Many should have come across GameHippo at one point or another. Nearly a decade old, GameHippo (http://gamehippo.com/) is a freeware PC game download site with a huge index of games of all kinds, no shareware, no demos, just free games. At its prime, GameHippo was THE site to go to for updates on the latest freeware games, and GameHippo was the site that got many people into independent/free games (myself included).

Of course, two things usually happen to big sites that are really, really old. They either get bigger, or they become stagnant and die a slow death. Unfortunately, GameHippo seems to have taken the second route, as updates slowed and fewer and fewer new games showed up on the site (all the while newer, more hip sites popped up everywhere). In April 2007, GameHippo's founder and writer Boson (who, according to rumors, can't blow bubbles with bubblegum) sold the site after "losing interest in the scene."

While many hoped the change of hands in ownership will bring a fresh breath of life into the aging hippo, the worst happened around mid 2008. In July 2008, www.gamehippo.com went offline, and no reasons have been given for the demise of the domain. The site later became available at the address http://216.92.35.228/, before completely disappearing. And with that, goes of the great collection of freeware and independent games, let us mourne for three minutes in silence.

*Three minutes later*

For those of you who can't get over the loss, here are some other sites that hopefully will replace your daily Hippo needs:

• Acid-Play - A site similar to GameHippo that grew while GH was on the decline, although atm it looks like it's slowing down as well.
• Home of the Underdogs - One of the great old sites that was on the same level of GameHippo. It almost died a while back. It mostly features abandonware, games that are no longer sold or supported by publishers.
• Caiman - Another listing of freeware games.

Here are the various faces of GameHippo throughout the years: