The older I get, the more malleable my convictions get. Dogma gets supplanted by nuance, relationships grow ever more complicated, and every time I look in the mirror I see an aging face I recognize less each day. It's as if only one thing, one undeniable truth, is certain: I would not have beaten the Subspace Emissary in Super Smash Bros. Brawl at age 8 without GameFAQs.
GameFAQs isn't getting any younger, either. On Nov. 5, it turned 30; and like me, many of its longtime users are taking to the internet to share their memories of the venerable site. You may remember it for its user-uploaded game walkthroughs, cheat code lists, those ASCII art logos people would head their posts with, or even its primordial form as the Video Game FAQ Archive when the site began in 1995.
Hey, happy 30th birthday GameFAQs! Launched on November 5th, 1995!The earliest scrape I can find on Wayback is December 1996, but I doubt the site changed much. But yes, here it is in its earliest days as the Video Game FAQ Archive!
— @sharkabytes.bsky.social (@sharkabytes.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-11-08T21:23:00.512Z
If you've read PC Gamer for very long, you might remember StarFighters76, a videogame cartographer who has put out over 5,000 custom walkthrough maps on the site over the course of 22 years. You can read an interview with StarFighters76 and other top contributors on a commemorative GameFAQs post by whowasphone404 celebrating 30 years.
That post estimates the site hosts over 82,000 guides, over 178,000 reviews, and over a whopping 5 million screenshots uploaded by its users. It's an interesting trip down memory lane, with some of the site's most prolific writers sharing their memories of Final Fantasy 7, World of Warcraft, Doom, and their history writing the associated guides and reviews. Numbers aside, the history of game guides and online videogame community is woefully incomplete without mentioning GameFAQs.
Despite its old-school feel, the site still comes in clutch here and there, especially if you're trying to muscle your way through a game released before 2000 without the manual. I most recently used the site as I played through the original Phantasy Star, and I'm sure I'll dive into its archives again soon.
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