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Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Thu Jun 16, 2016 7:46 am

Hey everyone, just checking in since its been awhile. This started out as a private message to Itric8 but became so vast I felt it would be good a discussion for a topic. The overall thoughts are about minor improvements to the site but I go off in all kinds of possibly interesting directions, possibly boring for some people... Topics discussed include "Lazy ports" to the Amiga, with thoughts of not so lazy ports being considered lazy. There's some discussion on American/European games and pricing for those games. Examples of the vast library of software/games that was available in America, including quite a bit of those PAL games everyone is so willing to throw NTSC machines away for... I go off on a small discussion of Mario2 USA VS Mario2 Japan to show this passion for history is not just an Amiga thing with me... I discuss possible additions to the site including editing comments made in the game section, deleting your own comments made on regular topics if you so wish, adding an original price to game details and maybe even make that a way to list how the games show up... Adding a software section, so it's not only games that get "Amiga Love". Making it more obvious when new games/comments are made in the games section... and a lot of my personal memories of when I started to get into emulation... Because the DOS versions of those Amiga games just did not cut it in my mind... Anyway, here it is...

Can't say I've been up to much in terms of content recently. I really have not felt a desire to say much since Defender of the Crown. It was just so vindicating that I look at it as an end of a chapter. I know it still won't make a dent to the enormous problem that's out there, but it meant so much to have someone who actually designed on the Amiga say that stuff. I'm sure I'll return but it will be the next chapter, a new perspective/outlook/message. The only gaming I've been doing is building crap on Minecraft, some good stuff if I do say so myself.

I see the gaming section is coming along steadily. You may have noticed I've given my 2 cents on a few games there. I had a couple more thoughts about things you could add to the site. I hope you take them as intended, just random genuine thoughts from someone that loves the site, and not in any way a knock on what you've done. I understand the talent/drive it takes to create something like this, and if this is as good as it ever gets, I like it... So I hope you just think of it as a friend tossing back/forth ideas. You may like them, you may hate them, you might love them but still won't get around to implementing them, it's all good to me.

While I was commenting on some of the games, I noticed, unlike in the forum, I was unable to edit my comments. I never drastically alter my comments but I have noticed as I've gotten older my mind/hands although quite fast seem to occasionally miss a step of communication between each other. As in when re-reading my comments I notice dyslexic typing errors. My mind thought of a word but apparently my hands forgot to type it, or I was thinking/typing so fast I skipped right to the next word. I hate that it happens but with the sheer vastness of what I can write I've come to expect a couple mistakes with my "social" writings. I attempt to type as I would likely speak to a friend. That's why my writing features so many ellipses, for example. That's just me trying to simulate a brief pause in thought. Inevitably I'll notice I left out a word and I'll edit it back in. It happens during one of these comments on the games I noticed such an instance where I would have liked to edit the comment and was unable to. In the terms of one of those game posts I made, despite a couple missing words I'm sure everyone would be able to understand what I mean, but I was also thinking of an added memory I had with Battletech... Specifically it was one of the first games I went back to before I knew about emulation. I was on abandonware sites for DOS, knowing the name of the games, wanting to play them again, but getting the DOS versions... Having not played the Amiga Battletech in at least 5 years, I immediately knew right from the title screen that something was wrong... The Amiga version has a completely different title screen to the DOS version (only the C64 has the same title screen) and yeah, the colors in game are not the same. I knew in the first second of birds eye view gameplay that "something" was not right. Then I went into battle... I was greeted with the "wonderful" PC Speaker for sound effects... I was faced with so many of these kind of moments, some stronger than others, but even Sierra games had me wondering about what I was looking at when playing DOS versions. I actually completed a few games in DOS rather than the Amiga in the late 90's when I was only playing them because of my experience on the Amiga. I think the first time I beat Champions of Kyrnn was the DOS version. Some of them were playable even if they made you wonder about your sanity when thinking of your memories... Others, No way... Lemmings... The basic game looked the same but the menu looked like shit (because only the Amiga could display multiple resolutions on the same game screen) and the music made me want to throw up when thinking on my memories. Your memories are not always accurate (I was convinced the Amiga version of Wing Commander not only sounded better than DOS, but looked better as well - not true of course) but they were screaming to me something was not right and I should investigate.

