces 18 great gaming sites you might not have seen before. Whether you’re looking for freebies, music, laughs or oddities, there’s something here for occasional and hardcore gamers alike.


1. Overclocked Remix is a community hub of users who painstakingly remix and arrange video game music. There are thousands of tracks available for download. If you like the soundtrack to your favorite game, you can bet it has been remixed and reworked here.





2. The Freeware Indie Games Database offers just under 1,000 play-tested freeware titles from independent game developers. The games here are innovative and unique. Some of them are bound to be re-developed as Wii titles.





3. POKE is a light-weight utility that allows you to cheat in almost any single player game, whether it’s already published or to be published in the future.





4. The Daedalus Project gets into the minds of MMORPG players. The website’s author has surveyed over 35,000 gamers and provides a detailed break-down of his findings in areas such as the player life-cycle, making friends and status reversal. It’s fascinating stuff.





5. Gaming Magazines of the Pre-Internet Era is a treasure trove for retro gamers. It links out to .PDF databases of old and out of print gaming magazines.





6. The Grand List of Role Playing Game Clichés is a list of 100+ painful clichés any RPG fan would have encountered before. My favorite? The No! My beloved peasant village cliché: “The hero’s home town, city, slum, or planet will usually be annihilated in a spectacular fashion before the end of the game, and often before the end of the opening scene.”





7. GameCakes is the website for people who love cake and video games. These game-themed cakes run the gamut, from the bizarre to the majestic. The scrumptious photos will have you baking your own cupcakes in no time.





8. CrazyPC is the hardcore gamer’s place for computer accessories. All the neon, case mods, plexiglass, tubes and coolant fluid you can poke a memory stick at.





9. VGMusic is host to 24,000+ midi versions of video game tracks from all your retro favorites: Megaman, Mario, Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, et al.





10. Build Your Own Gaming Computers is a website dedicated to helping you… well, you can probably guess. Gaming rigs sell for thousands of dollars and learning to build your own can save you lots of cash. This website provides advice on the entire process, from choosing parts to installation.





11. Abandonia offers thousands of abandonware DOS downloads. Abandonware essentially means games which aren’t sold anymore, prompting their release into the public domain. They’re the games you might have owned and loved as a child or teenager. Chances are you’ll find some old favorites here.





12. Jay is Games sources out the best casual games and brings them directly to you. The blog’s authors sure know their stuff and their opinions are worth listening to. Subscribe to their feed for a daily stream of gorgeous, idle distractions.





13. Old Grandma Hardcore is the blog of a foul-mouthed, lovable gamer grandma (with the pictures to prove it!). No, we’re not talking Brain Training and The Sims — we’re talking games like Bioshock and The Darkness. This grandma really is hardcore!





14. Insert Credit is a multi-author Japanese games and culture blog specializing in breaking news from the land of the rising sun.





15. Replacementdocs is an online archive of .PDF game manuals for thousands of popular games. If you’ve experienced the frustration of losing the manual to your favorite title, replacementdocs should have a solution for you.





16. Wonderland is an odds-and-ends gaming blog mainly known for its cool gamecrafts. From Darth Vader backpacks to Quake coasters, this blog is proof that gamers are an arty bunch.





17. The Speed Demos Archive is host to hundreds of videos documenting the efforts of those dedicated individuals who’ve conquered games in the shortest time possible. Watch epic games like Half Life 2 and Icewind Dale beaten before your lunch-break is over.





18. The System Requirements Lab analyzes your computer, benchmarking it against the minimum requirements of a specific product. Ever wondered if your computer can handle that gorgeous new release? Now you’ll know.




Update: Here are some more great websites that you might not have seen before, suggested from our readers:

• GGMania
• MultiPlayerGames
• SarcasticGamer
• Rock, Paper, Shotgun
• CheapAssGamer
• GameNewsHQ

Well there are hundreds of gaming sites on the web and it is quite difficult to keep track of all of them. I have heard of a few of these sites, they are pretty good.

OH MY GOD YOU ARE FUCKING BRILLIANT!!

I love rearranging videogame music, I downloaded Anvil Studio and played with the thing for hours. Jackpot find man, jackpot.

whoa thanks for posting these sites. i've actually gone to some of them before but forgot to save the address now i can easily access them here. thanks for the sticky

Thank you so very much for the wonderful links. Many of which I was totally unaware of. I will check them out for sure and then come back and leave a note on how I liked each one.

Long live Abandonia ! I love that site and retro games they are a good escape from the daily ordinary games. I think I'm gonna take some time and visit the other ones also.

Thx for the list.

Some cool stuff there. I loved that cake website, its pretty cool. The modding stuff is also great, I love case mods.

Nice. I'm really enjoying VGMusic. Who doesn't love all of those old video game tracks? I know someone who can play the mario theme on guitar. Putting these MIDI's into my itunes library for randomplay.

i kindaa liked few of the sites listed above
1st opne i liked is indie games
& the other one is crazy pc.
VGmusic also looks quite impressive

Bookmarked, this thread has alot of useful info.