AnaWiki Games
Tradinganawiki.com
Another survivor of the direct-sales years, still publishing under its own name from its own domain.
What the check saw
Answered with an active catalogue.
Titles held here
None in this archive
What became of the studios behind these games
Eight publishers, checked directly rather than assumed. The split is not even, and the reason a studio survived turns out to have very little to do with the games it made.
4
Still trading
3
Dark or lost
1
Address kept, page lost
The register
Sorted by state. Each entry records what the check saw, not just what it returned.
Four states, and the difference between them matters more than a response code does. The colour on the edge of each card below is the state.
- Trading
- The studio is still in business under its own name, from its own address.
- Address kept, page lost
- The domain answers, but the path the game occupied does not.
- Dark
- The registration is still paid for and no server answers on it.
- Domain taken over
- The address answers perfectly, and serves a stranger in an unrelated trade.
Eight publishers · every state re-checked on 31 July 2026
Puppy Games
Tradingpuppygames.net
The healthiest of the shareware-era entries. Studio, domain and product page all survived, and the product page still exists as its own address rather than as a redirect to a storefront.
What the check saw
Studio site answered, and the individual product page for its title in this archive answered as well.
Titles held here
Titan Attacks
Superior Interactive
Tradingsuperiorinteractive.com
Continues the Superior Software name. The only publisher in this archive whose catalogue has had an unbroken custodian from the 1980s to now, which is why its titles are the only ones here recorded as still sold.
What the check saw
Answered with its own site, offering downloads for current platforms.
Titles held here
Winter Wolves
Tradingwinterwolves.com
Linked to this site during the shareware years and came through the period intact. No title of theirs is held as an entry here, but they belong in the register as a survivor from the same cohort.
What the check saw
Answered with an active catalogue of its own games.
Titles held here
None in this archive
Cellosoft
Address kept, page lostcellosoft.com
A migration rather than a closure. Somebody still holds and serves the address; the product page did not come across with it. This is the only entry in the register in that middle state.
What the check saw
The domain answered, but is now served from a code-hosting platform’s static pages service, and the path the game occupied returned a not-found response.
Titles held here
Hap-Hazard
Moonpod
Darkmoonpod.com
The most instructive failure in the register. Listings elsewhere still present the studio as reachable, because they record the last time something answered. A direct request gets nothing at all.
What the check saw
Domain name records resolve, and nothing answers over either HTTP or HTTPS. The game’s own page under the domain is unreachable.
Titles held here
Mr. Robot
The Mr. Robot entry →
Nothing answers here
My Game Company
Darkmygamecompany.com
A game sold from its own domain has only ever sat on one shelf. When both the publisher address and the product address stop answering there is no third-party listing left to outlive them.
What the check saw
Both the publisher domain and the separate domain for its title resolve in the domain name system and answer nothing over either scheme.
Titles held here
Dirk Dashing
The Dirk Dashing entry →
Nothing answers here
Jamie Woodhouse
Domain taken overqwak.co.uk
The clearest case in this archive of why a status code proves nothing. Nobody withdrew the game: a registration lapsed and was bought by somebody in an unrelated trade, so every surviving link now advertises a stranger.
What the check saw
The domain answers with a completely healthy response and serves a United Kingdom betting affiliate site with no connection to the game. The author’s own separate domain resolves and answers nothing.
Titles held here
Qwak
The Qwak entry →
Answers — but it is not the studio
What the pattern suggests
One variable separates the survivors, and it is not the software.
The studios still trading are not obviously the ones that made the best games. What they have in common is that somebody kept holding the address. Where a publisher stayed in business the catalogue stayed reachable; where a registration lapsed, the game went with it regardless of how good it was or how many people bought it.
That has an uncomfortable implication for anyone who assumes the web preserves things by default. A cassette from 1986 sitting in a loft still exists and can still be read. A game sold in 2008 from a domain that stopped being renewed in, say, 2014 has no physical residue at all — no box, no disc, no manual — and the page that explained what it was went at the same moment.
It is also why this register records the evidence rather than a verdict. Two of these addresses answer requests perfectly happily. One serves somebody else's business, and the other serves a static site with the relevant page removed. Reported as status codes, both would look like healthy publishers.
Questions about the register
Method, the categories, and what unavailability does not mean.
How was each studio’s state established?
By requesting its address directly on 31 July 2026, following redirects to their destination, and reading the page that came back. The evidence line on each entry records what the check actually saw rather than only the response code.
What does “dark” mean as distinct from a dead domain?
A dark address still exists in the domain name system — somebody is still paying for the registration — and no server answers on it. That is different from an address that has expired and been re-registered by somebody else, which answers normally and serves a stranger.
Why does one studio appear as “address kept, page lost”?
Because it is genuinely in between. The domain answers and is served from a code-hosting platform’s static pages service, but the path the game occupied returns a not-found response. The address survived a migration; the product page did not come with it.
Why is a studio listed with no titles in this archive?
Because it belongs to the same cohort and links to this site existed from it during the shareware years. A register of what became of these studios is more useful complete than trimmed to only those whose games happen to have entries here.
Does a studio going dark mean its games are free to copy?
No. Commercial unavailability is not a licence. This register records where the addresses stand so that the record exists; it does not host or distribute anything.