I'm a 12-15 year old kid, I have no idea that the exact same titled game could be released on multiple systems and be so different. I convinced my dad to buy a bunch of compilations of DOS games because I wanted to play them again and the Amiga was not working so well at the time. I wanted to play Railroad Tycoon again, the Gold Box games, even some stuff that was not on the Amiga, like Pirates Gold, the updated 2nd version of Pirates which we had on the Sega Genesis, but it also came out for the CD32 and DOS. Now I love the Amiga version of Pirates so much that I seriously believe it looks better than the updated Pirates Gold on the Genesis. But that's more a "clairty" issue, the Amiga had a great selection of 32 colors and they were solids. The Genesis had more colors on screen (50 something I think) but the pallet was smaller (512 off memory compared to 4092 on the Amiga) but as many Genesis games did, featured a lot of dithering. The genesis (and Amiga) would use that technique to its advantage quite a lot through the years, often times making a much more colorful SNES game look every bit as good on the Genesis with a CRT television. There's certainly something to be said for dithering... But make no mistake, even on a real CRT, dithering is noticed even if you can't point your fingers to it. The reason I felt Wing Commander looked better on the Amiga was because it looked "older", everything had "wear and tear" as it were. I felt like the Tiger's Claw and it's fighter craft had fought a long and hard war and times were not so great... My mind instantly went to those thoughts that you never really thought about back in the day and compared them to the DOS version and believed, based on that beat up war feeling I felt with the Amiga, that the Amiga version looked better. It "sort of" did, in a way. The 16 dithered colors were done brilliantly, it's a technical feat on the hardware for sure, but it's not just downgraded graphics, the dithering gave me a feeling, a sense, having never seen the DOS version. So when I finally saw the DOS version my mind knew I was not seeing what I remembered, and even thought it looked better on the Amiga. But that's why, the dithering gave it a unique look which given my thoughts of Wing Commander made me think it looked better... It wasn't just because I played it on the Amiga that I felt it looked better. With Pirates Gold on the Genesis I knew it looked better than the Pirates I played on the Amiga, in "details". The pics felt closer and more detailed... But the dithering had the opposite effect for me in this case. I kept thinking back to the Amiga and of all those "solid" colors... Your mind really is tricked with the use of dithering on a CRT, colors blend wonderfully, but your mind does notice an overall change in look. Staying on the same system, the Genesis, there's a BIG difference in look with Sonic 1 compared to Sonic 3. Now those are games that never changed the formula too much, and indeed not even the look... But there is a big difference in my mind with those two games. Sonic 3 is technically the better looking game.. By that point they certainly would have figured out any tricks in the hardware they could use, and they also incorporated dithering. This was used, much like Wing Commander in my mind, to great effect with the first level turning into a burning forest fire by the end, it just gave it that aged look and I can't imagine that game without it. BUT... you ask me which I game I prefer, just thinking about graphics... It's the first one, through and through. There's a brightness unmatched in it, all the colors are solid ones, and it just feels "clean". That's also what my mind kept going back to with Pirates VS the Genesis, there was this overall "clean" look it gave you that dithering destroys.

Pirates Gold on the Genesis was one thing... My personal memories probably give the Amiga an edge despite loving the Genesis version and playing more of that one. But then there's the DOS version...hahaha... Which I begged my dad several times to buy... He had already bought the C64 original, the Amiga version, the Genesis Gold version, and now I'm asking him to once again buy the DOS version... and this in the Windows 95 era, he knew about DOS, and he knew he hated messing around in it to get games to work! He refused to buy it over and over again because the CD said it was for DOS... But eventually, he did... And I felt so bad for asking for it... Just like Virtua Racing on the Genesis, which was $80 and I begged them for, only to find out it was not the game I was thinking it would be... That's Pirates Gold on DOS. The original Pirates for DOS was not a bad conversation by any means, all of the original Pirates ports were great as far as I'm concerned. Pirates Gold is another story... It resembled in no way the Genesis version... You could probably point to "technical" reasons it's better... Thinking back, it was a 640x480 hi resolution game, very uncommon at that time. Microprose made a bunch of "upgraded" versions of their classic games, Railroad Tycoon was another one that had 640x480 graphics. The downside of this hi resolution mode was they could only use 16 colors again! It was obvious the games didn't feature a rich display of colors, but added on they were just so vastly different looking... You know your comment about Battletech being a straight DOS port (which it wasn't)? There's something, if only minor, to be said in Sierra's crap ports favor when discussing the changing of the original "vision" of the game. Sierra went the piss poor route of doing a straight 100% "perfect" conversion to the Amiga, which is something they loved about the way they designed their games and about the Amiga. They loved that the Amiga was so "easy" to port to. Screw Sierra, because they could have done so much, hell, they could have done so "little" and still made the Amiga version the best version... They refused to try.

