Welcome to the new website!

[Quaid]

Greetings,

If you haven’t noticed already, Retro Gamer has a new website, so I thought I’d let you know why and what we’re up to.

Why has the RG website changed?
Well it's about time that RG got a proper web presence, and we wanted to create somewhere for all of you to contribute to the site and the magazine with more than just forum posts and top banter.
Also, Imagine Publishing has now perfected its user-generated online engine with such sites as dphotographer.co.uk and photoshopcreative.co.uk, and it made perfect sense to adapt the same technology for RG.

What is the aim of the site?
Simple, to become the biggest online resource for classic gaming in the world, and to build up a magnificent database of game profiles covering every system and game in existence. It's a big aim, admittedly, but with your help we can achieve it.
And because once registered, anyone in the world can upload game profiles, we hope that the database will grow and grow, and we’re looking forward to seeing how many are added a day when we approve them. The Digital Photographer website now has 26,000 images, with more than 3,000 added a month – just imagine if that they were all retro games!

What do we have to do?
Simple, you first register on the website and input your details, you will then receive a confirmation email, and you’re all set to go. Read the rules and guidelines (http://www.retrogamer.net/rules.php) to make sure you know how to upload memories of your favourite games, and it’s worth checking to see if anyone has already added the games you were planning to write about. If so, then why not comment and rate them.
The basic uploading procedure is as follows:
1. Ensure your username and password is entered and you are in your personal profile.
2. Click “Add a new game profileâ€

[Antiriad2097]

Can game profiles be edited once entered? I'd start adding some, but don't have time to do full reviews. It'd get the skeleton data up with bare facts and screenshot but not much of an opinion piece until I came back to it later for an edit, just a rough description or something from the inlay to start.

What happens if a game 'owner' disappears, as is often the case on forums. Is there an option to 'adopt' game that are no longer being maintained by active users?

[witchfinder]

Can game profiles be edited once entered?

I can answer this bit - yes they can!

[SirClive]

I've added a Zero Wing profile. Have a number of megadrive ones ready to be uploaded after the weekend.

[Quaid]

I've added a Zero Wing profile. Have a number of megadrive ones ready to be uploaded after the weekend.

Bring 'em on!

[necronom]

I've just registered and rated all the games I've played that are on there. It's looking good guys, well done.

Is there any chance it could show how many games I have rated in my profile, and what about having some way of knowing if I've rated a game from the thumbnail list?

In a week's time there will probably be a few more reviews on there and unless I go through them all or remember which ones I've done, they'll get lost in the mix and it'll be difficult to rate them. I'm thinking of something like a small icon next to the name to show it's been rated, or maybe "(4*)" to show I've given it a 4 star rating, or should the overall rating be shown like that instead then a "rated" icon as well if i'd rated it?

I'm just throwing ideas around here to make it easier for people rate the games, which will add to the usefulness of the database.

It's a shame other people can't upload pictures to a game, but I suppose there is a storage issue with lots of pictures.

I'm not sure what the "Top Rated Retrobates" is for. Is this the top ratings that their games have been given? If so, I'm not really sure of the point. Shouldn't reviewers be encouraged to review any games (good or bad)? I don't see the relevance of saying reviewer X has reviewed more good games than reviewer Y. Or is there a way to rate the reviewers that I haven't noticed?

The most viewed and most commented Retrobates also seems a bit odd, but maybe that's just me.

Anyway, it's looking like a great start.


[edit]
I've just spotted another thing. The rating at the bottom of the review page doesn't show how many ratings it's had (though it does count the views and comments). I think it's important to know if a game is a "4" after 2 ratings, or if it's had 50 ratings and is a "4". The more ratings it has the more you can trust it as a general score.
[/edit]

[Quaid]

All good feedback, thanks Necronom. We'll look at developing some of those ideas.

[necronom]

A few more things:

When I added a game it was nicely laid out in the edit box, then while waiting for approval I had a look at it and all the line breaks had gone. I went to the edit page and the paragraphs were back to normal in the edit box. If it gets approved I'll see if I can fix it then.

Also, how do you change the picture. Do I have to wait until it's approved, cause there isn't a way I can see to change the picture.

The last thing is that the genre resets to Adventure once you edit it, so I had to go back and change it again.


[edit]
Can the page links (|< < [101-120] [121-140] [141-160] [161-180] [181-184]) be put at the bottom as well as the top? When loking down the thumbnails I have to keep going to the top again to change page.

Any change of letting us change our vote once it's been made?
[/edit]

[necronom]

I've realised that the line breaks have to be added by using HTML paragraph tags.

[bonerlaw]

Love it! Great site! I wanna post a game, but i dont know which one, and im shy about whether it would be any good......

But, love it so far! We need to spread the good word!

[Dunjohn]

'Bout how long does it take to get approved? I signed up over the weekend and scribbled up two reviews. They haven't appeared yet and I'm not annoyed or anything, but I'm just looking for an idea of how long the process takes.

Every time I log on there's four or five new games up, and the fact that they're all completely random - coming from any system, time frame and game quality level in no order whatsoever - is what makes this idea fantastic in my view. Nice one.

[necronom]

'Bout how long does it take to get approved? I signed up over the weekend and scribbled up two reviews. They haven't appeared yet and I'm not annoyed or anything, but I'm just looking for an idea of how long the process takes.

Every time I log on there's four or five new games up, and the fact that they're all completely random - coming from any system, time frame and game quality level in no order whatsoever - is what makes this idea fantastic in my view. Nice one.

I did Xtreme Racing last night, and it was approved this morning. I've just added another, so that should be on by tomorrow. It's quite a random one, too.

I wish more pics could be added. I had to cheat with my XTR one, but that caused the thumbnail to look wrong.

[edit]It's on now, so that only took about 25 mins

[Dunjohn]

Really? Maybe I'm doing something wrong. The guidelines say that the game name should appear in my profile with a little asterisk to say it's awaiting approval, but there're no games listed when I check. Any idea what I'm missing? I'm pretty sure I tick everything but the nudity thing.

[necronom]

Strange. Did you get the message saying it was sent?

If you hang around too long it will log you out, so make sure that didn't happen.

If it accepted it, you should get a message and a link saying something like "click here to return to your profile". It should be there instantly (with a "*" next to it). It's only the approval that you have to wait for.

[Dunjohn]

Ah, there's the problem. No, I hadn't been getting the message, and yep, I had been taking an age with them, checking the grammar, getting the word count down etc etc.

Fortunately I have them all saved in Word. I'm getting the message now. Cheers!