The GameStrategists ARG Catalogue: Fourteen Works, Each Standing Alone
This is a catalogue check, not a fan lore bible. Each work's premise, entrance and "what question does it answer" can be traced to its own game; where we could not trace something, we say so.
Last checked: 31 October 2026. This page listed ten works in September. Since then the main site added ERRATA, Buried Summer, Midnight Watch and Unclaimed; the catalogue now has fourteen ARGs. The arcade titles are not part of this page.
1. The short version: there is no "seven shards" net
The old Room 404 true ending described Lin Xia hearing "seven worlds resonating at 18.98 Hz." That was the previous canon. The 2026-10-26 rewrite brings the true ending back inside this story: Lin Xia reads the twelve names and "Lin Yuan" on FM87.9. All four endings close inside Room 404 and require no other game.
The in-game "Related games" panel now does one thing: it tells you which other first-party ARGs you can visit next. It is not "seven nodes of one ending."
2. The fourteen works in the catalogue
| Work | Entrance | Its own subject | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Room 404 | room404.gamestrategists.com | A 404-day lease, twelve tenants, carrier 013 | Why is her brother not on the register, and why is he still speaking from the server? |
| Abyss Messenger | abyss-messenger.gamestrategists.com | Deep-sea mail, five letters, four endings | Can one person finish delivering a missing family member's words? |
| Eye of the Abyss | eye-of-the-abyss.gamestrategists.com | A psychological experiment in the abyss | Can you still trust your own perception at the threshold? |
| Midnight Frequency | midnight-frequency.gamestrategists.com | A 1998 flood-night radio archive | Can a deleted broadcast give a name back? |
| Rusted City | rusted-city.gamestrategists.com | A rust-belt town's collective amnesia | Who still remembers the accident that was covered up? |
| The Sunken City | sunken-city.gamestrategists.com | An abandoned city beneath the sea | The city sank; why is a signal still calling for help? |
| Last Online | lastonline.gamestrategists.com | A family-device console, a missing sister | What can a phone that still shows "online" tell you? |
| Night Shift Rules | nightshift.gamestrategists.com | A hotel's night-shift rules and a line that will not hang up | Do the rules protect the guests, or something else? |
| Tide Sound Archives | tide-sound-archives.gamestrategists.com | The Project Tide voiceprint archive | Can a recording prove that a person was here? |
| The Last Bus to Lingjiao | lastbus.gamestrategists.com | A 2009 bus-station archive and a date query | After the last bus, who is still waiting? |
| ERRATA | errata.gamestrategists.com | A 1994 reservoir accident and the sixth child the newspaper left out | How many corrections does it take to edit a person out of the record? |
| Buried Summer | maixia.gamestrategists.com | A 2009 class time capsule and a 2026 school demolition | Among thirty letters, is one addressed to you? |
| Midnight Watch | lingdian.gamestrategists.com | A town clock stuck at 00:00 for forty years, 24 main watches and 5 special ones | If every watch is repaired, can the town's time move again? |
| Unclaimed | unclaimed.gamestrategists.com | A 1996 station lost-property terminal and twelve records each missing a word | How long must a thing wait before it counts as unclaimed? |
The list follows the order shown in Room 404's in-game "Related games" panel plus the main-site catalogue; each work's entrance is the main-site game page. This page covers ARGs only; the arcade titles have separate entries on the main site.
3. Why the count changed from ten to fourteen
Not to pad the list. The list was incomplete.
In September the main site had ten ARGs. ERRATA, Buried Summer, Midnight Watch and Unclaimed were added later, each with its own site, puzzles and endings, but none of them made it into this table. A "complete catalogue" that leaves out four works is a factual error, not a short page.
The boundary stays the same after the correction: what these works share is a method — first-party, browser-based, archive-style investigation — not one universe. There is no cross-title main plot, no required play order, and no "you must finish A to understand B."
4. Which one to start with
- Short and no horror at all: start with Unclaimed. Seven acts, three endings, twelve items to complete, about 90–150 minutes; collecting all twelve takes about 110–170.
- The fullest four-ending structure: start with Room 404. Six acts, ten puzzles, eighteen clues, a twelve-tenant ledger, about 3–4 hours; horror and sudden sounds.
- A shorter atmospheric mystery: start with Tide Sound Archives. Main line 1–2 hours; all ten tapes about 2–2.5 hours.
- Mechanics rather than reading: start with Midnight Watch. Twenty-four main watches, five special watches, four chapters, two endings; the repair itself is the puzzle.
- Rule-based horror: start with Night Shift Rules. Twelve rules, each protecting something and each capable of hurting you.
Those lengths and counts come from each game's current main-site page, not from estimates. Reading speed varies, but "horror / no horror" and "short / long" do not.
5. A catalogue is not a poster wall: four in-game captures
These four images come from four different games. They show four different investigative actions: searching a fake desktop, tuning a radio, completing fields in a terminal, and reading files in an industrial town.
AI illustration generated with SenseNova. It is not a game screenshot.
6. How to read the timelines
- Do not compare years across works: each work has its own "now", and its files belong to its own years. Room 404's 1998–2026 applies to Room 404 only.
- Do not compare frequencies across works: Room 404's 404 Hz is carrier noise; 52.9 Hz, 18.7 Hz and 103.9 MHz elsewhere are their own settings. A shared number does not mean a shared network.
- Do not treat "Related games" as an ending: it is a recommendation list. Each ending lives in its own game.
- Do not treat "there are archives in both" as one organisation: the shared thing is the method, not a shared world. One story answers its own private question.
7. Where Room 404 sits in this catalogue
Room 404 is the only work here built around a lease: twelve leases, each 404 days, and carrier 013 who is not on the register. For its timeline, characters and four endings, see the story timeline and character notes; for the route and answers, see the complete walkthrough.
If you plan to play only one, use the previous section. If you have finished Room 404 and want a next step, try Tide Sound Archives or Unclaimed: they share the archive-reading feel, not any puzzle answer.
8. How this table is maintained
- The number of works, entrances and "the question it answers" follow the current data on each game's main-site page.
- When a work adds or rewrites an ending, change that game page first, then this table. If they disagree, this table is wrong.
- This page is a catalogue, not a walkthrough; answers, gates and test dates belong to each work's guide.
- Current register: 14 ARGs (the register as of that revision). This page covers the 14 ARGs only.
Changelog
- 7 November 2026: corrected the count in the Unclaimed section — twelve items, not eight notes, matching the table and the terminal's 0/12 progress — and re-checked the descriptions of the other works against the words shown in the games.
- 31 October 2026: corrected "ten works" to fourteen and added ERRATA, Buried Summer, Midnight Watch and Unclaimed; also added "which one to start with", four in-game screenshots and one labelled illustration.
- 26 October 2026: rebuilt for the rewritten Room 404. Removed the old "seven shards / two origins / 222 years / 18.98 Hz resonance" narrative; changed the page to a catalogue of independent works and moved the true ending back inside Room 404.
- 8 September 2026: first version, listing the ten ARGs that existed then.