Well, then you have a Pool or Radiance, which was a port of the DOS version, but the C64 was the original... And the Amiga version is obviously the best version. "Time" and "care" was taken on the Amiga, it's obvious. There are plenty of Amiga games ported to the Amiga where this is true, and it's a great feeling. BUT... There's only so much you can do in regards to the original vision to make a port better, if given superior hardware. Pool of Radiance did it right, it's all based off the same assets of the original, it's just be given better treatment. That's the best that can be done... Now, you might be tempted to say that was the only Gold Box game that was better on the Amiga... You'd be wrong... Go to the next game, Secret of the Silver Blades, and comparing DOS to the Amiga will at first thought make you believe it was lazy port. Again, speaking as someone who has played both versions, it's simply not true. The Amiga version is the better version, not just sounds, but graphically. The polish and time were not the same as the first game, but I can point to plenty of examples where the Amiga has a slightly different palette and even completely different pictures that overall makes it the better version, if only ever so slightly. All of the original C64/DOS EGA Gold Box games are better on the Amiga, and they were all as good or only slightly worse when VGA came around. All in all this speaks to the very well done ports.

The thing with these games like Battletech, some might criticize it for not taking better advantage of the Amiga... I'm with you, if they did it like Sierra; lazy, 100% exactly what you saw in DOS... But Battletech was not like that, it did change things, but only slightly... So they were thinking about the Amiga... My question is how should look upon them in terms of history? I wish they would have made it obvious the Amiga version was best, but I can't personally look down on them when they only made slight alterations to the game, but indeed did understand they were working with an Amiga... I come to this understanding because of games like Pirates Gold for DOS... It's a terrible port of a great game probably made by people who thought they were giving DOS something special. They changed it, they used it's "superior" hi resolution graphics... But they honestly should have stuck with 320x200 and just copied the Genesis/CD32 version. They did "too much" and they made something different... Different can be bad, it can be good, it can be better even, but it will always be different. When you have something that's already good, I can understand how certain companies may have been reluctant to give it their all with the Amiga... They really did risk taking what was already good and destroying it. Pool of Radiance? Kicks the butt out of all those other versions? Yeah, that was noted in reviews, you know what else they mentioned time and again? Loading times... In my opinion, they made those comments very unwisely, because that probably came back to bite them in the ass... The next gold box game? Oh, it had GREAT loading times! But it was also more closely based on the DOS version, without all those Amiga extras... It was not a lazy port, they were slightly altered, but it was not an obvious example of the Amiga being best. And that's all stuff we have to ponder when thinking about history... More colors? More features? More animation? More loading time, more disks... I wish most of these developers in the EGA era would have just made them on the Amiga, then it would be easy to have the best version... But the fact that Amiga was out there getting sometimes way better versions, sometimes slightly better versions, and even at the very least, the same versions, that's quite the remarkable thing and it makes the Amiga the best overall bang for your buck as a computer back then. There were few if any "BURN IT! IT'S THAT BAD!" ports to the Amiga. The same can't be said for DOS. So, I personally don't fault companies that only slightly altered their games for the Amiga...

And wow, I went off in that tangent only to say that I wish I could edit my comments in the games area, because I had more to add, and I didn't really feel they should be a separate post. So I would hope that it would become an option at some point.

Another thing I noticed, which I know will not be a problem for me for the most part, but perhaps for some... You can't delete your own comments in the forums... Or... At least, sometimes you can't... I rarely regret anything I've ever said and even if I'm wrong I would never get rid of the evidence... But I did notice with the Jim Sachs Porsche stuff I accidentally reposted a comment I meant to edit. In that one case I would have liked to delete the non edited comment, but instead had to edit it to ask that you delete it. I can't imagine this ever being an issue with my writing, and for all I know it's a design choice so nobody can act like something never happened... But I at least wanted to talk to you about it... Especially since I recently noticed that's not always the case... For example, I'm allowed to delete "my" comments on my own topics. I'm not allowed to delete yours or anyone else's comments on my topics though. I can delete my own comments on my own threads, but I can't delete my own thread. And of course as mentioned, I can't delete my own comments on someone else's thread. So, it's obvious the feature is built into the site, it's just a permission issue, which is curious to me. Even if you don't want someone to out and out delete their own comment, they can easily do so in essence by just editing it. It's not something I'd be using often, not enough to care one way or the other, but something I noticed so I wanted to ask about it... At least in terms of discussion, since it's built in I'd be interested in your motivations on restricting it.

I imagine I'll find out soon enough, but has the alert feature been updated to include replies to posts on the game section yet? As mentioned in a prior message, the alphabetical system of a single page for every letter is not the greatest way for me to personally search through that stuff... I'd love for it to have other sorting features like genre/year/company/country origin/all games... It's not so easy to navigate at the moment so I'm looking forward to alerts in case someone wants to reply... How about a separate forum section that would simply notify people there's new comments to be seen with certain games? Where as now we'd see a red background for the forum area featuring new content, it would be nice if we were somehow made aware the games section also featured new content in the forum of an added game or comments. No idea how best to go about that, I imagine it would be difficult and not worth the time, but I figured it was a nice idea.

What do you think of adding an original price for some of these games? This would go in the same information box as the publisher/release date. I know you don't have plans on doing too many of the European budget games (God bless you) but I personally feel it's an important stat for these games. I'm sure a lot of the American games would be going from 40-60 bucks, without too much variation... But imagine a site that took that into thought, and some of these European "classics" get sorted with the big boys from America... And of course there's positives/negatives to price, I know Sierra games tended to cost more than some very intricate Amiga original games... That's a reason to bash them all the more for their crappy ports... And when a European game can be cheap but awesome, that's a good thing... But generally speaking I feel a trend would emerge, shitty games would tend to be cheap to buy, better games would be expensive. If HOL featured such a stat and you could sort games by that stat... Something nobody seems to take into consideration would suddenly become obvious. Number one, which, most people already know, most Amiga games are terrible... That's not a shot at the Amiga, that's just a truth of games for all systems back then. But we'd also be able to show most of those terrible games would have been very cheap to purchase, and, combined with country of origin, we'd see most were from Europe. This puts not only America in a better light but also the overall picture of games in a better light. Yes, a great chunk of games were terrible and deserve to be forgotten, but most of those terrible games were made for a reason; To sell to a younger European age group. It's not an excuse to make a bad game, but you suddenly come to an understanding about those games. It also puts the Amiga into a better light with regards to a console like the NES. The NES of course featured a library of games mostly terrible... But they were not cheap... Even the worst games made in the cheapest way would have been sold for 30-50 brand new. So the Amiga had a lot of bad games, but at least they were not pretending to be great unlike some other games. I feel if I was a European back in the day and I bought a C64 game on tape for what sometimes would have been less than a dollar for them, or an Amiga game for 5 bucks, I feel I would have understood I may not be getting everything I could from the system... So in terms of history as just another little factor of information that combined with other factors will help many form an opinion, I feel the original price would be noteworthy.

In order to better help you find pricing information, here is a link to everything Amiga World ever reviewed. Ever. Great handy resource I've been using to find their opinions on things. That's how I found the issue Jim's Brilliance pics was on. Look at how massive that list is... And they mentioned in a later issue on PAL games that everything they've ever given a proper review for was released in America. I remember them doing an article on PAL games once and telling you how you could import stuff and switch modes on the Amiga, so they were aware of that crap... But every last bit of software/hardware on that list was released in America. All I have to say is good luck to everyone wishing to neatly categorize the Amiga in America, and a big middle finger to anyone that thinks it was not a thing here. Now, it should be noted some of those games are going to be European games, but it's also worth nothing, unlike what many others say, that those games were indeed available here. Suddenly those YouTubers that say "all the games I want are PAL" are given a boot to the mouth. Now we have a list, all those games had a proper American release, which means even if you pop in a pirated disk from the internet and it does not work, keep trying... There was a physical American release of those games which means there exists a disk image online or not, that works on an NTSC Amiga... So let's please stop suggesting NTSC Amiga's are dirt and should be thrown away at first sight.

And of course Amiga World being an American magazine, most of that stuff will be American. Let's also keep in mind that's not "everything" ever released in America... By no means. Lost Dutchman Mine was never reviewed there, I can go down there list and see plenty of very noteworthy games and applications they missed out on... So keep in mind there's more than just that... And just look at the sheer size of it. I've already gone through and counted the ones I knew were American in design, and yeah, I'll be long dead before I get through with them all. The games list is of course huge, but take a look at the application list... No, no, take a look at the HARDWARE list...

Good luck ever getting through that! And I've already told you how I wanted to punch the guy on Lemon/EAB who slammed Amiga World for being boring, but he also made a comment that I must not have read too many European magazines if I think they never covered hardware/software... Of course I don't have personal experience with them, maybe that guy found the exception, but I've flipped through more than the vast majority of Amiga people online have, and what I said is damn true for most of them. Generally speaking European magazines featured zero to few reviews of hardware/software, mostly dedicated to games. It's simply a huge example of the vastly different markets when you compare European magazines to American magazines... and it was not just Amiga World, they were all like that... Although I have recently read about a games focused American magazine that I wish to look into. Anyway, look at that list and just, good luck everyone.

I told Jim in my long response to him that I believe something like Brilliance is every bit as worthy of a review these days as Defender of the Crown is. Don't know if he got that far, but it's so true. I noted how Amiga World had the foresight to say "It's sad because as good as Brilliance is, it's likely not to be given proper credit because of Deluxe Paint..." They knew that back then and they talked about software. Now you have an internet where not only do they show his classic games stretched into widescreen, there's a complete black hole of the software he was involved in. When Amiga World says it's better than Deluxe Paint and there's nobody talking about it, that tells you everything about why there's no American voices in the Amiga community these days. They were older, into different things, and the people with passions for the Amiga these days care about one thing only, games.

What would you think about doing a separate section, in the same style as the games section, but for software? Again, you'd go one step beyond what Lemon/HOL/Moby does with what they show. Put prices to the software/hardware? Some of those things went from $100-$1000 and beyond. And I'm sure that huge list of software would be 90% dominated by American developers. Most of it would also be original Amiga material, not ports.

To anyone out there that thinks "if" the Amiga had any small success in America, it was only because of the toaster... Better look at that list and think again... It's time for some people to be faced with the evidence and alter their opinions...

Amiga World was a fantastic publication... I was amazed but not surprised when you told me they were published by the same people being Computer Gaming World... Not because of the "world" in the title, but because of it's amazing content. My dad had several magazines both for the Amiga and PC. My feelings are not based on those being the only things I saw... Those "world" magazines were simply a cut above the rest. The Lemon/EAB guy roles his eyes at me and makes judgments based on my like of that "boring" magazine... Go ahead, cause I make judgments on everyone who claims to "love" the "Amiga" but really only loves the games... And not "all" the games at that... Just a certain "type" that can also be found in much better quality, on consoles of the era... The platformer... The shoot em up, the arcade game... Those 4+ disk games that took a year of our real life to beat? They don't exist... Or they're not better in enough ways to be defined as a "real" Amiga game... Yeah, I can make judgements on your tastes too...

- But I really don't... Not really... Any poking I do is always to highlight differences and justify a market that the entire world, including the people from said country, seem to think didn't exist. I would love to highlight how much Europeans loved their games, to highlight the quality budget games they played, would love it! - If only they would be so kind to do the same for American content... They never mention a game is from America yet they always talk in general terms about the Amiga being so much greater in Europe... Okay, let's point out the great European games, let's perhaps point out the bad ones, and let's point out a market that generally speaking produced high quality games... Maybe you think they didn't take advantage of the Amiga, okay, say so... But let's talk about it... Let's talk about how almost all American games worked with AmigaDOS, something Europeans would criticize as not taking "advantage" of the Amiga... Yeah, you could get more out of a game by tossing AmigaDOS to the curb, but let's celebrate market differences, like how American's would often criticize European games that did NOT work in AmigaDOS...

Why the different opinions on the same games? Differences, that's all. To American's who bought hard drives (lots of them) "taking advantage" of the Amiga actually meant utilizing AmigaDOS. If it worked in AmigaDOS, it could be installed most likely. Put your own handy installation program on the disk? Points went to you in Amiga World reviews... Multitasking was an Amiga "feature" and to American's, it was to be taken advantage of. Hard drives were an option, for those who spent money on that option, it was an insult to make a game where they couldn't use that very expensive option.

From reading a lot of European reviews of games, many great American games were bashed because of price. Even if they liked it they found some way to put it down because of the price. That means something in terms of how they saw games and what made them want games... Almost all of those games would be completely reviewed a second time by European magazines when it turned into a "budget" title, a couple years after. Of course now they would have a new reason to bash the game, for dated graphics... But often times their opinions would suddenly change when the price went from 50 bucks to 15. And it's worth noting, as far as I'm aware, nothing was ever re-released in America at a reduced cost. If Civilization went for 50 bucks brand new in America, it went for 50 bucks when Commodore went under. If it was on the shelf and it was going to be sold, they didn't care how long it sat there, they were going to get what they wanted out of it.

Just different demographics - It's not an Amiga thing or a European thing - I have some harsh words for people who say Mario2 USA was not only inferior to Mario2 Japan but was "too hard" for American's (they say American's -many of them being American's - but Europe also got the same thing) and they refuse to take into account Mario2 Japan being made for a new budget based floppy disk add on, very cheap, quickly made for a teenager to young adult Japanese audience... Not a children based American audience. The right choice was made. The same harsh words are given to people that don't understand why it took so long for JRPGs to become a thing in America... Because those same children didn't have a clue until they became teens with the SNES or Playstation, then they got a clue... It was not because they were hard, anyone that thinks a linear JRPG is hard has never played a non-linear Western RPG... Those were made for nerdy computer users in America from 20-45...

I have passion for internet history being taken to extremes mostly because of viral opinionated videos and are simply not accurate to history. Let's celebrate our differences, perhaps sometimes understand there was good and bad because of those differences... Let's give America a little more credit with the Amiga, she deserves it.. And I've always felt that no matter how many games may have been pirated by Europe there is such a strong love there, and pirating games did some good too... It did... Did some bad, some people think it only did good, no it certainty did bad... But it did do good. Let's all celebrate some of that good old "Amiga Love!"

- Oh, back to topic, haha... Would love prices to be included when such information can be obtained. I'm a stat person, it's why even though baseball is not thought of as the huge pastime it once was, I still dig it. In terms of information, nothing beats baseball. The more info, the better.

But as stated at the beginning, only if you agree and only if it's not a pain in the ass.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:55 am

A lot of great stuff here, Shot, as usual.

Let me try to break it down into chunks:
1) Site Suggestions
2) What's Up Behind the Scenes?
3) Future Plans

1) Site Suggestions
"I wish I could edit my comments in the games area"
This is a great idea. Sometimes due to what I'm working on, I kind of have blinders on about what others might need, too. I have the ability to Delete comments, Edit Posts and Delete Posts. If I add the ability to Edit Comments (for games) that should help. I may be able to grant the ability to Edit and Delete Forum posts off the shelf - I'll look into it!
"Can we have a data field for Original Retail?"
This can be added to the database pretty easily, but I wonder if it is something we can come back to later after the Library is closer to 100 entries or more. Right now I'm sitting at 41(ish). While potentially interesting, I think it has a lot more value if the Library is really big - then folks could compare that to, say, a budget title. That being said, I'm not currently inclined to include very many budget titles at all with a few exceptions.
"Can we add a software section?"
I had plans from the very early stages to do this, but it was something I didn't want to invest in until a) the site was more fleshed out, b) the site seemed to "have legs", and c) I had a better grasp of what direction it might take. "Software" is a gigantic bucket and would need some sort of structure - photo editing, video editing (expensive to deal with), business and educational apps, OS apps (file browsers, etc.). I mean, take a look at Aminet - there's a whole site practically dedicated to it. So, I would like to highlight some of the notable apps, for sure, but in the short term I think the Forum's "Software" section is where that'll live for now. If the site continues to grow over the next 1-2 years, hell yes. Let's do it.

2) What's Up Behind the Scenes?
While trying to review games, I have a lot of site upgrades in the works which I'm calling (to myself) Phase 3. Phase 4, I think, is when the major upgrades will be mostly done.

Phase 3 includes (and may include more, based on this helpful feedback):
-) Massive redesign and revamp of User Profiles, for desktop and mobile
-) Ability to "Subscribe" to the Games section, so users can be notified when new games are added to the site (with the ability to mark games as read when they are on the site, to view the unread ones, and view the new ones added since the last time they visited)
-) If a user votes on a Game, show the hearts he or she voted (light them up)
-) Ability for users to Report a comment (and I'll add Edit to this list)
-) And lots of little UI cleanup, including a Games breadcrumb of sorts that mimics how Forums works.

3) Future Plans (this summer)
"Phase 4" - which will be a complete redesign of the home page. I want Forums to be its own section, and Games its own section. The home page will show new stuff, better introduce the site and the community to new folks, and have a couple other whistles and bells. And, potentially build out the notifications system to be more part of the site and not just Email driven.

After that, take a big exhale and focus just on the Library for the rest of the year. I'm curious to see where that takes things. I do find the site enjoyable to use, but I want to "get it right". I very much appreciate your feedback.

User avatar
Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Thu Jun 16, 2016 12:55 pm

Main goal has already been accomplished... Designing a site that looks/feels good on multitudes of media devices... And even though I've never been keen on doing my surfing on a small phone display, I know you've already gotten them all beat on the PC. -By the way I recently used my Windows98 machine to surf over to Lemon/HOL... We were wrong, they were not designed for 1024x768, they were designed for 800x600, and Windows98 displays them all just perfectly... Too bad I can't say the same for Windows7/10 and Chrome based browsers using much higher resolutions... So that's just one area where you've gotten it right... In terms of historical relevance, you're showing NTSC stuff in 4:3, nobody else is...

Now... To just get a few more people on board... Because it would be terrible to go this far only to crumble due to lack of interest. Well, this guy is interested... and, if I can speak from my own experience on YouTube, there are many lurkers who love this place just as much as I do, they just refuse to create an account and say so! I've had several emails sent to me saying how much a person loved my videos but just couldn't comment... I REALLY wish they would.... Because actual activity registered makes all the difference in this online world of stats/likes... But I'm sure you have a few of them just like I do...

And as much as I know you're cool with advertising your own stuff to spread the word, I bet you had a huge smile on your face when you saw that Lemon or EAB post about AmigaLove. Didn't do any good I imagine, but the fact that someone that's not even registered here took the time to tell others about the place, I'm sure that felt good.

Anyway, I'm liking the future plans!

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Jun 16, 2016 1:07 pm

I wonder which post that is... I'll have to hunt it down. Your thread over there (or OctoTiggy's) created a fairly steady, if small, referral stream from EAB, which I find to be very exciting. I'm always quite pleased to have folks "from the big boy sites" take a look around. I think by the end of the summer we'll get a few converts.

Facebook has been a weird experiment. Having personally disconnected from FB (long story) my wife finally convinced me to create a "Page" for AmigaLove over there. Interestingly, I've been getting what seem to be several people from Greece to respond to the page and posts over there.

I won't spend a ton of time there (yet), just sort of an RSS feed for new game posts and "classic" forum posts, but they do bring over some traffic and a huge proportion are on mobile devices (incredibly, quite a few are on Nokia smartphones, which just boggles my mind!).

Thanks for the kind words!

User avatar
Shot97
Detroit, MI, USA

Posted Thu Jun 16, 2016 1:56 pm

I guess I can't blame you for not finding it, it's on EAB, and... Their homepage is an absolute cluster fff... You know.... It's way down the page under miscellaneous topics and Amiga website reviews....OH! And I was going to link it but I see you found it on me because you just posted there! Yeah, it was just a tiny and simple post but that's the kind of stuff that touches your heart but also makes you curse that those people don't say something about that... Knowing about that can make all the difference to someone wondering if it's worth it or not... Speaking as a YouTuber who at times is pretty sure nobody gives a damn and I shouldn't be putting this much effort into it... There's been some terrible things said about me on Lemon and EAB, long before AmigaLove posted anything I said... The world is made up of quite a few assholes, and, especially on old forums, elitist assholes... If they could only mention the fact that they've posted your stuff, that there's a several page conversation going somewhere, even if not on your actual video... It would mean something, I could talk to them... Convince them there's a person here that knows how to read before they say their line of bullshit... It would be nice... And then there's a few nice comments... Again, they never say anything, you're left to stumble upon it yourself... But my review of SimCity was one of them... In it, the newish EAB/Lemon poster commented on the many colors of SimCity 1mb version, then the elitist members chimed in saying how that was impossible (many other topics on that subject and SimCity are similar), there was no way there were 64 colors with SimCity... Then the guy, nice guy, simply links my video and says he got the information from there, and he proved it was 64 colors...

Again... Pretty sure nobody even bothered to click on the link for the most part... That's how much those forum members are so anti technology.... YouTube, from 2006, that's too new for them... hahaha... I poke, because they do more than poke, they hurt... and just a tiny bit of love from anyone out there that does watch a video in my case, or read a topic in your case, that small feedback can mean the world at this stage. So, I hope anyone out there takes that to heart and finds a way, however small, to say thanks for something different, and let it be known it was said somewhere.





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